Yelp is an incredibly important tool for consumers to gather information online about all types of businesses. While the general perception has always been that Yelp is a site to look up restaurants, the platform has expanded in recent years to include a wide variety of businesses, including doctors, law firms, and other professional services firms. When evaluating your business’s online reputation, it is important to review your presence on Yelp, and make sure that you are managing that presence as much as possible. 

What’s Yelp?

Yelp is a platform that allows consumers to post reviews online regarding their interactions with various businesses. Yelp, like many platforms, is allowed to publish information about your business without your permission or consent, as the information they post is considered public record.  

The Importance of Yelp Reviews

Yelp has long been known as one of the most popular review platforms for restaurants, but has expanded its reach well beyond. Statistics have shown that consumers have spent 31% more on businesses with higher Yelp reviews. Similarly, 94% of consumers indicate that a bad review has convinced them to avoid specific businesses, potentially pushing consumer traffic to competitors. Positive reviews on Yelp can enhance a business’s visibility, credibility, and customer trust, leading to increased traffic. Acknowledging the influence of Yelp reviews is the first step towards effective reputation management.  

Yelp has very strict terms of service that users and businesses must abide by. It’s one of the most active platforms in enforcing its terms of service and removing reviews that it deems to be in violation. Each business has a separate page for reviews that Yelp deems “Not Recommended”. Some violations include a conflict of interest (i.e. the owner leaving a positive review for their own business), or if they find a business is paying for positive reviews.  

How to Manage Your Yelp Profile

1. Claim Your Yelp Profile

While you cannot control whether Yelp posts information about your business, you can control the information by creating a profile and claiming your business profile on Yelp. 

Creating a profile page on Yelp for your business will allow you to proactively control the information that is presented about your business on Yelp, and will also help you stay informed when reviews are posted about your business on Yelp. Owners of Yelp profiles can post information that is helpful to consumers, including hours of operation, location, phone number and the official business website. Making sure this information is accurate is incredibly impactful on managing your online reputation. Yelp also provides a number of advertising opportunities on their platform which allow businesses to increase their exposure. 

2. Monitor and Respond to Reviews

If you have a Yelp account, it’s important to put in the time to monitor incoming business reviews. Quickly responding to reviews, whether good or bad, shows customers that you take feedback seriously. An effective response to a critical review can also help to diffuse a potentially negative impact, and also help show your commitment to customer service.  

3. Encourage Positive Reviews

Make sure your customers know that your business is on Yelp and encourage them to leave reviews. You can easily include links to your Yelp page in follow up emails or on receipts. In addition, Yelp provides a host of promotions to participate in and links to include on your website to direct users to your Yelp page. 

However, make it a priority to be authentic. Yelp strictly prohibits incentivizing positive reviews, and strictly monitors reviews. Reviews that don’t meet its criteria will be moved to the dreaded “Not Recommended” portion.  

4. Professionally Respond to Negative Reviews

You can’t control what someone writes on your Yelp page, but how you respond to negative reviews is almost as important as the review itself. A bad response, including insulting the customer or getting into a back and forth argument, can turn off other potential customers even more so than the review itself. It is important to apologize for any shortcomings and to offer to fix any problem offline.  

If you do not believe a review, or set of reviews, is from a real customer, or if someone has incorrectly it is best to contact an attorney to discuss your options before responding. Certain reviews that go above and beyond a customer’s actual experience, or are not from an actual customer, might be defamation.  

Build a Positive Presence Outside of Yelp

Having an online reputation across all platforms can help create trust and confidence in your business and the reviews across all platforms. A consistent plan in responding to reviews, both positive and negative, demonstrates to consumers that you are mindful of your online presence and have put in the time to ensure that the information online is accurate. A broader online presence also helps mitigate the effects of any single negative review.  

Managing your online reputation on Yelp is not just a matter of monitoring reviews; it is about actively engaging with your customers, addressing their concerns, and using positive reviews to boost your reputation. By optimizing your business’s Yelp profile, you can ensure that Yelp works in your favor and helps grow your online reputation.