March 15, 2010

For local small businesses, Yelp isn't just an option — it's a necessity. People in urban centers use it to choose where to go to dinner, where to buy clothes, and where to be entertained. Users decide where and how to spend their money using Yelp, so if your business is local, you need to curate your Yelp page.

If your business has been around long, you probably already have a page; you're just not holding the reins yet. You'll want to step in and take control of it as soon as possible, because using it correctly can bring you new business and prevent any negative word of mouth from hindering your growth and success.

Claiming or creating your Yelp business page is easy; just fill out a couple of online forms and answer a quick, automated phone call. It takes less than five minutes. Once you're signed up, you'll have access to tools that will help you engage your customers and spread the word about what you're offering to the community. Here are a few basic tips for successfully leveraging the tools Yelp offers you for the benefit of your local business.

1. Fill Out Your Business Info Completely

Customers refer to Yelp business pages to learn about a business before going out to visit in person. If the information on the Yelp page is incomplete, they're likely to move on to a competitor that provides more details simply because they'll better know what to expect and are less likely to be surprised, be disappointed or have their time wasted.

The administration page for business owners offers a slew of fields and choices for sharing information to make it easy for users to know exactly what to expect. If you provide the information they're looking for, they're more likely to become reliable, paying customers. So fill out as much information as you can, and keep it up to date.

2. Respond Constructively to Customer Reviews

Last Spring, Yelp gave business owners the ability to respond to negative reviews, either to privately make apologies to reviewers or publicly correct misinformation. Don't skimp on using this feature because you're afraid of making things worse; it can turn a bad situation around. Dissatisfied customers will often give you a second look if you communicate to them that you value their input and are making changes to improve your business.

Yelp published an easy-to-use guide to constructive user review responses on its website. It includes examples of how not to respond to user reviews and how best to. Some of the tips are obvious, but some of them aren't. They're worth a look, as is my colleague Josh Catone's recent post, "How to Deal with Negative Feedback."

3. Make Offers and Announcements Regularly

Yelp allows you to share special offers and announcements not just with the people who visit your page, but with members of the larger community who might not even know about your business. When you create an offer or announcement on Yelp, it appears in the offers and announcements directory for your city. People who have never heard of your business will see them there. They'll even find you in search results.

The more of these offers and announcements you make, the more likely it will be that Yelp users will discover your business, so come up with creative ways to draw people in, then share the news.

4. Display Yelp Badges on Your Website or Blog

Yelp provides badges that you can embed on your business's website or blog that show that you're on Yelp and engaged with your community. They'll even tell visitors how many positive reviews you've had.

These badges give potential customers the impression that you have existing satisfied customers vouching for you, so they'll be more likely to trust you with their business. The badges also act as links between your Yelp page and your other online outreach efforts. People can click a badge to read reviews or get more information. If a satisfied customer visits your site or blog, the badge might lead that person to leave his or her own positive review.

Is Advertising on Yelp Worth it?

You may also choose to advertise on Yelp. It costs between $300 and $1,000 per month — it's kind of like a premium account — but there's a chance that you'll increase your exposure if you opt in, because you'll appear at the top of the list when users perform a search related to your business.

There are a few other benefits as well. For example, you'll be able to feature one good review of your choosing at the top of the list on your business page. You still can't edit, move or delete other reviews, though.

It's difficult to measure exactly how much these premium benefits will help you; it depends on a number of factors unique to your business and your city.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, LisainGlasses 

Join the conversation ( 6 )

• Jennifer Harris 10 days ago

  

  Yelp will destroy your business. They will filter all your good reviews and only leave the bad ones for people to see. DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR MONEY! I am not the only business this has happened to. They have FILTERED 19 good reviews and only allow 3 bad ones and 1 good one to be seen. They don't allow people to see the whole picture, their filtering system is a joke!! People can write 1 bad review and have it published, but someone that has written multiple reviews for different businesses will get theirs filtered. They are crooks and vultures, they lie to get your business!! The "sales person" will say "you got 163 hits last month without advertising, we like to see that up around 800". They tell you if you sign up to advertise you will be able to all these things with your account. Then after you sign up your "account manager" will say "that's not setup just yet, we are working on it". A month goes by and you ask why you're no even near 800 hits and you're told that "you never should have been told that". BEWARE- Call other companies that advertise on Yelp and ask about their experience before you sign on the dotted line!!

• Jon Maxwell 1 year 5 months and 27 days ago

  

  I cannot find the yelp badge that the examples show is on the summary tab of the business owners page. Can anyone tell me how to get it? Ive noticed that many others are having this same problem. Yelp has given me more business and I only have one review. I also wish that those who have done business with me from yelp would post a review.

• Jessica Chapman 1 year 10 months and 6 days ago

  

  Yelp is a lynchpin in my daily life. Time and time again I go to Yelp when I travel to find the local services I need exactly because of the easy ability for business owners to easily claim a web presence and their customers to identify the good, and sometimes bad. I continue to encourage all businesses to use Yelp as a tool in their marketing because it is so easy to manage.

• Steve Basile 1 year 10 months and 7 days ago

  

  I manage a pub, have been a Yelp user since 2007 and claimed our business page in 2008. We have a completed site, use offers and announcements, and enjoy a favorable rating. I respond to every review within 24 hours, have a Yelp badge on our site and a cling in or front window. Guests mention "we saw you onYelp" more frequently than any other site, and it drives a fair amount of traffic to our website (though a tiny percentage of what comes through Google). What distinguishes Yelp is an attention to "real people and real reviews" and a degree of review quality and authenticity I have not seen or found elsewhere. The fact that local "Yelpers" get together periodically and meet face to face helps ensure truthiness too.
  
  I too am concerned by the large number of sites out there to manage, but have found that a very small number merit focus. I test them by looking up similar businesses inn my area, or my own business. If it's difficult to use, hard to find established businesses using valid search criteria or cumbersome in design, I expect it to die. If it appears promising, I update our listing, correct erroneous data and keep an eye on traffic from it--most simply don't matter in that regard. Google Local, Yahoo Local and Yelp are the big gorillas there, along with locally-themed directories, like those listing live music venues in Austin.

• Melih Oztalay 1 year 10 months and 20 days ago

  

  Hi Samuel,
  
  I am in complete agreement that local business listings are the way to go for any local business dependent upon the local consumer for their revenue. This is a good point in time in which the Internet is a good local marketing tool to be found on web searches and mobile searches.
  
  What I am most concerned about are small and local businesses having to contend with multiple websites when it comes to their local listing. What I'm really talking about are "time resources".
  
  Afterall, there are over 60 websites in 4 different categories specifically geared towards local listings. How can a local or small business have the time resources to cover this space?
  
  Even if you made a conscious decision to not manage all 60, there are well more than Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Ask. The space goes to Local.com (they went public), Yelp, Merchant Circle, and many others.
  
  Consumers will be the ones deciding which of these local listing websites they will go and post their experience through consumer reviews. This adds to the burden that no one single local listing website will do the trick.
  
  Something we recently read at KillerStartUps are companies that are offering a low cost service to update then manage these listings for companies. You can read about this at KillerStartUps here:
  
  http://www.killerstartups.com/Search/smartfindslocallisting-com-be-found-online
  
  It is a changing world and the local business will benefit and it is a matter of using multiple marketing channels in the local listing industry.
  
  Good information from your post and hopefully varying opinions help give perspective.
  
  

• Jill Fehrenbacher 1 year 10 months and 22 days ago

  

  Great article. Yelp is a must for any small brick and mortar business that relies heavily on locals for its revenue stream. And more than that, taking the reigns of your Yelp profile is the easiest first step toward a truly conversational web presence. It will give you unique access to the most vocal of your customers and will help facilitate growth that may lead to increased business, a greater social media presence, and more! Good advice all around.