Yelp is known as a great way for both shoppers and business owners to get the honest truth about a business and the service or products they offer through it (sometimes for business owners) rigorous review process. We hear it nearly every day… so many have with Yelp the review process.Trying to understand how certain reviews are selected and others are not, will give anyone a headache. What we can do is try and break down some ways to improve the chances in getting reviews to show up on a business page and help you understand the review process.
Understanding Yelp’s Review Process
Yelp’s review process is designed to be unable “to be cheated.” There are ways to try and have reviews show up more frequently, but none of them are fool proof and Yelp is constantly changing the way it decides which reviews to have appear on a business profile page. Sigh!
Yelp makes the way they choose what reviews are posted intricate (or confusing) by design to keep their reviews genuine.
A review is always kept in Yelp database and if it is not live on your yelp business page right now there is a chance it can come back.
This exert is from Yelp Support Page and specifically explains Yelps review process.
“The filter continually reevaluates its decisions based on the information at hand. As a result, it’s fairly common to see reviews come and go as the filter picks up new information. Either way, business owners should probably focus less on any one review and more on their entire body of reviews. Reviewers, in turn, should contribute to the site and give the filter a chance to get to know them over the long-term.”
Improving Your chances of More Reviews
If you or someone you know posted a review on Yelp and it was removed, you probably have questions on how to make it stick next time.
- The best way to get your review to stick is to have regular Yelpers post them. Meaning people who are trusted sources on Yelp, not just going in for the first time to help you out.
- There is a small social aspect to Yelp reviews. It helps to be friends with members of Yelp. The more active a Yelper, the better chance a review by them will stick.
- Engage the reviewer, send them a message saying thank you for your review and vote on it being either cool, useful, or funny depending on the specific review. Remember to add them as a friend.
- I also found that there is a small social part involved in the Yelp reviews. Such as if you are friends.
- Less volume of reviews over longer periods of time will also help reviews stick. Natural is key!
- Another way is to encourage QR codes. Simply print a piece of paper with the Yelp icon and the QR code going to your Yelp review site, and post it in your business. This is easy but there is a small drawback; if it creates a huge spike in traffic on your business profile page there is a chance Yelp may block some reviews because of the spontaneous increase.
- Never used a QR code? Check out Cal Coast Web Design blog on QR codes for some help.
