Why I’m partnering with Yext

I recently decided to become a Yext partner to better help my clients who have brick-and-mortar locations. Yext is the most efficient and most effective way to manage local listings across the web.

If you’re a client of mine I’ll provide this service for you at cost (what Yext charges me), per location. If you’re not a client- maybe you should become one.

You don’t have to be in Charlotte, with me, to benefit from my Yext partnership. In fact, most of my clients are based in other cities- all over the U.S.

Local listings are an easy win for many businesses

When I say “local listing” I’m referring to a website that features your business’ location. Usually this provides your address and phone number. Sometimes this includes some photos or even a link to your website. Yext helps manage local listings on several different websites.

If you have a locally-focused business , local listings are an important part of an SEO campaign. This is not only because many people are looking for your location in Google. Sometimes it can be easier to show-up for a Google search in a local listing than a competitive keyword.

Some local listings provide links– which are still an important part of Google’s algorithm. Not every link contributes to Google’s algorithm but some of these will help.

Even if you’re not engaged in an SEO campaign, local listings are valuable. This is because they present your business on a website with which people are looking for you. Not all searches are on Google. People use Facebook as a search engine. People turn to Yelp to find a nearby business. Your car’s GPS is even a search engine. Heck, even your iPhone is a search engine- just ask Siri. If you want to be found in these “alternative” search engines, Yext can help.

Scalable and efficient way to manage local listings

When it comes to SEO, you need consistency. Google doesn’t serve up every business listing it finds. It only serves a few. Which does it choose? It’s got it’s own algorithm to decide which ones. Most experts agree that one of the most important factors in Google’s decision is the consistency of the citations. In other words: the more websites that say your business is at that location, the more confident Google is in your listing. Google considers more than just the address- it’s also looking for your phone number, too. It’s important that all this information is consistent across as many credible websites as possible. Yext helps make sure your address and phone number is consistent, so Google will trust your listing and serve your business.

Beyond SEO, users need consistent local listings, too. Have you ever tried to contact a business you found online only to find out that the website gave you the wrong number? Worse: have you driven somewhere only to find the business moved? Keep your listings up to date- so this doesn’t happen to your customers!

What would customers find, if they looked for you?

Use this Listing Report to see what customers might find, if they looked for you.

For a while I tried to manually update every listing I could find. Quickly I realized this was pretty futile. Perhaps you feel that way after using the listing tool, above. You could do this manually. It will take a lot of time and effort. You might not be able to get every citation, perfectly, but you can get close. There are other services you can use to help, too.

The reason I went with Yext is because it’s the most efficient way to do this. Hour-by-hour and dollar-for-dollar it was the best option I could find.