19 October Leverage Your Yelp Listing for a Better Reputation October 19, 2021 By sma Business Tips, Marketing, Social Media client satisfaction, networking, seo, small business 0 LEVERAGE YOUR YELP LISTING FOR A BETTER REPUTATION October 19, 2021 | Marketing, Business Tips, Social Media | small business, client satisfaction, networking, SEO By Zach Vesper, NPI, Inc.'s SEO and Marketing Specialist Collecting reviews for your business is essential to attracting new customers. Over 90 percent of consumers use online reviews in their final decision on a business. That means you can never have too many, especially too many positive ones. In addition to collecting reviews via Google and Facebook, Yelp offers another outlet for your customers to rave about the good work you’ve done! Yelp is as popular as ever. A somewhat common misconception is that Yelp has slid into the background behind Google. Yelp is still as relevant as ever, with nearly 200 million visitors to the site every month. 28 million of those unique users come through the Yelp app. As popular as Google has become, Yelp comes in at a close second for the most popular review platform. Nearly all “Yelpers” choose to spend money with a business they find on the site, so not having a listing means you’re missing out! You want a listing you have access to. In addition to not letting business pass you by, you don’t want someone else to control your listing. Yelp allows users to create a listing with your business’s information, causing you to have to do some damage control. The best way to circumvent a problem like this is to make a listing that you own. And you want to make sure you follow all the appropriate steps to verify the listing so people can trust it. Setting up your Yelp is free and easy! Another plus about Yelp is that it’s entirely free to use! While there are some aspects that are locked to subscribers, making and maintaining your listing, for the most part, is free. It also doesn’t take long to create. There is a waiting period until Yelp moderators approve your listing, but that typically only takes a few days. All you need are a few free minutes to walk through the set up. Keep your listing accurate. Like your other socials, you need to keep your Yelp page up to date. That includes checking the services you have listed and of course your hours of operation. Yelp lets you conveniently set special hours in case there’s a holiday or a vacation you’re taking. A tool you can also use to keep your listing relevant is the photos and videos section. Here, you can upload images from the field, certifications you’ve obtained, employee headshots, and anything else potential clients may find interesting. You’ll give your listing a more personalized feel and stand out from your competition! Respond to everything ASAP. Similar to your GMB and Facebook, you should respond to any reviews or inquiries as quickly as you can. (This even includes any negative feedback you receive.) That way your customers will know that you’re an active business owner and care about their interests. To stay on top of notifications as they come in, you can easily download the Yelp app for business owners and opt in to text or email alerts. Be sure to ask for reviews correctly. Gathering Yelp reviews is a bit different from other platforms. Yelp tries to filter out potentially solicited reviews, mainly those that come from a review link. There are ways to easily work around this and still get quality reviews. Once you have your review process down, your reputation will start to grow! For more information on Yelp or gathering reviews, reach out to the NPI Marketing Team! About the Author Zach Vesper, SEO and Marketing Specialist Zach brings more than six years of SEO experience to the table, making him your go-to web optimization specialist--he knows how to help your website reach the first page! He's always more than happy to answer your questions about all things Google. Zach is a film buff, an old-fashioned connoisseur and an avid reader of science fiction. When he’s not working, he’s hanging out with his wife, Stepha. Comments are closed.