Over the past year, we have seen a lot of San Diego based businesses increase their web traffic through Yelp. Businesses that can gain positive Yelp reviews from active users will see an increase in their business. The question is, are you a Yelper? If not, you should be. One of the great changes that social media has allowed for is the ability to voice your opinion. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are all great platforms for expressing your voice on any number of subjects. Yelp has a very distinct purpose, which is to share your experience about a business.
How Yelp Works
The more you Yelp, the more credibility your reviews will have and the more likely they will get seen by other users. Creating an account and adding only 1 review will likely be filtered out of the reviews for a business. Additionally, the more diverse your reviews are, the better a good review will be for a business. If you give everyone 5 stars, then you have decreased the value of a 5 star rating. Lastly, adding friends to your Yelp profile will help increase your visibility to those users as friends reviews always show up on top.
What Business Owners Should Be Doing
- Claim your business on Yelp so that you have control over the important areas of your profile like store hours, description, categories, etc.
- Optimize your profile – once claimed, make sure your profile is complete and follows the Yelp guidlines
- Offer a special or promotion – once claimed, you have the ability to manage coupons for your business
- Make sure there is a listing for each of your locations – if you have multiple locations, make sure each one is on Yelp
- Promote your Yelp page to satisfied customers – ask your happiest customers to review your company and share their experiences with others
- Try advertising with Yelp, they offer two forms of advertising and we suggest the pay per click approach. Stick to a manageable budget for 2-3 months and review your site analytics and call activity.
Advertising with YELP
We do not recommend Yelp’s monthly advertising programs. The cost per click is incrementally higher and the added benefits are not very appealing. To learn more about advertising on Yelp and get expert advise from our team, please contact us.
This is a great article. Yelp rocks, too bad their advertising platform is so shotty from an analytics standpoint.