Small Business | Forum « Using Yext for Local Directory Listings

Using Yext for Local Directory Listings (10 posts)

Topic tags: directory listings, yext

Bob Green said
4 months, 3 weeks ago:
Do you serve Local Clients? If so, have you been trying to get listings in every possible free directory?
I was looking into a service called Yext and they seem to be a pretty complete job for a fee. Any experience with them out there?
@bob-green | # | Top
E N Brown said
4 months, 3 weeks ago:
Hiya @bob-green
Nope, not for me – but I may look into it to see what they have to offer though.
I am pretty particular about where my websites are listed so don’t use any of those services. I was really glad too with Google’s updates in the past couple of years!
Eileen
@supereb | # | Top
Bob Green said
4 months, 3 weeks ago:
One of the advantages I see is that you create a profile on Yext and it keeps all your profiles in sync across the directories. If you update photos, that feed goes out to all. Update an offer…fed to other directories.
The directories for the most part are all the mainstream directories businesses should be in anyway. Yelp, MerchantCircle, CitySearch, Foursquare, Mapquest, and many more. I have an updated profile on 141 directories now. Granted, to your point, some may eventually be Google slapped or may even be of marginal or no value at all. I tend to keep a little more positive minded. I need client and need to be in front of them as often as I can…regardless of their favorite tool.
If it starts to do any harm at all, you can selectively opt out of any of the directories and of course not renew the service next year. I’ll measure carefully.
@supereb
@bob-green | # | Top
Rich Brooks said
4 months, 3 weeks ago:
@bob-green
A friend of mine does SEO locally and was just presenting at a social media breakfast here in Maine.
He spoke highly of Yext and said it was a great resource for local SEO.
Good luck!
@rich-brooks | # | Top
Bob Green said
4 months, 3 weeks ago:
Thanks Rich. That makes me feel better about using them. Pricey service for a company my size…it was $500 for the year ($42 a month). Of course, it has saved me countless hours!!
@rich-brooks
@bob-green | # | Top
E N Brown said
4 months, 3 weeks ago:
Hi @bob-green
Sounds like a good price (maybe a tad high) but, and here is my caveat; I’d not want all the profiles to be the same at every SM place across the web. Because I fill a lot of small niches aside from consulting I use different information at many of the resources I utilize. None of the profiles are exactly the same.
I see how that would be a nice work around for someone who does one job though. Hope it works well for you.
Eileen
@supereb | # | Top
Amy Hall, Virtual Assistant for WordPress and MailChimp Help said
4 months, 3 weeks ago:
@bob-green While on one hand consistacy across all directories would be good, (for you business citation – address phone number, website and email address) it could also bad. The exact same “about” info on all your directories could be taken as duplicate postings by Google and ” discounted”. I would talk to Yext about that issue.
@amyhallbiz | # | Top
E N Brown said
4 months, 3 weeks ago:
HI @amyhallbiz
IF we are talking about Social Media profiles – it is not duplicate content.
IF we are talking about a lot of blog or website “about” pages, the content needs to vary enough as to not be considered duplicate content, because it could IF the websites/blogs in question have different types of content as the main focus.
.02
Eileen
@supereb | # | Top
Amy Hall, Virtual Assistant for WordPress and MailChimp Help said
4 months, 3 weeks ago:
@supereb I love it when you’re able to clearly distinguish what I had in mind, but didn’t say.
I think it’s the fact that the matching text saturation percentage on a social media site is less than the matching text saturation percentage on a Website. No matter what the first text up will get the Google attention. I’m even wondering if, on a directory site, that matching content would be ‘discounted’ because of all the other content on the site. The matching text saturation percentage would be very small.
@amyhallbiz | # | Top
Robin Carlisle said
4 months, 3 weeks ago:
@amyhallbiz
I don’t know what the difference is in citation listing services between Yext and Universal Business (is that the name??), but I always thought they were just about the same… until you quoted that price! OMG, that IS kinda pricey for a listing service.
Amy, I would think that Google must have made exceptions to the standard “citation” listing service type sites by now as they’ve never seemed to be affected by any animal-house algo change BigG’s thrown out there. My frustration with them has always been they clog up Page One SERPs, make the searches look spammy and cause havoc for local businesses trying to outrank them on local pages… which ups their cost of vying for Page One rankings.
I think BigG ought to have a new separate tab called Directories and put all those “citation” type sites there, instead of clogging up the Main SERP where local businesses should be the only ones competing.
@atlantarobin | # | Top