With public awareness of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) at an all-time high, below is some guidance on how to use your current Yext subscriptions to update consumers with key information. This article provides steps to take across all Yext products, so be sure to review the relevant sections based on your current subscription.

Knowledge Graph

In the event that you need to cease offering specific services, or make other temporary changes, make sure to update your core data inside the Knowledge Graph so updates flow to any experiences you are powering with Yext, including: Holiday hours, menu items or services offered, descriptions, pick-up, drop-off, or entrance locations, etc. More details are provided below to help you make these updates:

• Create Folders and Labels to make Bulk Edits easier
  • As rapid changes are going into effect across cities, and countries, we recommend leveraging folders and labels for your entities to better enable you to make updates in bulk.
    • See Create a folder, or Create an entity label for steps to set these up.
• Temporary Closures
  • For temporary location closures, the best practice is to leverage the new Hours (Temporarily Closed) field to reflect these changes. Make sure that you leave your regular hours as they are, otherwise it may indicate to certain publishers that you are permanently closed.
    • You can see the Indicate that a location is temporarily closed article for recommendations on the actions to take.
• Add relevant COVID-19 business updates to your Knowledge Graph
  • Update the Business Description to add COVID-19 messaging as it pertains to your business.
  • Use the Featured Message to reinforce any urgent information or messages on your Listings. For example:
    • “Please note this location is closed through [DATE]”
    • “Online ordering and delivery available” with a link to an online ordering page.
    • “Help us by buying a gift certificate!” with a link to your online store.
  • To update this content, see Edit entity information, or Add and edit through spreadsheet upload.

Listings

• Answer any customer questions:
  • Google confirmed that COVID-19 related content is not permissible in Q&A for all businesses.
  • If customers have already asked questions about coronavirus on your Google My Business listings, make sure to quickly respond. Do not be alarmed if Google removes the original question or an answer from your listing if it pertains to COVID-19.
    • To answer questions via Q&A, see Answer Google Q&A Questions.
• Avoid COVID-19 related content when adding FAQs:
  • Given the sensitivity around this situation and the potential for misinformation, Google is not allowing COVID-19 related content in Q&A for any businesses.
  • Without specifically mentioning anything about COVID-19, clients can still leverage Google Q&A to provide helpful FAQs to their customers.
    • For example: [Question: Is this business open for the month of March? Answer: Yes, we are open for the month of March, but only for pickup and delivery].
• Send real-time updates with social posts
  • As the situation continues to rapidly evolve, keep your customers updated with posts on Facebook and Google. See Create a Social post for steps to create Google Local posts and Facebook posts through Yext.
  • Note, for Enterprise clients, Google Local posts can only be created directly in GMB. For steps see Google’s Post on Google as a Local Business article.

Pages

• Add a module to any Yext-powered page that links out to the CDC’s FAQ page.
• You can also add an Announcement Bar module to your page to keep users aware of closures and other important information you’d like to highlight.
  • For a list of all modules you can leverage on your pages, see the Pages Module Glossary.
  • To add new modules to your page, or update content within existing modules, see Customize your Pages.
  • For customers whose pages were built by Yext on your behalf, reach out to your Client Success Manager to request adding content to your pages.
• To answer questions about your organization’s coronavirus preparedness plans on third-party search engines like Google and Bing, create Schema-optimized FAQ pages, such as:
  • “Will [your brand’s] support centers continue to be open 24/7?”
  • “What is [your brand] doing to prepare for coronavirus?”
  • “Should I make withdrawals to have cash on hand during coronavirus?”
    • To do this, you will first need to add FAQ entities to the Knowledge Graph. For steps to add these entities, see Create an FAQ Entity.
• You can create a page per FAQ, and you can create a page with a list of FAQs. For help setting up these pages, see Create an Individual FAQ Page, or Create an FAQ Locator Page.

Answers

• To answer questions about the coronavirus itself (e.g., “how does the coronavirus spread?” or “what are the symptoms of coronavirus?”), you can now add Frequently Asked Questions and Answers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to your Answers-powered search experience at no cost.
  • To add these FAQs to your Answers experience, reach out to your Yext Administrator.
  • Yext will assist in maintaining and updating these FAQs if and when the CDC makes changes. Since available information about the coronavirus is developing rapidly, this may be a preferable approach to creating your own FAQ content about the virus itself.
• To answer questions about your organization’s coronavirus preparedness plans (e.g., “Will [your brand’s] support centers continue to be open 24/7?”), your Yext Administrator can help you add additional FAQs at your discretion.

We wish you and your teams the best during this critical moment. If you need anything at all, we are here to help, so please reach out to your Client Success Manager or your Yext Administrator.