Is Yext / Yahoo Localworks messing up my local ranking?

mqs1000 · Aug 16, 2013

I paid for Yahoo Localworks which is partnered with Yext to fix all my citations and get them consistent. Today I noticed that the link to my website on all of my listings isn't a direct link to my website. It is a Yext URL that redirects to my website (in order for Yext to track how many times people click on it)

Here's an example of what the URL looks like. I changed some numbers/letters around for privacy reasons so the link doesn't work.

<a href="http://pl.yext.com/plclick?pid=wudm23szep&ids=1123143&continue=http%3 a2fwww.mywebsite.com&target=website" target="_blank" class="org url" onClick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackPageview', '/outgoing/pl.yext.com/plclick?pid=wudmds2zep&ids=111344743&continue=http %3a%2f%2fwww.mywebsite.com&target=website']);">website</a><br>

So my question is, is the "juice" from these citations going to my website? Or does this URL that they added mess it up?

Colan Nielsen · Aug 16, 2013

I can't answer your question with 100% certainty, but some great stuff has been written around the subject of Yext and what they do, don't do...etc.

Here are a couple threads to get you started on some research if you are interested:

http://localsearchforum.catalystema...ations/9231-canceling-yext-powerlistings.html

http://localsearchforum.catalystema...-manual-citation-building-yext-nyagoslav.html

http://localsearchforum.catalystema...u-cancel-yext-powerlistings-what-happens.html

Tons of great info within those threads and beyond. I'm sure the answer to your question is contained somewhere in there.

mqs1000 · Aug 17, 2013

Thank you, I will take a look at those threads

Linda Buquet · Aug 17, 2013

mqs1000 said:
So my question is, is the "juice" from these citations going to my website? Or does this URL that they added mess it up?

There is no really such a thing as "citation juice" that passes to your website. Citations do not work that way. There is "link juice" and that URL format could interfere with that.

But a citation is just any mention of your business NAP, could be plain text. Has nothing to do with links.

So as long as your NAP is listed on those pages your citation juice is in good shape.

Nyagoslav · Aug 18, 2013

mqs1000 said:
I paid for Yahoo Localworks which is partnered with Yext to fix all my citations and get them consistent. Today I noticed that the link to my website on all of my listings isn't a direct link to my website. It is a Yext URL that redirects to my website (in order for Yext to track how many times people click on it)

Here's an example of what the URL looks like. I changed some numbers/letters around for privacy reasons so the link doesn't work.

http://pl.yext.com/plclick?pid=wudm23szep&ids=1123143&continue=http%3 a2fwww.mywebsite.com&target=website" target="_blank" class="org url" onClick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackPageview', '/outgoing/pl.yext.com/plclick?pid=wudmds2zep&ids=111344743&continue=http %3a%2f%2fwww.mywebsite.com&target=website']);">website

So my question is, is the "juice" from these citations going to my website? Or does this URL that they added mess it up?

First, note that this service doesn't really cover all the citation sources on the web. As Linda mentioned a citation could be any online "document" that could positively be associated with a business, and this includes business listings, simple mentions of business name, or even videos, pictures or PDF documents uploaded and available publicly online. Yext's network consists of ~45 platforms and these are the only ones they cover with their service. So you might want to double-check if there are more citations that would need to be looked at.

Regarding the link value obtained by the profiles created by Yext - I am positive it is 0. Or at least for your website it is 0, as the redirect passes through a Yext property and not directly through your own company website. I mention these and other things in the article below:

What Actually Happens When One Cancels Yext | Local Search Blog by NGS

Stefano Romero · Aug 19, 2013

Hey everyone,

Spoke to my Yext rep today, he mentioned that they are going to be removing the pl. redirect and it could be as soon as this week, but they will not be removing it from Yahoo listings.

Was told that since it's going to be an internal system change there wont be an "opt in/opt out" option.

Has anyone heard anything on this?

themistocles · Aug 19, 2013

Stefano Romero said:
Hey everyone,

Spoke to my Yext rep today, he mentioned that they are going to be removing the pl. redirect and it could be as soon as this week, but they will not be removing it from Yahoo listings.

Was told that since it's going to be an internal system change there wont be an "opt in/opt out" option.

Has anyone heard anything on this?

I wanted to confirm that Yext has in fact made a change to the way that we fix your website url across our network.

We initially rolled out the redirect url to support a feature that would allow our users to track the number of website clicks they get from their PowerListings. However, we heard some of the local search world having concerns about the impact this would have on SEO-link back to a customer’s website. We are always looking to make our product better and appreciate the feedback, and as a result, last week we made change to no longer use the redirect urls.

Going forward for all new customers and any existing customers who made an update to their location data since this change, we will be pushing out your actual website url across our network. This fix will be immediate and automatic. There will of course still be cases where a publisher has implemented a nofollow tag or redirect on their end, and there’s nothing we can do about that. So from this point on(following any update you make to an existing listing or on all new listings),you should not see Yext adding their own click wrapper on your website addressany more.<o

></o

>

Linda Buquet · Aug 19, 2013

Thanks for joining to let us know about the change, themistocles.

It's great to have a Yext rep posting to ensure we have the correct info.

(For anyone wondering since there is no signature or anything, I confirmed that themistocles' registration email is a Yext email address.)

mqs1000 · Aug 19, 2013

Just want to confirm that they did indeed fix the URL on all of my pages.

Is Yext / Yahoo Localworks messing up my local ranking?

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