Start-Up Watch COD: Yext Local delivers “Power Listings” for local businesses across the web

Different gets noticed. We all know that. If everyone else is in a white shirt and a repp tie, you’ll stand out in blue. And when a consumer is confronted with dozens of options for the same service, little differences between your listing and the others can dramatically boost your conversion rates.

Yext is a business built squarely on this truism. The idea behind Yext is to make a local business listings stand out by adding additional pieces of information so that consumers notice one listing over others and are more likely to convert. Using Yext, the business owner can manage multiple listing presences from a single venue, and even monitor their online reputation across social media with email text alerts.

Some of the added value services Yext offers in its Power Listings offering include:

• Placement of your listing across directory sites
• Opportunity to review/edit basic information in your listing like address and phone number
• A “Verified” designation indicating that the contact information has been reviewed for accuracy
• A special offer statement enabling the business to make a promotional statement
• Opportunity to add additional information and content to a listing like a url, photos, and hours.
• Optimization of a listing for mobile search
• Tracking and reporting that indicates how many times your business appeared in search results and was clicked on

Since there are a variety of online listing services online that deliver information to consumers about small business, Yext works with many of the leading platforms, giving small businesses the opportunity to stand out more on some or all of these sites. Specifically, Yext can enhance a listing on:

• Yelp
• Yahoo!
• Citysearch
• MapQuest
• Superpages
• Yellowbook
• WhitePages
• Local.com
• YellowBot

While the particulars of the listings enhancements vary somewhat based upon the particulars of each platform and agreement, in each case the opportunity to enhance the listing is quite clear and vivid.

Because Yext is a cross platform solution, it offers a solid set of advantages for small businesses looking to drive more clicks and converts. First, you can manage your enhanced listings across sites from a single location. Second, the service charges a set monthly fee, so you don’t end up paying for clicks you might have gotten organically. Third, the pricing for Yext is significantly below the cost of manually purchasing enhancements on each platform. Finally, the service offers additional added value products like reputation monitoring that can help small business owners spend less time on online execution and more delivering great products and services.