Yext Powerlistings Worth The Price? Review, Competitors, & Alternatives
Every small business wants to get ranked at the top of Google Local SEO. Yext claims to”put your business on the map.”
Yext is a service provider that has partnerships with local and national directories. They make it easy for you to get listed, with a fee, of course.
This is a guide to help you understand more about Yext, how it works, and if it is the best option for your small business.
If you are new in the field of digital marketing or a business owner working on SEO, it is critical for you to understand how Yext works.
Listings in top local directories like Yelp, Yellowpages, Thumbtack, and Foursquare are a ranking factor.
So is Yext Worth It? Read my detailed review, including pricing, alternatives, and what happens when you cancel with Yext.
What Is Yext?
Yext is a service that helps to list your business on different local directories including the likes of Yelp, Superpages, Citysearch, and others.
Yext started off as a local advertising agency in 2006. However, today, it has reached annual revenue of $124 million!
You no longer need to list your business on local directories manually.
Yext coordinates and lists information instantly across various internet databases and social media platforms.
It is widely used by a variety of companies to share information and create brand awareness.
They have managed to build an extensive network of websites and directories which are integrated into the Yext Knowledge Engine.
Can Yext Powerlistings Help Grow My Local Business?
Yext can assist in improving your Google ranking, which is extremely important for every business owner.
You probably think that the majority of customers will find you in local search directories such as Superpages or Citysearch. Well, you could be right.
However, what about users who do not know about you? Most of them will just go straight to Google instead.
Yext will list your local business automatically on each local search directory, which then drives your local business rankings on Google, the king of all local search directories.
Yext places the control of your companies vital information back in your hands.
You can update, edit, manage, customize, and sync your data across all Yext products, including:
- Business Name, Phone Number, and Address.
- Business Categories.
- Hours of operation, holiday hours, videos and photos, services and products, staff info, calendars, and menus.
- Content in any address or language format.
- In-store coupons and other wallet content.
- Location labels, folders and advanced filtering and search.
- Bulk site and editing templates that make it simple to insert new locations.
- Fundamental roles and permissions to ensure staff maintains the proper levels of access.
What are local business citations and do they matter?
Citations are one of the primary Local SEO ranking factors.
A citation is related to information about your business including name, location/address, phone number, hours, and categories.
They are the equivalent of “digital mentions.” Any time that your company is mentioned online with your NAP, your business has been “cited.”
The information may include is the name of the business, the address of the company, the phone number, postal or zip code, and the website address. These pieces of information can be listed in any order.
These data points must be accurate across platforms. It is more important that they are consistent.
Major platforms include:
- Acxiom
- Angie’s List
- Apple Maps
- Bing
- Factual
- Foursquare
- Google My Business
- Local.com
- Mapquest
- Superpages
- Yahoo Local
- YP
- Yelp
It is essential to understand the different types of citations.
Structured citations
A structured citation includes business directories. These directories are usually easy ways to submit your information and get an extra mention of your business online. You can find structured citations on MapQuest, Yellow Pages, Yelp, Superpages, and Facebook.
Unstructured citations
An unstructured citation still includes your name, address, and phone number. However, the information is not listed on directory sites, but another type of site.
These are mentions that come from blogs, content marketing, on websites, and social media.
Citation Consistency or NAP
The three most important pieces of information for a company to place in a citation include the company name, the company address and the company phone number. When they are placed together, the name (N), address (A) and the phone (P) are known as the company’s NAP.
Companies are advised to make sure their NAP is consistent everywhere online. If a business is listed in GMB and Bing they should both contain the same abbreviations, spellings, phone number, etc.
If they are inaccurate, customers are potentially misdirected by inconsistent or incorrect information, and Google begins to rank your site as unreliable.
How Does Yext Work?
We have talked about what Yext is, but not how Yext works; so let’s take a more in-depth look.
Yext helps you in two ways.
Firstly, by automating the deployment of your business listing on various local directories. This assists users in finding consistent information such as name, location, and contact number when they search for you on Google.
SEO benefits, citation consistency is a top ranking factor.
All you need to do is provide the data once. When Yext has all your companies information, it distributes the information throughout its network, known as the Yext Knowledge Engine. Your listing will usually show up within hours with no approval or phone verification required, except for Google and Bing.
At any point in time, a user can quickly update data from one central dashboard.
What is Yext’s Pricing?
As attractive a service as Yext sounds, there are drawbacks; namely, steep recurring pricing plans.
So let’s run through each of these plans and see what Yext has to offer at each level:
- Emerging: $199.00 annually with listings on Elocal, MerchantCircle, and thirty various non-premium web sites only.
- Essential: $449.00 annually with listings on Yelp, Facebook, Google, and various leading directories only.
- Professional: $499.00 annually with listing on all Yext directories plus analytics
- Premium: $999.00 annually including professional plan plus Yext web site widgets and review monitoring.
Yext Review and Benefits
There is no doubt that Yext enhances the online presence of your local business.
Let’s have a more in-depth look at the specific benefits that Yext offers:
Instant Real Time Submission
As soon as you sign up, information from your profile is submitted to different directories instantly.
Easy Operation
Yext is very simple to manage, even for people with a non-technical background. It has a simple to understand dashboard which contains all the information about you and your business.
Immediate Changes Reflected
Every time you make a change on Yext, it gets updated instantly. This ensures that your viewers are always checking out the recent data.
Review Monitoring
Online reputation management is integrated into Yext.
It fetches all your reviews from a range of local directories, social media platforms, and others, and displays them on your dashboard. There are regular updates or notifications about new reviews so that you are always informed and can manage your reviews accordingly.
Analytics and Reporting
Yext does not stop at merely collecting and displaying your information on the online platforms. It gives you updates and provides you with local listing analytics to ensure that you have a good idea of how a particular business listing is performing.
Potential Improved Local Search Engine Rankings
Yext lists your business on a range of high authority local and national directories. It can help you in improving your search engine rankings as part of an overall SEO strategy.
Additional Information
Yext includes extra information on many listings, such as items that will increase your visibility. This could include special offers, promotions, pictures, and videos.
With all of these factors combined, Yext can be a useful platform.
FAQ Yext powerlistings?
Yext claims to create your business listings on more than 100 leading apps, directories, maps and search engines.
This is all with the help of Yext’s powerlisting network.
How long does it take for a listing to go live?
It might take your listing a day, a week, or a month to get live. Most go live within the first few weeks.
Can I get the same business listings without Yext?
Yes, you can. But it would take time.
Are the listings provided by Yext correct?
There is no guarantee that all the listings provided by Yext are 100% correct.
There is no phone call verification, and the listings might not be filled out completely. Furthermore, Yext has occasional issues merging or removing duplicate listings as well.
Will 55+ local listings boost my search results?
Not exactly. A website with good domain authority and fewer listings would perform better than a site with lower domain authority and more listings.
It depends on your website and many other variables.
The bottom line here is that Yext listings are one part of the process for Local SEO.
Potential Problems When Using Yext
While Yext has its advantages, it has its share of drawbacks as well.
Expensive Recurring Cost
Yext is a costly platform for a small and medium scale local business. $500-$1000 yearly recurring fees add up.
So, yes, if we are considering the price, this is quite a significant consideration.
Duplicate Citations
When a new citation is published online, Yext writes over the previous one but fails to delete the earlier version. As a result of this, sometimes there will be duplicate citations created.
When it comes to search engines like Google, duplicate citations can cause issues and confusion.
What Happens if you Cancel Yext and Stop Paying?
According to the Yext cancellation policy, all the listings are rolled-back to their original state.
This may lead to the loss of the updated information.
All the updated information will disappear, and your users will be left with backdated data when your agreement with Yext lapses.
Think of it as renting your information management.
This might be a problem for local businesses unless they are looking to go for a long-term business relationship with Yext.
What are the alternatives? Lets Compare Yext To…
When you about to spend a lot of money on business listings and citations, it is smart to shop the possible alternatives.
So, what are our options beyond Yext? Are there better or more affordable alternatives?
DIY – Do It Yourself
Yup, you read that header right. Do it yourself.
Although it can be a time-consuming process, it is worth the effort if you are on a tight budget. But if you have money to spend, Yext or one its alternatives I discuss below is undoubtedly the best option.
To DIY local SEO, you need to visit the individual directories that Yext is associated with and get your business listed and verified.
Yes, you get all these listings for free while Yext would have cost $500-$1000!
Moz Local
Moz started as an SEO consulting company in 2004 and now helps local businesses with citation consistently with Moz Local.
They offer two packages, an all in one website SEO package, and a business listings package. Moz provides both for 30 day free trials so you can find out if Moz works for you.
It offers weekly web crawls, keyword tools to help your marketing efforts, on page optimization, and competitive analysis to help keep you on top of your competition.
It can be slow to update with listings taking as long as three months to show, there’s no white label SEO reporting option for agencies.
Network:
Moz submits listings to all major networks including those from the most prominent search providers, Infogroup, Acxiom, Localeze, and Factual. These groups feed into some of the biggest names on the internet including both Bing and Google, Twitter and Facebook, and Apple and Google Maps.
Pricing:
All packages start with a 30-day free trial. Moz Pro has four package tiers charged per month
$99 – Standard: Basic SEO and internet marketing tools, and citations
$149 – Medium: Plenty of limits plus full access to the keyword tool and the most popular starting package
$249 – Large: For businesses who are serious about their search rankings and ready to move to the next step
$599 – Premium: The most comprehensive package with keywords, massive crawl budget, and unlimited user seats.
Moz Local has three tiers charged per year and per location
$99 – Essential: Includes data management, duplication closure, and accuracy checking
$149- Professional: All essential features plus local SEO and listing alerts, plus success management
$249 – Premium: Includes Moz Pro, plus all essential and professional features, API integration and dedicated support.
Cancellation Policy:
You cannot email or call to cancel your policy for security reasons. You must log in from your dashboard and select cancel. Once this happens, it is not reversible, and all listings are removed from your dashboard.
You will not be refunded partial credits during a billing cycle. Data may revert if you allow the subscription to lapse or switch to another provider.
BrightLocal
Another Yext alternative option is BrightLocal.
BrightLocal was founded in 2009 as a search agency. When faced with the difficulty of scaling the business, they realized the need for better SEO products and built those products for themselves. They now serve over 45,000 customers worldwide.
They offer some of the lowest pricing for manual and aggregator listings. You can submit and manage Google My Business directly, and the interface is simple to use with little learning curve.
The downside is that they don’t guarantee that all live listings will be accepted, only 70%. Also, listings can take up to three months to go live.
Network:
Brightlocal has a vast network with a hybrid system of direct submissions and aggregators or automated distribution via local aggregators. Customers can choose which method they prefer, and the terms are flexible.
BrightLocal submits to all four major data aggregators, Factual, Infogroup, Localeze, and Acxiom.
Pricing:
Pricing is based on manual submissions or data aggregator submissions.
Manual submissions are $2-$3 per listing.
Aggregator submissions are $55 per year.
Cancellation Policy:
When you cancel your account with BrightLocal, manual submissions are unaffected since they are direct to site. However, information submitted through a data aggregator may revert to the original information once the account is inactive.
Synup
Synup is an Indian based company founded in 2014. They work exclusively with US-based businesses and offer local search reporting and local listing. Their primary focus is on local listings. They provide instant updates on more than 42 sites, but you can purchase up to 150 more sites.
They offer white label reporting options and submit to Google My Business. They provide ranking tools and reports, and reputation monitoring options.
A downside to Synup is that some of their reporting agencies aren’t very high profile. Although the numbers are high, not every entry is a quality one. They don’t guarantee update success, and they don’t offer integration with Google My Business.
Network:
Synup reports to an extensive network of listings including 42 guaranteed to go live instantly. Though that number seems comprehensive, not all of their listings are high quality, and you must pay for up to 150 other companies not included in the original count.
Pricing:
They offer two packages, and you must sign a 12-month agreement.
$30 – $360 12 month agreement
$20 – 1000+ locations
Cancellation Policy:
Synup customers may cancel at any time but will not receive a refund for any payments already made unless there’s a previous agreement on a case by case basis.
Whitespark
Whitespark is a software and citation services provider based in Canada.
They have a full software suite that includes Reputation Builder, Local Rank Tracker, and Local Citation Finder. They partner with third parties to offer custom local citation results.They offer custom citation cleanup with no recurring fees. Their services are highly customizable in fact, with business able to choose the number of submissions and sites used, as well as using both aggregators and direct to site citations.
Whitespark doesn’t integrate with social media platforms or to GMB. Because they frequently partner with third parties which can make some relationships complicated.
Network:
They offer mostly direct to site submissions, but they do also submit to all four aggregator sites, Factual, Acxiom, Localeze, and Infogroup. They work with a third party, OptiLocal, to create customized local listing submissions as well.
Pricing:
Pricing for Whitespark is simple.
$4-$5 for individual listings
$14-$18 for citation cleanup services
Cancellation Policy:
There are no recurring fees to use Whitespark, so there’s no decision to cancel. They do not offer refunds except under extraordinary circumstances outlined in their terms of service.
Because they are a direct-to-site publisher, all citations remain intact should you choose to discontinue your service.s.
MY REVIEW OF YEXT, IS IT WORTH THE MONEY?
All that said, Yext has a range of features that make it convenient, but it also has its share of drawbacks.
It is best suited for multilocation businesses who need to manage and push information across many platforms.
In my view, it comes down to time and money. Yext listings appear quickly, which will save you time and effort. But once you are with them as a client, you are “stuck.”
Adopting a DIY route or hiring an SEO professional would be a more logical and legitimate option.
What are your views on Yext?
Is it worth all the hype, especially with the price? Are you already using it?
Do share your experiences with yeat with us in the comments.
