Thread: Yelp?

Has anybody claimed their Yelp listing on the internet? Yelp has a bad reputation around San Francisco for holding companies hostage with bad reviews unless they pay up for a subscription. I just looked up my Yelp page and there are no reviews and I haven't claimed the listing.

My thought is that if they don't think I'm here, maybe they'll leave me alone, but then again what is the down side of not claiming the listing...? Anything?

Help with Yelp.

Claimed. Only about 5 views per week and we don't list it anywhere. It has created some lead to our site though but I can't quantify any rental results.

Go ahead an claim it because then you get to control it. They don't and can't hold you hostage which is not to say that I love Yelp. Their salespeople are pretty arrogant but they can't just saddle you with bad reviews until you pay. They've been hauled into court several times to fix their process.

As a result, business owners now can reply to any reviews that they receive, contact the poster and attempt a resolution, and have a bit more control over their listing. The problem I've encountered is that if you have customers who post a positive review for you but are not regular reviewers, the algorithm of the Yelp engine will boot out the reviews.

You have to identify yourself on Yelp if you review and anyone can track all the reviews that you do make. I think Yelp quality scores your reviews so that if you only give bad reviews, you eventually get your review booted.

We get a fair amount of traffic from them but less and less as we've improved our SEO. I think their programs are overpriced for what they deliver but do the max you can with a free listing. It does help for your search results. They are huge and Google is kinda lazy.

We got our listing but had to jump through hoops to do so. We also had to listen to their absurdly overpriced ad pitch - 6 month commitment, 2500 impressions/month. Just a terrible deal.

But...it is the direction in which consumers are determining purchases.

Storman we claimed our listing with Yelp and quite honestly, never had an issue (and that was over a year ago). I agree. Claim It!

Thanks for this discussion. I went to our Yelp listing to check and we had a horrid one-star review. I called our office and they immediately knew who this guy was. So, I wrote a reply that did not reveal the really nasty details of our former tenants habits. I kept it very high-level, pointed out the gross inaccuracies and the rarity of such an event.

It feels risky to do it but I couldn't let the review stand. We'll see what happens.

You should verify your listing on Yelp, Foursquare and Gowalla. If you aren't on Foursquare or Gowalla create a listing. I'm a huge fan of Gowalla over Foursquare, but you can't ignore any of them. BTW, you must create your Foursquare and Gowalla entry from a smartphone with the apps installed (they are both free apps). I'm not sure about Yelp.

Claimed mine long ago and have never had a problem. I have ever increasing page views, though I can't directly attribute any rentals to them...yet!

I see it as just one more way to help people find me and I don't know why you wouldn't.

Claim it!!!! It can help your Google Places listing on top of being able to control your information on Yelp!

And start getting customers to review it! Post a flyer on your front desk or something, any little thing to entice reviews. It can help your rankings considerably.

Let me know if you need help, this is where I specialize and am in your area.