Tyson Stevens said
1 year, 2 months ago: @amyhallbiz Oooh. Be careful with Yext, they’re tricky. I rarely had any luck re-claiming clients listings once they’d been created by Yext.
Instead of adding your site’s URL, they add a link to a listing created at Yext.com. You don’t want an intermediary between a potential customer and your site–bad news and they’re hard to re-claim and fix once created if you don’t have the login. That can lead to duplicate listings. Duplicates can kill your listings and citations in Google. Be careful.
If you use a service like Universal Business Listing, make sure to request the login information to your listings and citations. You’ll also need to make sure that they add your NAP (Name, Address, Phone number) verbatim.
Your NAP has to be exact-match across the boards or that will hurt your Places ranking.
I used to work for a local SEO company. My first job was creating and optimizing listings and citations non-stop for three months straight @ 8hrs/day. Mind-numbing. I still created, claimed and optimized listings and citations for eight months after that but had other responsibilities too.
I added a list of local directories to my blog http://www.righthatseo.com/local-business-directories. There are over 40 that I’ve listed. The top 21 will be the strongest. It’s good to create the rest also. There are many many more local directories, but some may not be wroth the effort. Let me know if you want a longer list.
I also added seven tips for optimizing your listings and citations. If you have any questions, let me know. I’d love to help out.
As an afterthought too, look to your local commerce to request a listing. There are also local niche specific listings that can help boost your rankings. You can find some with a Google query:
Google: “directory” “your product/service” city, state
It should yield some good results. City and state specific directories can carry a lot of weight and can provide business for you.
Good luck!
