Yelp

Is it helping or hurting your business?

yelp reviews are not for everyone

Control Your Yelp Reviews

There are 3 steps you must take to control, or at least influence, what is said about you on Yelp.

  1. Sign up as the administrator of your Yelp page
  2. Monitor your Yelp page
  3. NEVER link to your Yelp page

Yelp reviews can be an ok, not great resource, but you have to manage it. And in some instances not keeping an eye on it can cost you more than you expect I know you already have a million things on your plate but not doing this may cost you more business than you know. One thing to always remember…

Yelp is not there to promote nor help your business it is there to promote Yelp.

1. Manage Your Yelp Page

Sign up as your page administrator – Then brace yourself!

link your yelp reviews page to your website

Always place a link from your Yelp reviews page to your website.

Using your Yelp reviews page & the Lawsuits

If you haven’t done it already, sign up as your Yelp page administrator. This is a fairly simple process, just go to your page and look for the links, there are several there. Once you’ve done that…

  1. Upload images for your page
  2. Enter all the appropriate business information – LINK TO YOUR WEBSITE
  3. NOW BRACE YOURSELF

You will get the call from Yelp to purchase their impression based advertising. An impression is every time a web user sees your ad. The pricing ranges from about $300-$1,200/month on an annual contract. Typically I don’t recommend impression based advertising unless you can get great placement at dirt cheap prices. There are other options for this type of advertising that are far more economical. So why even bother with Yelp? Some our clients do get some inbound website traffic just using the free version.

Here is a link to a YouTube video of an NBC News report on a few Yelp lawsuits. In one instance the judge that ruled against Yelp reportedly described Yelp’s advertising contract as “the modern-day version of the mafia, going to stores and saying: ‘You wanna not be bothered?’” Here’s the video.

In short, use the free version of Yelp reviews & get a bit of free website traffic.

2. Monitor Your Yelp Page

Respond to what consumers have to say

always monitor your yelp reviews

The Dangerous side of Yelp Reviews

There are 2 major concerns here:

  1. Anyone can set up a fictitious account and write anything they want about you.
  2. According to the NBC News story above and business owners you have to be alert to Yelp manipulation of your reviews.

One feature that, I believe, Yelp reviews still offers is the ability to respond to reviews. Monitor your Yelp Reviews page. If you see a review that is suspicious respond to the reviewer to get more information. If you determine that it is a legitimate review, address your customer’s concern and see if you can get them to update their review with a better score. We have a client that has one bad review from many years back, a one star, other than that all 4 and 5s. Somehow that one bad review seems to make it to the top of their list.

In an upcoming article we will look at turning bad reviews into more sales.

3. NEVER Link to Your Yelp Page

A great way to lose customers

yelp reviews sample page

The business above has 7 of its competitors listed on its Yelp reviews page.

Don’t Give Your Competitors Sales Leads

On your Yelp reviews page, as well as everyone else’s, you will find listings for up 10 of your competitors. Why would you ever want to refer a web user that is interested in your products/services to a competitor? Imagine a trendy little store on main street. A customer walks in and the clerk says “we have nice stuff now leave and go to the local mall and check out a dozen of our competitors”. That’s what linking to your Yelp reviews page does.

Regardless of how consumers heard about you they will eventually want to end up on your website. Don’t ever send them elsewhere and that includes looking at your reviews. When a consumer is on your website focus on selling and promoting your brand, not Yelp’s or anyone else’s. Provide them with real info that will satisfy their needs. Sometimes this means a quick short version other times it means in depth information.

Yelp is not there to promote nor help your business it is there to promote Yelp.