Avoid The Frustration While Taking Advantage of Yelp’s Powerful Platform
You might already know that Yelp is a leader when it comes to the power of online reviews and local search, but Yelp can be very frustrating for businesses because of one little feature that causes reviews to disappear. Having legit customer reviews that fall off can be a hassle, especially because it can be difficult to obtain reviews from customers for a business starting their online reputation management marketing.
Do I Really Need To Deal With Yelp?
The short answer is yes, at least to the majority of local businesses in a lot of industries. There is a two part reason for this answer.
- Yelp is a leader when it comes to authentic reviews which is what customers want to see because it will help in the decision process. Yelp is a huge resource as far as finding out information about a business that is useful, customers save time when going shopping, going out to eat and other things they want to know, especially making sure the quality is good by what kind of reviews they can read online.
- When you are listed with Yelp and have ongoing local reviews on your business page you will notice a boost in local online visibility. Along with optimizing your listing on Yelp, encouraging customers who are on Yelp to write positive reviews will help you be found by their friends through Yelp and Facebook as well as increase your local SEO power that helps your business be found online in online searches not on Yelp.
Why Is My Business Losing Reviews on Yelp?
Yelp has their own unique program which goes through reviews on a regular basis to help filter out real reviews from unreal reviews. This automated program has a complicated the details are a closely kept secret, but uses certain factors to help determine which reviews stay active and which reviews fall under the not recommended list. This is certainly frustrating, especially when you personally know some of these customers. If you have lost reviews, this is the most likely potential culprit. Unfortunately, there is nothing Yelp employees can do if a review falls prey to the not recommended list. Fortunately, there are important details to keep in mind to prevent your customer reviews from falling off.
Factors that can cause a review to fall off:
- The reviewer is inactive, a one time user just for your business, or even a first time user.
- The reviewer’s profile is incomplete, without additional information or a photo.
- Reviews from the same IP address can look fake or like spam, which is why having customers write reviews at your business can fall off.
- The reviewer posted from a location not near your business, even though they may have traveled through your area.
- Not enough details or the review is lacking details such as,”Best hair salon!”, or even “Terrible service.”
- Very biased or strongly slanted, meaning always negative or always positive.
- Or if you have received a large amount of reviews or a “flood” of reviews. These look like spam or paid for reviews even if you just a sent a mass request asking for reviews.
Remember that Yelp is a business and is focused on getting information to customers and they look for indicators of what could potentially be a fake review that can harm the impact they have in serving their customers. These factors can impact, both positive and negative reviews alike and can actually protect your business from competitors leaving fake negative reviews.
What To Do To Have Positive Reviews Pass Through The Filter & Stay Active
Yelp can have a positive impact with building your online presence, staying connected with customers, and reaching new customers. If you have a lot of customers who want to get involved with Yelp and leave you a review there, educate them on how to make the most out of Yelp and learn to take advantage of the factors to help reviews stay active.
Factors to help your customer reviews stay active:
- Active users are at the top of the list. They can be active by downloading the Yelp app and use it to “check in” around town. Users who use Yelp regularly and engage with Yelp friends and reviews by making them useful, funny or cool.
- Reviewers who have completed profiles and have connected Yelp to their Facebook account.
- Reviewers that go beyond one experience to leave helpful tips for other future customers.
Moving Forward
Make a game plan, learn what is needed to be an active player on the Yelp business directory platform. Learn how you can compete with online reviews and actively pursue it with your customers. A little extra time with each customer now can turn into a strong online presence on Yelp and in turn other places online later. You may even see a common result of increased sales in the process. Have fun marketing, look below for additional links and information, and remember we are here to help.
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