Mentioned vs Yext: AI Visibility for Trade Contractors

You're probably considering both right now. Or you have Yext and you're wondering if Mentioned is redundant. It's not. Here's why.

Quick story: You rank #1 on Google in your city for "HVAC near me." Map pack, organic, everything locked. Then a homeowner asks ChatGPT the same question. ChatGPT names 5 companies. You're not one of them. Different game. Different data sources. This page explains the difference and when you need both.

What Yext Actually Does (and Does Really Well)

Yext solves a real problem: business information chaos. When you have 10 different phone numbers across 200 directories, when your hours are wrong on Yelp, when your address shows up three ways on Google Maps — Yext fixes that. It's the backbone of local SEO.

Yext strengths:

• Syncs your NAP (Name, Address, Phone) across directories in one place. No more manual updates.
• Aggregates reviews from Google, Yelp, Facebook. Gives you a unified dashboard to respond.
• Manages your Knowledge Panel (how you appear in Google Search directly).
• Multi-location support. If you have 20 service locations, this scales to manage all of them.
• Proven for Google local SEO. If your play is ranking in Maps and organic local search, Yext is the table stake.

Honest caveat: Yext is pricey. Enterprise pricing for local service businesses. ROI math only works if you have multiple locations or you're managing dozens of listings. Single-location HVAC shops or plumbers often find alternatives cheaper.

Where Mentioned Is Different

Mentioned answers a completely different question: Am I visible when AI search engines answer questions?

When homeowners ask ChatGPT "best HVAC company near me" or Perplexity "who fixes furnaces in Boston," AI engines pull from a different stack of data sources than Google does. Schema. Reddit mentions. Citation networks. Training-data partnerships. Yext doesn't measure or move any of those.

Mentioned tracks four AI engines that drive 80% of consumer AI search traffic:

• ChatGPT — largest user base for question answering
• Perplexity — fastest-growing AI search engine
• Claude — rising in search workflows
• Gemini — built into Android and Google search

You get a score (0-100) based on how many times AI names you when asked real homeowner questions for your trade in your city. Our dataset: 137 audits from CC-BY-4.0 trade contractor dataset. Median score is 32 out of 100. Top bracket is 47+ points (47-point gap between median and top performers).

Why this matters: You can be Google #1 and AI invisible at the same time. Different signal stack. Same homeowner. AI is routing calls to your competitors while you optimize the wrong engine.

Head-to-Head: When You'd Pick Each

The Honest Take: You Probably Need Both

If you're serious about local service capture, you're solving two different funnels:

Funnel 1: Google Route (handled by Yext)

• Homeowner searches "HVAC near me" on Google
• Yext makes sure you rank in Maps, your info is consistent, your reviews show, your Knowledge Panel looks right
• You get the call

Funnel 2: AI Route (handled by Mentioned)

• Homeowner asks ChatGPT "best HVAC companies in my area"
• Mentioned tracks if you're in that 5-company list AI recommends
• If not, Mentioned tells you what to fix (schema, citations, Reddit mentions, training-data partners)
• You deploy the fixes, score climbs, you get the call

Both channels are live right now. Google isn't going anywhere. AI search is growing 27% month over month. The operators winning are playing both games.

Why Mentioned Isn't Trying to Be Yext

Mentioned was built by an operator running a $3M+ HVAC business. When I realized I was invisible to AI engines while crushing Google rankings, I built a tool to measure it. That's the entire product.

We're not trying to sync your NAP across 200 directories. That's a solved problem and Yext owns it. We're solving the problem Yext can't see: Are you visible when AI answers questions about your trade?

The methodology is open. Run the audit yourself in ChatGPT and Perplexity and verify the score. 137 audits in the public dataset (CC-BY-4.0). You can see the distribution, the bracket gaps, everything.

Next Steps

If you haven't tried Mentioned yet: Run the free audit at mentionedinai.com. Takes 90 seconds. You'll see your score on ChatGPT and Perplexity, which competitors are beating you, and what's missing. Free, no card, no pressure.

If you have Yext: Keep it. Mentioned is not a replacement. It's a complement. Your NAP stays clean (Yext), and your AI visibility climbs (Mentioned).

If you're torn on cost: Yext makes sense if you have 5+ locations or if your entire business is built on multi-location SEO. Mentioned makes sense if you're a single-location owner trying to capture AI search calls. Not the same problem. Not the same tool.

Founder cohort pricing locked through July 4: $297/mo or $1,497 lifetime for Pro Lite (single location, weekly audits, schema kit, fix-priority queue). First 100 paid customers. Current: 96 spots left.

One Last Thing

This page isn't anti-Yext. Yext solves a real problem. If you need NAP consistency across directories, it's the tool. But if you've been wondering why phone-ins softened even though your Google rank stayed solid, the answer is probably AI visibility. That's what Mentioned measures.

87% of trade contractors score under 20 on Mentioned. There's no middle. You're either visible to AI or you're not. Run the free audit to see where you land.

Run your free audit →