Step 2: Set Up Your Entities

Overview

In order to launch listings on Yext, you first need to structure the data that you want to appear on those listings. This is done by creating entities in Yext Content.

An entity typically represents a single location — for example, a restaurant franchise would create an entity for each of their restaurant locations they want to launch a listing for.

You can learn more about how to structure entities and link entities by following the Data Modeling in Yext module in the Content track. For an overview of how Content and Listings work together, see the Yext Listings and Yext Content training unit.

To add your data to Yext, you will:

• Enable the types of entities you want to use
• Import your data to Yext
• Include any alternate brand names, if you use them

Enable Your Entity Types

Entities come in different types, depending on the type of data you want to represent. There is a generic Location entity type, as well as types for Hotels, Restaurants, Healthcare Facilities, Healthcare Professionals, Financial Professionals, and more.

Before you add your entities to Yext, you need to enable the entity types you plan to use. You can view a full list of the available standard entity types by visiting the Entity Types page in your Yext account.

Steps to enable entity types can be found in the Enable Entity Types help article.

Import Your Data to Yext

After your entity types are enabled, you can add your data to Yext. There are a few options to do this:

• Add entities in bulk via spreadsheet upload: best if your data is in a spreadsheet
• Add entities in bulk from Google Business Profile: best if you already have locations in Google Business Profile that you want to add directly to Yext
• Add entities individually: best if you only want to add a few locations.

You can also learn about other options to import your data.

Add entities via spreadsheet upload

This option is best for adding many entities at once. To do this, you’ll use the Connectors tool, which is a framework for importing data into Yext from many different sources.

To add data to Yext from a spreadsheet, you’ll create a File Upload connector. Follow the Create a File Upload Connector guide for full instructions.

You’ll also need to ensure your data is formatted correctly in order to upload to Yext. For templates to help structure your data, see these resources:

• Required Fields for Creating Entities help article
• Entity Upload Templates help article

Add entities with the Google Business Profile App

This option is best if you already have locations live on Google Business Profile and you want to add them to Yext. The Google Business Profile Connector app connects to your GBP account to pull data into Yext Content.

Follow the Install the Google Business Profile Connector App guide for full instructions.

Add individual entities to Yext

This option is best if you only want to add a few entities to Yext at a time.

For full steps on how to add individual entities to Yext, see one of these resources:

• Follow the Add a Single Entity help article. Skip the last section about subscribing an entity to licenses — you’ll do this during the Listings Launch flow.
• Follow the Add a Single Entity video tutorial.

(Optional) Add Alternate Brand Names

If you use any alternate names for your brand, you should configure these now so that you can select them during the Listings Launch flow. This will ensure that publishers recognize any other versions of your brand’s name as part of your business when creating and updating listings.

For example, if you recently acquired a business, and some of your listings are still under the name of the business you acquired, you can add that as an alternate brand name. We will then use that name, in addition to the name you have stored in Yext Content, for the location when we work to identify a match.

Alternate brand names can be stored on entities by creating a custom field to hold this information. You can populate this field using any of the methods outlined above for adding data to Yext.

Create your custom field

To create your custom Alternate Brand Name field:

• Follow the Create a Custom Field help article for full instructions.
• Choose Single-line text as the field type.
• Give it a simple name, such as “Alternate Brand Name” or something similar.
• Make sure you select the proper entity types that this field should appear on. For example, if you want to launch listings for your Location entities, you should apply the Alternate Brand Name field to your Location entity type.

Populate alternate brand names in your custom field

To edit this field manually, follow the Edit Entities help article to manually edit fields on individual or multiple entities.

If you are using a File Upload Connector, be sure to include this field as a column in your data set.