By: Jason Fox

DEFINITIVE (FREE) YELP FOR BUSINESS

GUIDE

DEFINITIVE (FREE) YELP FOR BUSINESS GUIDE

“You can set up a FREE Yelp For Business Account.  It is not

necessary to pay for Yelp Advertising in order to benefit

from this shift. “

The way that people decide what product to buy, what service or professional to use has shifted.  We do not trust advertising.  We still prefer a good personal recommendation or referral, but when that is not available we are looking towards Positive Online Reviews.

We are looking for Angie, Yelp, Google, and Amazon Reviews to steer us in the right direction.  I have put together this Yelp for Business Guide to help you maximize this shift.

There are hundreds of websites that offer a place for customer reviews, so why should we focus on Yelp for business? It is the definitive online customer review platform.

Because of: Traffic Local SEO Social Proof Conversion

WHY SHOULD WE USE YELP FOR BUSINESS

January 2013 Yelp received over 100 Million visitors

January 2013 Over 4.5 Million calls to local businesses were generated on Yelp

January 2013 Over 1 Million customer reviews were written

January 2013 Over 9.4 Million Mobile Devices used Yelp

January 2013 Every second consumer generated directions to a Yelp Business or Called a Yelp Business

YELP TRAFFIC

When it comes to Local, Yelp For Business is dominating the SERP’s (Search Engine Results Page).EXAMPLE:

I searched on Google For :  Haircut Seattle

As you can see above the first 6 results are Yelp Reviews.  And the 7th result is a Google Local Place with 6 Google Reviews.

This is an extreme example to prove my point… However, near ly any Local Search I have done has resulted in at least 1 yelp review being on the first page of results, and often t imes it is the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd result .

LOCAL SEO

Below is a post in a Real Estate Broker Facebook Group that I am part of:

SOCIAL PROOF

Approximately 72% of consumers surveyed said that they trust online reviews as much as personal

recommendations, while 52% said that positive online reviews make them more likely to use a local business. (source: 

Local Consumer Review Survey)

This is an example mobile SERP from searching “Minneapolis Plumber”.  On the left is the initial results and on the right is the result of a click test on the best result (roughly 250 clicks).  

(source : AaronWe iche)

SOCIAL PROOF

Nielsen Ratings did a Yelp Survey to see what kind of influence Yelp had on consumer purchases.

82% of Yelp Users Visit Yelp Because They Intend To Buy a Product or Service

93% of Yelp Users Always/Frequently/Occasionally Purchase from a Local Business After Visiting Yelp

The bottom line here is if someone searches for your Product or Service online and finds you on Yelp, there is a high percentage chance you will make a sale.

CONVERSION

Who Is Visiting Yelp?According to the Quantcast data the AVERAGE YELP’r is:

Asian Female Between 25-34 With kids Earning 100k-150k+ Advanced Degree

YELP DEMOGRAPHICS

What Local Businesses Are They Searching For?

Restaurants Spas Food Nightlife Home/Local Services Professional Services Shopping Pets Hotels Auto Arts & Entertainment Health & Medical REAL ESTATE Financial Services

These bus iness types are l isted in order of popular i ty.  The majority of small businesses surprisingly sti l l do not actively use review sites.

YELP DEMOGRAPHICS

Optimize Your Yelp Business Page

1. Complete Your Business Yelp Profile

Just l ike any other media platform that you are going to use to represent your business, your Yelp For Business Page needs to be filled out completely and accurately.

Don’t forget to add hours of operation, a l ink to your website, pictures, all contact information, descriptions of your business and products or services offered, and most importantly your categories.

HOW TO USE YELP FOR BUSINESS FOR FREE

If you have not done so already you need to create your FREE Yelp For Business Account and create

or claim or business.

2. Create Exciting PromosYelp allows you to create a FREE Call To Action if you create a Yelp Deal… be sure to take advantage of this. 3. Respond To Your ReviewsDon’t be afraid to address negative criticism with an explanation of how you have corrected their complaint.  And by all means make sure to say Thank You to your “Raving Fans”. 4.  Monitor Your TrafficYour Yelp For Business Account offers free Analytics.  Here you can see how many people visited your Yelp Page, how many took action, and you can use the“Revenue Estimate” tool to judge how your business from Yelp compares to the national averages.

HOW TO USE YELP FOR BUSINESS FOR FREE

4 Tips For Getting Positive Reviews On Yelp Send out a “We’re on Yelp!” message to your Email

Subscribers and Mailing Lists Advertise your Yelp page in-house Respond to reviews Be worth a positive review

TIPS FOR GETTING MORE POSITIVE YELP REVIEWS

Yelp discourages against businesses marketing for positive Yelp Reviews.  The site uses a very complex algorithm to try to “weed out” un-organic reviews.

(for example:  If someone logs onto Yelp 1 time and gives you a 5 Star Review, it is their only review, and they do not log back into Yelp… it is likely that review will get “Filtered Out”)

Also if they suspect your business of paying for reviews, or cheating the system, they will simply remove your business from the site.

That being said, let’s keep in mind that you can get a sticker from Yelp Advertising that your business is “Loved By Yelp”.

Jason FoxWWW.JASONFOX.ME