What is Yelp and Why Should I Care?
What is Yelp and Why Should I Care?
What is Yelp?
Why do you need better Yelp reviews?
How to get better Yelp reviews?
Can you delete a Yelp review?
It is quite often that our clients ask us confused questions about Yelp and to be honest, it is pretty confusing.
We have rarely met anyone who fully understands what Yelp is and how it works…
At Leadstream, we asked ourselves if Yelp was still relevant in 2020, and decided to conduct our own research.
In this article, we will try to answer that question for you. You will find out how to get the most value out of Yelp!
If you want to know what Yelp can do for your business and how it can benefit your overall marketing strategy, keep reading…
What is Yelp?
Let’s kick things off with the basics:
Yelp is an online social sharing review platform that has been around for quite some time.
It is geared towards businesses, and serves as a place where customers can go and leave reviews and ratings related to local businesses and places they have visited or done business with.
Everything from amusement parks to restaurants, and handymen teams to local coffee shops can get a page on Yelp and start collecting reviews from their customers.
Want to know the best part?
Earning positive Yelp reviews for your local business is a great way to show potential customers you have a good reputation among existing clientele, and that you’re a safe place for them to go and find whatever they are looking for.
Many studies have shown that more than 50% and as many as 70% of potential customers trust online reviews that they read on review sites like Yelp.
This is especially true of businesses in the food and beverage industry, which continue to be some of the most commonly searched for and most frequently reviewed listings on Yelp.
Why do you need better Yelp reviews?
When a business is able to secure a high number of positive reviews, new customers and those searching the site for local reviews are more apt to visit.
However, it has also been shown that at least 25 percent of people have to be confident that the reviews listed on the site are authentic and from legitimate past customers before trusting them.
This is one reason you should never pay for reviews or use underhanded tactics to try and boost your Yelp reviews.
It takes work, but doing it in a legitimate manner is the only way to maximize the positive impact it can have.
Here are a few guidelines to follow if you want the best Yelp reviews possible for your business:
Be easy to find in Yelp searches:
If customers have to search hard just to find your page, chances are they won’t be interested, even if you have a ton of great reviews.
Use keywords and promote your page as often as you can in marketing.
Improve your global website rankings:
Search engines will pull up your Yelp page in search results as well as your regular webpage. Make sure they complement each other and clearly link from one back to the other.
Promote your page rather than trash competitors:
The goal of a Yelp page is to bring new customers to YOUR profile instead of your competitors, so be sure you don’t give them air time by trashing them on your page or website.
Keep new reviews coming in as often as possible:
Good reviews are desirable but if a page hasn’t had a new review in months or even a year, that can cause potential customers to pause and possibly go with a more active competitor.
How to get better Yelp reviews?
There are some handy tips that can help you get those all-important positive reviews from your customers.
We’ve highlighted here a few steps you can take:
- Provide good service to every customer and uphold a strong work ethic with all employees and staff.
- Add a link to the Yelp page in emails, business cards, social media pages, and marketing pieces.
- Ask your most loyal and satisfied customers to write positive reviews to your Yelp page for you.
- Respond to every review, thank users for positive ones and address concerns or issues in negative ones.
- Never cheat to get reviews and never pay for third party individuals to leave fake reviews as it will backfire.
- Interact with customers online and keep the lines of communication open to maintain a good rapport.
- Take advantage of Yelp’s features and services to maximize the reach and impact of your review page.
Learn more: WEB VISIBILITY | What is it ?
Can you delete a Yelp review?
Yelp is a free access site and anyone can leave a review for a business that they have experience with.
Bad reviews are a part of having a local business. This is especially true when you throw in online platforms and social media pages that are open to the general public.
Now :
While getting a bad review or negative comments can sting, there is no way to remove them from your Yelp page.
This does not mean that you have to suffer greatly from them, and in fact, you can use them as an opportunity to show you truly care about your customers by responding to their complaints and concerns.
As a business owner, there isn’t anything you can do to keep someone from leaving a bad review.
And the unfortunate truth is that a fair number of bad reviews simply are the result of a personal experience, a bad day for the individual customer, or a personal issue that they choose to air out on the social platform.
This is the way of the social review site and potential customers generally do understand that while these kinds of reviews are reliable at large, it still very much is a case-by-case basis.
While they may lower your perfect 5-star rating and hurt to look at, most customers understand that a few negative reviews among 4 and 5-star ones are normal.
It gets better :
Most people will not be negatively swayed by bad reviews unless there are a fair number of them compared to the more positive reviews.
If you have ever asked if you can delete a Yelp review, the answer is no, and the solution is actually to embrace those bad reviews and respond to them, showing that you are the better person and care about your customers’ experiences.
Yelp Reviews Concluding Thoughts
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For anyone with a Yelp business page, here are key takeaways to get the most out of the social review platform:
- Improve your profile on Yelp by using keywords and linking to your website and other social media pages.
- The answer to the question can you pay yelp to remove bad reviews is no and never pay someone to try to do it.
- Don’t be tempted to figure out how to get rid of yelp reviews or to buy fake reviews to boost your stars.
- Be active on your profile, respond to customers, maintain hours and specials, and make updates regularly.
- Ask loyal customers to leave reviews and mention specific services that you’d like them to talk about.
- Ask all new customers to leave a review when they check out or finish using your services to promote communication.
- Always be honest with customers and focus on what you have to offer rather than attacking the competition.
- Put customers first, treat everyone fairly, and always put your best foot forward online.
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