I think it’s a good idea to have a phone number on a domain name for sale landing page. Some people prefer to speak on the phone when inquiring about a domain name, and having a phone number can lead to more calls. It can also serve as an additional data point when researching an inbound inquiry.
There are numerous services that offer toll-free numbers. I am not super familiar with that market, so I can’t really comment about which service is better and what different providers offer. I would caution people about using toll-free numbers that have a cost per call component.
One of the reasons domain name parking was popular and profitable for a long time is that people accidentally typed in a domain name and clicked on the advertising. Sometimes they typed in a domain name because they assumed they could find what they needed there and sometimes they used an old link for a business that no longer exists. Sometimes they simply fat fingered a domain name incorrectly or inadvertently navigated to the wrong domain name when looking for a specific business.
How they landed on a for sale landing page doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that some of these people will be confused by the landing page and call the phone number or send an unrelated inquiry. It’s one thing to receive an annoying purchase inquiry email that has nothing to do with the domain name, but it’s another thing to have a confused person calling the phone number while incurring fees for the time they spend on the call.
These days, a toll-free number probably isn’t necessary for a landing page. With different calling services, I don’t think many people pay for “long distance” calls. The one consideration I will try to make is to allow inbound WhatsApp calls from people who use that service. I think many people in Europe use WhatsApp, and many of their phone calls would likely be made via WhatsApp. I don’t believe Google Voice is compatible with WhatsApp, but I will need to investigate further.
I had been using a toll-free number for my landing pages, but will be moving away from it as I believe it is unnecessary. I don’t particularly enjoy speaking on the phone, but I do think it can be helpful for some prospective buyers. That said, it can also become cluttered with confused calls, and a toll-free phone number can be costly.
Got me thinking about landing pages, and wondering why Afternic still does not allow descriptive content about the potential uses for a domain name. Like Dan did so perfectly. I know Atom has it, but I only had 1 sale at Atom, and now 99% of my personal names are at Afternic. How hard can this feature be to install? I’d love to see this again.
Regarding phone numbers on a landing page, I believe I am not a fan.