How to get more Yelp reviews for your business

Local businesses have a love-hate relationship with Yelp.  If you have a 3.5+ rating on Yelp with over 30 reviews, then Yelp is a terrific resource for new customer acquisition. On the other hand, if you have a sub-3 rating on Yelp, then Yelp can destroy your business. The ratings and stars is a good example of gamification, a booming trend. (Click here to see What is Gamification)

It’s therefore important to not only get a lot of reviews on Yelp, but to make sure they’re positive reviews.  This post will cover how to increase your review count, while a future post will cover how to make sure these Yelp reviews are positive.

Who should read this post: local business owner that are looking to increase their Yelp reviews

Why you will learn: how to get customers to leave you more Yelp reviews

Continue reading How to get more Yelp reviews for your business

If Yelp is bad for business, why should local businesses use it?

Businesses hate Yelp

There are a myriad of articles online about why Yelp sucks:

Even our own reader Patrick expressed why he feels Yelp is bad for business on our post about how to get more Yelp reviews:

Jun,

[You] did a big disservice to small business by asking them to suport YELP. Yelp is bad for [the] business community and any effort to support them will [continue to affect businesses negatively]. They are first of all not business friendly and most of the Yelpers are bargain hunters. 90% of the reviews are complaints and it has become a complaint forum.

Why do you want business to pay / support a complaint forum. If people really care about business they can talk with the owners and resolve issues. You dont want people to give you a 1 star because they dont like the paint color or they didnt like the owners hair style.

I strongly suggest you should do research and write about how Yelp can hurt local community. Yelp makes a business by pitting customers against business. This is not a healthy model for the economy and local community.

The only way for Yelp to fail is to ignore them and stop their cash flow from businesses. If businesses understand this they will stop support to Yelp.

With so much compelling evidence, should business owners completely shun away Yelp?

Continue reading If Yelp is bad for business, why should local businesses use it?