Including a local telephone number on your business website is typically a “no brainer”. Including it as text (instead of an image) means that the search engines will pick up on the number in their indexing. Now… this *may* have positive effects on your search engine rankings in local searches.

Having a number with a local area code may be noticed by Google etc… as an “on-page trust identifier” which could help you rise above the competition who do not display a local telephone number on their websites. At the time of writing, there is no conclusive proof of this (we don’t know Google’s algorithm!) but there have been some interesting studies into this potential ranking factor (among others). There is also something to be said for including your telephone number in your meta title and/or descriptions; the thinking behind this being that your telephone number will show up in the organic search engine results. Why is that useful? Well, arguably it can set you apart from the crowd, particularly if telephone sales are important in your market.

From a “standard” SEO point of view though, even if a local telephone number doesn’t yet affect the search engines’ rankings, there’s a good chance it may well do in the future, so it’s a good idea nonetheless.From a usability point of view, it is wise to include your telephone number and contact details on your website in a prominent location, ideally on every page.

There’s some good further reading on SEO & Usability related to local telephone numbers and contact details below. Enjoy!Further Reading:
http://www.seosmarty.com/how-to-optimize-your-site-for-phone-calls/
http://www.goodusability.co.uk/2009/06/providing-contact-details/
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/is-there-such-a-thing-as-on-page-trust-factors-poll/10696/