![\"\"](\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/cancel-yext2.png\")
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This post is part\u00a01 of a 2-part series:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Citations continue to be the bane of the existence of digital marketing agencies and businesses alike. The heavily manual and time-consuming character of the work have been the main problems people encounter when trying to resolve local citation related issues. Citation inconsistency has been cited as both the most commonly encountered issue affecting local search rankings<\/a>, and a\u00a0foundational element of local SEO<\/a>. This is one of the main reasons why automated solutions have been popular in the industry ever since the era of UBL<\/a>. However, most (if not all) of the automated solutions suffer from a few shortcomings that are difficult to resolve in a non-manual manner. A few examples of when automated solutions don\u2019t do the best job include:<\/p>\n We have observed these problems in countless\u00a0cases\u00a0we’ve worked on, and have found that automated solutions have a difficult time\u00a0identifying and fixing citation problems in these situations. There has been relatively little empirical research published on the differences between manual and automated cleanup solutions<\/a>, so in two separate articles we will publish the results of two case studies we completed\u00a0on one of the most popular automated solutions \u2013 Yext.<\/p>\n This article focuses on what happens when a business cancels their Yext subscription after they have been subscribed to Yext for at least a few months. I completed\u00a0a similar case study about 3 years ago<\/a>, and I felt it was time to follow up and see what\u00a0improvements and changes have since been integrated into the\u00a0automated model. We offer citation services at Whitespark, and so naturally, we are going to be biased in our approach, but we have tried to be as empirical as possible with this case study. Our intention is to analyse the data and simply present the facts of this specific case.<\/p>\n We were working with a chiropractor that had an active Yext subscription, but no longer needed it since we were undertaking a comprehensive manual audit and cleanup project. So, it was the perfect opportunity to do a detailed audit of the business’ citations before cancelling the Yext subscription, and again afterward, so that we could see the before and after, and understand how the listings changed when Yext was cancelled.<\/p>\n Business Name:<\/strong> West Knoxville Chiropractic<\/a> Out of the 60 listings that Yext reported as synced during the active subscription, this is what we saw happen after the Yext subscription expired.<\/p>\n Disappeared Listings after Subscription<\/p>\n \u00a015<\/p>\n Incorrect Listings after Subscription<\/p>\n 21<\/p>\n Still Synced or Manually Claimed Correct Listings<\/p>\n \u00a03<\/p>\n Unsynced and Non-Claimed Correct Listings<\/p>\n 21<\/p>\n #1.<\/strong> There were two listings on Local.com that were Yext synchronized. The two listings were available here<\/a> and here<\/a>. Only one of them (the one that is still live) was included in the report. Based on the fact that the first listing disappeared after the subscription was canceled, and the fact that a \u201cyx\u201d sub-directory is included in the URL, it is safe to say that the listing was created by Yext. This means that Yext created a duplicate listing for an already existing listing they knew about (because it was included in their report) \u2013 something which Yext has previously claimed is untrue<\/a>.<\/p>\n #2.<\/strong>\u00a0A Bing Places listing that was included in the report as a Yext PowerListing featured an incorrect phone number: The URL of the listing from the report is: The URL to the correct listing is: #4.<\/strong> A listing on Tupalo was included in Yext\u2019s report as a Yext PowerListing and had the Yext PowerListings badge on the live listing itself, but it featured incorrect information: #6.<\/strong> Some listings that were not Yext PowerListings listings, but indeed featured accurate business information, had been included in Yext\u2019s report without additional notes For example, a listing on Facebook that had been manually claimed by the business. #8.<\/strong> No URLs were given in Yext\u2019s report for listings or records on the following platforms:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This case study is interesting for another reason, too \u2013 it is for a chiropractic business, which means that Yext\u2019s inability to deal with \u201cpractice-practitioner\u201d listings was observed.<\/p>\n 31 listings for the practitioner at the practice \u2013 Dr Nathan Leavitt, were discovered on the sites within Yext\u2019s network. None of these listings were affected in any way by either the subscription while it was running, or by the cancellation. In other words, they were not associated by Yext with the business in any way.<\/p>\n We want you to be able to verify the results for yourself, so here’s the raw data:<\/p>\n\n
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Case Study Background Details<\/h2>\n
\nAddress:<\/strong> 6311 Kingston Pike #28W, Knoxville, TN 37919
\nPhone:<\/strong> 865-287-5904<\/p>\nCase Study Timeline:<\/h4>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Timeline2.png\")
Stop paying recurring fees for your business listings and perfect your business listings on the most important sites with Whitespark’s Yext Replacement Service<\/strong><\/a>. Say goodbye to your annual subscription, and hello to owning your business listings and get a comprehensive cleanup on the sites that matter most for local SEO.<\/p>\nObservations<\/h2>\n
EVENT<\/span><\/h4>\n
TOTAL NUMBER OF LISTINGS<\/span><\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/listings-after-cancelling2.png\")
At first glance, it looks like the above results are saying that\u00a0that 40% (21+3 out of 60) of the listings stayed correct after the subscription was canceled, 35% (21 listings) reverted back to an incorrect state, and 25% (15 listings) disappeared altogether. However, this is how the situation appears\u00a0on the surface. There are a number of additional considerations to be taken into account when assessing what might have actually happened with the listings:<\/p>\n\n
Additional Observations and\u00a0Considerations<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/WKC-Bing-Listing.png\")
#3.<\/strong> There was a correct, manually claimed Yelp listing available, but Yext didn\u2019t find it and instead included an incorrect listing (that was not corrected during the subscription) in their report.<\/p>\n
\nhttp:\/\/www.yelp.com\/biz\/nathan-e-leavitt-dc-knoxville-2<\/a><\/p>\n
\nhttps:\/\/www.yelp.com\/biz\/west-knoxville-chiropractic-knoxville-2<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/WKC-Tupalo.png\")
#5.<\/strong> A listing<\/a> on ChamberofCommerce that didn\u2019t even exist was included in the Yext report. However, it must be mentioned that a note was added in the report stating that \u201cYour PowerListing is not available on this partner because the partner has reported that you are a paid advertiser with them directly.\u201d A similar thing was observed with a LocalDatabase listing that featured incorrect information, but was included in the report with the same note as the ChamberofCommerce listing.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/WKC-GMB.png\")
#7<\/strong>. A \u201cGoogle My Business\u201d listing and a \u201cWaze\u201d record were reported as \u201cProcessing\u201d in Yext\u2019s report, although it had been months after the subscription had been started when the report was exported.<\/p>\n\n
Practice-Practitioner Business<\/h4>\n
Supporting Data<\/h2>\n
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