Yelp 101

Yelp is an important site for small businesses. The Blue Sky Marketing team met with a Yelp expert who gave us tips on how to improve your Yelp Business Listing. Check out our tips below.

Why Yelp?

74% of consumers look at review sites first when searching for a local business. And yes, you guessed it - Yelp is the most popular! Businesses who have a Yelp listing receive 129% more website visitors and 82% of people who visit Yelp have the intentions of purchasing something.

The Average Yelp User

These demographics may surprise you.

• 57% are 35+ years old
• 76% have a college degree
• 69% earn $60k+
• 1/3 of users earn six figures or more

Yelp Reviews

Yelp is like word-of-mouth for the digital world. Positive online customer reviews can help your company stand apart from your competition. Yelpers are 46% more likely to write a 5-star review about your business if they had a great experience compared to the 15% of 1-star reviews. If you do receive a bad review, don’t worry. 33% of people will update their bad review to a more positive review if the problem is solved or corrected within 24 hours. Whether it’s a positive, neutral or negative review, respond. 56% of people who leave reviews expect a response from the business.

Tips for Business Owners

• Download the Yelp for Business Owners App.
• Turn on your Messaging Feature.
• Respond to Reviews Quickly. Good and bad! Respond to good reviews Privately and bad reviews Publically for public clarification with steps on how you are going to fix the problem.
• Optimize Your Listing. Make sure all 3 categories are appropriate, updated hours, right location of Map Marker, include local Business Recommendations and make sure Specialties, History and Meet the Business Owner are filled out.
• Add Special Hours. Add your special hours in the new Special Hours section.
• Upload Photos. Upload high-resolution photos with detailed captions and add staff or faculty photos if applicable.
• Have a Check-In Offer. This does not have to be a monetary value (ex: A high five from the bartender). Next time the customer logs into Yelp they will have the option to Leave a Review.

Yelp Ads

The Yelp platform has an easy self-serve ad platform via biz.yelp.com where you can turn Featured Listings and ads on or off at will; no contract necessary. If you want to give Yelp ads a try to reach a larger audience, this is the way to go. 

Blue Sky Marketing Can Help

The team at Blue Sky Marketing are digital marketing experts who can help potential clients evolve their marketing programs to reach desired goals and outcomes. 

Contact Blue Sky Marketing today to discuss what we can do for your business.

*Get more Yelp facts: https://www.yelp.com/factsheet