#yextgate

[Meier]

It's been three months since my agency has assigned to me the task of completing citations for our clients.

Some of them have Yext powerlistings and some don’t.

So I am going and looking at all the citations my clients don’t have, and without bright local that is pretty time consuming. You really have to know what you are looking for.

It got me curious, I went into my Yext and I wanted to know what exactly does yext give me with these power listings that I cannot get myself, and which of these directories do I really need?

Of course they do some good ones like Mojopages and Citysearch (are people even using those anymore? I sure as hell haven’t even seen someone use either of those).

But over half of those power listings is stuff like this:

https://www.yellowpagesgoesgreen.org

http://www.yellowmoxie.com/

What the heck are these stupid sites and why the heck would I ever pay them for a listing?

My point is I need to figure the perfect citation build out process for onboarding new clients and I want every reason to convince my company to leave Yext.

Why do we even need these crappy directories? Even directories like hotfrog and citysearch, what quality are they providing?

I know a lot of your are going to say, “Well your competition has it and you need it to rank in Gmaps.”

But I would rather put my time into getting reviews on the top Ten directories where people actually go!

So when we onboard a client. Maybe it should look like this.

1. Top 25 directories

2. Location specific directories

3. All Web 2.0’s (I can get a fiverr guy to do it for 40 bucks).

4. Boom done with citations now let’s get back to making some good content!

What do you guys think?

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Meier!

No hard sell here but have you checked out Moz Local for active location data management? The main concern you're surfacing - that your clients are investing quite a bit of money and getting listed on directories you don't really consider to be of great value - is a common one. Moz Local pushes to far fewer partners than a competitor like Yext, but they are all really core platforms. Here's a list:

Acxiom, Bing, Best of the Web, Citygrid, Foursquare, Factual, Hotfrog, Infogroup, Localeze and Superpages

We've also made recent announcement about new partnerships with NavAds (to manage Apple Maps) and with Yelp, as well as adding a Google Sync feature which enables you to manage your Google My Business listings from the Moz Local dashboard. So, you might want to check this out as an alternative to your clients' current provider.

Basically, what most of the top Local SEOs recommend these days in terms of citation building is that you hit the majors, which is easiest with an automated service, and then you manually build a few more additional citations on the highly specialized platforms that rank well for your client's industry or geography. For example, if your client is a general contractor in San Diego, there may be either trade association sites or San Diego sites that are very popular and where you want to get the client listed. This process of automated management of the majors + manual management of geo/industry-specific platforms is typically a good recipe for citation health.

I like the way you are thinking ... trying to get rid of clutter and hone your Local Search Marketing down to what clients really need. You might really enjoy this recent Streetfight Mag article in which Local SEO gurus Mike Blumenthal and David Mihm discuss exactly this same topic: http://streetfightmag.com/2016/12/12/building-the-essential-digital-marketing-bundle-for-local-businesses/

[DonnaDuncan]

I also agree with your recommended approach.

I use Moz to easily and affordably acquire a well-rounded base of worthwhile citations that includes data aggregators and supplement with (as you and Miriam suggest) hand-picked industry and geographically relevant additions.

I don't use Yext because it is more expensive and doesn't feed all the data aggregators. If speed was a concern - if it was important to have the citations built as quickly as possible - or the business wanted to update it's information frequently, then I might reconsider.

Have you seen the Moz local search ecosystem visual? It helps convey the difference between the reach of the two tools.

[julie-getonthemap]

What happens to your Yext listings when you quit being a paid subscriber?

[MiriamEllis]

Hey Julie, Happy New Year!

Coincidentally, Nyagoslav Zhekov just did a truly comprehensive study on this a few weeks ago: https://whitespark.ca/blog/what-happens-when-you-cancel-yext/

Well worth reading. He's one smart fellow!

[julie-getonthemap]

Thanks Miriam!