Small Business Owners Guide to Yelp

Small Business
Guide to
How to Make the Review Site Work For Your Business

Small Business Guide to Yelp
How to Make the Review Site Work For Your Business
The Internet has revolutionized the face of marketing and offers
consumers a plethora of resources to thoroughly research a product
or service before making the decision to buy. According to the
Fleishman-Hillard 2012 Digital Consumer Index, 89 percent of the
consumers surveyed claimed to use the Internet to make their buying
decisions. Approximately 70 percent of consumer searches on the
web are for local businesses, and 81 percent of these local searches
that are performed using a mobile device result in conversions.
These statistics alone indicate the power of local search.
Yelp and Local Search
In an effort to bring together consumers and local businesses, Yelp was born in 2004. This online
collection of reviews on local restaurants, attractions and shops prides itself on helping consumers find
nearby businesses based on reviews and recommendations from informed and credible locals. As of the
first quarter of 2013, the site featured more than 39 million reviews of local businesses and reported
approximately 102 million monthly visitors, on average. Yelp is one of the most widely used local search
and review resources for consumers, so your business can’t afford to not have an active presence on this
site.
Having an active presence on Yelp offers local businesses a number of advantages, including:
• In a world where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is key, Yelp provides another opportunity for your
business to appear at the top of a search-results page. Yelp activity has a real impact on your search
rankings.
• Consumers crave validation before making a purchase, and being able to read positive reviews on
your Yelp page from actual customers about their experiences with your product or service helps to
build instant credibility for your brand.
• Yelp provides your business with another opportunity to deepen the relationship with your
customers and create loyalty for your brand. By recognizing the value of your customer reviews and
responding to them, you can communicate your appreciation for your customers and encourage
repeat business.
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Getting Started with Yelp
Now that you’ve made the decision to make Yelp a part of your local search marketing strategy, you may
be wondering how to get started.
It’s always a smart idea to first browse through Yelp to view your competitors’ profiles to see what they’re
doing right. Take note of what their customers are saying about them. Try to gain an understanding of
what merits a strong customer review and why your competitors may be receiving poor reviews. By doing
so, you can leverage your own success on the site.
The next step is to create your own Yelp business profile in its entirety. Pay close attention to the
following critical components:
• Be sure to fill out your business name, select a
category for your business, and provide your full
address, phone number.
• Share your website address and other social media
sites on which you have an active presence.
• Include important information about your
business, such as your hours, price point, parking
information, and anything else that your customers
should know before paying you a visit.
• Create a detailed bio about your business that will
help to further convince prospective customers to
visit your business.
• Offer a strong photo gallery, ideally with professional shots that will help communicate to your
customers what your business is all about. It’s a good idea to include a picture of the front of your
business to help first time visitors better recognize your location.
Small Business Guide to Yelp: How to Make the Review Site Work For Your Business

Getting Yelp Reviews
Once you’ve had a chance to create a Yelp profile that you are pleased with, the next and, equally
important, step is to get reviews from customers. Because the majority of people are turning to the
Internet to research a product or service before making the decision to buy it, Yelp reviews offer a
unique opportunity for consumers to read an actual customer’s true experience with your brand. Your
customers have the option to rate their experiences with your business on a scale of one star to five
stars, with five stars being an exceptional experience. Your brand becomes more credible as you bring in
more and more positive reviews..
So how do you go about getting Yelp reviews for your business?
The point of a Yelp review is to provide a real-life account of a customer experience with your product
or service. The best reviews are written spontaneously by customers with recent experience with your
business. While one of the most challenging tasks of building a strong Yelp business profile is earning
positive reviews from customers, here are some helpful tips for getting reviews from customers:
• Include a link to your Yelp page on your website, social media
sites, and email signature. If you send out a regular newsletter,
be sure to make your readers aware of your Yelp page.
• Post Yelp signage at your place of business to increase
awareness of your company’s presence on the review site.
• Frame and hang your positive Yelp reviews at your place of
business for customers to see. Not only will this give kudos to
your business, but it may inspire others to write a review of
their positive experiences in dealing with your company.
• Host a Yelp event to thank your customers who completed
reviews on the site. By advertising your upcoming event, you
may entice more people to write reviews about your business.

As you can imagine, not all reviews will be positive for your business. In fact, one of the biggest challenges
that small business owners have with Yelp is the impact that a negative review can have on their image.
According to the latest data collected by Yelp through the first quarter of 2013, 39 percent of reviews
were five stars, 27 percent of reviews were four stars, 13 percent of reviews were three stars, 8 percent
of reviews were two stars, and 13 percent of reviews were one star. Because it’s inevitable that your
business will receive a negative review at some point or another, here are some ways to rectify the
situation while keeping your brand’s image intact:
• Decide whether to publicly or privately respond to the comment. A public response that is dealt with
and resolved in a positive manner can actually build more respect for your brand. Also, once the issue
has been addressed and the customer is once again satisfied with your brand, you could ask that he
or she submit an update to the negative review on Yelp to portray your business in a better light.
• If you would prefer to deal with the negative review privately, ask the customer for feedback on what
you should have done differently to have created a more positive experience. Depending on the
response, you could ask the customer for a second chance to win him over, or at the very least, the
customer could evaluate how you have taken his feedback into consideration by paying your business
a second visit.
• If you feel that the negative review is defaming your business and there is no resolution to the
situation, you can contact Yelp directly to get the review removed from your business profile. While
this option may be tempting with each negative review, it should be used as a last resort as it’s in your
brand’s best interest to resolve the dispute with your angry customer.

Probably the primary reason why consumers consider Yelp to be such a credible review site is that it is
filtered to weed out fake reviews from a business owner who aggressively puts a laptop in front of his
customers and requests positive five-star reviews. A common frustration business owners have with Yelp
is that customers will tell them that they gave the business positive reviews on the site, but those reviews
are nowhere to be found. This is because the Yelp filter typically kicks out reviews completed by newer
and less established Yelp users. Therefore, if a customer recently created a Yelp profile simply to write a
positive review for your business, it probably won’t land on your business’s Yelp profile. The best way to
correct this is to encourage your customers to create full Yelp user profiles versus just providing the basic
information as this will make them more credible reviewers by the Yelp filter’s standard.
Regardless of whether a review is positive or negative, you should take the time to respond to them. Not
only will this help to further build the relationship between your business and the customer, but it can
earn your business higher rankings through Yelp’s internal search engine.
Advertising on Yelp
In addition to attracting customers organically to your business through customer reviews, Yelp also
offers businesses a variety of advertising options. As a rule of thumb, it’s generally a good idea to have
at least three positive reviews (three-and-a-half stars or better) on your business’s Yelp profile before
considering advertising with the website. Advertising through Yelp offers your business yet another
opportunity to improve its search rankings.
Yelp Deals
Similar to popular local deal websites such as ScoutMob or Groupon, Yelp offers businesses the
opportunity to run a “Yelp deal.” Through this advertising option, businesses can choose to offer a
discount on a product or service or allow customers to purchase gift certificates through the site.
By running a Yelp discount deal, there is no upfront cost to your business; however, once a deal is
purchased by a customer, you will pay 30 percent of the collected fee to Yelp. If a customer purchases a
gift certificate through your Yelp deal, you will be responsible for paying 10 percent of the collected fee to
Yelp.
Yelp Monthly Ads
Another advertising option for businesses to consider is a Yelp monthly ad. These ads are sold on a
contract basis (typically six to 12 months), and during this time your ads may appear on a competitor’s
Yelp page, but your competitors can’t place ads on your Yelp page. While this can provide peace of mind
to your business, it is one of the more costly advertising options on Yelp.

Yelp PPC Ads
Yelp also offers businesses the option for pay-per-click ads, which are sold for $3 each. This advertising
strategy can position your business to appear above regular search results as well as on your
competitors’ Yelp pages. Your business would have the opportunity to design its own advertisement or
allow Yelp to feature a snippet of a positive customer review for your advertisement.
Using Yelp Metrics
Many small business owners are not aware of Yelp metrics and how it can be such a powerful tool in
strategically positioning your business on the website. For example, through Yelp’s dashboard, you can
track all of the traffic that your Yelp profile receives as well as how many times your business appeared in
search results on Yelp. You can also gain a better understanding of how your online visitors are engaging
with your Yelp profile, such as clicks to your website, check-ins, and uploaded photos. This information
can help you to better measure the success of your business’s Yelp profile.
Closing
Yelp is an online guide that offers businesses a free way to connect with existing and prospective
customers. Being recognized as one of the most credible review sites with more than one million online
visitors per month, on average, your business cannot afford avoid having an active presence on Yelp.
Today’s consumers crave third-party validation before making a buying decision, and Yelp offers opinions
about brands from trusted locals in the know. To learn more about Yelp and how it can be a smart online
marketing strategy for your business, please contact us at DigitalSherpa.
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Small Business Owners Guide to Yelp

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