Yext Free Scans Good or Scam?

By now many of you have run across an ad for "Yext" , the service that claims it will show you search site you are listed on and what is wrong with the listings for free.  And for a fee, which is at $500 per year now, will fix all of the errors that maybe keeping people from finding you and help your listing stand out.

Now, you go, and you do the free scan and bam - all the listings have something wrong with them.  Ahhh, but do they?

I do all my own listings for my DJ company, 2Wolves DJ Service, have manually posted everyone, from Yelp to Local.com and beyond.  So when this 'free' service tells me all my listings have errors, and they found 139 errors, it caused suspicions to arise.  So I ran the scan again - Now it shows 144 errors.  And one more time for a 140 errors.  Hmm

The main red flag was right at the top.   It stated my listing on Yelp had no photos.  Really now.  I know there are some places they do not allow photos or they charge way to much for the privilege , but I know I was able to add photos to my Yelp listing.  Same with my Merchant Circle account

Even more alarming is when you search "Yext" and Scam together, the pages and pages of articles and complaints about this service.

Feel free to use their "Free Scan" - but I would be wary about signing up for this service.
I simply used the information of the various search sites that they have in their list and added my business myself to the ones I felt were relevant.

Has anyone had dealings with this company - Yext?  Feel free to share your thoughts.

Selling online? K.I.S.S. it for better sales

One of the burning debates that often arises is what to put in a listing. Do you add policies? Should you use templates? What about bullet lists? My advice is K.I.S.S. it. Keep It Simple Stupid.

• Just the facts, Madam

First thing all sellers must remember is Google’s happy spiders feast on the first 250 words of a listing. There you need to be keyword rich. One rule of thumb is to think like a buyer. How would YOU search for this item? Would you type in  ‘Al Hirt Honey In The Horn’ or ‘cool jazz LP by Al Hirt’ ? Yes, Honey In The Horn IS a cool Jazz LP by Al Hirt, but you would not search for it as cool jazz, so skip the ‘nice’, ‘cool’, ‘beautiful’, etc. Exceptions here would be terms like, ‘new’, ‘used’, ‘vintage’, ‘antique’, ‘collectable’, etc. Be sure to stick to the facts Jack, and you will give the spiders a feast they cannot resit.

• Templates - should you use one?

Templates can dress up your listings, and make it easier to list. BUT you must make sure the coding does not interfere with the spiders. They get confused and will not crawl your items or only feed on the coding.

Templates can also ‘overwhelm’ the buyer. They are there to see what you are selling, not to admire your window dressing, so the basic ones are best.

• Bullet Lists - are they needed? When are they needed?

This is a hot issue. Bullet Lists can lure in the spiders, but mainly it is to pull the buyers eyes to the important facts about your item. When used effectively, it can speed up a sale by convincing the buyer this is what they where looking for. But do NOT over do it.

Example:
DAMIEN CRIPPS BAND

TIL NOW
Indie CD-2009

TRACKS:

• Lemon Tree 03:12 
•  Celebrity Slide 02:06 
•  Pictures 03:28 
•  Universe 04:05 
•  Juke box Hit 03:09
• Sophie 02:52
• World is Shakin 03:22 
•  Take Me 03:16

This is a VERY Limited Edition CD. Damien has Hand numbered and Signed only 50 CDs for this special release.
Comes with BONUS Code for free MP3 downloads of all tracks!

Compared to:

DAMIEN CRIPPS BAND

TIL NOW
Indie CD-2009

• VERY Limited Edition CD. 
•  Hand numbered
• Signed
• BONUS!
• Code for free MP3
• downloads of all tracks
• Indie
• Australia
• Pictures
• Sophie
• Universe
• Take Me
• Imported
• New
• Special Release

See the difference? Adding too many bullets and /or 'Odd'  bullets can take away from a listing.

• Policies, IN or out of the listing?

Another touchy subject for sure. Again look at it from the view of the spiders, do NOT have it in the first 250 words. Having policies where Google spiders can find it is like spraying Raid … They are gone.

But from a buyers viewpoint, they are good to have in the listing. Buyers now a days are busy, they want to know about the item, how they can pay for it, and when to expect to receive it. So including the basics of your policies is good, but again, do not over do it.

Do:

• Tell them how payment can be made.
• When you ship and what service ie - USPS Priority? UPS Ground?
• Do you accept returns? Or is sale final?

Do NOT:

• Demand payment (Or ANYTHING)
• Go into details of what MUST be done before you accept a return
• That you will NOT ship to etc, etc

Again … K.I.S.S. this. Don’t ramble, just the facts, and to include a way for the buyer to contact you or a place to view further details of policies is …well… good policy!

Listing items for sale is not rocket science people, it is really common sense. Keeping it simple, direct, and informative without informational or visual overload is the best way to ensure not only to please the customers, but you will make Google very happy as well.

Later! .......Renagade
Renagade is an online dealer of vinyl records and other items on several sites including Bonanzle and Amazon
Comments are encouraged and welcomed

You need to go Google yourself

We all have done it. We know back links are good and when we find a site we add our links, descriptions etc, close the page and although we may have added link to our favorites, never venture back on the site. Well you know you change sites, change directions with your product line etc, but the links are still there. Old, crusty, sometimes leading to nowhere. Get going, and clean up your mess!
How? You forgot where all you put those links. Well Google yourself! Bing your names! Yahoo it! Run your names, etc through search engines and see what you find. You will be amazed at the older junk still picked up on them. Go through the links to the sites, and make sure your information is up to date. Google has a removal tool you can use, and you can find help HERE for Yahoo. But the easiest way is to update the information.
As you go through and change the links you find on some of the sites, set yourself up a folder on your favorites, and add the links to it. Anytime you change venues, go and update your stuff! Re summit your URLs to search engines about once a month to keep them fresh. You can do each one individually or use a service like Submit Express or Add Me . Add new content your sites on a regular basis, or change a few things up every now and then. Stir the pot up and the spiders will come crawling.
Not only is this good to keep your ranking high, it does make you appear more professional when all links to you are good.
Not to mention, you will be amazed at what those search engines come up with!

Fear Not The Spiders

Its Known as SEO .... Search Engine Optimization. And if you want to be found on this crazy place called the web, you need to learn it. Google, Yahoo, MSN, and other send out what the call Spiders to crawl the web, looking for good things to bring back.

Google and other search engines are strange. Trying to figure out what it is they want in a website is sometimes like throwing darts blindfolded. I have been at the top of their lists...and have been at the bottom and everywhere in between. But just how can one improve their ranking? I have discovered a few things that seem to help.

1. FRESH content.

This excites the spiders like a wolf around raw meat. so add new items often. New listings, new blog posts, a new picture, SOMETHING anything to get them smelling the fresh blood.

2. Tags.

Tags ARE important for blogs, pictures, etc for they tell the Search Engines in shorthand what it is all about. Like this blogs tags.

3. Attributes

Ahhh Now these little things are great! But can be tricky to use. But they will tell those spiders what the item is and help your customers find them in a search.

4. Pictures

For some STRANGE reason, they love to see pictures. So post a few in your blog, be sure you have some on your web page, and include them in your item listings.

5. Be Keyword aware.

Keywords ARE great, especially in Titles and the first 100 words or so of anything. The Spiders love simple and presence. They will pick up on "Red Hat Size Medium" before they will "Beautiful Fancy Hat" But at the same time will not like it if you are just using the buzz words like " ruby red eBay cap hat ladies men children's". If they think you are spamming they will dump you, So be careful to stick to the facts, Jack!

6. Changes

Google and others like to mix it up! Sometimes just the simplest changes work to trick them into thinking that everything is new. So redo your bio, change a picture, color, rearrange layout just a little and see.

7. Link Backs

Here these to can be tricky. They love links...but hate those that are not relevant. Where you place links to your blog, website etc should be places that pertain to what your blog website etc are all about. Or at least have some relevance to them.

This is just some of what I have figured out...and have worked on this weekend doing to this blog, and my website: www.2wolves.com , my Bonanzle booths: www.bonanzle.com/renagade and www.bonanzle.com/RenagadesRelics .

I would LOVE to hear some of YOUR suggestions...What is good for SEO??

(commenting on Blogs is good for SEO too! LOL)

Later...........Renagade

Some places for great information on this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta_tag

http://base.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=78170

http://websitehelpers.com/seo/