Yelp Filters Reviews from Active Yelpers?

[Travis Van Slooten]

Has Yelp always filtered reviews from active Yelpers - AND after the review has been live for several weeks?

I have 56 friends on Yelp and 52 reviews spread out over the past couple years. These are all legit reviews, obviously.

I left a review for my local chiropractor back in February and it went live immediately as all of my Yelp reviews do. I was one of only 3 reviews he had on Yelp. Then today when I checked his profile my review was filtered so now he only has 2 reviews on Yelp. What gives? Why would Yelp seemingly out of the blue filter my review - weeks after I left it and it was live on his profile?

Travis

 

[Travis Van Slooten]

After looking at my Yelp account closer, it appears all 52 of my reviews have been filtered. All 52 reviews that were once live are now filtered. Have I been penalized or something? I spent two years and a lot of time writing honest and helpful reviews for what? I'm done with Yelp.

Travis

 

[theitsage]

Travis, I totally understand your frustration. It's especially infuriating when you have built a list of friends and written that many reviews. The reviews I typically see filtered are ones from first-timers with no friends.

There's definitely something in your account that triggered Yelp's filtering system. I'd suggest checking through your most recent reviews to see whether one was flagged. Where and which device did you write these recent reviews?

I've seen reviews bouncing from showing to "not recommended" then back to showing. It might be a short-term glitch after all.

 

[Travis Van Slooten]

Chad Kimball replied to this post over in the G+ community and I think he nailed the issue. Apparently Yelp filters reviews if you don't leave regular reviews. So even though I have built up 52 reviews and have 56 friends, I'm still not considered an active "trusted" reviewer UNLESS I leave reviews on a regular basis.

Prior to leaving this review for my chiropractor in February, I hadn't written a review since December 2015. In fact, this review of my chiropractor is the only review I've left in 2016.

I think requiring people to be regular Yelp reviewers in order for their reviews to stick is ridiculous. It's not good enough that I've built up that many friends and reviews on Yelp - I also have to leave reviews on a regular basis? And how many reviews do I have to leave in order to be considered a "regular Yelp reviewer" so my reviews stick?

And think of this from a business perspective. It's not good enough to ask someone that has more than one Yelp review for a review. You also need to make sure they leave reviews on Yelp regularly. How is a business owner going to figure that out?

Travis

 

[James Watt]

I have nothing to add, but thanks for sharing this with the community. I've seen Yelp reviews from fairly empty accounts flagged as well, but not accounts like yours. Very interesting. From a business owner's perspective though, it doesn't change things all that much. It's against Yelp TOS to ask for reviews, but if a business owner did happen to have a way of knowing which customers were active on Yelp, and did happen to make a habit of personally asking those people to leave a review on Yelp, this doesn't necessarily mean they should change that policy. Even if only 80% stuck, it's all a numbers game anyway. Even on Google I've seen a ton of honest reviews get filtered. Just part of doing business.

 

[JoyHawkins]

I logged into Yelp recently and they banned my account. I've only ever left a couple reviews but my guess it it might be because we work in the SEO community? I'm not a fan of Yelp.

My reviews, like yours, were completely legit and for businesses local to me.

 

[Tim Colling]

I really hate working with Yelp because of their high-handed, arbitrary ways of suppressing reviews. But they're a necessary evil in the market that I serve. They are in fact fast becoming a frequently-used search engine in their own right.

 

[theitsage]

Tim, I agree Yelp is a necessary evil for a lot of businesses. I have a love/hate relationship with Yelp in that it provides plenty of leads as well as frustrations when positive reviews get filtered.

I wish I could ignore Yelp but the reality is non-Google search platforms are using Yelp's reviews (Apple iOS, Bing, Yahoo,...)

 

[Michael S. Doran]

After looking at my Yelp account closer, it appears all 52 of my reviews have been filtered. All 52 reviews that were once live are now filtered. Have I been penalized or something? I spent two years and a lot of time writing honest and helpful reviews for what? I'm done with Yelp.

Travis

This is the problem with Yelp in a nutshell. I no longer bother writing reviews for their crappy website. They are so heavy handed that they don't even provide a valuable public service with their reviews. Why waste my time writing a review when Yelp is just going to filter it out? I am amazed that anyone bothers writing any reviews for Yelp.