What is it?
Yelp is simply an online directory of local businesses which features customer reviews. It is the largest and most popular consumer-based review website, with over 67 millions reviews in its repository and 139 million unique visitors in the third quarter of 2013.
Why do I need Yelp?
If you are completely web-based, Yelp may not be for you. Otherwise, if you are a local company who does business in a building, and receives customers, then you can benefit from using Yelp. You can:
1) instill confidence in potential customers by having positive reviews, thereby converting them into actual customers
2) increase your search engine ranking in Google by having a profile on Yelp with positive reviews
In this new age of the internet, it is now expected when one searches for something that one gets all possible relevant and needed information, including reliable reviews, location, hours, phone numbers, product information, stock, etc.
Google has taken note of this and has incorporated data from Yelp and other local directories in its Pigeon algorithm update. Therefore it behooves one to establish their business in Yelp so that they can rank well on local Google results, which typically take up the top half of the results page. If you don’t, you will literally be pushed down and on to the second or third page of rankings.
The remedy for this is simple. Search for your business on Yelp (it should already be there), ‘claim it’, complete your profile and encourage your customers to leave feedback.
More about Yelp
1) Despite the perception of most, Yelp is not only for restaurants
2) Customer Service Appears to Have the Strongest Effect on Reviews
3) Every Star in a Review Leads to a 5-9% Jump in Revenues
4) Yelp Tends to Favor Independent Businesses Over Chains
5) Business Owners Can Dispute Reviews on Yelp
Read More Yelp Facts:
http://mashable.com/2012/09/03/10-yelp-facts/
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