Is it more beneficial to use Yext rather than doing the citations manually?
-
Our company wanted to experiment on whether it truly is more beneficial to use Yext for citations rather than to do them ourselves. The thought process here, is that when we manually do the citations, some of our listings would increase in quality. The problem we have been running into, is that Yext has exclusive deals with nearly half of the sources we were previously listed under. Is there a way around this, or is Yext truly worth the cost?
-
I think Yext is really worth the cost and has the most important local directories covered. One main advantage of services like Yext or Moz Local is the ease of making updates to the listings. With manual citations, if you need to make a small change to the hours or description of the business, you need to repeat the task for all the sites one by one. But with Yext or Moz Local, it can happen quickly by just updating the business under your Yext or Moz Local account while automation will take care of updating the rest of the listings in the background for you.
There is also this business listing scan tool out there that I thought might be relevant to this question, it covers the most sites and also tells you what's your completeness score and your accuracy score with a short link that you can use to share the web-based report with others. I hope you find my answer useful. -
Yext is a HUGE time save. Well worth it.
-
Good Morning, Bek!
I hope you will receive a variety of responses from our community on this, as citation management is often a case of horses for courses. What you choose should be based on factors including the scale of your business model, your funding, your expectations of control/management, etc. Basically, you have 3 options when it comes to citation management:
-
Do it all manually. The plus side of this is that you have as much direct control as possible. The minus side is that it is time-consuming and can't be scaled easily for companies with multiple locations. It's all but impossible to efficiently, manually manage local business listings for dozens, hundreds or thousands of locations. And, manual on-going monitoring of citation quality is a huge chore even if you only have a single location business.
-
Hire a company to do it for you manually. Whitespark is one of the more popular companies that builds a la carte citations manually. The plus side of this is that you pay once and the citations are built well with good data that you've approved, without you having to invest a lot of time. The minus side is that citations typically need to be managed on an ongoing basis, which companies like Whitespark don't do. They are an excellent service for a one-time manual build, but because of the way data can degrade over time, may not be the right match for a business that wants to monitor and manage their listings on an on-going basis.
-
Automate it. This is what companies like Moz Local, Uberall and Yext do. Moz Local, for example, distributes your data to the major citation platforms (including the major aggregators) and then offers you a dashboard for ongoing monitoring. The plus side of this is that the work on your end is nominal and, at least with Moz Local, you'll be alerted to ongoing issues with your data, including inconsistent and duplicate listings, as they arise. A solution like this scales to dozens, hundreds or thousands of locations. The main minus side is a lack of direct control, plus cost can be a factor, and one of the key complaints about Yext is that (unlike Moz Local) they charge for your distribution to low-quality directories that few people actually use.
So, those are your 3 options, and what might work best for a single location boutique may not be the right match for a multi-location restaurant chain. Some businesses do like Yext, but if you do a bit of searching, you will also find genuine complaints, as you will about most providers. Other people are big fans of Moz Local, BrightLocal, Uberall and other providers. So, as I said, I'm hoping you'll get multiple points of view on this thread, do some investigative work, and discover the right match for your brand's scenario. In the end, that's what matters most!
I'll just finish up by letting you know that if you have any questions about how Moz Local could help you business, please email our customer service support at help@moz.com. You'll receive a friendly and helpful reply.
-
-
This is a really good question and something with which, I am at least personally experienced with - in terms of having done recent research on the subject
Recently we (at Effect Digital, UK) moved office. I say recently, it was probably nearly a year ago now. Previously we had been using Moz Local, but were shocked to find that simple features like 'changing' or 'updating' our business address were not supported. The problem comes down to directory aggregators (the main offender being Central Index) and how they interact with various listing suppliers
When Moz Local failed to update our business address, we tried to contact a lot of directory-owners (and directory aggregators like Central Index) manually. Trust me when I say, the largest ones (like Central Index, which handle the majority of your directory listings across local newspaper sites - at least here in the UK) do not want to hear from you at all
We submitted contact forms, spent hours browsing to hidden contact URLs, even found a phone number for them - which rang for a minute, then forwarded to a separate disconnected number. These guys don't care about receiving updates from Moz and they don't care about your update requests. They don't even want to listen to you, for 2 minutes
The problem with Moz local, as a Moz rep told us - is that when they push data (from Moz's Local database, to the databases of aggregate listing handlers like Central Index), there is no legal agreement requiring the aggregator(s) to accept Moz's update(s). They will accept Moz Local's first set of data, but if you ever want to change anything substantial - that rapidly becomes a massive problem. Moz Local is a great way to take your first steps into local listings handling, but the solution isn't end-to-end, or rigorous enough for on-going usage
Yext is much better, from the sounds of it. Myself and another experienced colleague spent some hours on the phone to their support people who seemed qualified and able to handle our complex queries. They stated to us that, they have a more 'direct' agreement with listing aggregators which directly pushes their data over the top of everyone else's. That tells me that, either their solution works well or - if it didn't work, you'd have recourse to push them to get things sorted out. They take more responsibility and really try to make sure that their updates 'actually' end up live in aggregator databases (which is great)
We didn't end up using Yext because, as an SMB the pricing was pretty severe. We were told that Yell basically re-sell Yext's technology to smaller businesses and that we'd have better luck with Yell. Whilst Yell may be based on the same technology, the support is woefully inferior and I'd never recommend working with Yell. We had one rep visit us to answer technical questions. He knew none of the answers to our questions, knew nothing about SEO and actually had the tenacity to try and 'steer' us toward purchasing some crappy directory listing on Yell which wasn't at all what we wanted (or were interested in)
Moz is great when you're starting out, but because the 'deals' they have with data aggregators aren't 'forceful' enough, it's not a good on-going solution (Moz know this and said as much to us over the phone). It's still the best place for you to 'start' as the prices are great and it does function well, until more crucial data changes are required (at which point it falls flat on its face)
At that point you really should be going with Yext if you can afford Yext. The product is superior, the support is very strong (Moz's support is actually great too, but hindered by the product which is defective under some specific circumstances). In-between the cheap and cheerful Moz and the very expensive Yext, there's nothing good enough to fill the void (which sucks!)
You may have some luck manually adjusting some listings. But for the ones controlled by central databases which fire their data out to many directories, your only real option to have a reasonable shot at getting them changed - is assuredly Yext
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Using PO Box/Virtual Address for local citations, but not GMB?
Hello. So, I am aware that it is in violation of Google My Bussiness's terms of service to use register a PO box/virtual address with GMB, but is it problematic to use such addresses for general link building with local citations, such as local directories and resource pages? Would the cons outweigh the pros (more backlinks)? And what about using one of these kinds of addresses on my website, but not GMB? Is it all so interrelated nowadays that I should steer clear of publishing a virtual address anywhere? That just seems hard to wrap my head around as PO Boxes have served a valuable function for small businesses for some 150 years. Thank you, Jon
Local Listings | | custardextract0 -
Local Recreational Marijuana Dispensaries Disappearing from Google Maps when Plurals used.
This is the second time I have posted this question and never got a satisfactory result. I have an SEO client in Tacoma Wa and when you type (Dispensaries Near Tacoma they are in the Top 3 snack pack and the Google maps shows 20 other similar businesses. However, when you search (Dispensary Near Tacoma) only 3 or 5 recreational marijuana shops show up and my client disappears. Someone earlier suggested it could be because of the categories selection, but that can't affect ALL the other shops and like I said it happens in other cities. for example Dispensary Near Olympia vs Dispensaries Near Olympia. I have the full write up and pictures and diagrams on my blog. Please HELP! This could affect your future clients also. https://isenselogic.com/local-business-disappearing-on-google-maps-when-plurals-used/
Local Listings | | isenselogic0 -
Has anyone tried using AMP links in Google Business Listings?
We have a client with multiple locations, and Google Business listings for each location. We've also created AMP pages for each of those location landing pages, and they're ranking on page one of their main queries, just below the local pack. We're wondering if anyone has tried pointing a GMB website listing at an AMP page, or if there are considerations to keep in mind before testing it out. So far, we've discussed whether to use the AMP url (amp.domain.com) or the Google viewer url (google.com/amp/s/amp.domain.com), and potential concerns for desktop users.
Local Listings | | WompM0 -
We now have an SSL certificate. Do we need to redo our citations?
After spending some time getting our NAPW info corrected on many of our key listings and claiming and configuring a few more, we recently added an SSL certificate to our domain. We've made the https version of our site the canonical version, set redirects, etc. Do we need to redo our citations with https to get our full SEO bang for buck out of our citations?
Local Listings | | TheKatzMeow1 -
Another Business is Using My Client's Address
This morning my client contacted me that another business is using their address as their own! They received a Google verification postcard with pin number on it, but luckily had the foresight to not give it to the person when they called. After some research, we also found out that they are using our address on Facebook and LinkedIn as well. The kicker is: this business is another SEO firm! You would think they would know that using our address would cause NAP issues for their own business. Has anyone dealt with another business trying to hijack their address for local rankings? Any advice on steps to take to report this abuse would be appreciated. Since this person is obviously unscrupulous, we don't want to provoke them into taking any other negative action online that could affect our business.
Local Listings | | IlluminousGwen0 -
Local citations - domain or business name
I have a bit of a tricky situation with a client where there is some history with old domains. But this is the current situation which I need to stick to: Business name (all made up) is Acme Print 2 live websites - acme-niche(dot)com and productsandservices(dot)com Third website acmeprint(dot)com is live and owned by an old partner, different NAP. acme-niche(dot)com and productsandservices(dot)com share the same NAP. Not much traffic and a bit of a poor domain profile for acme-niche(dot)com, so suggest just using productsandservices(dot)com. Also acme-niche(dot)com would be a bit misleading for use for the whole business in any case. However, all content for productsandservices(dot)com refers to Acme Print. Because of all the confusion should we keep the productsandservices(dot)com referring to Acme Print throughout, or update with new productsandservices(dot)com logo, mention that it is a trading name of Acme Print and refer to the trading domain name throughout the content. I want to know the best option for listings and citations - the trading name which is a domain name or Acme Print? I've not worked with a local site where domain name and business name and a separate business with domain are mixed up.
Local Listings | | MickEdwards0 -
Local Search and Schema.org - Do I need to tag up the "same as" Property to all my citations to help with local rankings?
Hi All, We have implemented Schema.og on our website and this also includes the local business schema for all of our branches.However I've read an article (see below ) which says we should also be doing "same as " property and linking this to ALL of our citations such as google plus page , yelp , bing places, city search etc etc as this will help with citations. I am wondering if anyone has done this ? - And if so , has this helped with local rankings etc - I don't really want to invest the extra costs to get this done if I can't find anywhere that says its made a difference - The article from whitespark - says - "when you create new citations for your business (or for your client’s), it’s a waiting game hoping that Google and the other search engines will find your new citations quickly and make the connection between those listings, the business, and the website. The “sameAs” property can help make that process much quicker _and _easier. Schema.org explains that the “sameAs” property is used along with the “URL of a reference Web page that unambiguously indicates the item's [or business’] identity.” By using the “sameAs” property in your NAP schema markup, you can tell search engines that the business you’ve marked up is the same one found at a certain citation URL Of course, Google+ isn’t the only important citation source. There’s also Bing Places, Facebook, Yelp, Citysearch and a few others. The nice thing about many schema.org properties is that you can use them multiple times in your markup." I am wondering what peoples thoughts were and whether they has implemented this and if so , did it help ? thanks Pete | [sameAs](http://schema.org/sameAs) | URL | URL of a reference Web page that unambiguously indicates the item's identity. E.g. the URL of the item's Wikipedia page, Freebase page, or official website. |
Local Listings | | PeteC121 -
Local citations from business directories in other countries
Hi all, I normally work for clients in my home county (The Netherlands) and with local citation building I focus on Dutch websites or well know .com websites in the Netherlands. My rule of thumb kinda was, if it’s not known in the Netherlands it isn’t worth getting mentioned there. Since The Netherlands are pretty small and I think Google ain’t perfect I was wondering if it makes sense to list a Dutch business on any .com business listings that are internationally big, but aren’t well known in the Netherlands. Two reasons that got me thinking this direction: A big well known Dutch company offers a service such as Moz local and did integrate their service with several international business listing websites that I never heard off, since these business directories focus themselves on other parts of the world. Google ain’t perfect and I think they got more budget to identify trustworthy business directories with an international focus or a focus on America then with a focus on The Netherlands. So I’m wondering if it makes any sense to list a Dutch business on let’s say the top 20 international business directories (although these directories don’t have any brand recognition in The Netherlands).
Local Listings | | Bob_van_Biezen0