White pages edit leads to Yext

[iwebresults]

I think I am missing something, wherever I try to edit whitepages listings it redirects me to yext and I can't find a free option to update listing. This has happened on a few other directories too, I don't have the list at hand right now. Any ideas?

 

[Phil Rozek]

Some sites don't have a direct way to edit your listing, except through Yext. Meaning that the only way to get a listing on them is to pay for Yext, or just to wait until they're "fed" your business information by other sites. But the good news is that sites like Whitepages don't really matter. Don't worry about them. Just focus on the listings you can control and you'll be fine.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

But the good news is that sites like Whitepages don't really matter. Don't worry about them. Just focus on the listings you can control and you'll be fine.

Interesting point, Phil. Can you expand on that? What other sites would you so don't matter?

 

[Phil Rozek]

Interesting point, Phil. Can you expand on that? What other sites would you so don't matter?

Two types of sites:

1. The dinky little directories that nobody uses or has heard of (the NetHulks, Wimgos, and Fyples of the world), and

2. The sites that you can only be listed on or fix your listing on through other data-providers/aggregators. I believe WhitePages is fed mostly by LocalEze.

Not saying WhitePages is a worthless citation. But I am saying it's an irrelevant one - because if you're listed OK, great, but if you're not, then that means you have bigger problems, in the form of (say) a bad listing on LocalEze. You might look at your WhitePages listing as being an indicator of whether your citation-building effort is on the right track. But beyond that, I'd say it's a red herring.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Thanks for the great reply Phil.

---------- Post Merged at 08:14 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 08:13 PM ----------

You might look at your WhitePages listing as being an indicator of whether your citation-building effort is on the right track. But beyond that, I'd say it's a red herring.

Love your thinking here!

 

[Phil Rozek]

Thanks, Colan

 

[Ashwin]

I've seen a consistent trend with a lot of sites ditching their typical add / edit listing options to redirect to Yext. This is simply because they don't take their business (of curating local data) very seriously and would much rather just redirect to Yext to make money in the short term.

This is stupid to be honest, because they end up at the mercy of Yext over time and will eventually disappear.

 

[Phil Rozek]

I've seen a consistent trend with a lot of sites ditching their typical add / edit listing options to redirect to Yext. This is simply because they don't take their business (of curating local data) very seriously and would much rather just redirect to Yext to make money in the short term.

This is stupid to be honest, because they end up at the mercy of Yext over time and will eventually disappear.

Well said, Ashwin. Although, on another level, maybe they're smart: they're letting someone pay them to pick their bones clean.

 

[Ashwin]

Whitepages makes money from selling business data, where accuracy is very important. They have two divisions - PRO and Directory. PRO makes the money, and the Directory is just a ghost-house.

Their PRO division makes most money from giving people reverse business phone lookup data. I'm not surprised that they are not taking their directory business very seriously.