Google vs Yelp

[Dr GMap]

I constantly get calls from Yelp about their paid advertising. I know many users use Yelp and businesses get new customers via Yelp. Yelp is telling me that people search more on Yelp for a local biz vs Google on mobile. On desktop it's clearly Google search, but on mobile Yelp is telling me they rule.

Question: Do more people search for a local small business, such as a 'dentist', on Google or Yelp?

 

[Tim Colling]

It is SOOOO tempting to answer based on how I personally do searches like that, but I think that I'm not a "typical" searcher because I'm involved in this wacky industry.

With that said...

I tend to look first on Google and note who stands out there, including whether or not they have any review information visible, such as Google, Yelp or otherwise. Then I look on Yelp to see what people have said about them, including ALL reviews, including the "not recommended" reviews.

Then I might also look at their reviews on Facebook, if any. I might also check industry vertical sites with review tools.

So that's my answer, from a personal standpoint.

Great question!

 

[JoyHawkins]

Yelp is an awesome lead source if you have a juiced up profile and lots of reviews, but I wouldn't bother with their advertising. I've never heard a single business get anything from it. Feel free to check out the comparison I wrote on it: How Does Yelp Advertising Compare with AdWords + Google Places? | Imprezzio Marketing

 

[James Watt]

Thanks for posting that case study Joy! That's exactly the kind of thing I love to see to help make up my mind. I suspected that would be the case, no surprise there, but still good to see some numbers. Though if I ever have a client that wants to do it/has done it in the past, I'll be looking forward to gathering some of those numbers myself too. Love the content you all put out at Imprezzio!

 

[Blake Denman]

I don't have too much to add, but Yelp does have a self-serve pay per click system that you can set up yourself.

We have tested it for 2 different clients just to see if it helped at all. Avg CPC was $5-8 and we didn't see any major uptick in new business coming directly from Yelp.

Keep building a great profile and the rest will follow.

 

[theitsage]

I agree with Joy. Yelp works great as a non-paid source of lead generation. You need to put in a lot of effort though for anything to come out of it. This is actually nice because no one can simply pay their way into earning more business from the people who use Yelp regularly.

The #1 issue with paying Yelp to get more impressions and leads is the mixed signal you're sending out to Yelp users (from the business owner point of view). When you have a Yelp profile with not many reviews, more impressions won't really bring in more leads. When you have a well established Yelp profile with many excellent reviews, people will start questioning if they see you're paying Yelp.

Therefore, I'd like to think of Yelp as a complementary source of traffic rather than a competing source to Google My Business and organic search. Yes, they all are competing for visibility in SERP when one searches for local services. To simply put, I have to be visible on all 3 of them.

My Yelp Activity in the past 30 days


Traffic from Yelp has a remarkable buying rate


Be visible on GMB, Yelp, and Organic search

 

[davebrown]

I think that most the of people who have smartphone use yelp and on desktop people use Google much as compare to yelp but yelp is good for boosting up your business locally.

 

[heckler]

We see Yelp converting in double-digits. As much as I hate to say it, Yelp is pretty effective.

 

[CodyBaird]

I'm with Heckler. If you have a strong review presence on yelp, ie more reviews than most competition - you should make a solid return.

Would I focus on Yelp over Google? Never?

Would I focus on both? Hell yes.

I know Yelp reviews are hard. But boy do they pay if you have them. And not just on Yelp. The keywords in them can influence Google's search rankings.

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