Does anyone use Moz Local + Yext? How valuable is this for local businesses?

[DanielFreedman]

Another problem with Yext is that you are locked in to a very high annual fee.

If you don't renew, Yext threatens to "release" your listing and says you have to manually "reclaim" each one.

Not a good solution and not the most noble of business practices, IMHO.

Now that there are better alternatives, I would use Yext only for big businesses with deep pockets. Its only advantage is its speed. If I had a reputation management client who need to push negative stuff down quickly...I might consider Yext. But that's it.

[DanielFreedman]

Forgot to mention, I have had very good experiences with Whitespark.

The work is carefully and diligently done.

On completion, you get a spreadsheet with logins and passwords.

So you "own" your own listings.

[EricaMcGillivray]

You don't want to use both tools for the same listings as that will cause a headache of its own, no matter which choice you go towards.

[EricaMcGillivray]

In partial Yext defense, as we ran into this with Moz Local, some of the providers we both work with only keep the info updated as long as Yext/Moz/other company tells (pays) them to and then the provider actually reverts it back.

[Travis_Bailey]

How it was sold by Mihm at Local U Dallas was that Yext is pretty much like heroine. When you stop paying, the thrill is gone. And he positioned Moz Local as something different.

The documentation says that listings may go away if we stop paying, not 'will go away'.

So which is it?

[EricaMcGillivray]

With Moz Local, we do not actively do anything to your listings if you stop paying us. There are reports of Yext actively removing data when you stop paying, but since I don't work for them, I'm not comfortable commenting on their practices. Mihm is a far experienced in the local listings space than I am.

Here is what we say in our FAQs for Moz Local:

What happens if I cancel my listings with Moz Local?

Moz Local will simply report to the sites in our network that the listing is no longer under management by one of our customers. In this event, Acxiom and Neustar Localeze will revert your listings to their status prior to your Moz Local subscription. In some cases, your other listings will lose enhanced content like website URL, secondary category information, logos, and other images.

Moz Local will not actively remove your listing from our network of sites. You will always have the ability to reclaim your listings manually on each site if you decide to cancel your Moz Local subscription.

[Travis_Bailey]

What happens if I move listings from one account to another?

[EricaMcGillivray]

This shouldn't be a problem. The only time it would affect things if is you stopped it on one account and then waited weeks, months, or years to start it again on another account, which would interrupt the service.

[ColeLusby]

Thanks Erica!

Sounds like I want to move forward with Moz Local for most of our customers.

Awesome feedback.

[TheChief]

Erica,

You mentioned you do not want to use both tools at the same time.  Doesn't Yext cover sites that Moz Local does not cover?

[dudleycarr]

Managing locations in multiple places can be a headache, but it should be fine to manage the same locations in both Moz Local and Yext. There are some overlaps between our distribution network and Yext's distribution network such as Factual and Foursquare. In those situations, only one of the two services will be able to update the record on that given partner.

[David-Kley]

Just wanted to chime in and add my experience with both providers.

To be clear, Yext is more expensive. It also is a direct feed into more listings. If you are trying to get listings published quickly and need to show results (or reports) to a client, Yext would be a better way to go. As a subscriber, you can also give your clients discounts from the Yext pricing page, which can help add to your overall total commitment from the client. As far as data being removed, the additional data that is added via Yext's api is no longer valid or displayed once you stop paying (they call it no longer a "trusted" listing). I have never had one revert back to a pre listing status. Yext uses one of the many large databases: Factual. Chances are that by submitting to factual the other data aggregators will pick up your listing with time, even if you have not submitted to them.

Moz local is a great resource for companies that have the time to wait. The data aggregators they submit to take time to publish the listing. Acxiom, Nuestar and the others can sometimes make it confusing or even very expensive to list on their data networks. Acxiom is one of the stronger databases, having been known to be a direct feed to Google.

My advice:

If you can afford to wait the 2-3 months to have the listing start to appear, then use Moz. The time period you have to wait is not necessarily the fault of Moz, as even if you submit directly to Acxiom yourself it will take 2-3 months to go live. Ultimately, your listing will appear on the other citation sites, it will just take longer to do so.

If you are looking for an additional source of income and are a great salesman, use Yext. Yext has a much better interface of showing how many listings are incorrect, (even if many of the ones that are listed are from their own proprietary citation sites. ). This makes it an easier sale to your clients, and also easier for you as an agency to get an idea of how bad your clients current citation status really is. Yext will get your listings posted very quickly, and give you a place to link to off of your main domain, giving your clients additional sources of validation very quickly. Some of the sites they submit to are a bit dinky, but hey, a link and validation source is just that. Pricing is higher, but I think its fair considering the speed and extras you get for the money.

AND... the elephant in the room is of course.. do it all yourself! This will offer the most control over all your listings and control over who and what to submit where. You will lose out on some of the other benefits of MOZ (cheaper cost vs your time and long wait) and YEXT (faster speed, lots of directories but higher cost). It's worth noting that some of the YEXT directories that they are partnered with you cannot actually submit to, as they are either created by YEXT or locked so that you have to use their service to submit your listing there.

[David-Kley]

We actually have a project in the works that will put whitespark down a few notches. They offer a great service, and I applaud their attention to detail and service to their clients.

BUT...I can't talk about it yet though. It will be a service and site to behold

As to Yext vs MOZ local, it just depends on what works best for your client's needs. Also, you are only allowed 5 listings with Acxiom before they charge you for each submission (goes off of submission IP address). Just an FYI for those that don't know.

[smpomoryCRH]

Hi Dudley,

I realize I am resurrecting an old post here, but can you give any more information on which of the two services will be able to update a record if using both Yext and MozLocal? Do data brokers favor one over the other or is it more luck of the draw?

[David-Kley]

If both your Yext and Moz listings match, it won't matter, as the citation information will be correct no matter who they prioritize.