Yext and the $400 price tag to edit NAP

[SwitchBack]

Hello Group.

I am a small business guy who is always learning, searching, exploring the web.

Naturally, we have all bumped into Yext and a list of all these small directories that list your NAP.

In my case? When i try to edit this info on YP dot com or Yext, I always get redirected to sign up for a membership, then naturally, here comes the catch. Please provide your credit card so we can bill you for $59 a month for 12 months, etc etc.
My business is older and we used Dex YP to originally advertise and of course we used a mail address for billing. I divorced, the house was sold, the need for yellow pages was over because that investment was silly because phone books became obsolete. Im not sure how the information became so widespread. Maybe i signed up for something else online and that was published? That was a lifetime ago.....

Getting that information changed?? that is where i get upset

My personal opinion?
A monthly subscription with a yearly fee adding up to $400+ to simply edit your details?
That is a RANSOM demand. nothing less than white collar EXTORTION.

I dont have the time or resources to campaign a higher govt power for legislation.... but I do feel there should be a global law that allows an individual or business to edit their own details without the need to pay a high ransom.

Just my thoughts.......

Switchback


btw..... has anyone found a workaround to fix this stuff without paying the ransom?

 

[Tim Colling]

The Whitespark local search ecosystem diagram may help you decide what to do, whether or not to buy into yext, etc. See it here: https://whitespark.ca/local-search-ecosystem/

As for me and my clients, we decided a long time ago to forego yext and instead to go with citation audit and cleanup services, including citation aggregator submission services, from BrightLocal and/or Whitespark. I believe that a lot of others here have reached the same conclusion. Your mileage may vary, though.

Good luck!

 

[hajnasiewicz]

Agreed, I work for a large US business (not an agency) and Yext is out of our budgetary reach given the number of locations we have. I just do the best I can to affect consistency across all other citation sources where I can and so far so good. This approach for 15 years...

 

[Monica Simpson]

If Yext worked, I'd say heck yes, go for it. However, many of our clients that have used Yext have wrong info here there and everywhere. Plus, they analyze what you type in, for example, if you type in the name exactly as you wish it to appear online, they are going to lower your 'correct percentage' for a site where the punctuation is slightly different (business, LLC versus business LLC for example.)

It takes about 8 hour to audit a business and fix online profiles. I do this for our company but the way to start out is this:

1. Decide definitively what you want your NAP to be (Name, address, phone number). This needs to be consistent across all profiles.
2. Claim and verify ownership of your Google My Business Account using a gmail GMB is the big one to change.
3. Claim and verify other accounts you have access to (Facebook, Yelp, TripAdvisor, etc.)
4. Do an incognito Google search for your company. This will show you how you appear in other directories online and most have a way to contact and correct.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

 

[Phil Rozek]

@SwitchBack, Yext can be helpful for BIG, many-location organizations, but I wouldn't recommend it for any other kind of business. Besides the obvious problem of "renting" your listings, the big issue is that you have to do a certain amount of manual work anyway, because Yext doesn't reach all the sites that matter (particularly industry-specific sites). How much manual work you need to do always is a question of degree.

Also, my rule of thumb is that if a non-industry-specific, general local directory has become pay-to-play, it's not consequential anymore. So if the only way onto a given site is through Yext, I would skip that site.

 

[Tim Colling]

Also, my rule of thumb is that if a non-industry-specific, general local directory has become pay-to-play, it's not consequential anymore. So if the only way onto a given site is through Yext, I would skip that site.

Well said, @Phil Rozek !

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Yext is not worth it for the small business owner. As Phil said, it starts to make more sense for people at a certain threshold, maybe 50 locations. However, the thought of an ongoing payment every year to keep your listings is less than enticing. I still think manual is the way to go there, no matter the number of locations.

As many others have suggested, there are a lot of solutions out there that will take care of this for you. Some are a hybrid of DIY/done for you and then there are some solutions that are truly "done for you". I know of at least one. But as you can imagine, cost varies based on which service you choose. You certainly don't have to pay Yext to get this done and would encourage you not to.