If you’re looking for how to get better Yelp reviews, we’ve got you covered.
But this guide isn’t just about getting 5-star Yelp reviews – it’s about leveraging real-world strategies that elevate your business reputation.
Within this article, you’ll find ten practical steps to enhance your Yelp rating – no frills, just the essentials.
Dive in to see how to get Yelp reviews your business can be proud of.
Key Takeaways
Yelp reviews significantly influence consumer decisions. A Harvard Business School study showed that an increase of one star typically leads to a 5-9% revenue increase for local businesses, underscoring the necessity of acquiring positive reviews.
Businesses need to comply with Yelp’s guidelines, focus on delivering exceptional customer service and consistently engage with all customers to organically get Yelp reviews.
Optimization of a Yelp business page, leveraging Yelp’s free tools like Request-a-Quote and check-in offers, managing negative reviews constructively, and utilizing review management software like ReputationStacker can help businesses to improve their Yelp ratings and attract more customers.
Understanding the Impact of Yelp Reviews
Yelp reviews play a significant role in influencing consumer decisions.
A staggering 87% of consumers rely on online reviews when choosing local businesses. These reviews (the actual written review text) often carry more weight than star ratings, and nearly half of consumers judge a business based on the number of reviews it has.
Positive reviews in particular are powerful promotional tools. Here are some statistics that highlight their impact:
Up to 94% of consumers are more likely to use a business if it has positive reviews
92% of consumers may be deterred by negative reviews
An additional star in a Yelp review can lead to a 5-9% revenue increase for local businesses
These statistics underscore the tangible impact of Yelp ratings and the importance of reviews for businesses, making it crucial to focus on improving your Yelp rating.
Complying with Yelp’s Guidelines
Although businesses aim to gain positive Yelp reviews, compliance with Yelp’s guidelines is important.
These guidelines are designed to ensure that all reviews are unsolicited, genuine, and reflective of unbiased consumer opinions.
Strangely, Yelp discourages businesses from directly asking customers for reviews. However, unless businesses are aggressively pushing the boundaries, they’re typically safe to ask their customers for Yelp reviews.
Interestingly, asking all customers (not just the happy ones) for reviews often results in more positive Yelp reviews and a better outcome for the business on Yelp. So, it’s all about maintaining a balanced and non-aggressive approach when asking for Yelp reviews.
Enhancing Customer Experience
Excellent customer experiences are an outcome of providing top-notch service and products, which in turn, influences a customer’s decision to leave a positive review on Yelp.
Engaging with customers through consistent digital marketing keeps the business at the forefront of their minds, complementing their physical experience.
This, coupled with exceptional customer service, can inspire customers to share positive reviews on Yelp, ultimately benefiting the business’s reputation and growth.
Small Businesses Benefit the Most From Yelp Reviews
For a small business owner, Yelp reviews are particularly beneficial.
Those that manage to get more Yelp reviews than competing businesses, often outperform their local competitors and even national chains in their local markets. The key to achieving this lies in providing valuable products or services at fair prices, and offering friendly and helpful customer service… and of course making it easy for customers to leave a Yelp review.
To make it easier for customers to leave reviews, small businesses can send them the Yelp review link or use review management software like ReputationStacker. This ensures a streamlined process for customers to share their experiences, boosting your chances of getting positive reviews.
Maximizing Your Yelp Business Page
By optimizing their Yelp business page, businesses can significantly improve the user experience and motivate customers to leave reviews.
This involves keeping the page up-to-date with the latest business information, including contact details, opening hours, and services offered.
And businesses can enhance the customer experience on Yelp by connecting features such as delivery or reservation options, using Yelp’s feature for posting updates, and embedding a Yelp badge on their website.
These features not only showcase existing reviews but also direct traffic to their Yelp profile, making it easier for the business to get Yelp reviews.
Claim and Optimize Your Yelp Page
For small business owners, taking ownership and enhancing their Yelp page is an essential initial step.
This involves verifying business owner status by supplying official documentation, such as a government-issued photo ID or a certificate of incorporation, ensuring customers access accurate business information.
To increase the visibility of their page, businesses should specify relevant categories, list their service areas to target specific regions or cities, and add their operating hours.
Enhancing the page with photos and videos can significantly improve its attractiveness, providing customers with a preview of the business’s offerings.
Utilize Yelp’s Free Tools
Yelp offers a variety of free tools that businesses can leverage to improve customer engagement and encourage reviews from Yelp users. One such feature is the Request-a-Quote tool, which can inspire more customer engagement and facilitate improved communication.
Additionally, businesses can incentivize customers with Yelp deals and check-in offers. Yelp offers are exclusive deals that businesses can offer directly on the site, such as a complimentary product or service for Yelp users.
Yelp review widgets on a business’s website can also increase traffic to their Yelp page and help the business get Yelp reviews.
Effective Strategies to Get Yelp Reviews
A tactful approach is necessary to get Yelp reviews. One effective strategy is to increase customer awareness of your Yelp presence.
Businesses can add a link to their Yelp page on their website, share the link on social media, and include it in their email signature.
Another strategy involves using automated review generation software like ReputationStacker to encourage more customers to write reviews that are genuine, while avoiding the use of fake reviews. Such software can greatly streamline the process of obtaining reviews from real customers, making it easier for the business get Yelp reviews.
Raise Awareness of Your Yelp Presence
There are various methods to increase the visibility of a business’s Yelp presence. Integrating Yelp branding within the physical store, for instance, can remind in-store customers to consider leaving reviews on Yelp.
Businesses can place ‘Find us on Yelp’ badges and signage around their physical location to increase customer awareness of their presence on Yelp.
Encouraging customers to check in to the business on the Yelp app can prompt Yelp to send reminders to customers to leave a review after their visit.
Respond and Engage with Reviews
Replying to Yelp reviews goes beyond mere courtesy – it is a significant aspect of customer service that demonstrates the business’s commitment to the customer experience.
By building relationships through personal and thoughtful responses to Yelp reviews, businesses can cement customer trust and foster loyalty, in turn encouraging more happy customers to leave more reviews.
Yelp’s own statistics reveal that 70% of users are more inclined to leave a review after seeing a business respond, and 44.6% are more likely to visit a local business if the owner responds to negative reviews.
Therefore, engaging with reviews can significantly boost a business’s Yelp presence.
Share Success Stories
Another powerful tactic to foster Yelp reviews is sharing success stories and positive feedback. Positive Yelp reviews shared on social media platforms can inspire other customers to share their own experiences. You can use software like ReputationStacker to do this for you automatically.
In addition, businesses can highlight positive reviews in their marketing materials to increase their credibility and attract new customers. Displaying these reviews on the business website can also provide social proof to website visitors, encouraging them to choose the business’s services.
Managing Negative Reviews
Even though bad reviews can be disheartening, they present opportunities.
By understanding the context and perspectives of all parties involved, businesses can identify and fix flaws in their operations. In fact, critical reviews can serve as a catalyst for improvement.
Responding promptly and thoughtfully to bad reviews can show the business’s dedication to customer satisfaction and leave a positive impression on potential customers.
After addressing the issues that gave rise to a negative review, business owners can consider requesting that the customer edit or delete their negative review (although we recommend using caution when doing this – it can backfire if done wrong!).
Leveraging Yelp Advertising and Paid Tools
Businesses can utilize Yelp advertising and premium features to boost customer involvement and incentivize reviews.
Yelp offers a suite of paid features including the option to add a clear and relevant Call to Action, Deals, and Gift Certificates on business pages.
Through Yelp Ads, businesses can pay for preferential rankings and placements in search results, making them more noticeable to potential clients at the decision-making stage.
But…
While Yelp ads can be effective for some businesses, using software like ReputationStacker make it easy to consistently get more Yelp reviews and make a much bigger impact.
Diversifying Your Online Review Strategy
Though Yelp reviews hold significant importance, it’s vital for businesses to get reviews on other review sites.
As important as it is to get Yelp reviews, we typically recommend that businesses focus on getting more Google reviews first, as Google has become a far bigger player than Yelp in the review game in recent years.
After reaching a target number of reviews on Google, businesses should start gathering reviews on platforms relevant to their industry, such as Yelp (for service-focused businesses), TripAdvisor (for tourist-heavy businesses), Healthgrades (for doctors), Avvo (for lawyers), etc.
Offering different review sites for customers to post reviews on can increase the credibility and reach of the business.
Utilizing Review Management Software
Businesses can manage customer reviews and get more reviews by using review management software.
Tools like ReputationStacker can help businesses consistently get reviews across multiple sites.
Monitoring and responding to reviews across different platforms using review management tools shows a strong commitment to customer engagement.
Tools like ReputationStacker not only help businesses get better reviews on Yelp and other review sites, they also offer deep business insights and help businesses manage their entire online reputation.
Summary
In conclusion, Yelp reviews play a pivotal role in shaping a business’s online reputation.
From understanding the impact of reviews and complying with Yelp’s guidelines to enhancing customer experience and managing negative reviews, it’s clear that a strategic approach is essential.
Leveraging Yelp’s advertising and paid tools, diversifying your online review strategy, and utilizing review management software can further enhance your business’s online presence and reputation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are Yelp reviews important?
Yelp reviews are important because they significantly influence consumer decisions, with positive reviews increasing the likelihood of customers using a business and negative reviews potentially deterring them.
How can businesses encourage Yelp reviews?
To encourage Yelp reviews, businesses should focus on providing exceptional customer service, optimizing their Yelp business page, and implementing strategies to raise awareness, respond to reviews, and share success stories. This will help to foster positive engagement and feedback from customers.
Using automated review software like ReputationStacker makes it easy to get Yelp reviews.
How can businesses manage negative Yelp reviews?
To manage negative Yelp reviews, businesses should view them as opportunities for improvement, respond professionally, and address the issues raised by customers. This is essential for maintaining a positive online reputation.
What are Yelp’s paid features and how can they help businesses?
Yelp’s paid features, including Call to Action, Deals, and Gift Certificates, can help businesses increase customer engagement and encourage reviews, while Yelp Ads can improve search result rankings. These paid options provide valuable tools for business growth.
However, many business owners find that review management tools like ReputationStacker provide a far more affordable and effective way to grow their business on Yelp rather than using Yelp’s paid features.
Why is it important to diversify the online review strategy?
Diversifying the online review strategy is important because it provides a more comprehensive view of the business from various perspectives and helps in understanding customer preferences. It allows for a more balanced and accurate assessment of the business’s performance.
Yes, getting Yelp reviews is important, but getting online reviews on other review sites (particularly Google and industry-specific review sites) is vital for a balanced online review strategy.
