Claiming Your Listings: Yahoo

Introduction

Yahoo is the Internet’s third most popular search engine, so it needs to be up there on your business listing venture.

They do not make claiming easy, as their goal is to get you to buy paid listing management services through Yext.

You can list for free, but it’s a long process; they don’t guarantee that it will be listed in a timely fashion.

Here’s why: Yahoo for small business has become cumbersome and confusing. For example, if you used to subscribe to ‘Yahoo Small Business’, it has now changed to ‘Aabaco Small Business’, then, after announcing it took over a company called Luminate to manage small business, they are just absorbing Luminate though Aabaco (Confused? You’re not alone!). If you are not a paying customer, they will re-direct you to Yext, and Yext will try to get you to pay for listing management in many ways, though there is a way to do it for free (again, not user-friendly or easy to locate).

How to Claim a Free Local Business Listing on Yahoo:

1. 1. Go to https://local.yahoo.com/ and search for your business listing first. If a page is already created you can see if it’s already been claimed.
   2. 

If a page already exists you can click “Verify your listing.”

1. If a page exists and is claimed: if you don’t know who at your credit union might have claimed this, you can still click “Verify your listing” and proceed with the next steps.
2. This is where things get tricky… You will see information regarding Yext. Yext is a “digital location management company that is a paid monthly service to manage your listings across multiple provider sites. Initially it seems as though your only option is to sign up and pay for money to manage a listing on your business, however, there are ways around it that take extra steps.
3. That link will take you to http://www.yext.com/pl/yahoo-claims/index.html (you can just go here directly if you prefer).
4. Enter your business information and click “Scan Now” – see below how we entered info for Callahan:
5. The pop up box will close and show a lot of listings details. Don’t worry about all the other information showing on this page – just click the big “Continue” button.
   • Next, you can update the information about your listing. Complete this page fully – don’t forget to use the same NAP (name, address, phone) that you use on other providers for this branch. This is very important!
   • Click the “Continue” button when you’re done. Choose as many categories that apply – we recommend also choosing “bank” in addition to credit union – so you can compete with local institutions fully.
6. Yext will then present you with four paid plans, but immediately below these plans is a tiny link that says, “Claim your Basic Listing only on Yahoo” … click that link
   • Per Yext/Yahoo: “The Yahoo business claim allows you to update the name, address, phone number, email, category, and website for your *Verification is required. You will receive an email shortly with instructions. To immediately claim your business, select one of the power listings (aka paid listing subscription)”
7. You’re now at the “Yahoo Basic Listing Checkout” Complete the checkout and click “Place Order” (it’s free). Enter your business information in the form provided.
8. Yext will send you an email to verify your email Click the link, create a password, then login to your account. 
9. The final step is to verify you represent this The easiest method is to have them call you, but there are other methods as well.
10. Again, it will ask if you want to immediately verify by upgrading to a paid subscription, or give you the option to verify via an automated phone call or by submitting an official document containing the name and address of your business, which verification could take up to 2

A Yext representative (Raj Nijjer) says that “Note that the free basic listing can take upwards of 30 days to publish/update and only include basic NAP attributes.”

Callahan Tested: We chose the “Answer a Phone Call” option to the business address. We immediately received a call and given a verification code and were able to successfully confirm our listing. We realize that call/contact centers do sometimes present insurmountable difficulties in verifying via phone call. We are currently working with listings providers to achieve a work-around, but for the time being the mail / postcard verification is the primary sole alternative.

 

Repeat all these steps with each of your branch locations.