A Yelp page with positive reviews can only bring good things for your business.
If you have used the site however, you probably have experienced the fickle nature of the Yelp review filter. Even when you have a legit 5 star review from a known customer, it may be filtered away into obscurity, doing nothing for your business and reputation. So what can you do to stop this from taking place?
The main reason review get filtered away is because the person leaving the review is brand new and hasn’t yet established a reputation as a user of the site, at least from the perspective of Yelp.
In other words, if the person just created a brand new account, left you one review, and never logged back into the site, their review is highly likely to be filtered away.
The system is far from perfect, but it makes sense once you realize what is taking place.
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If you have reviews that have been filtered and you know the customer well, ask them if they would be willing to post a few more reviews on the site, which will help better establish their reputation as a user on the site. We have seen reviews that were filtered, pop back over to the “Recommended Reviews” after the person leaving it became more involved as a user of Yelp.
If you are like most small businesses, you might reach out to specific customers you know are happy (and tech savvy), and ask them to post some kind words to Yelp. Before you do however, find customers that are already active on the site, or at least willing to get involved a tiny bit before they submit a review of your business. If they don’t have a Yelp account, sending them to Google might even be a better call.
If your customer is willing to give a review and hasn’t yet created an account, ask them to submit a few other short and simple reviews first, before reviewing your business. If they can log in a few times in between, engage others on the site, and participate on yelp by clicking the useful/funny/cool options, or making friends, even better. These actions show Yelp they are at engaged in the site, which makes their opinion more credible, and their reviews less likely to be filtered.
One other thing to note is that you should NEVER engage in submitting bogus reviews, even more from your own account / computer / network / etc. or reviews from non-customers, which could damage your credibility, and lead to future reviews getting filtered ( at the very least), or getting you dinged with a for bogus reviews, and a subsequent warning message to all those that land on your page.
If you haven’t yet claimed your Yelp profile, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get involved by creating a business account and taking control of your Yelp Business profile (if it exists), or creating one (if it doesn’t). Load your photos and website link, and then start cultivating some positive reviews.
If you would like to rethink your company’s approach to online marketing, give us a call at 925.963.1377 or submit an email today.
