If you’re a serious real estate investor who’s looking for deals in the 21st century, you probably have a website up and running. We bet your website is there primarily to capture leads for your business...
The trouble is that if nobody sees your website, it doesn’t matter how good the website is.
If you use your website the right way, the benefits and opportunities are huge.
Generating leads is one of the first steps to closing a lot of deals. And the good news is, generating leads with the use of your website is one of the best ways to find hundreds – if not thousands – of leads without exerting much effort.
How can these potential prospects find you when you’re not visible? Or when you rank on the 5th page of Google search?
Especially for the local area that you specialize in…
There are tools that can help you rank higher in search engine websites. One of these tools is Yext.
Yes to Yext
Yext is software that ‘puts businesses on the map.’ They list local businesses on various local search directories (LSD) like:
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Bing Local
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Yahoo Business
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CitySearch
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Yelp
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Superpages
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And many others
When you go to the website, you can enter your business NAP (Name, Address and Phone Number) to receive a free scan of how your business shows up on 40-50 local search websites.
Are you thinking, ‘So what?!’ People search on Google 95% of the time...
That’s true. And that’s also the beauty of Yext. Not only will you capture potential leads that search the less well-known websites. You will also make Google happy.
Google looks at those other websites when they determine their rankings.
Say you just put your business listing on ‘Google My Business,’ or one or two local sites. Google thinks your business may not be a serious establishment. If you’re not serious, Google thinks their users may not be that interested. So Google penalizes you in their rankings...
Listing your business across all those websites will help your ranking in Google a ton.
Listing your business on each of these websites by yourself takes time. A LOT of time.
Some of the websites will also ask you to verify your listing by sending you verification codes – often through the snail mail. It can be a long, laborious process. In the meantime, your competition is gobbling up your leads.
Yext automates the process.
Once you sign up for Yext, you just enter your business information once on the Yext website. Then Yext lists it on all the other search engine websites automatically, saving you a ton of time and hassle.
How Much Does It Cost?
All these promises come at a price from $199 up to $999 per year.
You could say that the major flaw of Yext is its price, but if you’re willing to shell out cash, then be our guest.
But if the price is an issue for you, you might want to reconsider and do it yourself. If you create all the listings yourself, you might want to complete the free scan with Yext, print out the list and tick them off as you list your business with each site.
Remember that it is important to list your business the same way on every site to help with Google.
If you do the free Yext scan, expect a sales call from Yext to sign you up for the paid version. You can, of course, respectfully decline the service.
We also found similar services such as Moz Local and Synup, which have lower prices. But they may not have the same reach that Yext does.
Yext gives you 4 different plans to choose from. Although they show you the monthly rate:
Here’s What You Get
If you’ve never heard of WhereTo? or showmelocal.com, chances are there won’t be a ton of traffic coming from those sites. Bing, Yahoo or Facebook are much more popular and could potentially increase your leads significantly.
Here’s a little bit of what Yext can do for you:
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Instant submission and 55 instant live listings
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A dashboard to make name, address, phone or other changes in your business
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The changes you make will instantly update the listings
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Erase bad or wrong information across the internet
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They will let you enhance the listings by adding pictures, specials and the like
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Review monitoring
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Local listing analytics
Here are more details of the features:
Location Cloud Platform
This platform offers integration and control of the data. Without having to switch screens, you get to fill in up to 50 fields of information, such as addresses, phones, holiday hours, product or menu lists, location-specific offers, etc.
The information will be consistently populated onto Facebook, Yelp, Bing, Google and other websites. This ensures that your potential prospect will only get accurate and updated data.
Listing Tools
The listing tool of Yext is integrated with a least 138 publishers in its network called PowerListings. So, your potential prospects will find information about your company scattered across the world wide web such as Foursquare and even to the Slovakian edition of YellowPages.com if need be (let us know how the real estate market is doing in Slovakia – we’re dying to know!).
You can also claim ownership over listings, handle issues like synchronization and duplicate issues and schedule updates for special offers at your convenience. Yext makes it easier for your business to market on platforms and services your target demographic is on and to ensure the information circulating in various listings are verified.
Local Pages
The Local Pages tool Yext offers is an all-time favorite since it propels businesses to rank higher in local search results.
This tool lets you design a customizable location page for each business along with built-in SEO, store locators that have a customizable search filter and category pages that ensure your website gets the most traffic. It also helps you create store directories and pages with multiple languages.
Review Tool
Through this tool, your website will become more visible through Yext’s review management, generation and monitoring system.
It makes it easier for you to gather authentic reviews on your website or location pages where your potential customers are more likely to see them.
Talk to Me
Tell us about your experience with Yext or similar software.
Download Yext’s latest tool in the App Store or Google Play. The company is fond of making tools that will aid in growing your business.
Conduct a free scan of your business on Yext – It’s a quick way to see how your business shows across the web and lets you know if the information is accurate.
Check out other alternatives to Yext - If you feel like you need the services Yext offers but are not willing to spend so much, you can check out these Yext alternatives.