Step 2: Collect Data and Set Up Knowledge Graph

Now that you have a strategy, it’s time to gather and organize your data in the Yext platform.

As mentioned in the previous step, the quality of your data will impact the quality of your Search experience. When collecting data, you’ll want to make sure you consider your data sources:

• Where will the data come from?
• How can you pull that data and ingest it into Yext?
• How can you keep that content up-to-date? Be careful not to mislead users with stale data or introduce manual processes to maintain your data.

Review the Knowledge Graph track for a more conceptual understanding of storing content in the Yext Knowledge Graph.

Set Up Your Content Structure

1. For each vertical, enable the entity type if it already exists. Otherwise, create a custom entity type for each content type.
2. Add these custom fields :
   • “Active in Search” (Type = Yes/No): Use this field to control which entities appear in search without deleting them.
   • “Primary CTA” and “Secondary CTA” (Type = Call to Action): Use these fields for calls to action on result cards.
   • Any other relevant fields

Ingest Your Data

The ways you can add data are:

• Data Connector: Build a data connector with an optional crawler .
  1. If you are using a crawler, make sure you’re crawling a structured site to reduce manual adjustment, errors, and poor data in the initial crawl and when new content is introduced.
     • Can you identify the URLs to crawl for each vertical? If yes, are the URL structures comprehensive?
     • Can the pages be mapped using a unique data mapping? If not, can you map another page component (URL, H1, meta, breadcrumbs, etc.)?
  2. Once you set up the crawler, set up the corresponding connector.
  3. Whitelist the crawler to give it access to your web pages.
  4. Ensure the Connector maps to and collects all fields and metadata elements (e.g., Date Posted, Author, etc. for a document) necessary to power your Search experience.
• Third-Party Integration: Use an existing app or build an integration with a third-party where your content is stored.
• File Upload: Upload a data file (CSV or XLSX).

Organize Your Data

Create saved filters to restrict entities in Search to only those that have been fully vetted and approved. We recommend creating a saved filter for each vertical with the following criteria:

• Active on Search = Yes
• Entity Type
• Fields with Data include “Website URL” or “Primary Image” (if you would like to ensure only entities with populated data for these fields appear in Search)
• Any other relevant criteria

Audit Your Data

Ensure you have collected and added the relevant data into the Yext platform:

• Have you populated entities for each vertical?
• Is structured information available for sorting, filtering, and facets?
• Is there structured content for frontend cards (e.g., images)?
• Have you added any information needed for query rules or other business logic?