Updated 5/25/21
Yext has evolved over the years.
They used to be just a business listing service that put your local business on 55’ish different local search directories. But as the company has progressed, while they still offer “Yext Listings” (as they’re calling it now), they’ve actually pivoted into other products as well. For this post, we’ll be focusing completely on Yext Listings and what it does.
This article will:
- a) show you all of Yext’s reviews in one place:
- b) break down in detail what Yext is really all about. “Is Yext really worth it?”
2021 Yext Reviews All In One Place:
***Review counts updated daily. Click on each image to go to that particular site to see all of the reviews.
2021 Yext Review – Detailed Breakdown of Yext Listings
Too long, didn’t read it all version (summary of article):
Yext Listings puts your local business on 55’ish different local search directories. The reason this is important is two fold:
- To have your local business information correct across the internet so when people look you up on Google they find the right name, address, and phone for your business (you’d be surprised how incorrect your information might be).
- Because the more local search directories you’re on, the higher you will rank on Google.
You can a) pay Yext $500’ish annually to put you on these local search directories, b) try a Yext Listings alternative for much cheaper or c) get yourself on most local search directories Yext submits to by yourself for free (with a time investment).
In my opinion, Yext Listings is not worth the money every single year and there are much better options out there. But to understand why and be educated on the topic, you really should read the full article. Continue on to read our Yext Listings review in full: how Yext Listings works, the benefits to Yext Listings, how much Yext Listings costs, features, problems, analysis, as well as my final conclusion.
From time to time Yext updates how their business listing service works. When this happens we then come and report the changes in this article. Stay up to date on what Yext Listings is really up to by clicking here to subscribe to email updates of this article.
What is Yext Listings?
Yext is a pretty slick self service machine that lists your local business on 55 (they say 70+ but when you whittle out the “apps” that don’t help your Google ranking it’s about 55) different local search directories (LSD’s) such as Yelp, Citysearch, Superpages etc. instantly, for a price. That’s what Yext Listings does, pure and simple. That’s what you’re really paying for.
However, they try to muddy the water a little with “extra” benefits:
Yext Listing Benefits
Yext has some pretty awesome benefits that I think any subjective individual would admit to. One of these benefits is important, a few are nice to have, and a few are completely unnecessary:
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- Submission and 55 live listings for your local business within a quick time frame (72 hours)
- One central dashboard to make name, address, phone or other local business changes
- Keep your listings “fresh” by being able to update content at any time
- “Enhanced Listings” with photos, specials, etc.
- Local listing analytics
Clean up bad information across the internet– I’ve been told by a few people now that Yext actually doesn’t offer this to the regular consumer anymore. It’s only a part of their “Enterprise” package. Can’t be confirmed or denied at this point.
Of all these benefits, what’s the main benefit? And which benefits are unnecessary?
The Main Benefit of Yext
The main benefit of Yext is the submission to 55 listings. Why? Because the more business listing you have the higher you will rank on Google. That’s it. Plain and simple. The rest is just fluff. Yext’s main benefit is to increase your ranking on Google. Even Yext admits this. This is an older screenshot of their website when they used to market business listings as “Local SEO”. And it was displayed prominently on their website: 
“Local SEO” stands for “Local Search Engine Optimization”. It’s the science of ranking will on search engines (read: Google). So now that we’ve cleared up why you should be using Yext, you may be asking, “Won’t some of my customers find me on these LSD’s like Citysearch and Superages? Isn’t that another benefit of Yext?” While some consumers may find you on these other LSD’s like Superpages and Citysearch, it’s highly unlikely. If you were to poll your customers 99% of them wouldn’t even know any of these other LSD’s by name. They do know one name though: Google. Most consumers are going to head straight to Google to search and skip these LSD’s with the exception to this being Yelp. However, the point still stands. The main attraction of Yext is in the power it holds to list your local business on all these LSD’s in a short amount of time which will, in turn, drive up your local business rankings on Google, the most searched “Local Search Directory” of them all.
Local SEO and the Part It Plays
Local SEO stands for Local Search Engine Optimization and essentially, it’s the science of how to rank your local business higher on Google. One of the 5 Pillars of Local SEO (learn about Local SEO here) is local search directories ie the more local search directories you are on, the higher you rank on Google. Local search directories are about 25% of the equation to ranking well on Google as a local business. The more local search directories you’re listed on, the higher you will rank on Google. As you can see, the power of Yext to post you on 55 local search directories is appealing for any local business wanting to rank higher on Google. This is the power of Yext (or any business listing service for that matter) for a local business.
Yext Details
Yext Pricing
With all of this being said, one of the main drawbacks of Yext is price. Yext costs a pretty penny. As a local business, you’re looking at between $500-$1,000 to buy directly from Yext. And that’s per year. And that’s not the only problem with Yext (more on those below). For those of you that don’t just have that kind of cash to throw around or want something better, we have a different solution for you. Before we get to that solution though, let’s cover everything Yext offers and the benefits, as well as some drawbacks to lay a good groundwork.
Yext Problems
While all of these features are pretty cool for the most part, Yext has 2 major drawbacks: price and reversion. Yext costs a minimum of $500. That wouldn’t be so bad except that you have to pay Yext every year and $500 a year starts to add up fast. They also auto renew, so if you order through them, watch out for that. Yext also will revert your listings back to their old status if you cancel with them. Meaning those 55 listings will either be gone (if Yext created them in the first place) or will revert back to their old listing information if you lapse your agreement with them from year to year. Basically, you’re renting your listings. So, you’re more or less locked into a lifetime agreement with them from here on out until the end of your business if you want to keep those listings. Are you planning on keeping your business for 10+ years? Sure you are. Then you need to be prepared to shell out $5,000+ over the lifetime of your business to Yext.
But what about Yext’s features? Aren’t they worth it?
Yext’s features just don’t really add up in the grand scheme of things in light of the drawbacks of cost and the reversion of your listings. Before we examine Yext’s features even closer, let me remind you of the main benefit of Yext. As a local business, you want to have profiles on local search directories and Yext obviously helps with this. But you don’t necessarily want to have profiles on local search directories for the sake of getting traffic from these local search directories. Why? Because unless it’s one of Bing, Facebook, Yelp, or Yellowpages, consumers won’t be searching on these local search directories. They’ll be searching on Google instead because these other local search directories simply aren’t popular enough to have local customers searching on them. Have you ever heard of 2findlocal.com or showmelocal.com? Yeah, neither have your customers. The main benefit of local search directory profiles is to rank you higher on Google, the most searched “local search directory”. Google scans all of these local search directories and the more you have a profile on, the higher you will rank on Google (Local SEO). Again, just to hammer it home: Ranking higher on Google is the main benefit of Yext. Now, let’s look at Yext’s features again with the main objective, Local SEO, in mind:
Yext’s Benefits, Reloaded
Yext Benefit #1: Submission and 55 live listings for your local business
This is a pretty cool feature of Yext. But the price and renting the listings really brings the party down. You can actually sign yourself up for most of these local search directories on your own. They’re all free, with 1-2 of them costing a one-time fee of $5 or so and a few more being impossible to navigate because of their exclusive agreement with Yext. But you can still get the majority of them and 100% of the ones that matter. And the best part? You get to keep your profiles. You can’t lose ownership of them and they last forever.
Yext Benefit #2: One central dashboard to make name, address, phone or other local business changes
A local business hardly every makes changes to their name, address, phone number or otherwise. Think about it, how many times in the last few years have you rebranded, moved, or changes your phone? Not a real seller. The only caveat would be if you want to update pictures or hours often. But if you want to do that, just update those things on the local search directories where photos and hours will actually get seen: Google, Bing, Yelp, Yellowpages, and Facebook. No one is going to look anywhere else to find you and therefore updating your pictures and hours across all local search directories is unnecessary. I recommend foregoing the dashboard and going DIY instead. Sign up for these local search directories yourself and when you need to make photo changes or hours changes, make them on the Big 5 (again, Google, Bing, Yelp, Yellowpages, and Facebook) and be done with it. You just saved yourself $500 a year. The only issue is if you don’t have the time or energy to sign up these listings for yourself. At that point we would recommend using an alternative to Yext where you pay someone a one time fee to sign up your listings and then they hand over control to you. We’ll talk about those alternatives in a second.
Yext Benefit #3: Keep your listings “fresh”
I’ve also heard people tell me that they’ve heard about the benefit of keeping your listings “fresh” for Google by changing something like your business description or keywords constantly in order to increase your ranking. There is absolutely no evidence to support this changing your listings often increases your ranking. None. And, in fact, there is logical reasoning to believe Google expects the opposite. Why? Because Google knows that your name, address, phone and website don’t change often, if ever. So it makes even more sense to just keep your information the same.
Yext Benefit #4: Clean up bad information across the internet
Sometimes bad information about your business gets out into the internet. Maybe you have an old address out there, or an old phone, or old business name. Or maybe some of the information you get is just plain wrong. Or maybe you have two business listings on a site when you only need one (called “duplicates”). This is an issue because it could confuse customers looking up your information leading them to call an old, disconnected number or show up to at your old location. Also, inconsistent information could drop your ranking on Google. Either way, this information needs to be cleaned up. Yext offers to clean this information up for you but you can also do this on your own as well. You don’t need them to do it. Not to mention the last time we ran a test on Yext we found 8 different LSD’s that Yext did not clean up the duplicate listings on. So, how good they actually are this is up in the air.
8/23/17 Update – After speaking with a few people I know in the Local SEO space, they brought to my attention that this isn’t true for regular consumers. In doing some research of my own, I did in fact see that Yext’s packages don’t include their “Duplicate Suppression” feature. You can see those packages here. So, it looks like for the time being, getting your information cleaned up across the internet isn’t in the cards for the regular consumer with Yext.
Yext Benefit #5: “Enhanced Listings” with photos, specials, etc.
Again, most of your local customers won’t even see the other local listings Yext provides access to besides “The Big 5”. Again, you can change all 5 of those on your own for free. That makes the photos and other enhanced features a bit underwhelming since no one will really see them. Not to mention that most of those local search directories, when you sign up for them on your own, will also let you add pictures, specials, etc. for free. This is not a feature unique to Yext.
Yext Benefit #6: Review monitoring
It’s hard enough to get a single review on Google for your local business. Have you tried? So there’s no real reason to monitor 55 different local search directories for hundreds of them. Just monitor The Big 5 on your own and you’ll be fine.
Yext Benefit #7: Local Listing Analytics
I know I’m hammering this but I want to make sure this point is not lost on you: not many actual local customers will be visiting the other local search directories Yext lists you on besides The Big 5. So, having numbers on how many people visit the other listings isn’t a big deal because hardly anyone will be. By the way, Google, Facebook & Yelp actually provide their own analytics so you’re not missing out there anyway.
Intermission Conclusion
There just aren’t a lot of scenarios where I see Yext being a big benefit for local businesses because of the drawbacks and the presence of better alternatives, whether you do it yourself or seek out an alternative with a one time cost where you are the owner of your listings. The only scenario I could see where Yext could possibly make sense would be if you have 100+ locations where Yext could help you keep those listings more organized and you don’t mind shelling out a good amount of money every year for it. And that’s about it… If you don’t fall into that category, DIY or an alternative should be your route.
Yext Alternatives & Yext Competitors
So, now that you understand that Yext is popular because of Local SEO, we can look at some alternatives and competitors of Yext. One amazing alternative to Yext is the aforementioned “do it yourself”. If you have the money and are short on time, a Yext alternative might be your best bet. But if you’re frugal and have some time on your hands (or a savvy employee) you can get the job done and list your local business on almost all of the local search directories Yext serves yourself for free. Just keep in mind the time and energy investment you’ll be making trying to sign up for around 50 different local search directories.
There are also competitors out there to Yext as well. Most of them have the same drawbacks though: price and reversion. You really need to find a service that will charge you a one time cost and let you own your listings. Then all of the issues I raised would be solved. We’re working on our own competing service to Yext (Update: we’ve just launched our alternative service to Yext: Local Listing Ninja! Get more details here) but until then, a few of the Yext competitors I know of are Whitespark, Brightlocal, and Synup.
I used Whitespark about 3-4 years ago. I didn’t have a good experience with them. Many times the orders didn’t get to me on time and I had to reach out to them to get my order. When they sent it to me, some of my listings weren’t even live. I quickly moved on from them. However, they may have changed by now and gotten better. I just know they use contractors and it’s hard to do that and maintain quality.
Brightlocal is another service like Whitespark that uses contractors. I haven’t used their citation services but I have used their other services and wasn’t exactly impressed. However, it should be noted that a lot of the Local SEO people I speak with absolutely love BrightLocal’s other services. So, while I wasn’t impressed, others that I respect are. The biggest drawback to me, however, is their customer support. It’s consistently been a poor experience for me with their reply times being extremely long and they’re also located in the UK so their reply times are off, making a flowing conversation and customer service difficult. These are reasons why I haven’t given their business listing product a shot but who knows, maybe they would surprise.
One interesting option that I haven’t explored is a company called Synup. I don’t know how good they are and whether they have a quality service or not but they claim they won’t revert your listings and you own the listings yourself. They also claim to have a dashboard as well if you really want that. I’m not sure I quite believe that but they actually might be worth a look.
But if you’ve taken my advice and want to go the DIY route, let’s get into that.
DIY Benefits
The benefits of doing it yourself are pretty obvious. It’s all free to sign up for, except for maybe $10 total to sign up for 1-2 of the paid directories Yext partners with. But $10 one time sure beats $500 every single year. And we wouldn’t even recommend signing up for those paid directories because they’re not very high quality. Stick to the free ones. You also get to keep these business listings as yours forever and don’t have to keep paying money every single year. They’re free, for good. There are some drawbacks to DIY though.
DIY Drawbacks
One of the biggest drawbacks is signing up for these local search directories can be time consuming. I estimate that for a local business, it would take anywhere from 30-45 minutes per local search directory. That is a lot of your time. But you can make this much more manageable through a few steps which we’ll list in just a second. You also can’t change the local search directories instantly. If you need to update your name, phone, or address, some of these sites will update instantly. Others will take a few days. But when you factor in these drawbacks vs the drawbacks of Yext, namely price and renting your listings, I think DIY is definitely the better option.
DIY Next Steps
If you’ve decided to take the DIY route, then there are a few things you will need. The first thing you will need is a list of all the local search directories Yext partners with. Luckily for you, they make that pretty easy. Go to their Free Local Business Listings Scan and enter in your business name, number, and contact name. This is a lead generation machine, which means Yext will call you if you use this. It’s pretty easy to get rid of them though. Just say, “No thanks, please take me off of your call list,” and be done with it. Once you scan, you’ll see a list of every single local search directory Yext services. Go to each one individually and sign up on your own.
Signing Up For Local Search Directories
This is an absolute art and tough to master. Your main goal here is just to find the sign up button, if they even have one. Here are a few tips on how to find how to sign up:
1) Look for a button that says “business owners”, “claim your business”, “submit listing”, etc.
2) If that’s not available, look at the navigation bar to see if similar language to sign up is there or at the footer.
3) If still nothing, search for your profile in their search bar. If it doesn’t come up, there may be some “Can’t find your business? Add it here” language at the top or bottom of the page.\
4) If your profile does come up, click on it and see if there’s any language about “claiming” your profile.
5) If not, sign up for an account if they allow that and see if anything is available in that route. Local search directories sometimes have two distinct account sign ups, one for local businesses and another for consumers. If you have a choice, obviously choose local business. If there isn’t a choice, well, there isn’t a choice. When you sign up, see if you get anything in your introductory email or if there’s anything on your profile page or profile settings that gives away clues.
6) If you’ve still found nothing, look through their help articles. These are usually in the footer or maybe even in the navigation bar. You’re looking for “help”, “support”, “FAQ”, etc. These pages may give you an idea of how to sign up.
7) As a last resort, use their contact feature to send them an email or call and ask them how to sign up.
DIY Time Saving Tips
These tips should help you breeze quicker through the sign up process as well:
1. Save common information As you sign up for these local search directories, you’ll notice that they ask for a lot of the same information. Name, address, phone, website, etc. Write all of these down in a Word document and just copy and paste.
2. Set a schedule Purpose to do 2 local search directories a day. That’s 10 a week and you’ll be done in 5 weeks.
3. Have someone else do it You can get this done with zero effort on your part by having someone in your business do it for you. Maybe the secretary or someone else who is tech savvy.
4. It gets better As you go along, you’ll naturally get in the groove and get better at signing up for these local search directories. You’ll know where to look, get some best practices down, etc. and will shave a lot of time off of that 30-45 minutes.
A Few Clean Up FAQ’s
Which of the local search directories Yext supports don’t allow submissions? These are few and far between but we don’t currently know. We have guesses but want to reach out to the local search directories first before we give that information out. However, we imagine it to be less than 10%.
Does having 55 listings populated automatically help my Google ranking? There is no evidence to support that speed of local search directories submission helps your Google ranking. In fact, many in the local search community believe you want to allow local search directories to populate over time, if anything. At the University, we sign up for local search directories all at the same time. Between the time it takes to get some approved and some indexed by Google, they will be spread out.
Finally, the Conclusion
Yext has some really cool benefits but some steep drawbacks as well. To sum it all up, I think it can best be put like this: As a Local SEO agency, Yext is available to me for about half of what you as a local business will pay in retail, around $250 a year. And I still won’t buy it.
What About You?
Are you considering Yext? Why or why not? Have an experience with Yext you would like to share? Or maybe just a question? Leave your question or comment below and we will reply promptly!
I have a few friends in business that can’t get listed on Yahoo Local unless they pay for Yext. Same with our taxi service. It has been months since we submitted. No verification sent even after two request. Did get a Yext advert via email.
We have done exactly what you mentioned above, and that is submit to each one manually. With Yext you will have dozens of duplicate descriptions. You would more than likely want to go edit each one anyway. As most known duplicate descriptions are supposedly frowned up by the Google gang, Most if not all are no follow links anyway, but even so you still need as many listings online as possible. Enjoyed the article. Drew F
Hey Drew!
Sorry your comment just now went live. We have 800 spam comments with 2-3 legit comments currently 🙂 it just got caught in our spam folder.
Yes, Yahoo Local is slow and lame. That’s about all that needs to be said here on that subject haha.
The comment you bring up on duplicate content is an interesting one and many in the Local SEO community believe that, when it comes to local listings, Google understands description will be duplicated. However, I, like yourself, am curious to see if that’s true. We plan on running a test on this in the near future.
Thanks for your input!
Don’t bother. Was told my new address would come up, but my old one still showed up 4 times, nothing about the new listing. They said well you have to type in the name of the city. I said….people don’t know where I am….that is why they use yahoo and google. Lousy lousy scam with Vito, the salesman. Said anything, delivered nothing. Fortunately was in my 30 day period and got a full refund or I would have wasted $500
Hey Lori,
Thanks for your comment. Sorry to hear about your experience with Yext. Glad to hear they didn’t squabble with you about your refund!
Thanks for your timely post. Have been in discussion with Yext for a couple weeks trying to decide just what they offered and whether it was worth it for our company. Your post addressed all my concerns. I like the do-it-yourself approach – even if it’s tedious.
Helen Bastian
Hey Helen!
Thanks for posting a comment. Yes, I agree with you. It can be tedious but the advantages outweigh going with Yext straight up.
Hey Joshua,
I know your article is a bit dated now, but I still found it very helpful. I’m just starting to offer backlinking services after website design for clients and was considering Yext just to simplify my life. However, I love your points and want to take this on in-house instead.
My concern is that is seems like many directories are potentially spam or they may use the contact info I enter for a client to call them and sell them the services they’ve already hired our team to do… Do you know of a list of directories to avoid for this reason?
Also, do you know anything about submitting directly to aggregates like Infogroup, Neustar Localeze, Acxiom and Factual?
Thanks for your help!
Dawn
On the spam issue, you could always just create a new email for local search directory purposes only. That’s what we do. Unfortunately I do not have a list of directories to avoid due to spam. Great question though!
Instead of submitting directly to the data aggregators I would use Moz Local. But if you had to submit directly, I do know a bit about it.
Infogroup is free. Submission process can be found on their website.
Acxiom is also free last time I checked but getting your company in there can be a pain with their verification process. It’s been awhile since I’ve done it (been using Moz Local for the last year or two) so maybe their verification process has changed and it’s easier. Last time I checked they have phone and chat support so I would just talk with them.
Neustar Localeze definitely is not free. It’s quite expensive. In fact, Moz Local is cheaper and submits to all 4. But I do believe last time I heard Localeze allows 1 correction. So if you are in the database, you can make a change. If you’re not, you’ll have to pay.
And I know nothing about Factual. They came along the same time Moz Local did and again, I just use Moz Local instead.
By the way, any and all of this information on direct submission to these 4 data aggregators could be very outdated and very wrong. It’s just what I remember from doing it myself.
Hope that helps!
Thank you for the post. We would like to try the emerging plan first. Hope it will be helpful.
No problem!
I am on the proverbial fence as well, in hiring Yext. I was told by the senior sales director that i was getting the premium friends and family deal of $499.00 I am doing my research like crazy, and you post is awesome and most of all informative. One last thing I am new to this fast paced world of advertising and I am trying to do a good job, in bringing some business for my employer. In a time of year when everything slows to a crawl at best. Do you or your savvy readers have any more ideas where I can generate leads for a statewide capable moving company.
Hey Rocco,
Thanks for your feedback! I would definitely make Local SEO my first priority as long as your website is over a year old. Here is a link to our introductory Udemy course on the subject: https://www.udemy.com/learn-beginner-local-seo/ – if your website isn’t over a year old, I would do a little bit of Local SEO but mix in some Adwords as well. The reason your website needs to be a year older or more is Google will hold back your ranking for your first year or so. If your company just built their website yesterday, Local SEO isn’t a waste but it won’t show a big result for the first 6 months or so and for those first 6 months or longer, Adwords will help you bring in actual customers. Hope that helps!
Can you submit a listing to Yahoo Local with out having to go through Yext. That seems to have changed, as I recall it used to be free, but they now seem to be “in bed together” so to speak, and Yahoo Local forwards you right to the Yext page. What’s up? Thanks!
Hey Marty!
As of this week, Yahoo Local is now Aabaco. The word is that Yext is now taking over submissions to Yahoo just as you mentioned. I believe you can edit your business but if you want to submit a new business to Yahoo, it looks like you may have to go through Yext. However, there are rumors out there that Yahoo is still getting a good chunk of its information from the big data aggregators such as InfoUSA, Localeze, Acxiom, and Factual. I’m not sure how accurate this is but I hope to have a clearer picture on that soon. When i do, I will come back and update this article.
Thanks for your question!
Update 11/30/15:
I have confirmed with InfoUSA (expressupdate.com) that Yahoo is still taking their data. So, currently, that seems the only free way to submit to Yahoo.
I signed up with Yext. Did not like it for 2 reasons. 1) It is expensive and you are basically renting your listings. 2) There was no impact on my ranking in Google! Let me repeat No Impact. I did this for two companies and saw no ranking increase for either one. I don’t know if it has to do with the listing reverting to how they were if you stop paying or if Google doesn’t treat the feed info the same as the other info. They call me up about every 3-4 months. Ugh! I wish this company would just go away.
Hey, Bill! Thanks for the comment!
I completely understand where you’re coming from.
While Yext submits to 62 different platforms, many of them are actually GPS systems and apps, things that have zero impact on your Google ranking. That’s something they neglect to tell you. All in all, there’s probably on 50 listings they put you on that Google can see. And then, I would guess about half of those Google can’t find, or what they call “index”, so you’re only looking at 25 listings to help make an impact on your ranking at that point. Then, you throw in the fact that local business listings are only 1/5 of the Local SEO equation, and that’s a recipe for frustration.
Look into Local SEO some as that’s the ultimate path to rank better on Google.
Let me know if you have any questions along the way!
We had a Yahoo! Enhanced local business listing for years. We paid $9.95 per month for it. But the listing was problematic from the start. The Yelp reviews did not appear on it, and my manual updates were not appearing either. When we moved our business location, I called Yelp Support several times and received various suggested solutions. Finally, I told them I wanted to cancel the existing Enhanced listing and start over. At their suggestion, I did so and then submitted a free listing. For whatever reason, I was advised to convert the free listing to an Enhanced listing once the free listing began showing up in the local search results. That never happened. I submitted the free listing again. Still nothing. Then I read that Yahoo! was no longer accepting free listings. I looked into it and concluded that the only way to get a new Yahoo local listing was to go through Yext. I have long avoided Yext for all the reasons you and others have suggested above. But since I felt I had no choice, I signed up for Yext’s cheapest plan, which puts the listing on only one site, in this case Yahoo! After I submitted the listing to Yext, it took 2-3 weeks to appear in the local search results. To my dismay, it ranks #10 for the most relevant keywords. The earlier free listing bounced around among the top four, and we have been #1 on Google for several years. Also, the Yelp results are not there again, which probably is affecting our search ranking. I contacted Aabaco about this. They said I needed to talk to Yext. I contacted Yext, and they said I needed to contact Yelp. I haven’t contacted Yelp yet because I feel as if I am being sent on a wild goose chase. There are too many players involved, which always leads to finger pointing. If any one has had a similar experience and has any advice on how to get Yahoo to add your Yelp listings to your local business listing, I would be interesting in any advice you might have. Thanks!
Hey Paul, thanks for your comment!
Well, I think I have some somewhat good news for you. And that news is, I really wouldn’t worry about it. As long as you’re ranking well on Google, I wouldn’t worry about Yahoo. Yahoo gets around 11% of the search market share. Google gets about 64%. Also, people who search on Yahoo search Yahoo.com of course. If you search Yahoo.com, you’ll see eerily familiar search results. The local search results seem to be powered by Yahoo Local still but the website results underneath are actually Google search results. As of October, Yahoo has contracted with Google to use their search results. They can also use Bing search results but every time I search, I see only Google results. So, yes, Yahoo local and Yelp are important for Yahoo Local but because Yahoo gets so few searches, I tend to not care about them. And even then, if you rank well on Google, you’ll rank well on Yahoo.
As for Yahoo and Yelp, it makes sense to me that Yelp is who you would want to talk to. It also makes sense to me that Yext and Yelp aren’t communicating on the back end to pull in your Yelp reviews. It wouldn’t surprise me if you have two results on local.yahoo.com. In fact, I just checked and you do. It looks like one was pushed in by Yext and one was pushed in by Yelp. Hope that helps!
Yext and Aabaco scam! Watch out. Never pay a dollar
Hey Rick,
Could you offer a story to our readers about your experience?
Joshua,
How long has Local Listing Ninja been around? It is hard to find much information on it and I can’t seem to find any reviews for them. I am looking for an alternative to Yext, and do not want to spend the time doing it myself. I am a little skeptical about Local Listing Ninja and wanted some re-assurance? If that is the proper way to present it…..
Also, if I understand correctly, this will not allow me to be seen on Yahoo?
In addition, I do not have a website, not sure if that is mandatory..
Hey Erich,
We’ve only been around about 2 months as of this writing, that’s why you won’t find much about us out there. We’re working on that. If you could send us an email by using our contact form I would love to speak with you directly about this.
Also, with Yahoo, currently we’re working on being able to submit to them. We have it working but we want to submit across a few different clients successfully before we start advertising that we do it.
A website is not mandatory for Local Listing Ninja but know that without a website, it is very hard to rank on Google.
Contact us through our contact form and let’s talk some more!
Hi All,
I would just like to ask for help. Our business has shown up in the Yahoo listing however the contact number is incorrect. I am trying to change it however it says that the business is already a Yext powerlisting customer. Could somebody help me on how to change the conact number? I already contacted Yext support but their instructions are not clear and it seems that we have to pay for us to get it fix.
Thank you.
If it is saying you are already a Yext Powerlisting customer then I would imagine you are. Sometimes marketing services you’re working with use Yext and you’re not aware. Veterinarians.com is an example of this. I would just call into Yext support and ask them what the deal is.
Thank you very much for these posts. I just started last week going through the local listings manually and ran into the Yahoo, Yext, Aabaco road block and was beginning to get very frustrated. I annoys me to no end that they trick you into entering all of your information before redirecting you to the Yext page an then they use that information to harass my Boss to beg for our business. I was beginning to suspect that this was a SCAM and I sent them an email telling them that.
Once again Thank you for the post.
No problem Bruce.
Yes, the Yahoo deal is a little misleading for sure.
To be fair, Yext isn’t a scam per se of course. But I have heard many stories just like yours and completely understand your frustration.
I hope you’re able to get it all worked out!
In the past I’ve gone through verification process for myself for many of the listing services and for clients with only the big players. It’s a time-consuming ordeal and if you are helping a client it takes some serious coordination if you are not in the same room.
I assume that when you work with a service such as Yext that they have some handshake in place with all the listing services such that they don’t have to play the text message / enter PIN game.
Without that handshake if you are attempting to do this as a service for clients, is there any way that you can shortcut phone/text/website verifications? Is there any process to become authorized or is it as it is, a laborious exercise in coordination for both you and the business owner?
Great question Bob.
Yes, there is no phone verification with Yext.
If you don’t work with Yext you do have to go through the phone verification process. Luckily, there’s only a few (9 or 10) directories you need to phone verify so it’s not difficult at all. Phone verification should only take around 10 minutes if you set them all up in a row and knock them out at once.
Through repitition and experience you can get reasonably efficient with the process but it still seems to require some time/coordination with the business owner in person. Trying to do this remotely is extremely cumbersome.
1) Click to verify now
2) Phone call or text is sent to business owner’s phone
3) Owner retrieves number
4) Must call or email you
5) You enter it in the online form
The method varies but you get the picture. Google and some services are using IP address recognition making signing into the business owner’s account to set up the business another coordinated effort.
Just saying …
Hello. Could you please tell me:
(1) which listings can *only* be accessed through Yext?
and
(2) which require phone verification?
I would greatly appreciate hearing if you know the answer to either of those questions! Lots of Google searching for what I am sure must be common questions, especially the first one.
Thanks for this great article, which I have read a few different times after various searches. -)
Great questions!
1) They have a list of close to 50 different local sites they submit to (66 or so if you include the apps and various other sites they submit to which are not local directories) and while there are a decent amount of them that only accept Yext, the only one that really matters is Yahoo. The rest of the ones that Yext is the sole distributor for are directories that don’t hold a lot of sway with Google or consumers. Or, at the very least, can easily be replaced by another local directory you could submit to that holds just as much if not more sway with Google and consumers. Does that make sense?
And even Yahoo takes submissions from other places like ExpressUpdate and allegedly they use data from Yelp and Yellowpages.com as well, all of which are free to submit to. But in this respect Yext does put you on Yahoo instantly, whereas it takes time for the data to get to Yahoo from the other sources, anywhere from 30-90 days.
There is no directory Yext is the sole distributor for that is worth paying Yext for. That’s just my opinion. Think about it, if a directory really is valuable to Google and consumers, they would accept submissions from everywhere. Google values massive amounts of data so it behooves directories to get as much complete data as possible and just accepting submissions from Yext doesn’t do the trick. Consumers also value complete data. They want a variety of companies to choose from. Again, a directory that just uses Yext to supply their data doesn’t have anywhere near a complete compilation of local businesses for the consumer to look at and research. These directories just aren’t as valuable as someone like Yelp who has a very broad collection of local business information, second only to Google.
If there’s a directory that only takes info from Yext, they’re honestly not worth your time.
To recap: there are a decent amount of local directories on Yext’s distribution list that only take info from Yext. I don’t have a complete list. But they’re nothing to lose sleep over.
2) If you use Yext, there is no phone verification which is a pro for Yext, albeit a small one because phone verification for all the directories you need to do it for takes less than 10 minutes. If you’re doing it yourself you will have to phone verify the following:
– Google
– Bing
– Yelp
– Yellowpages
– ExpressUpdate
– Yellowbot
– Localstack
– Apple Maps
– iBegin
– Hubbiz
Again, great questions. I hope that helps!
I have been using yext.com for over 5 years. When I started, the top package was $399/year and I was told that it will not go up if I keep my listing current. So, here we are 5 years later and I am still paying $399/year. I found yext because one of my competitors had reviews in topix and it was there I found yext. It sounded too good to be true and I gave it a shot. Just like that, I had all my info & pictures immediately posted to 50+ platforms and I update my info quarterly. I do not know if I would pay $1000/year, but for $399 it’s a no brainer. My specials, announcements, and anything else I deem newsworthy immediately gets blasted on line. And for what it’s worth, I show up on page 1 of google in the 5 categories that are important for my business. And, I just found out recently that yext is sending me the xone Bluetooth device at no additional cost. For me, yext is great.
A word about yelp: I had advertised on yelp for many years back when you were only paying for impressions. And we have been in business over 10 years. I finally had enough with yelp and as soon as I did not renew my contract, immediately over night, my 100 reviews were cut down to 50 and it was the 5-star reviews that were removed and all the less favorable reviews, some of them over 5 years old, came right to the top of my listing. Can yelp get away with these bully tactics? obviously they can. But what I also noticed was that 3 very new salons that do advertise with yelp had over 100 reviews each in less than a year – this is not possible if you play by the rules – that is what is wrong with yelp: there is no control… anybody (employees, family, friends neighbors, competitors) can go on yelp and boost/bash a business whether they have ever set foot in that establishment or not. It is NOT a levelplaying field on yelp – businesses abuse the system and yelp itself decides on who to make their ‘darlings’ because they can.
This leads me to my final point: Certified Reviews. I use mindbodyonline for my front end software and because of that I was contacted by demandforce (an Intuit company). Demandforce does many things: follow-up, confirming appointments, campaigns and allows clients to post reviews. The reason they are called “Certified Reviews” is because ONLY when a client is checked out at the front desk, when I hit the key to print a receipt, that is when demandforce is notified of that visit. Then, demandforce sends the survey to the client and included in the survey is the opportunity to leave a review pertaining to that day’s visit… ONLY clients who have been to shop and actually had a service are eligible to write a review… none of this crap that goes on on yelp. Demandforce’s certified reviews are written ONLY by actual clients who received a service within the past 90 days. And, demandforce then channels these certified reviews to google where (for us) they appear on page 1 of the relevant search categories. Demandforce is not for everyone – it costs $300/month – but for me, to have OVER 1000 5-star reviews on the first page of google is worth that price. ANd, these are certified reviews.
Wrapping up, when I started with yext, I was not aware of any other comparable services and after reading the comments here, I gather that yext is not the only game in town. I can say that for me, yext is awesome. It works, it’s fast, efficient and well worth the annual $399. One other thing yext does is instantly notify my when a new review appears about my business on any of its 60+ platforms… it would be horrible if a bad review was written and I was unaware of that review for months. I guess I am a lifer with yext and the annual $399 is just another business related expense (as is the monthly $299 for demandforce, $85 for mindbody, $150 monthly for SEO…). It is now 2016 and one big reason that we are still in business and thriving (despite yelp’s attempts to drown us) is because we keep up with the emerging technology. Sure, getting a new client as a referral is the best, but we get many, many new clients daily who tell me “I went online and did my research and decided to come to Guys & Dolls.
Hey Jonathan! Thanks for your lengthy comment. It will add to the discussion beautifully!
I’m glad you’ve had a good experience with Yext and that it is working out for you. I’ve heard many similar stories about Yelp and I am sorry to hear that and can’t imagine how frustrating that is. It seems like you’re really on top of your reputation management online and that is definitely a good thing.
Keep up the good work!
I will add to the comment about yelp: same identical experience. This time with a much smaller business (one acupuncturist).
We’ve done a $200 Ads deal (on top of the free money you get for a new account. I don’t remember how much that was)
Anyway, we received zero calls or emails as a result of all that money. Yes! Not that we didn’t get a paying customer, we didn’t get even one question. I was asking myself: did they actually show our ad at all?
Obviously I cancelled. They called and suggested that I put a bigger daily limit. Seriously? I declined.
To my astonishment all but one of our reviews (I think there were 5 at the time) were hidden as being suddenly not currently recommended. This is after those same reviews were recommended before!
This is the business for anyone that wants to verify for themselves: https://www.yelp.com/biz/inner-harmony-acupuncture-seattle
Thanks to everyone for your useful feedback & comments!
Edited by Staff:
Jami had a question about Yext and her internet marketing budget. We reprinted the question and answered it in Mailbag Blog Post #1.
I just started to review Yext and from the initial discussions, sounds like something that will help our 2 1/2 year old company get our name out there more effectively. We currently have two locations and are going to grow to 5 in the Dallas Fort Worth area over the next year or two. Yext charges per location and based on my discussion with the rep, they are giving me a discounted rate for the premium service and it will be fixed for all future renewals as well as any additional locations we add. With all that said, several concerns have bubbled up here in the discussion thread that have me wanting to delay my plan for further investigation into options.
1) I don’t have the time or desire to go to 50+ sites and not only post my listings, but also constantly hit all 50+ with updates on specials, events, and other activities. Yext indicates that all of that is included in my package.
2) I am concerned about the fact that if I don’t go to all 50+ sites and set up my business, then IF I cancel with Yext all that can go away. Does it make more sense to go to all of those sites and create a baseline account that Yext then updates? That way they can’t take the listing away from me….we simply update those listings via the Yext Engine.
3) Big concern on the Yelp statements. We have been a customer of Yelp for a couple of years spending a pretty penny each month for services to advertise, keep the competition off our search page and we have a quality list of testimonials out there. What are my options with Yelp so as not to have the negative impact from canceling my subscription with them?
Thanks for any feedback you can share.
Hey Steve,
Thanks for your comment and also for the questions you asked. They are very good and appropriate.
My answers are below:
1) If you go with Yext, they can update your specials, events, and other activities in the click of a button. This is true and is actually pretty cool. Also, if you did sign up for the directories yourself or go through a service that signed them up for you, you would have to update them individually which I agree, no one has tie for that. However, there are 2 issues to consider here: a) Yext pushes these type of “special” updates only to those sites that have that functionality. It is safe to say these special updates do not make it to all of their sites. How many sites actually accept these updates? Very few I would imagine as most business listing websites out there do not have these options to support these special updates. So, the truth may be that you’re really pushing out these updates to 10 sites or even less. And then, you’re pushing these updates out to sites that most consumers do not visit and will not see. The only listings visitors are really going to see are your Google, Yelp, & Bing listings. So, combine the fact that these updates aren’t pushed out to all directories with the fact that most people won’t be looking at those directories anyway, that will help you determine the worth of this function of Yext. b) is being able to push specials, events, and other activities worth the $500 (or whatever the rate is they specifically quoted you) you will have to pay every single year vs using a service that signs up for listings once and where you only pay once. Is the $500 a year worth it for this functionality? In my opinion, the answer is no. This feature is more of a novelty feature. Again, just my opinion.
2) It’s a little up in the air right now what Yext actually does with their listings after expiration. If they really “revert” listings as they say, it would make sense to sign up for all of them now and then use Yext as you mentioned so that the listings, when they do “revert” go back to being the listing you control. However, what if they don’t actually “revert”? What if they are deleted? Or what if Yext overwrites your claim so when they release the claim on the listing and they revert back, no one can claim them? These are questions you would need to have answered. Although, I would consider the wisdom of even using Yext if you take the trouble to sign up for 50+ listings yourself. Then there would be no reason to use them in the first place. Does that make sense?
3) This article really doesn’t discuss Yelp and I want to stay on topic but just some quick advice would be that allegedly there is no negative impact from cancelling Yelp. Your ranking should not drop. It may though, there’s no telling. Also, I have heard rumors, and I want to stress that these are just rumors, that if you cancel with Yelp, your negative reviews seem to pop up more often. I don’t know that to be true at all and you should know Yelp will vehemently deny that I’m sure. I also kind of doubt that but you never know. Other than that, I believe you will be fine except competitor ads will come back on your profile and I think there are a few special features that are removed from your Yelp profile as well.
Getting back to Yext quickly while I wrap this comment up, I think you’re probably better off going through a direct submission service, one that you only have to pay once and you own your listings. Just my opinion though.
Thanks for commenting, great questions, and good luck!
My company just attempted to use Yext. We were told it would cost $999 to join and have all our listings corrected. However, when we called the Yext rep to let them know we would like to work with them and asked about an invoice we got a sketchy response. They said an invoice would be sent once they ran the card. Since we work for a financial institution, as soon as we gave the credit card number, we call our card lady and asked her about the charges. Turns out Yext was trying to charge us $3,990! We told card services to hold the charge and not let anything from Yext through. When the Yext rep was called back and confronted about the price she was charging, she said that was the cost for the additional locations, even though the day before she told a whole different story, which we had written down.
THIS COMPANY IS A TOTAL SCAM!
Hey Katrina,
I’m sorry about the experience you had with Yext. That sucks. I know from experience that they do charge per location. The rep must have forgotten to mention this. They probably weren’t intentionally trying to be misleading but I know that doesn’t make it feel any better. I completely understand your frustration and and why you feel that way. I hope you’re able to find a company that’s able to help you guys achieve your business listing goals.
Thanks again for the comment!
You should be ashamed for leading these poor people into thinking Yext is anything but a rip off. They force you to use their services that Google has always let you have for free.
Hey Donald,
While I understand your position, my effort for this article was not to provide a bias one way or the other but to be objective. People who have a strong dislike for Yext will potentially think that I’m being biased by not portraying a strong dislike for Yext. And people who like Yext will potentially think that I’m being biased by not sticking up for Yext. It’s human nature. But what I can say is that your sentiment is strongly reinforced by the other comments. I’ll let the public voice be the judge and jury here 🙂
Thanks for the comment!
Hey Donald,
I’ve read the article and the comments and I feel obligated to add a kudos to Joshua for what seems to be a very impartial effort to present everything in the most factual way.
I’m not sure which parts you’ve read to make you believe this, but, again, to me this article and his comments seem very impartial and full of verifiable facts.
FWIW: I’m talking from the perspective of a DIY, since I don’t see the value of paying yearly for yext. Just for full disclosure.
Is there any known service other than Yext that would update my Yahoo listing?
I have claimed and updated every search engine there is and even got onto Foursquare(after months of effort). I don’t see a reason to pay for work I have already completed and maintain.
I would only need the Yahoo listing verified and/or updated. The current listing shows incorrect hours, contact email and an old menu.
Hey Izzy,
There is no other company that can update Yahoo directly other than Yext. However, YP.com, Yelp, and Expressupdate all feed Yahoo data. So, theoretically, if you update those 3 then you should be good with your business name, address, phone and website at the very least. If you can’t find that info you want to edit (hours, contact email, menu) on one of those 3 sites, it sounds like you will have to go through Yext to do it. But personally, I do not think Yahoo is worth it. It gets 11% of the search volume these days and has been plummeting for awhile now. I wouldn’t worry about it at all.
EXTORTION = Yext!!!!!, they hold your listings HOSTAGE and if you do not pay the renewal of subscription, they physically remove all corrections that are made to your Free Business listings when you cancel your subscription, they say they revert them back,
I hire a plumber to fix my leaky faucet, pay him 450, one year later he sends me a bill for 450 again, I do not pay so he comes and puts back the old leaky faucet, how is that he can get away with that?
The plumber does not do this or get away with that, so how does yext think that they can remove all of the fixes that we pay them for, they physically changed all my business listings back to before I paid,
this is clearly a hostage situation
Great article Man! Shame that i just got in here now. My boss pays me to do local listing submissions for his clients but via free submission. Now the problem about it getting done 100 percent clean or at least close to it is that free submissions if allowed requires phone call verification and i don’t have access to their phones, neither does he want them being called by the local directories because he wants to save them the hassle. Thing is i want to d o my work as satisfactory as i can. Is there anyway to get through phone call verification? I am from Asia and my boss and his clients are in the US.
Hey Weib,
Sorry about just now getting to this comment. Somehow we stopped receiving comment notifications to our email.
Unfortunately, for the bigger directories there is no way to get around phone verification. I wish I had a better answer for you!
Thank you for the post Joshua, we found it very useful.
We can imagine there are people somewhere who pay $500 every year to RENT (!) their local listings but we are yet to meet one in real life.
You mentioned DIY as an alternative to Yext. There’s also the third way – to hire an SEO agency or just a pro who will list the business on most directories.
The main disadvantages – it may take more time to get listed and you won’t get listed on Yahoo. But, as you said, Yahoo can be ignored, totally agree with that. When was the last time you searched Yahoo directory to find a local business? Their current approach is paid listings. From the consumer point of view – who wants a bunch of ads instead of a comprehensive directory of ALL businesses in the area ranked by consumers themselves (Google My Business and Yelp for example)? People will probably use Yahoo Local less over time.
The advantages of hiring an SEO – your listings will stick for years for free after you have paid once, just like in case with plumber. SEOs will find the “submit”, “list a business” buttons faster as they submit other businesses daily. Also you can submit different descriptions to different directories. It makes sense even if Google is OK with the same description everywhere. The allowed description length is often different – if you can add 1000 words instead of 300 words, why not do that?
Regarding automated updated to all directories – we think it’s a better idea to update the most important directories (5) manually, reply to reviews, add new photos etc. The other listings will just sit there (potentially improving your local rankings) until your business moves or the phone number changes.
The only case when Yext is useful is when a business moves or changes phone number every month 🙂
Hey guys!
Sorry about just now getting to this comment. Somehow we stopped receiving comment notifications to our email.
Yes, we agree, using an agency or even better, an alternative local business listing service, is definitely the way to go. You can still get on Yahoo (we’ll blog about this soon), you just need to submit to Yelp, YP.com, or ExpressUpdate and they’ll push you to Yahoo. But yes, we agree, Yahoo is not that important.
Can’t say I disagree with any of your other points.
Thanks for weighing in!
Yext calls me every week, 8-15 times.
Email once a month from a sale rep,k Cathy Forman,
Try to email her but it kicks back
Here is the deal
their sales team has one goal, sell
no customer service
no solutions
just sell
I sent this to them last year.
What are you asking for here? Money to fix my url address or company online
presence?
Organic listings? Free search engine listings? Or are you asking for SEM
dollars?
I remember when you could list company or corporation on 50-60 search
engines
A simple task:
– company profile
– products & services offered
– contact information
– location
– photo’s
– google map (pin) location
remember?
easy stuff.
*If my company information is listed incorrectly or wrong on any search
engine, I can assume two things:*
– I know that our address and phone number belonged to the previous
tenant, but we have been here 16 months and I have made the update
corrections.Your company will not update info or recognize the change.
Maybe because I did not pay the piper.
– Yext controls information and will not update address and phone number
(holding my info hostage)
So, I should pay you $300 a month to make sure my information is listed
correctly on FREE search engines? I submitted my company information to
every site you list. So, you are telling me that these FREE search engines
want me to pay you to correct my company’s url or my phone number?
Come on man, really?
It ain’t rocket science!
Your thoughts?
Hey Mark!
Thanks for the comment 🙂
I agree, if you have the time it is much more cost effective to do your listings yourself. You can’t get much more cost effective than free. And you’re right, no business listing service has a monopoly on submitting to these search directories. They’re all free. So you should never feel like you HAVE to use a business listing service. You always have the freedom to submit to them on your own. And you’re right, many businesses more than likely feel like they MUST use a business listing service, when, in fact, they do not. These directories are open to everyone.
I would say that business listing services do have value but that value does not lie in exclusivity. It lies in time management. For those businesses that don’t have the time, the energy, or the interest in doing their own listings, business listing services are a great value. But you’re also correct again that there is a right way to provide that service ie the business owns the listings (not the company who signed them up for the listings), not holding listings hostage, etc.
Thanks for adding a great contribution to this resource. I think everyone will find your comment very helpful.
Cheers!
HI!
Just want to say (type) that i very much enjoyed reading your article. It was VERY informative and answered my questions as a start up company owner in need of broadly announcing my local business. I’m not afraid of a little
work and will be DIYing this.
I also really appreciate your feedback to the comments as reading them gave me even more insight.
Thank you and look forward to reading more of your articles 🙂
You are absolutely welcome! I’m glad you found the article helpful.
What do I do when I discover that a marketing company has “claimed ownership” or is otherwise the manager of record of my business listing on these directory sites, as well as Yext? Apparently Yext sells its updating technology and any company can buy it and resell it. Yext calls it “white labeling” which I believe is a jargon term for resold products or services but is new to me.
So two things are happening. I am unable to make changes to my business’ listing information and description on any of the dozens of directory sites. And since my information was entered by a “seo marketing company” using Yext’s software package, I could not use Yext to update or remove the business information because Yext’s records show some other entity has “ownership” of my business listing. How about that!!
Hey Shawn,
Yes, “white labeling” is where one company allows another to use its services and say it is theirs. In this instance, Yext allows companies to use Yext’s software, dashboard, and even their lead tools as if they were their own. The company is allowed to put their own logo on them, etc.
Wow, this sounds incredibly frustrating Shawn. Another reason to be a little cautious about who you deal with online. Do you know of any marketing company you’ve worked with in the past that may have done this? If so, I would call them. If you can’t contact them (or don’t know what company might have done this) then call Yext and refuse to get off of the phone until they help you. If you get passed up high enough I am sure there is someone that will look into it for you and remove all the listings so you can go back in there and add them yourself and retain control this time. There’s no way for Yext to “hand over” control of the listings but they can at least delete them and allow you to start fresh. You can then go and sign up your listings yourself or with a competing service that gives your passwords when you’re done.
Come back and let us know how this goes!
Hi, Love this article..
my question is, which is better to use, Yelp or Angie’s List.
If I am using Yest, does it makes any sense to use Yelp or Angie’s List? Thanks for all you help.
Hey Joan,
In terms of Angie’s List vs Yelp if you mean getting a business listing I would suggest both. If you mean paying them for advertising then that’s a great question I don’t have an answer for. I would ask both companies to give you a list of customers they have in your industry and allow you to call them and ask about their experience. Or you could probably just look on both sites for companies that are paying for advertising (just search your keyword in a major city and find the ads) and call them yourself, that way Yelp and Angie’s List don’t feed you to a lackey who is only going to say nice things about them.
If you are using Yext, it still makes sense to advertise on Yelp or Angie’s List. But I would consider doing Local SEO so I ranked on higher on Google first before Yelp or Angie’s List.
I will never do business with Yext again. After a year of advertising with them with little or no results, they automatically renewed my subscription. When I called and asked them to cancel it due to lack of response, they put me through the ringer. My money was supposed to have been refunded within 5-10 business days but it has now been 2 weeks and no sign of a credit. I have repeatedly emailed them and talked to them in person. Their customer support is a joke!
Ouch! Sorry to hear about that Helen. I hope you get it resolved! Come back and give us an update when you get one and let us know how it turned out for you.
We’ve used Synup in the past. They do have a dashboard as you mention; but it’s underwhelming. They also state that there is no reversion at contract termination, so we’ll see how that holds up in a couple months when we don’t renew. I personally think the do-it-yourself route is ideal if you can get a hold of a quality listing of directories that are industry appropriate.
Hey Norman,
Thanks for the insight on Synup! DIY is definitely ideal if you have the time/energy to do it all yourself.
Let us know when you cancel and what your experience was with Synup in that regard!
Hi Joshua,
This is an excellent post. I agree with it and basically had arrived at the same conclusion on my own while working on my site (www.acupuncture-5e.com).
I also see a lot of value in the comments and your answers. Didn’t get a chance to go through all of them, but will definitely do by the end of the day.
I do see my listing on local.yahoo (https://local.yahoo.com/info-169022185-inner-harmony-acupuncture-seattle) and at first it seem I was not able to “Verify it” as I was lead to a Yext promo page. Somewhere in those options there was an option for Claim and later one for “Claim basic listing for free”.
Thank you!
Hey Ovidiu!
Thanks for your comment and the compliment on the post.
Yes, there is a free claim with Yext for Yahoo but I encourage people to work around that and to just update your Yelp page. There is some concern that if you create a listing via Yext’s free submission it may create a duplicate in Yahoo. But if you update Yelp, Yelp feeds Yahoo so your listing should update there in 3-5 weeks!
Read some bad reviews but frankly my experience has been awesome with Yext and they are worth it, especially when old and inaccurate info is difficult to change.
The old catch 22 – you don’t generate enough revenue to afford yext – yet your business would generate more revenue if you ranked higher and had accurate listings. Frankly think that YEXT is worth the money. f you have more than 1 location the price is negotiable and you will pay less. The real value with yext to me is that they –
1. actually have CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!!! REAL PEOPLE that you can speak with and help you.
2. Real time updates – Having to deal with services like Yelp was a living NIGHTMARE wasting several hours of time and they still didn’t get it right, 3 weeks 20 emails, various people who didn’t know how to do their job in ‘customer service’ seriously unbelievable the only reason we could actually speak with people at Yelp is we paid for advertising at one point. Not only that Foursquare wouldn’t let us claim our businesses that have been in existence since the 1970s- issue resolved in minutes with Yext.
3. to be able to manage reviews across channels – AMAZING
4. great resource material to help you run your business.
Our time is better spent creating great content than fighting with listing companies that don’t offer any customer support Yext pays for itself. I’m sick and tired of emailing people repeatedly and not getting my problems resolved. Yext is an efficient tool.
Hey Amy, thanks for commenting! Glad to hear you’re happy with Yext!
GO DIRECTLY THROUGH YAHOO INSTEAD! We didn’t see our business on Yahoo map anymore like it used to be for 13 years. Yahoo directed us to Yext. We got talked into subscribing. We told them what we wanted. We filled out everything they asked. They told us it would take 30 days to see our business on the map and other things to match up. After about a month, we did finally see our business on there. Problem is, it didn’t last. I think it lasted a total of 2 months, we even kept our Yext info site and account updated for months following and still nothing. We were back off the map almost the entire time being signed up, still are today, not within any search engine searches, and my subscription ends next month. Needless to say I’m not using them again. A complete waste of $500 for the 6 mos we paid. Turns out you can actually go through Yahoo directly and pay less! We got ripped off so warning others. Probably won’t be going through Yahoo either. I’m done with Yahoo & Yext altogether, unless it’s free.
Hey Holly,
Sorry to hear about your experience! That sounds frustrating. Keep in mind that with Yahoo that their “free” submit is actually handled by Yext. If you go directly through Yahoo, you’re actually just using Yahoo’s rebranding of the Yext engine which Yahoo “resells”. The only way to get your information on Yahoo without Yext is to make sure your information is correct on Yelp and Yelp will push your info to them within 30-90 days. If your information isn’t correct at the end of 30-90 days that means that the information Yelp is pushing is conflicting with information Yahoo is getting from some 3rd party providers like Localeze or ExpressUpdate.
When people ask us about Yahoo, we always recommend going through Yelp and not directly submitting. The paid option via Yext ropes you into a commitment and the free option is handled by Yext as well. Neither is preferable to just using Yelp.
Hope that helps and again, sorry to hear about your experience!
Let us know if you have any follow up questions.
I stopped here “Yext Benefit #3: Keep your listings “fresh””
It’s the feature message that can be changed. Plus updates to data comprising the enhanced listings.
Hey David,
Sorry about taking so long to approve your comment! We had an issue with replies to the article going to spam and weren’t aware of your comment until today.
“Yext Benefit #3: Keep your listings ‘fresh'” simply refers to the claim that many business listings companies make that continuing to add/change information on your profiles (pictures, description, featured message, etc.) will help your Local SEO ranking. There’s no evidence to support that claim and even reason to believe it’s not true as why would Google expect business listings to change on a continual basis? Your business name, address, phone, and website are fairly static properties. It seems like the SEO advice on keeping your website up to date with “fresh content” was simply misapplied here and projected onto business listings. That’s all we meant by that. I hope that’s not confusing!
We wouldn’t (and didn’t) use Yext at half price for a few reasons, most prominently of which was the pricing issue: a recurring cost for what should be one time work. Also, we wouldn’t want our listings taken from our clients if we ever cancelled. And of course there are the other reasons we mentioned in the article above. So that’s why we wouldn’t even use Yext at half price. I hope that helps clear it up a bit!
I did redact your question about Local Listing Ninja as it seemed more like a sales question and I want to keep the comments section open for questions about the article. I’m going to have someone reach out to you immediately though.
Thanks for the comment!
Hey there, it’d be nice if you guys did like a comparison of yext and yext competitors in one table or graph or something. Any plans on doing that?
Hey Dmitrii!
We would love to do that! We don’t have any plans for that in the future since we don’t have anyone to do that on staff. But yes, that’s a great idea! Maybe we’ll have someone come along, read our comments, and reach out to us about doing one 🙂
I have been a Yext customer for a few years now and find this article to be very misleading. There are many things stated that are inaccurate and i find it very funny that you have to “approve comments” that clearly try to back up what you are saying.
Hey Alex,
Thanks for your comment!
We actually approve all comments, whether they agree with this article or not. Hence why I’ve published your comment. And if you read all of the comments, you’ll actually see me somewhat defending Yext on a few of my replies when something I know to be untrue is posted about Yext in a comment.
Would you mind expounding on what you are in disagreement with specifically?
I find Yext to be almost as much a scam as a Yelp. They both start with Y. The Yext algorithms are nearly impossible to follow. I do not think that they clean up. The costs are exorbitant. What is the advantage? A careful analysis shows that the competing clearinghouses are much more accurate but take longer. What about Manta, Moz and other?
Yext is not worth it. Almost a scam.
Hey Philip,
Yext isn’t always the best option for everyone but I would stop short of calling them a scam. I’ve been told that their tool for cleaning up bad information is no longer (or never was) available to the average business owner but only to enterprise level clients, so that may be why you don’t see them as cleaning up listings. They may not. Yes, the cost is tough to handle, especially recurring every year.
Manta and Moz (I believe you’re referring to Moz Local) are different from Yext. Yext, Local Listing Ninja, and other services like it are business listing services. They are meant to get correct information out quickly and broadly.
A service like Moz Local serves a different purpose. It exists to keep bad information from getting out. See this post for more information on Moz Local: https://university.tutelarymarketing.com/2016/08/16/what-is-moz-local/
Manta is actually just a local business directory. One of many, such as Yelp, Yellowpages, etc. They are also partnered with Yext and resell Yext as well.
Our final conclusion is the same, I too believe it is not worth it.
I have a new small marketing agency and am getting ready to begin a Yext contract and concerned by the claim that they revert your listings to the old version when you decide to part ways. Just wanted to report that my sales rep says this, “We do not revert your information when you cancel our service. This is a common misconception about our service that our competitors like to discuss constantly. When you cancel Yext, we just remove the patented lock that we place on your listings. I’d be happy to explain this process more in-depth or feel free to read this blog post. I also like to mention that Yext is the only publicly traded company that offers this type of service. If we were operating a service that reverted businesses information when they cancel, we wouldn’t have gotten this far…”
Just wanted to clear up the misconception for all who happen upon your article.
Hey Laura,
Thanks for weighing in! That is some valuable knowledge and I appreciate you bringing it to the article!
I’ve heard this a lot from Yext reps (through 3rd parties) however, there are a few issues with the points he raised:
1) There have been studies done about what Yext does when you cancel and even some of them published such as this one: https://whitespark.ca/blog/what-happens-when-you-cancel-yext/ – after the facts are in, it looks like Yext (back in 2016 at least) deletes some, leaves some, etc. So, at least in 2016, it does like they were still “reverting”. Now, here’s where Yext gets tricky. They say they don’t “revert” but they remove their “patented lock”. This honestly sounds like the exact same thing, just a nicer way to say it to get you to ask less questions in the sales process, although that may not be true. Also, in an unpublished study done this year by our own company, it looks like in 2017 they were still reverting listings. Have they changed in the last year? The rep implies they haven’t changed since they went public? So, I’m guessing by his own implication, they have not changed this practice.
2) Another point I would make is in my experience in this industry, sales reps do not always know the truth about their services. They only know what they are told. Has this individual rep watched a client’s listings expire and seen what the Yext system has done with them? That’s highly unlikely. He’s telling you what he was told to tell you in his training. Which is to be expected of course. Sales people aren’t product engineers. They have a certain job function and it’s to make sales, not necessarily pick the product apart (although, that would be a good idea). But it does leave a question hanging in the air about the truth of what they’re telling you. The only people who know exactly what is going on is the engineers. So, it’s up to the engineers to communicate the truth to the top of sales and then for it to trickle down. It gets muddy eventually. Especially in department where their job is to…make the sale.
3) With Yext’s setup, they can’t survive with people cancelling their service. They need repeat customers as they pay repeat costs to the directories they work if (if I understand their process correctly and I think I do). If it was as easy as signing up for Yext for one year and then quitting, Yext would not be around. They simply can’t function like that. They have to create some incentive for you to stick around. Reversion is that incentive. it can be called “removing our patented lock” but at the end of the day it’s the same thing as reversion from what we understand. I’d be interested to hear the sales rep’s reply to the question, “Why should I continue to use Yext after you fix my listings?”
4) The bottom line is, no matter which way they go, you’re still up a creek if you use Yext and decide to cancel with them. Walking through the scenarios:
a) Even if your listings stay the same after you cancel and don’t “revert” you now have all of your listings sitting there and you have zero access to them because you quit paying Yext for their dashboard. Need to change your hours? Tough. You can’t. Unless you want to pay another $500 to sign up with Yext again and make those changes. $500 to make a change is pretty expensive. It’s the same if you need to change your address (move), name (rebrand), or need to change your phone number or website. You have to pay $500 again for access. That’s expensive for access to your listings to make one change. Heck, that’s expensive for any amount of changes.
b) Let’s say instead of your listings staying accurate, they do “revert”. Well, there goes all that hard work.
c) And finally, let’s say they even delete all of your listings instead (which they don’t do). That would give you a fresh start but there you are again, with no listings.
Honestly, it doesn’t matter how they slice it, when you use Yext planning to only pay $500 once and cancel at the end, there is no positive outcome, as far as we see.
The alternative is to continue to pay them $500 ever year. Which is even worse in our opinion.
I hope that breakdown helps!
Hi Joshua,
I currently have an seo company that we hired several years ago who said they would get us on the first page of the google search in our area. So basically they use Yext to do this and I have been paying them 250 per month to do this which is getting very old.
I was thinking of canceling them and using Moz Local to do it myself. I am trying to figure out how long I need to wait after canceling to then list through Moz? Will things get messed up if I do it too soon and what is too soon?
Hey Ben,
Thanks for the comment!
Currently Yext seems like they are still reverting listings. Which means when you cancel, your listings go back to the way they were. If you had a listing on a site, it goes back to the way it was. If you didn’t have a listing on a site, then it gets removed, effectively putting it back the way it was before.
With that being said, I would go ahead and overlap now and then cancel Yext 1-2 weeks after you sign up for Moz Local. That way you stay covered. That should prevent anything from being “messed up”.
But I wouldn’t sign up just for Moz Local. You really need a replacement business listing service for Yext and then that’s when you supplement the business listing service with Moz Local. Here’s an article we wrote on Moz Local and what it actually does: https://university.tutelarymarketing.com/2016/08/16/what-is-moz-local/
Moz Local is not a listing service but it does serve a very important function. However, it should never be used as a business listing service. It just doesn’t do a good job of that. Read the article and I think you’ll understand. If you have any questions after reading that article, go ahead and leave a comment on the article and I’ll answer those questions for you as well.
In summary: Business Listing Service + Moz Local is your ticket.
Hope that helps!
FYI – SEMrush just launched a beta add-on to their service that gives you access to Yext at $240/year which is about half the normal rate. You don’t have any minimum spend like before with the Yext partner agency deal.
There’s still some bugs to work out, but I think the SEMrush option is good for anyone already using it for SEO.
Hey Blake!
So glad you commented on this!
I saw this as well. I am curious to see how this works out. The rate is much, much better. I still think the recurring fee doesn’t make sense in the face of services that give a one time fee BUT at 50% of the cost, Yext just became much more affordable for sure.
Hi
I have a retail business with several thousand branches, all with different opening hours, locations, and services.
Would you still recommend the DIY route here, or something like Yext?
If not Yext, then who else? What do the big retailers use?
thanks, Brigitte
Hey Brigitte,
Whew, thousands of locations? Yeah, Yext might be your best bet here. You might want to look into Synup also. I can’t vouch for Synup but I do know that most big retailers, if they’re managing their presence, are probably using Yext. I could be wrong though.
However, I would think about what type of industry you’re in. Are you in an industry where people are constantly turning to Google to search for you? For example, if you’re a boutique, I’m not sure too many people are Googling for boutiques or other retail. If you’re in a space where SEO isn’t important (although, I’ll admit, that’s rare) then I would consider just getting Google, Bing, Yelp, Yellowpages, Facebook, and Apple Maps squared away for all locations. If possible, and all of those stores have owners who are invested in the store’s success, I might even consider hosting a webinar showing each owner how to claim and fix all 6 of those listings on their own. Yext or something similar is probably going to cost minimum $250,000 a year (1,000 locations x $250). Yext might give you better pricing than that but my point is, do you want to spend ~$250,000 a year, every year, or find a more cost effective way?
But if SEO is important, I think you’re probably going to have to go with one of the bigger guys. A manual business listing service or DIY is still the route I would encourage you take if you had less locations but with 1,000+? That would take forever manually.
That’s a tough one. I’d love to hear your take on my reply OR would love to hear back from you when you make a choice!
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