It appears that you can – once again – update your Yahoo Local listing for free, without having to sign up for Yext PowerListings.
Yahoo completely turned over listings-management duties to Yext last year. Over the course of several years, Yahoo had gone from a viable (if second-fiddle) local search engine, to a broken one, to one that no longer even tried to offer correct or new results. You’d only pay to correct your Yahoo listing if your NAP OCD caused you to lie awake at night, bug-eyed and sweating into your pillow.
But now there’s a workaround!
Because it’s near-impossible to find, clearly it’s there by design, rather than as a loophole that’s just asking to be glued shut. Kenny Hodges of Scott Snyder Dump Truck Service emailed me this fresh intel, and explained how to do it:
Phil –
Due to what is most likely a lawsuit in the works, Yext has now added the option for us to just fix our Yahoo listings for free.
This is interesting information that came about from a sales call from Yext.
My uncle received a sales call from Yext and he proceeded to berate them about the fact that they were ‘holding his business listings hostage’. After 15 mins on the phone with the sales person, he was told that there IS a way to fix his business listings for free. Although he was not given any specific information about how to do it, he thought he would try again for the 30th time. Upon going through the process, he found that it had changed. Lots of information now needs to be filled out prior to seeing your scan with the new format.
Now when you finally get to the pricing schedule, you will find a new link, which is
the solution to the Yext stranglehold on Yahoo business listings. You DO need to make a Yext PowerListings account, AND verify that account through email, and agree to the terms. Yext PowerListings claims that even though it’s a free account, you will be in full control of your claimed Yahoo Business page. Prior to claiming your business you will need to find the proper Yahoo business categories through another source as there is no dropdown or multiple choice or suggestions.Here are the basic steps to get to the “fix it for free” button:
1. Search local.yahoo.com for your business.
2. Hover your mouse over your business on the left. The results on the right are what you’re looking for.
3. Click on “verify your listing,” right under the name of your business, where it asks “is this your business?”
4. Yahoo/Yext PowerListings will open, where it will send you to a “free business listing scan.”
5. What you need to do is go through the entire process as if your are purchasing one of their plans. At the end, after you have entered all your information, just under the “packages” in very small print, it will offer a “just fix Yahoo for free” link.
That is how we were able to fix our listing on Yahoo for free, without paying Yext.
Kenny
It sure is buried. After you fill out Yext’s form – as though you’re signing up – you’ll see the link if you scroll down and squint:
(Here’s that URL: https://www.yext.com/pl/yahoo-claims/free-claim-checkout.html)
Then you’ll see this screen:
Now just “check out.” At this point, you should be done for the moment, and your edits should be under review by some combination of Yahoo / Yext people. I don’t yet know how long those take to process.
You’ll immediately get an email from Yext, but it doesn’t appear to require any action on your part if you only want to fix Yahoo.
Nyagoslav tells me that Yahoo requires phone-verification before your edits go live. I’m guessing there’s a second email that prompts you to verify, but I haven’t confirmed that yet.
Anyway, this is a good development. I just wish the link wasn’t so buried.
Have you tried the free-fix on your Yahoo listing yet? Run into any issues?
Leave a comment!
Thanks for sharing Phil. We’ll start trying this out today and see what success we get.
I’m 95% sure that get edits live will be as painful or more painful than ever. I’m guessing that this step is handled by Yahoo not Yext (no commercial value to Yext so why would they) and Yahoo’s customer support was terrible when they ran ‘local’ in house, so now they outsource it i’m sure they’ve reduce their team size even further.
We’ll loop back with results that we get from this process.
Great point, Myles.
I look forward to hearing Team BL’s findings.
Thanks Phil! Like Myles, we will try this out and circle back with any updates.
Sounds good, Colan! Looking forward to it.
Thanks Phil.
This has come up a couple times at the forum and luckily both Christian and Raj are very active in answering questions there.
Raj, the Yext Community Manager has explained the process to get free Yahoo listings (with screenshots) at least twice, maybe more. He even offers his direct email in every post for anyone that has questions. So this is not something they are trying to keep quiet, although it is a little difficult to find unless someone shows you how.
So when any type of issue comes up, feel free to search the forum and often you’ll find we’ve already discussed the problem and discovered solutions.
Here one of the threads where Raj explains how to do it in (Post #7) and what data you can add and how long it takes. Then in the next post CCbackus explains what happens with the Yahoo verification process.
Yahoo! Local Listings – Aabaco – Yext – Anyone solve the mystery?
Hope those extra details help.
Thanks, Linda. My gripe is that it should be immediately clear to any business owner (1) whether the listing can be fixed for free and (2) how to do it. But at least this is a start.
Finally, right?
Be prepared for follow up sales calls from Yext representatives to the location. If you’re an agency, you may want to forewarn your client.
I’ve not been able to get the verification steps to work with the phone.
I’m sure you’re not alone, Colleen.
Wow, nice catch. I was thinking Yahoo! Local died – https://searchengineland.com/the-yahoo-directory-is-finally-absolutely-dead-236663. However, I have taken a look and can see that my clients’ Yahoo! Local listings are still alive.
I’m willing to give this a try. How are they with removing duplicates?
Good question, Austin. I doubt Yahoo’s improved at removing duplicates. There sure doesn’t seem to be a feature specifically for marking listings as duplicates, nor a general “get help” form.
Thanks Phil: Great intel. Also thanks for commenting on that Linda.
Really great write up and so interesting in the earlier commentary about a possible lawsuit. What a heck of an insight.
All is great insight. Now I’ll have to work (trudge) through the efforts to see how this turns out. But excellent intel. 6 star rating (on a scale of 1-5)
Thanks, Dave.
Thanks Phil for this great info. This has been making us crazy for a while now.
Glad I could help!
YAY! Ernie & Bert! Frankly, I’m more excited about that than Yahoo, but the article is good, too. You may have to revise that former comment about the 80s hair band now, Phil. But maybe not.
You’re right, Miriam: now I might revise that comment to say that Yahoo is more like KISS, on their 14th “Farewell” tour or 37th “Reunion” tour.
Is there a chance that there are similar workarounds for other “Yext only” listings? If not, why do you think there is one for Yahoo? Just curious…
Even in its diminished state, Yahoo’s still more prominent than most other local directories (it’s not really a local search engine anymore). The problem is simply more glaring for your typical business than it would be on, say, a Whitepages.
I did notice a similar workaround on MapQuest. There doesn’t seem to be one for InsiderPages or for Whitepages. Haven’t checked the other sites in Yext’s network.
Thanks Phil .. that is a great find! I had a client enquire about fixing their incorrect data on yahoo local only yesterday so will pass on your article.
Glad it helped, Paul.
Worked perfectly for me. Thanks!
I guess this only works for the US as I am in Spain.
How is the process different in Spain? Just curious.
Here is link that you can use to claim your “FREE” Yahoo/Yext listing as on January 2016:
https://www.yext.com/pl/yahoo-claims/free-claim-checkout.html
Clay, you’re a life saver! I’ve been searching all over for this page, and it was driving me nuts.
It’s been over 30 days and still haven’t recieved the second email for phone verification. Sent raj an email will update when he responds.
None of the edits have gone live yet.
I recently claimed a Yahoo listing via Yext and did a phone verification. Once the phone number got verified, here is what Yext said:
“Congratulations! You have successfully verified your location.
“What’s next?
Your information will be sent to Yahoo within 48 hours.
“Yahoo will process your request within 2 weeks.”
They also said:
“Yext will deliver your information to Yahoo, but we do not have control over whether or not Yahoo will accept and publish this information. To guarantee your listing information is up to date and locked from being edited by outside sources, upgrade to Yext”
We received the same message from Yext and our revised/updated listing (we had a dr retire) was active almost immediately. I will keep an eye on it!
Mine finally got updated, it could have been a result of Acxiom, ExpressUpdate, Localeze or Factual (the data aggregators) or from emailing raj or it just takes a long time. I submitted Jan 14 and changes went live Mar 23 (could of been a little sooner but not by much).
Here’s a good place to start fixing all your listings
https://www.reengageconsulting.com/be-where-your-customers-are-with-local-business-listings/
Thank you! Most customers prefer manual directory submissions as opposed to these automated ‘fixes’ by Yext. Evidently Aabaco has jumped in the game as well (to make $ keeping directory listings updated) We appreciate you sharing your findings.
This doesn’t work. That link doesn’t exist. The link says “Fix Your Listings on Individual Sites” and then charges $150 a year to update Yahoo.
Did you fill out the form on the page I linked to, and can you provide a screenshot of what you’re describing?
Yes, 4 times from 4 different places, and none of them worked for me…tried from the Yahoo link 3 times as well.
https://www.awesomescreenshot.com/image/1199679/fae7be4185d026f6285b2053706ff921
Thanks. What do you see after you click that link? (As I recall, the whole process feels like a purchase, but you don’t actually have to pay.)
Hi Phil, when I click it, it goes to a page to choose which specific websites you want rather than all of them, and when you select Yahoo, it charges $150 to the shopping cart.
Hi Phil,
I see the free link: https://www.yext.com/pl/yahoo-claims/free-claim-checkout.html.
Also, I checked the listings we updated for Beglin Orthodontics via your suggestion about 45 days ago and they are looking good!
Thanks for the intel, Emily.
Great article – it’s extremely frustrating trying to find the ‘free’ option to change your listing. Have you noticed any way to get rid of a duplicate listing? I have a situation where an old ‘yellow pages’ tracking number spawned an extra listing with a bad phone & address. I’ve since claimed the bad listing but see no options to remove it.
If there is a lawsuit let me know, my business listing is wrong and of course now that I went through the steps to correct it salesman are calling me daily to try to get me to pay for it to be corrected. Extremely frustrated.
I have tried for several weeks now. The Verification never comes.
I contacted yahoo-support@yext.com, but gave me the run around. They claim this works but I wasn’t able to make it work. I just need to change the address for my business.
Any suggestions?
What Can we really do? Where do we complain? It is unfortunate for all small businesses which cannot afford Yext prices. If anyone can find a phone # or email for Yahoo Local, please let me know.
thanks,
Olympia
I just verified our business and the process went smoothly. However, it doesn’t have anywhere to update the hours, which are showing incorrectly on our Yahoo local listings. Also, where do we log in to make updates down the road should this actually go through and take effect? Thanks for the great info!
I was truing to fix the address, which is wrong but that update did not work. I tried several times.
Yext sent me an e-mail with how to log in in the future. Go to http://www.yext.com/users/login
My e-mail worked as my username. I had to do forgot password and create a new one.
The FREE work around does not let you change your hours. I’ve gone back and forth with Yext to to avail. Anyone have a way to correct hours without being charged?
I really would like to know the same. Our company is listed as open on Monday only when we are 24/7/365, I tried all the work arounds but nothing had worked as of yet. I just get phone calls from Yext trying to hard sell a package and I have even asked them to take our listing down as it does more harm than good and they refuse stating they just can not go in and do that. Hoping for a solution.
Thank you Phil for sharing.
Can anyone say, is it actually worthwhile to submit your business using the free listing form or is that just a lead so they can call you and sell you the listing service ?
https://www.yext.com/pl/yahoo-claims/free-claim-checkout.html.
My husband’s business (orthodontic practice) did the free form and it worked fine. They may have phoned or emailed trying to sell the powerlistings service, but that’s not unreasonable for them to do so in my opinion. It wasn’t any hard sell if they did phone or email, because I cannot even remember if they did. Good luck!
You could tell the client that they’ll be getting calls from Yext, that these should be considered spam in their minds, and that they should ask to be taken off Yext’s phone list.
This did work however there I have yet to find a way to edit our business hours. In the listing we are only listed as open on Mondays when in fact we are 24/7/365. If anybody knows how to fix that without purchasing a package as I have already paid a seo company to push our site but we can not fix this and I have already had 25 conversations with the yext csr’s in NYC and I am done with them trying to hard sell me when all we need done is an edit of biz hours…
This doesn’t seem to work for us guys from the UK as it only offers the american style zip code. Anyone know of a work around for this?
Hamza
Thank you so very much for this post – disgusting that YEXT demands business owners to pay up to fix outdating business listings!
I will try the work around and comment on any bugs I find.
Be Well
Best Regards
This was so incredibly helpful. I was really frustrated when I was going through the process of fixing my company’s information, which has been the same for an extremely long time, and got to the part about having to pay — PAY for information to just be correct. The listing reported an address and phone number for my business that was actually for a church a couple of streets away. Ridiculous. Thank you!
Were you able to edit your business hours? We can not find a way to do this and the yelp/yext reps have not been very nice to us.
I had a listing on yahoo local….the reviews of my practice were there…..probably 35 reviews over the years. The testimonials link on my website directed interested clients to those reviews. All of these reviews are gone!!! I just noticed this a few days ago. How can I get those reviews back??
I wanted to update this comment. I got through to a yahoo phone number. Some guy, that I could barely understand, told me it would cost $300 to get my listing back! When I asked him who he was, he hung up on me. Nightmare
Thank you SO MUCH for the article/post. I have been furious that I have to pay just to list my business. I’m still angry that I can’t list it on whitepages. You are awesome to share this with us! I just submitted my business and immediately got an email to confirm my account. I confirmed it by having them call my phone and putting in the verification code.
If you get listed and verified on expressupdate.com, ExpressUpdate will eventually send a data feed to WhitePages, which will get your business listed on whitepages.com. I think it takes about 1-2 months post-ExpressUpdate-verification, maybe more, for WhitePages to receive this data feed from ExpressUpdate.
Just did it. Thank you so much for the info. The only issue I am now facing is that I work from home and my home address is what is showing up. I am trying to reach them to fix it. I am not sure what else to do at this point. They won’t allow a PO Box. 🙁
Hi Phil. I did a complete YouTube video walkthrough of the process back in December 2015 … here’s the URL … https://localmarketinginstitute.com/yahoo-free-business-listing/
We’ve had a lot of discussion about this both on our YouTube channel and the website, but the process does still work. Hope this is helpful and thanks for the great work that you do!
Good video, Eric.
Thank you so much for this information! Knowing that I had to complete my update as though I was going to pay was the key!!! I moved my business in August and I have also felt that my business info was being held hostage. I feel as though they have made the updating so difficult so that business owners will just give up and pay Yext to fix the listings, for which they are charging up to $999 per year! I have been working on updating the 52 online listings for two weeks now, and while I am not even close to being done, I am making progress. Some of the listings are easier to update than others. Yahoo is one of the more difficult listings – the update seems to go well until I click the box that says check your email for account verification – I’m still waiting for their email that never comes!
I dont need to fix a listing, I need to remove a duplicate, anyone know how I can? Yahoo has us still at an old location and I have a listing for the new location. Crazy thing is Yahoo gives priority to the old one so many customers (we are an event venue, this is so bad for us!) are going to our old location! I put our business name in yelp and it brings up the one that I want to keep, not the duplicate – help please!
Hey Jenn, last I heard from a Yext rep (like a month ago), Yahoo no longer removes duplicates. But the Yext rep told me that Yahoo listing providers are ExpressUpdate, Neustar Localeze, and YellowPages (although the listing I was trying to remove I’m positive was coming from Acxiom). If you cleanup your client’s data on those sites, you can only hope that the Yahoo duplicate get removed somehow. If you would like to try asking Yext or Yahoo support to remove the listings, here are some support options:
yahoo-support@yext.com
local-listings@cc.yahoo-inc.com
listings-support@yahoo-inc.com
support@yext.com
https://twitter.com/YahooCare
https://yahoohelpcommunity.tumblr.com/ask
Thanks Austin, I will add Factual to the list of data providers, I found a duplicate for the business in question there and the process was fairly painless, they have options to check for duplicates, moved business, etc. I’m going to check into the others too.
After tweeting about my problems, the Yext VP of Community asked me to email him but in the end he was of no help at all, and isn’t even responding anymore. As a web designer, I can’t stand it when these big companies bully around and prey on small business owners, it makes me sick.
Thanks Phil, for this very helpful tip! I managed to go through the whole process but did not receive an email from them. Hopefully I’ll either get an email, or they’ll just fix it. Here’s to hoping…
Not working for UK business for example. Any ideas how to add business with UK address?
Just wanted to share an update, it would seem as though after my persistent harassing of Yext on their social media accounts has paid off. This is what I did to get access to my ‘free’ dashboard so I can fix my listing:
1 – tweeted yahoo and Yext and complained that I didnt want to be forced to use Yext to correct my info
2 – received a response form Yext and an email address to their VP of Community (his twitter handle is @rajnijjer )
3 – emailed him and got a lackluster ‘how to claim’ response
4 – used private browsing to claim my yahoo via the link above (for some reason it wasn’t letting me do it otherwise, i suspect a cookie or cache issue)
5 – waited 24 hours, no email ever came so I went to facebook and slayed Yext on there using facebook reviews (I really am not that kind of person but this is just ridiculous), I also emailed the VP again and never received a response from him. I also tweeted again.
6 – today (3 days into this) I finally received an email giving me access to correct the listing.
I’m not sure if it was due to me constantly staying on their back, or if it was a wait time, but I can tell you this, there was a time when I was going to become a Yext partner and my dashboard was ready within an hour. I eventually cancelled it because I didn’t feel it was the best option for my clients.
Now to try to verify the listing so I can correct it.
Hope this helps you guys!
Wow, Jenn! Thanks for sharing. I’ve also learned that persistence and trying multiple support options leads to success with other difficult citation sites, too.
Hi Jenn!
Just saw this and glad you found Phil’s blog, it’s awesome! I checked with our support team and looks like they responded to your outreach. I believe you classified this as “3 – emailed him and got a lackluster ‘how to claim’ response”. How can we improve the lackluster response? I believe the specific instructions and contact info for parties was delineated. Regardless, feel free to email me and I am happy to help to the best of our abilities.
Best,
Raj
Raj,
How can we report/delete duplicate listings on Yahoo Local? That question has come up a lot in this thread and there still isn’t an answer.
Thanks!
Justin,
Good question and glad you asked. This is best handled directly by Yahoo listings support. You can try to reach out to them at listings-support@yahoo-inc.com for specific issues. This is the best support email for support.
Hope this helps!
Raj
Hello! I have a Yahoo listing that is displaying the wrong website URL for a business I manage. I tried the steps above, but cannot even get an email to confirm my Aabaco account. I tried calling and they were no help! Any suggestions?
I believe this is the URL you need to claim the Yahoo listing – https://www.yext.com/pl/yahoo-claims/free-claim-checkout.html
You don’t need to create an Aabaco account.
Awesome – that worked! Thanks for your help.
No problem, Antonella!
Still no luck with getting my listing corrected! I have contacted yext, yahoo, and their affiliates. I have also emailed listings-support@yahoo-inc.com and raj@yext.com and never heard back. If anyone can shed some light on what to do now, it would be greatly appreciated!
Here are all the emails I have listed in my notes:
local-listings@cc.yahoo-inc.com
yahoo-support@yext.com
raj@yext.com
listings-support@yahoo-inc.com
I remember contacting one of the Yahoo emails, while cc’ing Raj, and getting a Yahoo listing updated. Maybe you you could send a reminder email?
Hey there – I’ve been following this thread, trying to correct and cleanup our business listing…one problem is that we moved a year ago and Yahoo still has the old address – do you know if following that free listing claims will allow me to edit the address? (I already started the process once a few weeks ago before I found this thread and was called multiple times by a Yext person even though I told them we weren’t interested!) Any ideas? Thanks!!
Last time I checked, this URL works – https://www.yext.com/pl/yahoo-claims/free-claim-checkout.html. And we have written confirmation from Antonella (above) that it worked for her 2 days ago. Once you verify the listing, you’ll get a message from Yext saying something like, “There is no guarantee that Yahoo will accept the updates you submitted.”
i tried reclaiming my yahoo local business listing with that “claim for Free”, i got the verification, claimed that, then got a phone call from Yext saying i had to pay $999 and that if I went ahead and paid now I can get a discount to $499 for a year. I said “no thank you”, i have to find a way around this.
Sheila,
Please email me at raj@yext.com and will get you the basic listing steps.
Thanks,
Raj
Raj Nijjer – I too am having Yahoo / YEXT issues. I claimed my free Yahoo listing through the YEXT page and got everything setup the way that I wanted it to show when someone looked for my business on Yahoo. One of the things that I had to fill out on the form was an address for my business. Understandably so if you want customers to find you. Only I do not have an actual business location that customers come to ( I go to them to conduct business ). Since the form required an address, I put in my home address and checked the box that indicated that the address would not show to the public. A couple of days after I submitted the form, my listing showed up on Yahoo and guess what?…… My home address is visible. The second issue that I have is that Yahoo also has a second listing for my business at another location in town (Where we use to be located, but have since moved out) I would like to get that address/ listing removed. Are you able to help, shed some light on how I can go about fixing all of this without YEXT getting into my pockets?
Hi Rob,
Your best bet (outside of Yext) is to email Yahoo at listings-support@yahoo-inc.com. Please know there is no guarantee and I wanted to share the email at the least.
Hope this helps and if there is anything else, you can always email me at Raj@yext.com.
Best,
Raj
Hi Raj,
I sent an email to the Yahoo address that you sent. I checked my listing on Yahoo a couple of days ago and part of the issues have been resolved. There is still an issue with the map above our listing. I have sent another email to Yahoo, hoping that I am not pushing my luck too much by requesting that the map be fixed also. I will keep you posted on the progress.
Thank you, Raj. This was very helpful.
I hope they decide to change their structuring. They get plenty of money through advertising, why make business owners pay?
Thanks for your help! I have been trying to figure this out for a while.
I filled out all the information and gone through the steps you describe. It seems to work until I click the “Place Order” button where it tells me ” The email address c……@…….com is already in use”.
Well no sh@t! It’s my e-mail address. I’m trying to update my info! What now?
Thanks for any suggestions…
Larry
Larry
Plz email me at Raj@yext.com and I think I can help!
Raj
While you are able to bypass paying for your updated Yahoo Business Listing, you cannot finalized and publish the information without succumbing to Yext’s Big Brother Privacy Policy.
https://www.yext.com/privacy-policy/
Thank you for this info! we submitted our info to the “free package” and verified that it was us. We’ll see if it ever updates.
Thanks for posting this. I did everything you mentioned, and I got a sentence in red saying it would update when I verified, and I would receive an email for verification. OR I could buy a package to update now!!
Still waiting for the email.
Yext does not have access to correct all Yahoo info, just found out. It can be fixed by the 3rd party who supplies the data. Yext gave me the steps to find that on the page with incorrect info. Once you ahve the 3rd party name contact them and they will remove. Does take at least 30 days it will only be updated once a month at Yahoo.
Just did mine so we will see in 30 days it is has actually disappeared.
see steps blow
I was able to check who is providing the information on your Yahoo listing using these steps below:
Step 1: Inspect the page by pressing “F12”
Step 2: Do a find search by pressing at the same time Ctrl+F
Step 3: Search for “Providers”, and the provider’s name will appear
Hope this is helpful
I’m having major issues with my local.yahoo.com listing as well (mainly incorrect phone # that I can’t seem to fix). I went thru your steps…when I search for ‘Providers’, did not see Provider’s name? Where did you find that?
1. Go to the listing
2. Press F12
3. CTRL + F “provide”
4. It might say “Some business information provided by”
5. Scroll down an inch and it will tell you which aggregator sends data feeds to that listing.
I paid for two months of Manta. They use Yext technology. The incorrect listings were suppressed, but the day I canceled Manta, the listings reappeared. Made me look bad to my manager, since she has a Google Alert set and she received an alert when the listing was republicized, after I had told her that I had cleared up a bunch of listings. 🙁
It sounds like you signed up for Yext via Manta. It’s easy enough to add or fix your free Manta listing.
So Before I go through this for myself and my clients. Does it actually Work?
Does it work for CitySearch and other “Yext Partners”?
Seems to.
Different process for CitySearch et al.
Thank you so much…. Yext has my listing wrong in many places… I have fixed what I can but they are holding me hostage. I have thought of suing them … the are as bad as ransomware viruses.
But you helped me claim Yahoo… Thanks again
This process worked for a while – until they change your information back – which they have done to me. I have been trying to update my company’s business info and I have been saying exactly what Randy said above – these search engines are holding business owners hostage! They want us to pay and they make it impossible for us to update OUR BUSINESS INFORMATION OURSELVES! Now, when updating my business information online through Yext, I get right to the end of the updating process and it says that my business email address is already being used and it will not accept my information – so now it is impossible to even contact them.
Also, whenever I start working on updating my online business information, my phone rings off the hook! Companies start calling me trying to sell me their fix. And these crooks have also said that there is no way I, as the business owner, could ever fix the incorrect info myself. What they are doing is illegal and it needs to be stopped!!!
Our business has the wrong phone number listed. Busiest weekend of the year for us. Apparently, some people still use Yahoo to search. The people who have the number wrongly are mighty PO’ed. So, unless I am willing to send them “documents” proving my business, there is no verification process I can use. The elderly couple who’s phone number has been hi-jacked have been advised to seek legal counsel. There is NO way this can be legal.
URGENT REQUEST: Can I update a business listing without having to claim or go through any process? I am an agency working on behalf of 200+ clients that I need to update. If so, how? It looks like I have to claim in order for that updated info to stick. Thanks!
local-listings [at] cc.yahoo-inc.com
listings-support [at] yahoo-inc.com
yahoo-support [at] yext.com
support [at] yext.com
twitter – @YahooCare
yahoohelpcommunity.tumblr.com/ask
Also, Raj at Yext might be able to give you some pointers.
This posting was very helpful. Our company website listing was incorrect. The link worked to correct the website, but I am concerned after reading the comments that it will be switched back. Question – Is this for local listing only? Does Yahoo have a national listing?
This process did not work for me. Our phone number was listed incorrect, when I got the email verification I had 3 choices I had to either pay to upgrade my package, choose to have an automated phone call (at the wrong number they had listed!) or scan an “official” business document. As I was sitting there thinking what a scam, the phone rang and it was Yext, the rep asked me if I was having problems? I explained the problem, asked if him calling me was verification enough? But, was told that’s not how it worked. I had to pay to upgrade. I gave him a piece of my mind. Unethical & unacceptable.
thanks for the tip. Here is a screen shot showing how Yahoo now has it set up.
https://prnt.sc/kj3by6
Thanks, Andrea!
We did this years ago, and our listings are correct on Yext. However, Yahoo still has the option to “verify your listing” as though we never claimed it, and the information displayed on Yahoo is from YELP; not YEXT. Thinking you’ll fix Yahoo by signing up with Yext is a pipe dream. Their “disclaimer” admits signing up won’t necessarily display your business information and you have no control over it. Even “Raj” above says: “Please know there is no guarantee.” That’s how YEXT gets away with doing what they do. Any other listing website you sign up for and control, the information is immediately changed and verifiable.
Some day there will be a class action, and I’d love to join it. No company should be able to hold a privately-held business’s information hostage. Regardless of how “in” you are with Google, If you don’t pay Yext, other search engines won’t pick you up.
On a side note, be aware Dex (the “original” yellow pages) now submits business listings to Yext. They’re charging businesses ($99/month in our case) for “digital advertising” and as far as I can tell all they do is submit the information to Yext. Another scam.
I hear you, Linda, but I think you’re overestimating the pervasiveness of Yext. It’s not hard to wean off of Yext, and to maintain good or excellent control over your listings. (Especially if your business doesn’t have too many skeletons in the closet, in the form of the DexKnows-type listings of the world.) The big thing to realize is most (or all) of those pay-to-play local directories just don’t matter one pinch to your local rankings and overall visibility. Most of the sites in Yext’s network just don’t matter anymore. That’s one reason that in many cases Yext was able to buy them whole, often for a pretty low price.
Should you, the business owner, have perfect control over your info on each and every local directory? Yes, but the sad fact is those directories ultimately own your listings; you, the business owner, don’t. I hope that’ll change, but I won’t hold my breath. In the meantime, just in practical terms, the pay-to-play / impossible-to-fix listings just don’t matter.
Hi,
The Yext site is different as of 2019. After the initial business listing scan, you are dropped off on a page that seems to require a scheduled demo through another form. Most paths seem to end up here. When you search separately to get to the pricing pages, the “basic listing” link is gone.
Here are the only two easily accessible pricing pages:
Single Locations (PowerListings): https://www.yext.com/pl/powerlistings/plans.html
Enterprise: https://www.yext.com/products/packages/
I had a quick chat with a rep who was able to pass along this information, though. https://www.yext.com/pl/yahoo-listings/free-claim-checkout.html
Interestingly, this page also links to the legacy pricing page:
https://www.yext.com/pl/yahoo-listings/plans.html
I scanned their site and there are no links to these 2 pages. The pages weren’t evident in a quick indexing search either, so perhaps they were removed manually from organic search. There does not appear to any specific blockage of these legacy URLs in either meta tags or the robots file, but they are in essence stand alone landing pages.
Lastly, this listing probably won’t clean-up other rogue listings that can’t be sourced on Yahoo, but we shall see. Kenny would be interested to hear that there is a reference to listings being “held hostage” in the FAQs. https://www.yext.com/support-faq/
Thanks, B. Great intel. Bad development. I suppose Yext just keeps those two pages around (but off the menu) for the times a business owner is really steamed.
Thanks B! I was about to give up when I couldn’t find a working way with the new website. I did this last year and the old links were working.
Thank you, B! So far I’ve been able to make the address change to our business, just as you described above. It was very frustrating that they wanted a substantial payment for a simple address change.
I was not able to find the link talked about in this post now. I also called the support number for Yahoo Small Business and they were not very helpful. Any help from the community would be great!
Quick follow up. The post from “B” on 1/29/2019 was very helpful. That link works still and I was able to get the free subscription to Yext for the business we own. Not sure yet if that will effect Yahoo Small Business as well or not. One thing we were trying to do is respond to a negative review that was posted prior to us purchasing the business. Not sure yet if this will allow us to do this or not.
Also in small print is permission to pester you with robo-calls and other tele-marketing…
The following is at the bottom of the Yahoo Local/Yext Claim Your Listing page,,,
“By clicking “SCAN MY LISTINGS” you provide your signature consenting to Yext or its partners contacting you for marketing purposes via phone call to the number you provided, including by use of automated dialing equipment.”