• by Ray Schultz , May 9, 2024

Brands that advertise with only a small number of publishers are cutting themselves off from valuable search traffic.  

That’s the view from Yext, a digital presence platform. It claims that marketers who harness the power of an extended publisher network see 186% more clicks on Google. 

Those that restrict themselves to a few – say, Google, Apple or Facebook – do not see that performance. 

Indeed, over 17% of a typical location’s website traffic came from non-Google publishers. 

“It’s been a common misconception in the industry that limiting information management to a few major publishers is enough to win in organic search,” says Christian J. Ward, EVP and chief data officer of Yext.

Ward adds, “Our research clearly shows the importance of showing up consistently and accurately across a broad network for stronger discoverability. Companies who are showing up across all search engines, AI tools, social media, and other emerging channels will be best positioned to win.”

Just how did Yext come up with this idea? It analyzed 620,000 global locations across 15 industries observed in its platform.

Yext claims that brands using less than 50% of its network, consisting of over 200 publishers, saw the least amount of Google traffic. Those that utilize 50-75% drew a 95% increases in clicks from Google. 

This qualifies as a sales pitch, but there may be a grain of truth in it: brands with the widest reach will likely pull the most clicks. 

The other claims may have to be taken on faith.