Google My Business and Yext Unite!

Managing your company’s digital listings just got a whole lot easier! Recently Yext, the leader in global location data management, announced that Google My Business would be added to their PowerListings Network. This means partners (such as Ferocious Media) now have the ability to sync a business’s verified Google My Business page with the Yext Location Management Platform. This integration has been long awaited, as it allows users to make real time business listings updates to Google Search, Maps, Ads and Google+ with the click of a button!

This new integration offers a few exciting new opportunities for businesses:

• Update information more rapidly. Let’s say your business is caught amidst a weather catastrophe or hit with an unexpected circumstance that requires early closing. Perhaps you’ve just decided to give your employees the day off for an impromptu holiday. With the new integration, you now have the ability to make changes to your business’s hours across all Google My Business listings with ease.
• Maintain more control over your listings. As it stands, Google offers searchers the ability to suggest updates to a listing as they see fit. As you can imagine, often times these requested updates are not always the most accurate. Now, listings managers will be able to keep tabs on the data that Google receives about their locations, providing them the ability to ensure the information is always consistent and up-to-date.

But wait, that’s not all! More recently, further updates have been released to the all new Google My Business API, giving Yext partners even more control of their location data.

Location Attributes: Users will now have the ability to impart more personalized information about their business across the web — such as noting special products or services they can provide. This serves to provide customers with more nuanced search results. Local Attributes will be displayed in the form of keywords across all Google My Business listings products and are only available by using the Google My Business API. Currently, users cannot take advantage of these updates directly from their Google My Business dashboard.

Photo & Review Options: The API update has given users the ability to change their Google+ cover and profile photo through the dashboard, and to choose which photo shows up in search results. This gives businesses a better opportunity to make a lasting first impression on search engines. Along those lines, the new update also makes responding to customer reviews even easier by populating all reviews in the API for a more convenient management solution.

Location Organization: For franchise owners and businesses with multiple locations, this is a big win! Now owners can organize their locations into different business accounts using the API, giving appropriate access to franchisees and local representatives to manage locations as they see fit. Listings managers can also match unverified locations with Google Maps to help speed up the verification process as well.

If you need help managing your digital listings, contact Ferocious Media today to speak with us about our Local Listings Management offerings.