Last month, Yext acquired local search benchmarking and intelligence leader Places Scout. What were the drivers for the acquisition and how are the combined forces now positioned for world dominance? We recently had the chance to catch up with Places Scout founder Mark Kabana to find out.

In short, the combined company completes the circle for robust local SEO capabilities. Places Scout is best of breed for benchmarking one’s online presence and SEO health checks… and Yext has all the tools to put that knowledge into action. The diagnosis and treatment can now happen in the same doctor visit.

We dive into these dynamics with Kabana in this two-part interview. Here in part 1, we go into acquisition drivers and potential near-term outcomes. Then we’ll pick it up in part 2 with Kabana’s insights on broader transformations in search in the AI era. See Part I below and stay tuned for Part 2…

Q&A with Mark Kabana

Localogy: What are the biggest points of synergy you see between what you’ve built at Places Scout and Yext’s product/tech positioning?

MK: The most exciting synergy is in how seamlessly Places Scout’s local benchmarking and SEO insights fit into Yext’s comprehensive digital presence platform. Places Scout focuses on surfacing hyper-local search data and competitive analytics, really nitty-gritty details of how each location ranks, who’s competing, and why. Meanwhile, the Yext platform unifies a brand’s entire digital presence and orchestrates how that information appears across channels.

So when you combine the two, you get a single, AI-driven intelligence layer that can uncover real-time visibility, insights, and opportunities at a granular, location-by-location level and then act on them at scale within the Yext platform. It’s like having the best of both worlds: specialized local intelligence that used to require a separate, niche tool, now fully integrated with enterprise-wide management and automation to boost a brand’s visibility everywhere they operate. Together, we were meant to be, like a match made in digital heaven.

How does Places Scout amplify and empower Yext, and vice versa: How do their big-company energy and resources throw fuel on the Places Scout Fire?

On one hand, Places Scout amplifies Yext by bringing robust, local-first intelligence, the kind of high-resolution data that enterprise teams crave but often can’t get in one place. This gives Yext customers a sharper lens on how they stack up against competitors, what their performance looks like at a regional and local level, and where their greatest opportunities lie.

On the other hand, Yext’s global footprint, resources, and established presence in the broader search ecosystem inject new speed, scope, and flexibility into the Places Scout approach. What used to be possible on a smaller scale, like turning around quick enhancements or new features, can now be accelerated with the vast resources available at Yext. The company infrastructure, data science firepower, and robust partner network are all at our disposal. In practical terms, that means we can dream bigger, move faster, and build new capabilities far more efficiently than before.

Another exciting benefit is that while Places Scout tells you where to focus your marketing attention and why you should, Yext has all of the capabilities across Listings, Web pages, Social posts, and Reviews to execute the necessary improvements.

In many ways, we are combining the visibility of Places Scout with the action and execution of Yext.

One of Yext’s many strengths is its data science and the capabilities that Christian Ward has assembled. It would seem that an intelligence tool like Places Scout in the hands of those data science resources (and Yext’s own data) has immense possibilities together. Is that a fair statement and can you expand?

It’s absolutely fair to say that the synergy here is huge. Places Scout’s intelligence is all about generating precise, localized insights, everything from real-time search monitoring to competitor proximity analysis and benchmarking.

Yext’s data strategy, led by Christian Ward, excels at extracting predictive, actionable insights from massive data sets. Combine the two, and you have an end-to-end engine that measures performance and predicts where the best returns on optimization efforts will come from.

For example, our data might reveal that a business ranks well in one neighborhood but not in another. Yext’s data science models can then help uncover why, or point to the most impactful adjustments (like content updates, listings changes, or review response strategies) that could close the gap. Now we’re not just monitoring the data; we’re turning it into a set of recommendations that’s targeted, automated, and easy for even the largest brands to implement at scale.

What can we expect next from the combined entity and what are you most excited to work on? (now that you’re part of a public company, I don’t expect you to make any forward-looking statements, so this can be high-level and whatever you’re comfortable saying)

At a high level, you can expect deeper integrations and a more holistic view of local search, customer engagement, and multi-location management. Imagine a single dashboard where national or global brands can see their presence and performance in every local context, while also having the tools to execute changes, like content updates, Q&A responses, or reviews management, in just a few clicks.

Personally, I’m most excited to elevate Places Scout’s local ranking intelligence by connecting it with the Yext Knowledge Graph, AI search capabilities, and new data channels we simply never had access to before. It’s not just about location rank tracking anymore. Now, we’re bringing in every piece of relevant digital intel – citations, reviews, competitor data, user behavior signals, and using AI to transform those insights into quick, data-driven actions. That has the potential to fundamentally change how brands approach local marketing.

Lastly, you’ve achieved a milestone that very few do on a percentage basis – a successful exit of a bootstrapped company. What advice do you have for other startups or entrepreneurs reading this?

• Focus on Solving Actual Pain Points: From day one, we honed in on a concrete problem – local SEO data fragmentation and the difficulty in measuring what’s really happening at the ground level. That specificity gave us clear direction and guided every product decision.
• Iterate, but Keep It Simple: It’s easy to get pulled into building fancy features that might never get used. We stayed small and lean, validating each iteration with real clients and real use cases. Feedback and testimonials will naturally follow if you can deliver genuine, time-saving solutions.
• Listen, Then Listen Some More: We relied heavily on user feedback, both from small and large customers. The more we listened, the more we understood exactly where to take the product next. That sense of partnership and trust fueled our organic growth.
• Don’t Underestimate Culture: Even in a bootstrap scenario, how you treat your people and shape your team culture can be the difference between surviving and thriving. Passion and persistence go a long way when resources are tight. Work hard, set the right example, and let others see your enthusiasm, it’s contagious.
• Network and Build Industry Relationships: From day one, we attended as many SEO and marketing-related conferences as we could find. Continuous networking and relationship-building helped us meet the clients and partners who fueled our growth. We’ve been members of Localogy for over ten years, and that community proved instrumental in connecting us to key people in the industry.
• Be Open to the Right Partnership: An exit isn’t an end, it’s a chance to accelerate what you’ve built. Look for a partner that aligns with your vision and values and can amplify your impact. If you’re solving a genuine problem, the right opportunity will eventually find you.

This acquisition represents a new level of location intelligence meeting enterprise-level AI search. We’re combining Places Scout’s laser focus on local insights with Yext’s global scale and data science muscle, and I truly believe it’s going to transform how brands perceive, measure, and optimize their entire digital presence. Exciting times are ahead!