Yext Duplicate Listing Suppression Service

[russofford]

I have used Yext's duplicate suppression for several clients now and the actual suppression works great. The listings are redirected as stated and in some cases the old listing just 404s.

Complaints:

The duplicate detection system was somewhat time consuming, as I had to go to 'Suppress Duplicates' interface for each venue in the dashboard one by one in order to force a check for duplicates in the past, but I think they are working on improving their automated checking so one doesn't have to go venue by venue.

Where 2 of 3 NAP factors do not match, you have to provide some sort of 'proof' to the dupe suppression team that duplicate listings actually do belong to your client, which is a great pain. I understand that they need to do so to prevent fraudulent listing closure by competitors, but I just wish it was easier to explain or provide the proof, for us honest folk. I know for a fact that the Yext team is open to suggestions on this issue.

- - -

Regarding whether Google (or any search engine) can still 'see' the duplicate listing, would be best answered by talking about Google's index and webpage cache.

I would say, in general, that if human can see the listing, then search engine, technically can... though there are some 'safeguards' in place... such as 'nofollow' and 'noindex' that can suggest to a search engine to not include that that page in their index.

If a the duplicate listings are suppressed (redirected to a proper listing, show a 404 not found error, or redirect to a business category search type page) then the search engine will eventually catch on that the old page should be un-indexed and the content 'can' be removed from their cache.

However, if Google does not KNOW that the listing changed, they have no reason to update their index. A good way to get a new listing indexed... and an old listing un-indexed would be to use the Google Webmaster Tools 'Submit URL' function and 'Remove URL' function.

If an old/suppressed listing 404s... that is the easiest/fastest way to get Google to remove a page from their index via their 'remove URL' function! As far as 301s go... well... If you submit the old and the new URL to be re-crawled (via the 'submit URL' function)... then Google would crawl both and could eventually catch on to the fact that the 301 redirected URL should be un-indexed in favor of the proper listing URL to which it points.

URL Removals: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/removals
URL Submits: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/submit-url

Here is a more detailed blog post that I wrote about the URL removal process and another blog I wrote in response to the concept of duplicate listing best practices for IYP venues. Both talk about the webmaster tools 'submit' and 'remove' features mentioned above.

Russ Offord
Orion Group LLC
www.orionweb.net

 

[wardchristianj]

Russ,

Thanks for the feedback. I am glad that the actual suppression (which is the hardest part and most important part) is working very well for you. In regards to your complaints section, I'd say those points are great feedback for us to work on from a product or tool perspective and I?m always glad to hear constructive ideas.

On the automatic detection process requests: we will continue to improve this to make it more streamlined. I know we are working on a periodic review scan that will run in the background and let you know what we find. This should help keep our partners updated with newly found duplicates. The emails that are sent to you after setting up a new account (that has duplicate suppression enabled) was another feature we just recently launched. That email is designed to point out potential duplicates we found, and it then links you into the suppression workflow stream.

On the question or the "problem of pain" associated with a business where substantial amounts of the NAP data has changed, I appreciate that it?s an arduous process sometimes. As you mention, we are constantly working with our partner publishers directly on these issues, because, truthfully, it?s not a one-size-fits-all sort of situation. We will continue to improve, but there is a very important reason for us to be careful with duplicate suppression.

Because Yext has built the direct integrations to our network publishers for duplicate suppression, there is a responsibility to provide this service carefully. Many services that state they provide duplicate suppression are doing nothing more than sending an email or a file to publishers requesting a change or removal, which is something anyone can do right now. Furthermore, these services have no direct relationship to the publishers to warrant priority. In many cases, those requests from these services will never end up suppressing anything because of that lack of prioritization level. Anyone who has tried to suppress listings directly with publishers knows how frustrating and disappointing it can be. Realistically, the publishers and other database providers can?t (or won?t) check into all of these random requests.

If our service were just another one of these solutions, I could see why we could accept anyone?s requests to suppress with little to no proof and trust that its all in order; realistically, I wouldn?t be doing anything but bundling up emails or the occasional list and sending it off with the hope that something changes. In other words: if I were selling toy workbench playsets, I really don?t need to make sure everyone is wearing their proper safety goggles.

With Yext, our integrations and ability to remove duplicates is a big responsibility -- specifically because it works. There will always be debates on how much security and safety equipment is appropriate for a proper tool; we will continue to work with every partner to find that right balance.

Thanks.

 

[Tim Colling]

This may be a dumb question, but I'll ask it anyway: is this duplicate suppression feature included in the basic Yext service, or is it an extra-cost add-on service?

 

[AarthiD]

Hi @tcolling,

It is a separate subscription type. If you'd like to know more, I'd be more than happy to connect you to one of my colleagues!

 

[JacobMaslow]

Most of their network will allow them to suppress via a 301 redirect.

Very curious on how well it actually works. Are you sure the rep said these dupes get deleted? The term suppression (as in the name of the feature), does not insinuate that the dupe will be deleted.

If I suppress something stinky by putting something nice and shiny on top, I still have something stinky lurking below. Now Google, she has a very sensitive sense of smell. Wouldn't want her to catch a whiff.