Yext this week announced that it has acquired Places Scout. For those unfamiliar, Places Scout is a local SEO and location intelligence platform. Used throughout the local search ecosystem, it uncovers insights about SEO and presence strategies, based on how and where businesses show up online.
These capabilities are valuable to Yext because they align with its similar mission to provide search intelligence to brands that operate in local markets. By integrating Places Scout into its platform, Yext can be more powerful and multidimensional by offering a more holistic set of strategic insights.
“This acquisition was driven by our commitment to providing brands with the most advanced search intelligence and competitive insights available,” Yext CEO and chairman Mike Walrath told Localogy. “Places Scout has been a trusted provider of local search intelligence for nearly a decade, and integrating its powerful analytics into Yext significantly enhances our ability to help brands not only understand their market position but also take actions to outperform their competition.”
Looking Deeper
To gain a true understanding of this acquisition requires looking deeper at Places Scout. Among other things, it can be used as a benchmarking tool to see relevant trends in local search. That includes extensive data on what types of factors rank in search results, which is an ever-changing variable.
Based on the scale that Places Scout operates, its data are also reliable due to their statistically meaningful volumes. Moreover, that volume helps it to start at levels that make segmentation possible. We’re talking everything from verticals to geographies, or other factors relevant to a given business.
So if you’re a regional restaurant chain, or have 1,000 oil change locations nationally, you’ll want to know about things you can do on your website and online profiles (Yelp, Google Business Profiles, etc.) to boost your chances of getting ranked in Google. Places Scout’s platform uncovers such insights.
Altogether, this is a unique view into Google’s ever-shifting ranking factors. Those factors continue to get more complex as consumer touchpoints – search, social, AI, etc. – fragment. It’s all about optimizing one’s presence across an expanding set of online venues – everything from review sites to social apps.
Zeroing in on one of those developing touch points, AI, tools like ChatGPT are increasingly gaining share as a front door to local commerce queries. This is a phenomenon that Yext has been ahead of for the past few years, and continues to innovate around. So naturally, this was another factor in the acquisition.
“With AI search and AI agents rapidly changing how customers find information, this acquisition strengthens our platform,” said Walrath, “equipping brands with deeper insights and more strategic levers to optimize their digital presence.”
Pace of Standards
As for the purchase price, it wasn’t included in the announcement but a quick search for the SEC filing revealed a $20.3 million cash deal, plus another $10 million in incentives. It’s also worth noting that his acquisition happened about seven months after Yext’s acquisition of Heresay Media for $125 million.
Panning back, we could see more M&A from Yext, given the pace of standards and requirements developing in the AI arena. Moreover, another clue (credit: Bill Dinan), is Yext’s recent job board posting for a VP of corporate development. We’ll keep a keen eye on what these clues could lead to next.
Meanwhile, congrats to Yext and to Mark Kabana and team at Places Scout.
“Yext shares our commitment to innovation, data-driven decision-making, and empowering brands with actionable intelligence,” Kabana – Places Scout’s Founder & CEO – told Localogy. “We’re excited to see how our combined expertise will elevate search intelligence and help brands adapt, compete, and lead in an AI-driven world. This next chapter is full of opportunity, and I have no doubt that the future of Places Scout is brighter than ever as part of Yext.”
