Let me read you a support ticket a small business owner put in:

How do I delete my business from Yelp? I’ve had it with them.  The rep keeps calling me wanting me to pay $1500 to advertise.  I’m shoemaker.  I make shoes.  I wouldn’t even know where to get $1500, let alone advertise.  I want my account closed!

This is one of the most frequently asked questions that is asked at our support center. Small business owners who are upset, or better yet exhausted and frustrated with dealing with Yelp/Yelpers will often look to the web to try to figure out how to get some sort of control over Yelp. Running your own business is frustrating enough and having to deal with strangers online leaving reviews makes it even more challenging.

HOW TO DELETE A BUSINESS FROM YELP

Unless you have been living under a rock, you know that your business is listed on Yelp. Yelp is an online directory that lists your business information and allows anyone to leave a review. Reviews are scored on 0 – 5 star rating (5 stars being the best) and members (Yelpers) can leave written reviews. Before we move forward, let’s take a look at the Yelp ecosystem – these stats came directly from Yelp:

Yelp Demographics (2018)

The age demographic for Yelp is pretty young with 36% hitting between 18-34 years old. That means that businesses who cater to this audience have more chances to be reviewed on Yelp. Does that mean that your business that caters to an older demographic won’t be reviewed on Yelp? Nope. It will also be reviewed, maybe not as much. Yelp grows in popularity by day and is considered to be one of the strongest competitors to Google when it comes to local business searches.

Are all Yelp Reviews Negative?

Outside of that review sites, in general, have a higher ratio of negative to positive reviews. The reason? If you’ve had a bad experience the odds are higher that you’ll post them on the web. That being said, we’ve seen businesses out there that have stellar reviews…and not just on Yelp. So, if you play your cards right and you use these review sites as customer satisfaction surveys, you can really improve your business as well as your reviews.

Does Yelp Extort Businesses?

Outside of negative reviews many small businesses feel the infamous “Yelp Extortion”. Business owners have claimed that they received bad reviews on Yelp and then would receive a call from a Yelp account executive trying to convince them to advertise on Yelp. Many owners felt it was an extortion racket. Countless times we’ve heard from restaurant clients and their social media marketing firms that they’ve received good reviews and Yelp hides them until they pay to advertise. Some owners would love to advertise, but the price is in the $500+ a month range. The jury is still out on this, since there is no solid proof of Yelp’s extortion; only hearsay.

Why Should You Embrace Yelp?

It is understandable why you, the business owner, might feel obliged to close your account. Our advice to you is: don’t. Why, you ask? Yelp, Google, Tripadvisor, and all directory sites are free marketing. They are highly trafficked websites that your business is listed on and you can capture hundreds or even thousands of new customers. Ask yourself, “How much is one client worth?” If you are a dentist one new client is worth $500. Get 10 new leads a month from a site like Yelp and that’s an extra $5,000 for doing nothing. It’s free advertising!

HOW TO TAKE CONTROL OF YELP

You are probably saying to yourself right now, but Mr. Socialdraft I have a 2-star Yelp review, no one going to visit my establishment. Well, that is where online marketing and Socialdraft come in. Here are the steps to resuscitate your 2-star and bring you up to a 3+.

1. Claim Your Listing:

Fill out your Yelp Business account as much as possible. This means all business information, website, features, hours, specialties, history, about us, and most important of all; photos. Add lots and lots of photos.  Do this on a constant basis. Remember people are visual and they want to see what your establishment has to offer.

[fve]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNC8CYKRBOI[/fve]

2. Manage Your Social Media

Being active on Social Media is a great way to compete with Yelp. If you keep your business active on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram you give people other places to find out information about you. Think about all the time people spend on Social lately…it’s time you put efforts here so you can begin to control the conversation. What can you do with Socialdraft?

• Schedule posts to your Facebook business page, Twitter account, Instagram account, and even Pinterest boards and LinkedIn business pages.
• You can monitor your online reputation. Socialdraft scours 7 billion websites and brings any mentions of your business into the dashboard. See something you like, share it to social in seconds.
• Set up people in your company to work on social media AND give them whatever permissions you like. This way you can let people create content and feel comfortable that you have control.
• Pull reports whenever you want to see if you are growing at the pace you want to grow at
• And tons more.

3. Respond to Yelp Reviews

Respond to EVERY yelper’s review whether it’s positive or negative. Be courteous and respectful. This is about customer retention and capture. The majority of the times you are writing not for the reviewer, but for those who may see that review.

Say I went to your law office and had a bad experience and put it on Yelp. You should respond and see if you can apologize for their bad experience. When people see you’re a human they will more likely want to do business with you (or take down that negative review). Check out our guide on how to respond to negative reviews on Yelp if you need some help on this.

PRO TIP: Instead of responding to Yelp review by yourself. Hire us. Socialdraft’s experts can help you manage all those nasty reviews, not just on Yelp, but also on TripAdvisor, Google and many more. Click the support button on the bottom right hand corner to get more information on Socialdraft Managed Services.

4. Share the Positives

Got a 5-star review on Yelp? Share it on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (our dashboard makes that easy). Share it even if the review has been filtered. It could be that this is a new Yelper who has no other reviews & that is why they are filtered. There’s no reason people should not get to see that people love you on Yelp.

If you still want to cancel your Yelp Business account, we have bad news for you. You can’t. Here is the official wording from Yelp.com:

Consumers have the right to talk about what they like (and don’t like) about a meal they ate, a plumber they hired, or a car wash they visited. We don’t remove business listings, so your best bet is to engage with your fans and critics alike, and hear what they have to say.

So I guess you’ll have to follow our advice and hopefully get more free clients.

It’s incredibly frustrating when you go on Yelp and see that a positive review has been hidden by their filter. It’s become a fact of business that not all positive reviews are going to stay visible on your Yelp review page. You reply to Yelp reviews, you have updated your listing, and you’re left wondering why all those great reviews by real customers don’t come up on your listing. You want to know how the Yelp review filter works. If you want to know how Yelp determines if a review gets to stay visible on your business page, read on.   Although Yelp has not revealed their Review Filter algorithm, here are a few reasons reviews may be filtered.

How the Yelp Review Filter Works

There are many reasons why a review will be hidden by the Yelp review filter. Mind you, that the algorithm usually puts a few or many of these into action when filtering a review, we’ll explore that a bit later. For now, let’s discuss the individual reasons the Yelp review filter may come into place:

Location: The review is written from a location that is different from the location of the small business. For example, a review for a restaurant in New York city is posted from an IP address in India.  Yelp is a smart company, they know when businesses purchase reviews and have worked filters into their algorithm to keep reviews honest. However, this may sometimes (rarely) affect a true review from a customer who travels.

Overly Positive: If the review is overly positive, it may set off some flags on the Yelp filter.

New Account: If the review is from a reviewer who has never before yelped about anything, Yelp is likely to hide their review. This means that legitimate reviews get filtered because of a yelper with low activity. These reviews may be unhidden as the user becomes more active on the platform. The issue here is that your customers will also get frustrated when Yelp hides their review and may never come back to write that second and third review making your review null and void.

Questionable Reviewer: A review may be hidden if it is written by someone without a profile, profile picture, or friends. These are all flags that the reviewer is not a real person.

Yelp Thinks You Cheated: If the review came from your IP address (maybe a user logged onto your wifi) it may get filtered.

BUT: Yelp hardly ever looks at these individually. Yelp’s blog states that three key things go into a review that sticks: quality, reliability, and user activity. Say for example that a Yelp user reviewed your restaurant from your IP address. Yelp will consider the user’s review history, their geo-location and much more before hiding this review. The lesson here is that the Yelp review is complicated and not triggered by one thing, but by many sophisticated things.

Why Reviews Are NOT Filtered by Yelp

Fully Filled Out Profile: A user with an image and a full profile is more likely to be a real person on Yelp as opposed to one of those disreputable companies where you can buy Yelp Reviews.

The Reviewer has Friends: A reviewer who has friends is probably a real person. This goes along with the item above.

Connected Social Networks: A user who has connected other social networks like Twitter or Facebook has more authenticity than one who has not.

The Review was Left on Mobile: Yelp favors reviews on mobile. These are more likely to be left right after someone has just been in the business. Checking in also increases the chances that the Yelp review will not be filtered.

The Reviewer is Active: If the reviewer is an active Yelper their review has an almost 100% chance of sticking.

The Review is Good: Good as in well written, not necessarily positive. A well-written review with no typos that has nice length is more likely not to be filtered by Yelp.

The Reviewer Added Photos: Again, this is proof that the reviewer was at the location and that the review is real.

What You Can do About Yelp Reviews

Monitor Reviews

Keep track of your reviews. If you see a review that comes in from a customer who has no friends, message him or her. Suggest that she add an image to her profile and add a few more reviews for other businesses. This may help Yelp figure out that she is a real person leaving a real review.

A simple suggestion for the note: Hi (person’s name), thanks so much for coming to our business and sharing your experience with the Yelp community. We are thrilled and incredibly grateful. Looks like Yelp has filtered your review. This happens with new Yelpers who have no profile picture, only a few reviews, and no friends on the site. In order to make the review count, maybe add a picture to your profile and add me as a friend.”

Respond to reviews

Yelp thrives on content. Ever wonder why they rule Google search? Every review is a piece of original content for Google to index. Be they positive or negative, filtered, or unfiltered, respond to reviews. This is what a professional, energetic business owner does. Let your customers know that you care about them and your business.  We’ve got an article on how to respond to Yelp reviews, but in the meantime, here are some templates to get you started. Edit these so that they are personalized. The whole idea is to keep happy customers happy and to convert unhappy ones with your great follow-up.

Positive Review: Hi (Person’s name), thank you for stopping by our place and for sharing your experience on Yelp. It really made my day and I will share this with my team. I am certain they will be really excited. Hope to have you back soon – Your Name

Negative Review: Hi (Person’s name), Thank you for giving our business a try and for bringing this issue to my attention. We strive to make all our clients happy and I will discuss this issue with my staff so that we can prevent it in the future. I would like to encourage you to stop by so that I can give you the experience and service you deserve. Please ask for me on your next visit – Your Name

Sensitive Review: If the review deals with anything that could have legal ramifications (be this allegations of race, sexism, etc), it is best to take the response private. You don’t want to get into a screaming match with a customer. In some cases, you may want to seek legal councel.

Vote Up Positive Reviews

Vote for it as funny or useful or useful and funny, this could save it from the filter.

Flag Obviously Fake Reviews

Sometimes you will get a fake or malicious review from a customer, disgruntled employee, or a competitor. In some cases, Yelp will allow businesses to flag reviews for removal if they have violated their Terms Of Service such as:

***Violate Yelp’s Content Guidelines, for example, by writing a fake or defamatory review, trading reviews with other businesses, or compensating someone or being compensated to write or remove a review;

***Violate any third party’s rights, including any breach of confidence, copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, moral right, privacy right, right of publicity, or any other intellectual property or proprietary right;

***Threaten, stalk, harm, or harass others, or promote bigotry or discrimination;

***Promote a business or other commercial venture or event, or otherwise use the Site for commercial purposes, except in connection with a Business Account and as expressly permitted by Yelp;

***Send bulk emails, surveys, or other mass messaging, whether commercial in nature or not; engage in keyword spamming, or otherwise attempt to manipulate the Site’s search results or any third party website;

***Solicit personal information from minors, or submit or transmit pornography; or

***Violate any applicable law.

Now that you have a better idea as to how the Yelp review filter works, it’s time to get back to work. And a big reminder here; every social network such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram competes with Yelp, so keeping those social media pages updated gives your current and potential customers another place to find information about you. This is one of the most important reasons for you to keep your social media pages active by scheduling on a dashboard like Socialdraft. It allows you to maintain a bit more control over your brand and rely a little less on Yelp and their customer reviews.

The answer is…Yes!  You are going to get negative reviews on Yelp, everyone does. It’s become an unfortunate part of running your business. Some of them will be from people who (unfortunately) had real concerns. Others will be fakes by trolls, competitors, or those people just looking to extort you. This happens to all businesses, but if you know how to respond to reviews on Yelp, you may be able to get some reviewers to change their reviews, transform some of them into advocates for your business, and you may even be alerted to issues that could seriously affect your bottom line if left unaddressed. For now, let’s discuss how to respond to Reviews on Yelp.

How to Respond to Reviews on Yelp

Before you can respond, you need to claim your Yelp account (it’s free and you can do it here). It is the only way to get some control over your listing.

Understand that this will be a time-consuming task. There should be someone at your business who is tasked with logging in daily or bi-weekly to address reviews.

There are a few things you can do to make your Yelp responses a bit more effective and increase your chances of having a Yelper update his or her review.

[fve]http://youtu.be/7D4WxokJJGc[/fve]

1. Take your Time

I know you’re hurt, you’re angry, you’re confused about what to do. You want to grab that Yelper by the throat and choke them until they eat their words. This won’t help (and probably will land you in jail). Close up Yelp, grab a glass of chamomile tea, and calm your nerves. Remember that responding with angry words will only give validity to the person who left the negative review. Never stoop to their level. Take a day or two before you respond. You don’t want to come off like Amy’s Baking Company. You always want to sound cool and collected. Ranting will only make you seem like an emotional wreck and this will reflect upon your business.

2. Get the Facts 

Read the review. See if you can figure out what day the reviewer came to your business. Speak with your staff and try to get as much information as you can. If it was a customer service issue, keep in mind that your team may try to cover up. We’re not saying not to trust your team, just to keep an open mind. What state of mind was the Yelper in when they wrote the review. All this information will help you to come up with your response.

3. Private  vs Public Response 

This depends on the situation. If the complaint is something simple and fixable, make it public. If the review deals with something sensitive, make your response private and try to take it off the platform.

4. Start With a Thank You 

I know you are upset, but this will not only make you look classy, it will also disarm the reviewer. It shows that you care for them, their opinion and your business. “Thank you for taking the time to share your opinion with the Yelp community. It is through your feedback that we can become a better business.”

5. Address The Criticism 

By addressing the criticism up front, it shows that you actually read the review and that you value the reviewer’s opinion. Do your best to get more information from the reviewer if the information was not given in the review. This shows them that you are willing and wanting to correct the issue. ***Look for patterns here, sometimes reviews can be quite helpful in finding negative patterns in a business such as a rude employee, or lack of features.

NEED SOMEONE TO MANAGE YELP REVIEWS? TRY OUR MANAGED SERVICES

6. Be Honest 

Sometimes things go awry. If the reviewer is addressing a valid issue, acknowledge this and plainly state how you plan to rectify the situation for future clients. Something simple, like “We aim to make all our client’s experiences perfect. Thank you for bringing this issue to my attention. I have spoken with the employee who assisted you so that this does not occur in the future.” Another useful response can be: “CustomerName, I am sad to hear that you did not enjoy the tart. It is one of our most popular dishes, but maybe you caught us on an off day. I will make sure to taste through them when I get in today so I can make sure that was a one time issue.”

7. The Finish

This is your final chance to make amends, gain back that customer, and hopefully, have them update their review. Try something simple: “Next time you drop by, please ask for me so that I can make sure you receive the service I wish for all of our customers. Thanks again for your feedback”.

WHAT TO DO WITH A TROLL REVIEW

1. Flag it: 

Yelp allows businesses to flag reviews if they violate their Content Guidelines (the following comes directly from the Yelp website)

     Inappropriate content: threats, harassment, lewdness, hate speech, and other displays of bigotry.
     Conflicts of interest: Your contributions should be unbiased and objective. A review by a competitor would fit into this category.
     Privacy: Yelpers are not allowed to publicize other people’s private info including photos w/o permission.
     Personal experience: They can’t write reviews about someone else’s experiences.

How to Counteract Yelp

A great way to counteract Yelp is to be active on social media. Think of each social media site as its own mini search engine all of which allow you to control a bit of your message. For example, tourists will hop on Instagram and explore either locations or hashtags to discover new things. If you’re active, you give yourself a higher chance to be discovered.

How to Manage Social Media

Socialdraft is an all-in-one Social Media Dashboard. It is the most robust and simple tool for agencies and teams to effectively handle social media. With Socialdraft you can:

Schedule posts to Facebook pages, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn Business Pages, and Pinterest
Boards
Schedule posts individually, as recurring posts, or bulk upload them as CSV
Easily re-schedule with a drag & drop action
Schedule GIFs to Facebook and Twitter
Download content calendars as PDF
Keep an eye on your online reputation and easily share the good news to social
Find content on Instagram and easily schedule reposts not just to Instagram but to all other social networks
Engage on Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin
Download reports for Facebook and Twitter
and tons more…

Want to try us out? We offer a risk-free trial. Sign-up today.

A classic example of the power social media wields over businesses involves an incident with the Union Street Guest House in Hudson, New York. Recent media coverage revealed that the hotel fines couples $500 for every negative review posted any where online by one of their guests.

Since a negative review on websites like Yelp could possibly cause permanent damage to a business, even if the customer review is unfair and lacks objectivity, the Union Street Guest House reasoned that the best way to keep negative reviews off Yelp and other sites was to simply fine guests $500 for writing a bad review. The hotel claimed they would will also fine you $500 if you’re staying there to attend a wedding at another venue, but leave a negative review about your stay.

The hotel included the following policy on its website, which has since been removed:

“Please know that despite the fact that wedding couples love Hudson and our inn, your friends and families may not. If you have booked the inn for a wedding or other type of event […] and given us a deposit of any kind […] there will be a $500 fine that will be deducted from your deposit for every negative review […] placed on any Internet site by anyone in your party.”

And although the hotel agreed to refund the money if the negative review was taken offline, the Union Street Guest House’s Yelp page is currently full of one-star reviews for dreadful service and intimidation tactics.

One reviewer wrote: “I stayed here for a wedding in May. Let’s just say this was the worst experience I’ve ever had at a hotel… The staff rubbed both myself and my gf the wrong way with their unhelpful, rude and inhospitable manor. The bed felt lumpy and the rooms were way to hipster for my tastes. I ultimately had to sleep in a sleeping bag to avoid the lumps. Heck I would have had a better experience if I just camped out on the lawn outside. The worst part, however, was the ‘hotel’ policy about reviews. So in an effort to ensure that the bride and groom (whom are two of my best friends) don’t get charged I felt it best to whip out my rarely used 2nd yelp account.”

Since the media backlash, the Union Street Guest House quickly recanted their claim in a pathetic attempt at damage control. According to Ars Technica, the hotel posted the following statement on its Facebook page:

“The policy regarding wedding fines was put on our site as a tongue-in-cheek response to a wedding many years ago. It was meant to be taken down long ago and certainly was never enforced.”

But as Ars Technica points out, no amount of Facebook spin is going to fix the damage, which is now irreparable, and once the news leaked, the Union Street Guest House’s Yelp page became a war zone. Other businesses have also tried to repress bad reviews, but Ars notes the harder a business tries to crack down, the angrier the masses get.

“You’re In It Whether You Want To Be Or Not”

San Francisco chef Jeff Mason characterized the Yelp review situation this way — “You’re in it whether you want to be or not, and that’s what’s so frustrating.”

Calls placed by Ars to the Union Street Guest House’s main phone number went unanswered. As Lee Hutchinson, Senior Reviews Editor at Ars, so aptly explains:

“Even a minuscule number of negative reviews can have a disproportionately large detrimental effect on a business’s margins, and it’s easy to see why the Union Street Guest House might want to try to be proactive in preventing negative reviews from happening in the first place.”

But the Union Street Guest House clearly made a grave error in judgement by fining guests $500 for negative reviews, which can hardly be seen as “proactive.” It should be clear to anyone that the most appropriate proactive move on the hotel’s part would be to address and correct specific criticisms.

Yelp is as Much Savior as Antagonist

The irony is, as San Francisco Magazine’s Rebecca Flint Marx notes, that many restaurants also owe their success to sites like Yelp. “As Charles Bililies, the owner of Souvla, a modestly hip four-month-old souvlaki joint in Hayes Valley, says, ‘You want some feedback, but don’t want to necessarily empower people so they are controlling you.’ Psychologically, he says, ‘it’s a very, very fine line to walk.’”

How to Manage & Grow Your Social Media Accounts

Instead of resorting to scaring your guests and customers, begin to work on a strong social media and reputation monitoring strategy. For this you need Socialdraft, your all-in-one tool for Social Media management. Socialdraft allows you to:

Schedule posts to multiple Social media accounts
Have multiple people create and post content
Pull Reports
Engage
and much more
If you’re curious about how Socialdraft works, take us for a risk-free trial.

BIG…HUGE news for the restaurant industry. The travel site Priceline announced in a press release that they would be adding OpenTable to their portfolio of acquisitions. The purchase will cost 2.6 billion.  Why is this important to you as a restaurant owner or manager?

Priceline Group to Acquire OpenTable

OPENTABLE STATS

* 31,000 restaurants are on OpenTable
* 15 million people use OpenTable monthly
* It has a google glass app which allows you to make reservations without touching your phone or computer

OTHER COMPANIES OWNED BY PRICELINE

* Booking.com
* Agoda.com
* Kayak
* Rentalcars.com
* Quickcue,  Rezbook, Foodspotting (once the OpenTable acquisition goes through)

This probably means that OpenTable will be somehow integrated into these platforms giving you more reach.

On top of all this, OpenTable partnered with Facebook so its users can make reservations directly from restaurants’ mobile Facebook pages. OpenTable has also been playing with a payment feature to allow members to pay via their app AND they’re testing out “Hot Tables” which helps their users get reservations at hot restaurants.

HOW OPENTABLE WORKS

* Booking through the restaurant website via the OpenTable widget cost $0.25 per seated diner.
* Booking through OpenTable directly costs the restaurant $1.00 per seated diner
* OpenTable allows restaurants to keep notes on customers
* OpenTable users earn points by dining out that can be used towards meals in the future

OPENTABLE ALTERNATIVES
* Resy: Ben Leventhal and Gary Vaynerchuk are launching this reservations system that charges diners, not restaurants.
* Yelp: Free reservations for restaurants that have claimed their listings.
* CityEats: Last we heard, it had been put up for sale by Scripps Network Interactive. The system is available in Chicago; Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia; Phoenix; New Orleans; New York; and parts of South Florida.
* TripAdvisor: They recently purchased LaFourchette, which is quite similar to OpenTable but serves the European market.

We’re not at all surprised that Yelp recently announced they’ll be launching video reviews. As the world gets more and more used to the mobile web, it only makes sense that Yelp would encourage this type of content.

Yelp Video Reviews

When video reviews launch, users can add them to Yelp via its mobile app (much like pictures). This means that customers can leave feedback in real time for local businesses and places. The feature will launch next month to Yelp Elites. The feature will be released to all users in the future, but Yelp has not announced when.

About Yelp Video Reviews

• Only available to Yelp Elites (for now)
• 12 seconds max
• User can select a cover photo for the review
• Yelpers can add caption to reviews
• At first, Yelp’s video reviews will show up with the photos but we expect they will be integrated into the review area soon.

What This Could Mean to Your business

Video reviews could turn out to be a blessing in disguise by preventing multiple negative reviews by the same person (or a competitor’s business). They could also deter people from posting fraudulent reviews by making them re-think just how much they want their face involved with a permanent online review.

It also means that businesses will need to step up their game now that everything can be uploaded to social media in seconds. We expect to see competitors follow suit.

There’s not much on the video reviews on the Yelp Blog yet…but we’ll keep you posted.

How to Manage & Grow Your Social Media Accounts

 Socialdraft is your all-in-one tool for Social Media management. Socialdraft allows you to:

• Schedule posts to multiple Social media accounts
• Have multiple people create and post content
• Pull Reports
• Engage
• and much more

If you’re curious about how Socialdraft works, take us for a risk-free trial. Have questions?

To say that Yelp is a controversial website is putting things mildly. However, Yelp does offer some great features to its users including analytics. In 2014, it joined the ranks of some of its competitors in offering reservations. TripAdvisor purchased French reservations website LaFourchette, Google acquired website builder Appetas, and – in turn – there is now a  Yelp Restaurant reservations system.

Yelp Restaurant Reservations System

Restaurants who have claimed their listing on Yelp are able to offer online reservations at no fee. Here’s the breakdown on the cost to restaurants by reservation system:

Yelp Restaurant Reservations: Free to restaurants with a claimed listing.

OpenTable: $1 per seated diner booked on OpenTable.com or $0.25 per seated diner booked via the restaurant’s website.

How the Yelp Restaurant Reservations System Works

Yelp’s Free RestaurantReservations system (via SeatMe) will include some of SeatMe’s features including being able to accept invitations and send alerts to customers to confirm reservations. Restaurants will also be able to use a widget. If you are a restaurant, you’d be silly not to take advantage. Wether you like Yelp or not, your future customers are there and this feature is free.

How to Turn on Yelp’s Free Reservations

1. Claim your Yelp Listing by clicking here

2. Log onto your Yelp Business Owner Account

3. On the left-hand side, click “SeatMe”

4. Follow their instructions

How to Manage & Grow Your Social Media Accounts

 Socialdraft is your all-in-one tool for Social Media management. Socialdraft allows you to:

• Schedule posts to multiple Social media accounts
• Have multiple people create and post content
• Pull Reports
• Engage
• and much more

If you’re curious about how Socialdraft works, take us for a risk-free trial. Have questions?

You probably already heard that Yahoo partnered up with Yelp. Yahoo’s traffic has been lagging and they struggle to compete with Google’s local listings. They’re also competing with Facebook and Twitter for eyeballs and content. The Yelp-Yahoo partnership has resulted in Yelp reviews being featured on Yahoo’s local business listings. What you probably didn’t know is that Yahoo replaced their own reviews with Yelps. This did not happen immediately. If you look at the listing below for “Bella Pizza” you will note that the listing only showed how many Yelp reviews have been written about the restaurant. All the reviews were written prior to the Yelp-Yahoo partnership. Once a new review comes in for Bella Pizza, the Yelp reviews will show up on the local listing page as seen on Jeanne & Gaston’s listing above. This can have a serious impact on your local businesses.

Yahoo Uses Yelp Reviews

Basically, if you have 100 great reviews on Yahoo, they are safe…that is until a Yelper writes about your business. Once that Yelp review updates to the Yahoo page, all your Yahoo reviews will disappear from the Yahoo Local listing. One Yelp review will remove years of reviews on Yahoo – it does not matter if they are positive or negative.

This is not an issue for Jeanne & Gaston featured above, their Yelp reviews are great, but if you’re a local business with great Yahoo reviews and not so great Yelp reviews – this can have a negative effect on your profit margin. 

Local businesses are outraged. Colonial Hardwood Flooring in Massachusetts expressed their frustration to the Wall Street Journal. Dan Tringale, the business owner said “It’s not easy to get 50 great reviews,”… it’s as if Yahoo “just took away six or seven years of hard work.”

This makes it even more important for you to be aware of your Yelp reviews.