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Yelp reviews for business owners: what you can and cannot do

By the ReviewDeck team ·

Short answer: On Yelp you may not ask customers for reviews, you can reply to any review from your free business account, and you can report a review that breaks Yelp's content guidelines. You cannot pay to remove or reorder reviews.

Yelp works differently from Google, and the habits that help on Google can hurt you here.

You may not ask for reviews

Yelp’s guidance to businesses is direct: do not ask customers, mailing lists, friends or family for reviews. That covers email requests, review cards and QR codes that point to your Yelp page. Yelp says reviews that were asked for are less likely to be recommended, and a pattern of them can lower how your business is shown.

What you may do:

  • Put a “Find us on Yelp” sign or badge in your shop and on your website.
  • Link to your Yelp page from your site and email signature.
  • Keep your Yelp page complete: hours, photos, services, a real description.

Yelp’s software decides which reviews count toward your rating. The rest sit behind a “not recommended” link at the bottom of the page and do not affect your stars. It tends to set aside reviews from accounts with little history. Good reviews end up there as well as bad ones, and a review can move in or out over time. You cannot ask Yelp to move one.

Replying

Claim your page in Yelp for Business. It is free. You can then reply in public or send the reviewer a private message.

  • Reply to critical reviews within a day or two, in a few calm sentences.
  • Reply yourself. Yelp’s rules do not allow agencies or software providers to post replies on a business’s behalf.
  • Do not offer anything in exchange for a changed review.

Reporting a review

Report a review from your business account when it breaks Yelp’s content guidelines, for example:

  • It is not about a first-hand customer experience.
  • It comes from a competitor or a former employee.
  • It contains threats, hate speech or private information.
  • It is about another business.

Choose the reason that fits and say why in a sentence or two. Yelp’s moderators decide. A review that is negative but real stays.

Advertising does not change reviews

Buying Yelp ads does not remove reviews, change which are recommended or alter your rating. Be wary of anyone who says otherwise.

What actually helps on Yelp

  1. A complete page with recent photos.
  2. Fast, polite replies to every review.
  3. Being easy to find there: the link on your site, the sign by the till.
  4. Service good enough that regulars who already use Yelp write on their own.