Yelp Reputation Management: How to Protect and Grow Your Reviews

Yelp is one of the biggest online business listing platforms, and your business needs to be on it. The right Yelp reputation management will help you get your business out there and strengthen trust with potential customers.

Use this guide to set up and optimize your Yelp business profile, including strategies on reputation management for Yelp reviews.

The Power of Yelp for Businesses

Yelp isn’t just a place to find quirky restaurant reviews. It’s a powerful site averaging 2.5 million daily visitors that every local and service-based business should take advantage of, for benefits like:

• Improving local visibility (Including SEO signaling): When customers search for a local business in your category, your Yelp profile may pop up, directing them to you. Even outside of your Yelp profile, just being on Yelp affects your SEO by having more backlinks to your website and references to your business.
• Strengthening customer trust and credibility: Having a Yelp profile acts as an additional piece of proof to new customers that your business is legitimate. Strong customer Yelp reviews will only boost this trust and credibility further.
• Capturing high intent and purchase readiness: People searching on Yelp are often ready to make a purchase very soon, if not right away. Your profile can grab their attention right at the perfect time to gain them as new customers.
• Influencing customer decisions: Seeing your Yelp profile with positive reviews and testimonials from past customers can persuade new customers to choose your company.
• Enhancing your competitiveness: Potential customers are likely to choose a highly-rated business with a comprehensive Yelp profile over one with weaker reviews or no Yelp profile at all.

Over 90% of people in the 18 to 34 age range trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, and customers of all ages rely on reviews to make their purchasing decisions. That’s why it’s so important to work on your Yelp profile and take steps toward getting more Yelp reviews.

For service-based businesses, specifically, a well-developed Yelp profile can be just what you need to bring in more new customers. More than eight in 10 users hire or buy from a business they found on Yelp within a week.

Common Mistakes in Managing Your Yelp Profile

Yelp reputation management is not quite as simple as setting up a profile and hoping positive reviews roll in. Avoid these common mistakes with your Yelp profile:

• Neglecting profile updates: After initially setting up your profile, it’s important to periodically update that information. You want to make sure it’s all still accurate and show your customers you’re active and engaged on the platform.
• Ignoring negative reviews: Ignoring negative reviews doesn’t make them go away — it makes them even more powerful. Instead, try responding to a negative review professionally and working toward a resolution that works for your business and the unhappy customer.
• Responding unprofessionally: An unprofessional response, even to a negative or unreasonable review, paints your business in a negative light. Stay calm, and prepare a response that shows anyone looking at your profile that your business is committed to productive, professional customer service.
• Ignoring fake or unfair reviews: Fake reviews are common, and they can seriously hurt your business. Report reviews that violate Yelp’s guidelines to hopefully get them removed from your profile.
• Using unethical or policy-violating ways of getting reviews: Posting fake positive reviews or offering incentives for customers to review your business is against Yelp policy, so don’t do it.

1. Claim and Optimize Your Yelp Business Profile

It all starts with creating or claiming your Yelp business profile. Go to biz.yelp.com/claim and search for your business. If there’s already a listing, claim it for free with your business phone or email. If there’s no listing yet, you can create one.

Make sure your profile includes all of these details:

• Correct business name, address, and phone number
• Link to your business website
• Updated business hours
• Photos
• A bio

These are the details visitors to your profile will use to get to know your business and decide whether they might want to buy something from you.

2. Proactively Monitor and Manage Reviews

If you read business reviews online, you’ll notice that most reviews don’t receive a response. That’s a missed opportunity.

Responding to negative and positive reviews shows anyone looking at your profile that you’re engaged with customers and willing to listen to all of their feedback. Thank positive reviewers and address the concerns shared in negative reviews. It’s important to respond promptly while keeping a professional, consistent tone.

Handling Negative Reviews on Yelp

Receiving a negative review can be frustrating, especially when you know your business does good work. However, resist any urge to vent at negative reviewers. An unprofessional response will only reflect badly on your business, even if it’s justified.

Instead, focus on these tips to respond to a negative review on Yelp:

• Stay calm and professional.
• Take accountability for anything your business did wrong to show your commitment to strong customer service.
• Remain empathetic to the customer.
• Move conversations offline when appropriate, such as to email or phone, to get into more detail.
• Avoid arguments.
• Be transparent to build trust with the upset customer and any potential customers viewing the interaction.
• Address concerns or negative scenarios with solutions where applicable, possibly turning a bad review into a positive experience.

If a negative review violates Yelp’s guidelines, you may be able to remove it from your profile to improve your Yelp online reputation management. Generally, Yelp will only remove a review if it meets at least one of these three stipulations:

1. The reviewer seems to have a conflict of interest.
2. There’s inappropriate material in the review.
3. The review does not reflect the reviewer’s actual experience with the business (if any).

Go into the reviews section of your Yelp business account and find the suspicious review. Under More Options, choose Report Review. Yelp moderators will check the review and remove it if it violates the platform’s guidelines.

3. Encourage Positive Yelp Reviews (Without Violating the Rules)

Like many other review platforms, Yelp prohibits companies from soliciting reviews. That means you cannot offer customers incentives to post Yelp reviews, or even ask them to post a review.

Focus on getting more Yelp reviews without violating the rules, like by:

• Providing great service
• Making Yelp assets more visible (stickers, signage, posters, etc.) to help happy customers find your Yelp profile
• Responding to reviews, since 70% of users who read reviews say they're more likely to leave feedback if the business owner consistently responds

Make sure you’re not missing Yelp reviews either.

4. Continue Optimizing Your Profile To Boost Trust

Yelp reputation management is an ongoing process, not a one-time thing. Over time, make sure you keep optimizing your profile to develop customer trust with steps like:

• Updating your business hours and policies
• Refreshing photos
• Updating descriptions as services evolve

A well-maintained profile with recent updates reinforces your credibility with customers. It will also help inspire customers to engage with your profile and leave more reviews.

Use analytics to understand what’s working well on your profile and what could use some improvement. Profile views, leads, and the general sentiment when customers leave reviews should give you a deeper understanding of how to proceed with your reputation management on Yelp.

Get Professional Help Managing Your Yelp Business Profile

You don’t have to manage your Yelp Business Profile alone. Optimize Digital Marketing can act as your expert partner through our professional Yelp reputation management service. Our team will monitor your Yelp profile and other business profiles and provide strategic response support for customer comments and reviews.

Boost local online visibility and trust by contacting us about reputation management services for your business.