Yelp Integration Overview | Yext Hitchhikers Platform
Overview
The functionality of the integration between Yelp and Yext depends on the size of your business, and the relationship you have with Yelp.
Small business refers to businesses with fewer than five locations. Mutual Enterprise Clients (MECs) are customers with Enterprise relationships with both Yext and Yelp.
| Functionality | Small Business | MEC |
|---|---|---|
| Update basic fields (Hours, Phone, Website, etc.) |  |
|
| Update special fields (Holiday Hours, Photos, Attributes) | |
|
| Menu syncing (Menu Listings only) | |
|
| Yelp review syncing | 3; limited text | 200; full text |
| Yelp review response |  |
|
Business Eligibility
Yelp eligibility guidelines can be found in the Yext documentation. If a business is deemed ineligible by Yelp, the business will have the status “Not Synced” with the following unavailable reason: “Yelp indicated that they were unable to verify your business…”
Eligible Businesses
- Local Businesses & Services
- Local Places
- Local Flavor
- Annual Events
- Opening Soon Businesses
- Pop-up shops*
- If pop-up shops are local, have a physical location, provide some kind of service to people, and are customer-facing to do business, we acknowledge them as eligible Yelp listings (unless they fall into the categories of an ineligible business).
Ineligible Businesses
Most of the ineligible businesses fall into the following categories: Lead generation companies, direct sales, online only, product vendors, short term events, B2B, and businesses without a local presence.
- ATMs
- B2B entities serving only corporate/government clients
- Corporate Offices
- E-commerce Products, Direct Sellers and/or Direct Sales
- Kiosks/Vending Machines
- Online Only or E-commerce Businesses
- Online Directories/Referral Services
- Spam
- Retail store departments & additional services
Content Updates and Syncing
After a listing is live, we only push updated data to Yelp instead of the full listing data. For instance, if a location changes its hours, we’ll push the updated hours to Yelp. However, we will not push any data from unchanged fields.
If you are updating data directly in Yelp, we will not automatically override those changes unless you update those fields in Yext. For example, if an edit has been made within the Yelp UI to a listing’s name and then, for the same location, the hours are updated within Yext, we will only push out the hours field to Yelp. We will not push out or override the name data since that information was not updated within the Yext account.
External Edits
We do not lock listings from external edits once they’ve gone live. Instead, Yelp users and business owners who have claimed their Yelp business can submit edits directly through the Yelp UI.
Edits made directly in Yelp will go through Yelp’s manual review. If they pass review, it can override the Yext data that is being displayed on the listing. Note that external edits will not change the data that is stored in the Yext Knowledge Graph.
Yelp Indexing
It takes two weeks for Yelp to re-index their listings. Therefore, we recommend waiting two weeks after making data updates before reaching out to your account team for assistance.
Incorrect Listing Information in SERP and URL
NAP (Name, Address, and Phone number) changes appear in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) and URL, but there could be a delay in what is displayed if you update this data. If your content is appearing correctly on your listing, but the SERP and URL are showing old information, please wait two weeks for these changes to be reflected.
Cancellation of Yelp Services
If you cancel services with Yelp, we remove all photos and special hours that have been sent through Yext.
We remove photos because only the source of the photos has permission to remove the photos.