Yelp Profile Tips

Updated January 11, 2023

5 Things To Manage Your Reputation

Regardless if you love it or hate it, a business’ Yelp profile is an integral piece of managing an online reputation. Yelp wields a lot of power (some say too much) that can make or break a business, especially if you offer retail/B2C services. In this post you learn tips on how to make your Yelp presence more effective.

1. A Complete Yelp Profile

Missing pieces to your Yelp Profile is a signal to potential customers that you don’t value this social network and in turn mean that Yelp won’t prioritize showing your profile. According to Yelp stats, they had an average of 127 million unique visitors in the first quarter of 2017. Even if you don’t personally use Yelp, it’s a platform your business shouldn’t ignore. Be sure to complete your Yelp profile with:

• Contact information including physical address, phone and website. If you have multiple locations, you’ll need to complete a profile for each.
• Choose your category carefully. Do a bit of research on your competitors to make sure you choose the right business category.
• Yelp prefers physical locations, and each profile can have up to two cities within a 100 miles as a service area.
• Business hours. Pretty self-explanatory but you’d be surprised how many Yelp profiles have sketchy info on this basic piece of info.
• Specialties. This is a space where you have up to 1,000 characters to talk about what your business does. Use this space to share what you do, how you’re different and what problems you solve.

2. Photos Worth 1,000 Characters

Yelp is primarily a resource for consumers. We tend to respond to real pictures, not stock photos. Upload pics of your business helping clients. Have some fun and show your brand’s personality. Show behind the scenes photos as well as photos of your location or products.

3. Follow Yelp Content Guidelines

Similar to Google, Yelp has content guidelines. Be sure to follow these guidelines as your Yelp profile content is reviewed for:

• Appropriate language that avoids keyword stuffed content.
• Excessive capitalization or punctuation.
• Posting of promotional announcements.

4. Respond to Reviews

Managing your online reputation and your Yelp profile means responding to reviews — both positive and negative. Commenting on reviews does two things. First, it demonstrates to potential customers that you’re paying attention and value input. Second, it’s a signal to Yelp that you are participating in the Yelp ecosystem.

When it comes to managing your Yelp reviews, always be courteous and thoughtful. It’s good manners to thank those who leave you positive feedback. In the event of a negative review, take a deep breath before responding. Keep it professional and encourage the reviewer to take the conversation offline so you can resolve the situation appropriately.

Savvy Yelpers recognize there are some reviewers who leave off-base and extreme comments. When you handle a negative review with  professionalism, it can actually add to your online reputation.

5. Measure via Google Analytics

In your Yelp profile you can see how many users viewed your page.  It’s also important to understand other metrics, including how many users went to your website for further information.

In Analytics you can track Yelp as a referring site. Additionally, if it makes business sense, you might want to set up a unique phone number in Yelp to more accurately track the number of leads and closed sales you get from your Yelp profile.

What other Yelp profile tips would you add to our list?