Do you have to pay Yext at this point?

[Kurt_Steinbrueck]

Over the past several months it seems more and more local listing sites are now using Yext for their listing information.  Some of these include Local.com, American Towns, Hot Frog, etc.  I'm not even seeing a way to claim listings anymore with these sites without going through Yext.

If Yext has the wrong information, is there any way to correct these listings without paying Yext?  I used to be able to claim listings with the actual listing sites.  It was more labor intensive, but I didn't have to pay Yext $500/year.  I could pay an assistant a lot less and they could do it.  It seems that option is going away.

Do any of you know of another way of correcting listings without using Yext (or at least without paying Yext)?  If not, do you know if Yext has an enterprise solution for SEOs so we don't have to pay the $500 for every client?

Thanks.

Kurt Steinbrueck

[CraigCarmean]

Has anyone tried a class action lawsuit against YEXT or sites like Mapquest?

[seopack.orgdan]

Site With a Yext Powerlisting your business info will be added on WhitePages and other Yext partners such as Yelp, CitySearch, Yahoo!, MapQuest and Superpages.

[seopack.orgdan]

i am agree with this. I blame this on Google.  There's no way a business should have to pay to correct misinformation.  Google should lead the way by eye strain monitor stating that they will not crawl any directory that does not give business owners an option to correct misinformation for free.  Perhaps a few class action lawsuits are in order.

[TCCWebdev]

I blame this on Google.  There's no way a business should have to pay to correct misinformation.  Google should lead the way by stating that they will not crawl any directory that does not give business owners an option to correct misinformation for free.  Perhaps a few class action lawsuits are in order.

[SEMbyotic]

I'm definitely finding that a vast number of directories (CitySearch, Yahoo, InsiderPages, etc.) are all forcing you to Yext to claim and edit listings. Looks like you've got to pay to play on those sites now.

[Duke_Ferris]

And as of now, Yahoo Local listings are now part of the YEXT family. No more free listings or corrections..

[randallwhitted]

Citysearch has now gone to Yext for claiming a listing. IMO, any company with a sales team that calls again and again (Yext, Signpost, Yodle... NOT Moz) isn't in the business of helping you or your clients. They're in the business of making money.

[katandmouse]

Follow up here on how to edit White Pages. I emailed them. There response was:

Option 1:

Add all your listings with Yext: http://www.yext.com/pl/whitepages/index.html

With a Yext Powerlisting your business info will be added on WhitePages and other Yext partners such as Yelp, CitySearch, Yahoo!, MapQuest and Superpages.

Yext features:

• Enhanced photos 
• videos & special offers 
• insights into how many people view or click on your listing
• self-service implementation.

Option 2:

Contact InfoGroup

So there you go. Go through the data aggregators. Moz/Local tool is good for this.

[katandmouse]

Just tried to correct a phone number in a listing in White Pages. Their link to edit goes to a Yext signup and there is no other way to edit the listing at all. If you click on Feedback you'll see an outdated how-to which no longer applies. So apparently, White Pages has gone to the dark side too. I'm really not happy with this Yext takeover because it appears to be trying to force small business owners into an expensive plan they don't need. (It will cost my client 2 x $499 to correct their 2 listings.) I sent Whitepages an email and asked them to either update the listings or take them down. Not sure what will come of it. And I hope Google is reading this because if consistency in NAP is as important as everyone says it is, then I want Google to know that consistency has just gotten that much harder and very expensive.

Kathy

[katandmouse]

Kurt,

Acxiom provides data to Local.com. You can see it in the fineprint at the bottom. And since local.com apparently does not let you update any of their listings directly unless you go through Yext, then my recommendation is get your information correct at Acxiom and hope the data will flow through. As for Hot Frog, I was actually able to claim that one and didn't have a problem at all.

So happy that Moz here came out with their own local search listing tool.  I recommend checking that out.

Kathy

[Ripe]

I just wanted to add that mapquest, a direct map service that is still used by a lot of users just went ALL OUT YEXT with no more free option.

What is to say that hotfrog and many others will not be coerced or tempted to do the same after years of offering free options that the majority of business owners who are smart use?

what if yelp did this? What if yahoo closed off its free listing too? What if Google though oh who are we kidding, it costs too much to run a maps api for google plus and local mess, and just takes a nice sweet, technically proficient offer from yext with a fat negotiated pay rate for something that they did not charge for before at all? This spells death of anything known as LOCAL SEO for SEOs... it means we all have to sign up a reseller account with yext, and just be happy we are allowed to do even that...

I am deeply disturbed by this very manipulative and monopolistic approach to this directory market. At any moment, any of these companies can decide to go this route and pull a mapquest on the consumers and businesses. What should one do in that case other than to sign up as a yext partner and start ripping people off "as the way it is" way of doing business which i generally despise of... cuz it only benefits one entity massively and disproportionately, I mean how is it that for years and years these services were free and suddenly in the last year or so, a lot of them, especially the smaller guys are going premium only. I just don't get it. Did they have a wrong business model at first for so long? or did they get bullied/coerced/manipulated/tempted by Yext to go that route. Because we all know Yext HAS NO competitors in any meaningful way...

SEO market is only going to get more like this it seems... driving up the cost, and pushing smaller people out of the market, including smaller customers and clients. in 5 year time, yext can cost as little as 1500 bucks... I know of businesses who are still using win xp machines they bought 8-10 years ago or even longer for $600-700 range who refuse to change it due to budgetary limits even though it gives them a headache every day and wastes at least half hour of their time in stare-at-the-monitor-while-you-wait-and-grown mode...

Time to introduce some government regulation to this industry if you want my take, because it is about to get really nasty if you allow these giant corporations to push you around like this and extort money like a life requirement...

[vmialik]

Kurt,

I felt that was your main concern, even though you had sub questions there as well.  I guess it comes down to is it worth going the length to get a perfect citation profile across the board or are majority + main citations correct enough for search engines to properly index and add authority to your local presence? Its a tough call, as its not like the citations do not exist, but they exist and with incorrect info are sending wrong info.

Maybe other can chime in, as from my experience there is some grace given when you have significant amount of necessary citations, even though there are few incorrect listings but with this YMMV.

Hope this helps

[Kurt_Steinbrueck]

Thanks Miriam and Vadim,

Thank you for your responses.  My question was a reaction to seeing Yext from being a way to distribute local info to sites, like American Towns and Local.com having their "claim your listing" option take you to Yext.  Maybe I clicked on the wrong link on Hotfrog, but I thought they had gone to the Yext dark side, too.  It's not that these sites are super important.  I like to get as many of the local players to have the correct info as possible.  Just seeing multiple local listing sites moving to Yext seemed like a trend.  I'm now thinking my question was an over-reaction.

Also, thanks for pointing me to David Mihm's post.  I had missed that.

Thanks!

Kurt

[vmialik]

Fully Agree, Miriam!

[MiriamEllis]

My pleasure, Vadim. Nyagoslav has written several interesting articles about Yext over the past couple of years. No one should feel like they have to go through Yext. It's just an option, and most of the Local SEOs I know still consider manual claiming to be the superior route because it gives you the most control.

[vmialik]

Thanks Miriam for mentioning the what happens when cancelling Yext article that  Nyagoslav Zhekov has done really good research for us here, even though Yext states that they do not remove listings after cancellation.

Like Miriam said there are ways of going around Yext, but some have switched over to Yext empire including Local.com, and American Towns. Not sure of your specific industry but these directories are generally not in the top 10 most important listings so some of us choose to go for the main listings manually and add others as needed per industry.

As for enterprise account I was able find info in a $149 a year re-seller account that gives you 5% off for your clients: http://www.yext.com/pl/reseller-scanning/resellers-faq.html

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Kurt,

Yext is an option - not an essential. And Yext, while good for some things, is not without problems of its own (see:http://www.ngsmarketing.com/what-happens-when-canceling-yext/).

I am not quite following your statement that you can't register businesses manually anymore. For example, here is the signup page for HotFrog.com: http://www.hotfrog.com/AddYourBusinessSingle.aspx. Most of the important local business directories are still completely accessible with no Yext account necessary. Perhaps you can provide an example of where/how you are experiencing problems with manual claiming, Kurt.

I recommend you take a look at David Mihm's recent post: http://moz.com/blog/2013-local-search-ecosystems

This will show you how data is shared and should help you feel reassured that Yext is just one of a ton of different players.

I also recommend that you check out GetListed.org to assist you with your manual claiming, for free!