Business Tips

If you’re one of the few who has yet to discover the very popular review website, Yelp, let me clue you in on a few of the details.  Yelp is a place for people to go online and review their favorite local businesses.  If you own or work in a restaurant, hair salon, boutique and even dentists offices in some cases, there’s a good chance you’re already receiving reviews on Yelp.  To check it out, simply click on this link and type in your business and city/state. http://www.yelp.com

Yelp was founded in 2004 in San Francisco, CA.  In the beginning, there was especially a demand for this type of website in the larger cities where there are hundreds of restaurants and local businesses to choose from in just about every industry.  San Franciscans would visit the Yelp site before they would try new services to see what people were saying.  For example:

“I don’t know why I’ve never ventured into El Azteco before, but their Tipopo Salad will have me coming back again and again.” 5/5 Stars

“Sally’s Salon was not really what I had in mind.  The average customer was between 50-65, and I was looking for something a bit more hip in preparation for the Electronic Music Festival this weekend.” 3/5 Stars

Yelp reviewers, aka “Yelpers”, sprung up all across the country.  The Yelp website is so popular now that the search rankings are always at the top of sites like Google, Yahoo and Bing.  If you own a company, and you have a presence on Yelp, there’s a good chance that you’ve seen your yelp page either directly below your company website or sometimes above in the search engines.  If for no other reason to get your company involved with Yelp, do it for the page rank.

I’m not in a Big City so I don’t need Yelp.

This statement could not be further from the truth.  Regardless of where you’re located, you want to maintain a presence on Yelp.  Although the website started out (and still thrives) in the big cities, they’ve reached into even the smallest neighborhoods in America at this point.  Without the foot traffic, smaller towns are finding the Yelp is really bringing new customers through their doors.  For consumers, this is a great way to tell your local businesses what you love about them and give them recommendations on what would make the experience even better.  Business owners can take this information to focus on what they’re doing amazingly and to refocus where their falling short.

What if I receive some bad reviews?

Well, honestly, there’s a good chance that you may at some point get a poor review.  However, you should know that most Yelp reviews are positive.  Yelp also offers the opportunity to set up a business account with the website that allows owners update their site info, photos and to respond to reviews as they come in.  Wouldn’t you rather know about that review than to let it sit out there undiscovered?  At least this way you can respond to the individual and offer them an apology and possibly a solution to make their experience better.  In many cases, simply reaching out to the reviewer will be enough to encourage them to add another start or two onto your review.  Showing you care goes a long way.

I want to be a Yelper!

Great!  Your local businesses will thank you for your kind words and suggestions.  Remember, Yelp is a community based on thank yous and constructive criticism.  If your service or meal is not what you’d hoped for, instead of bashing the restaurant consider posting a recommendation on what could have made the experience better for you.  You never know when the owner may invite you back for a meal on him or her.

I have a business on Yelp.  Now what?

The next step for your business is to claim your page.  It’s free… Simply go to your business  Yelp page, and click on the big red button that says: “CLAIM THIS BUSINESS”

If you don’t have a business page, but you think you should, click here: http://www.yelp.com/business/

Once you’ve claimed your business, you’ll be able to:

• Respond to reviewers
• Update your business address, phone, hours of operations, services
• Upload company photos and/or logos
• Track how many people are visiting your Yelp page each month

Here are a few things Yelp would like you to know about them:

1. Yelp was founded in 2004 to help people find great local businesses like dentists, hair stylists and mechanics
2. As of March 2010, more than 31 million people visited Yelp in the past 30 days
3. Yelpers have written over 10 million local reviews, over 85% of them rating a business 3 stars or higher
4. In addition to reviews, you can use Yelp to find events, special offers, lists and to talk with other Yelpers
5. Every business owner (or manager) can setup a free account to post offers, photos and message her customers
6. Yelp makes money by selling ads to local businesses – you’ll see these yellow, clearly labeled “Sponsored Results” around the site
7. Paying advertisers can also promote a favorite review at the top of their Yelp page, but can never change or re-order their other reviews
8. Yelp has an automated filter that suppresses a small portion of reviews – it targets those suspicious ones you see on other sites
9. You can Yelp on your phone at http://m.yelp.com, or use Yelp for iPhone, Yelp for BlackBerry, Yelp for Palm Pre, and Yelp for Android
10. The Weekly Yelp is available in 30 city editions to bring you the latest business openings & other happenings