Yelp Business Listing Tips

[BWrightTLM]

I have a long-time moving company client that has had issues with Yelp for years. We've all tried everything we can think of to clean up their reputation.

BACKGROUND:
Their reputation is flawless everywhere else (Google, Facebook, etc) and they have multiple locations (Kansas City and Overland Park). Long story short, they are under new management now and these old Yelp reviews in Overland Park hurt their booking rate.

KC - spends $1K+/mo with Yelp for advertising and has received 16 reviews, some from legitimate moves booked through Yelp. ALL 16 have been filtered.
https://www.yelp.com/biz/moving-proz-kansas-city-2
OP - does not advertise this listing, but it shows up on SO MANY different branded searches even when someone searches "brand + kansas city." Shows 10 reviews at 2.5 average and has 37 filtered.
https://www.yelp.com/biz/moving-proz-overland-park
Do you have any advice on how we can further clean this up in the SERP? The client has talked about closing the listing or even trying to rebrand it. I'm hoping the LSF can come through with some helpful tips!

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[Colan Nielsen]

@BWrightTLM have you looked into earning more positive reviews to increase the average rating? This article by Whitespark has some interesting tips - How to Get Yelp Reviews That Won’t Get Filtered

 

[keyserholiday]

I know when users purchase an offer, Yelp denotes it. I am shocked that Yelp is not denoting that users signed up through their platform. I see that Yelp is filtering out both positive and negative reviews for both locations. Their algorithm is seeing something, that is not visible to us. I see several users are missing one or more of the following, profile photo, friends, and/or additional reviews. Yelp typically dings or filters out reviews from users that are not super active or appear to be created to post one or two positive reviews.

I do want to point out, that as SEO's we are not allowed to review our clients since we are being paid. It violates the FTC's Consumer Fairness Act. Since you are being technically employed by the client, your reviews are not allowed. Here is the link to the FTC Guidelines

 

[BWrightTLM]

Hi @Colan Nielsen, yes, that is why he has 37 filtered reviews. In there, you'll see quite a few 5 stars from the past couple years. He's tried every method that we know and they're always filtered.

We've told real local yelp users to:

- search Yelp for "movers" in "overland park" and click the listing, check-in, and also leave reviews that way.
- search for them on yelp and click directly to the Yelp listing in SERP and leave a review
- send them a link directly and leave a review

They've even organically had a few reviews come in and they all get filtered.

@BWrightTLM have you looked into earning more positive reviews to increase the average rating? This article by Whitespark has some interesting tips - How to Get Yelp Reviews That Won’t Get Filtered

 

[BWrightTLM]

Yes @keyserholiday even users who have purchased his "deal" on the KC listing have been filtered. One customer even checked-in, got an email from Yelp soliciting a review (kind of ironic that they send those) a few days later, clicked that link, wrote a review, and boom filtered. I'm at a bit of a loss. And yes we've noticed that some profiles didn't have a lot of other information filled out and when they've reached out asking why their review isn't showing up that they wrote, we tell them having a fully filled out profile might help them in the future. Some do it, some don't. Thanks for the tips.

I know when users purchase an offer, Yelp denotes it. I am shocked that Yelp is not denoting that users signed up through their platform. I see that Yelp is filtering out both positive and negative reviews for both locations. Their algorithm is seeing something, that is not visible to us. I see several users are missing one or more of the following, profile photo, friends, and/or additional reviews. Yelp typically dings or filters out reviews from users that are not super active or appear to be created to post one or two positive reviews.

I do want to point out, that as SEO's we are not allowed to review our clients since we are being paid. It violates the FTC's Consumer Fairness Act. Since you are being technically employed by the client, your reviews are not allowed. Here is the link to the FTC Guidelines