Yelp has become the most popular Internet rating and review site since its initial inception in 2004 so mastering Yelp reviews is a must. Yelp founders saw that word-of-mouth was a powerful purveyor of new customers, but with the classic local community structure breaking apart in an online era, how could individuals know which businesses to trust? Yelp was the answer – an online review site in which customers shared their experiences, helping others make informed decisions about restaurants, auto-repair shops, and more.
Many review sites have come and gone, but Yelp has continued to be the most trusted source for local business reviews and ratings. Why?
Yelp noticed that other review sites are far too cluttered with spam and ads, so they’ve kept theirs to a minimum.
Yelp also focuses on long-form reviews rather than short one-liners, providing an in-depth, thorough review that wary customers crave. Sometimes “good coffee” just isn’t good enough.
In this complete Guide to Yelp for Businesses, we’ll be covering a range of topics including:
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- How Yelp Reviews Can Impact on Businesses
- How to Get Yelp Reviews
- How to Handle Negative Reviews on Yelp
- Should You Embrace Negative Reviews?
- Can You Remove Bad Yelp Reviews?
- Should You Buy Yelp Reviews?
- The Yelp Review Filter & Fake Yelp Reviews
- How to Avoid the Yelp Review Filter
- Why Yelp Rocks, Despite Issues
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**However, not everything is laid back in Yelp review-land. As one of our blog readers points out, small businesses can experience biased Yelp review filters.
***As of 8/30/2013, Yelp continues to defend their filter while small businesses rally against Yelp.
How Yelp Reviews Can Impact On Businesses
Yelp, the modern conception of word-of-mouth, is the #1 review site on the web and immensely powerful, making it a mighty friend and an abhorrent enemy.
If your business has a 3.5 or above on Yelp, you’ve got the whole world in your hands and clouds in your coffee. Under 3 stars and you’ve got a hard knock life. Bad Yelp ratings have been known to ruin more than just a few businesses. There’s a lot at stake!
Dealing with such a fickle frenemy can dishearten some business owners, but don’t think ignoring Yelp will make it go away – users will write about your business on Yelp whether you activate a business page or not. In this case, it’s definitely preferable to take a pro-active approach by setting up your business’s Yelp page yourself. Fill it with colorful pics and useful information to put your best foot forward for potential customers checking you out.
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