You guessed it - Yelp!

Those star ratings and reviews can make or break your business, turning potential customers into loyal fans or sending them running for the hills. So sit tight because in just the next few minutes, we'll dive into the rollercoaster world of Yelp reviews and how to handle them like a champ!

Understanding Concerns about Negative Yelp Reviews

Let's face it, negative Yelp reviews can send chills down any business owner's spine. And why wouldn't they? Your reputation is on the line, and in the age of the internet, word spreads faster than wildfire.

Prospects Read Reviews Before Buying

Look at the table below for search terms for a website that sells direct-to-consumer dental mouthguards. People are searching for reviews about this business. And they are searching for review for your business, too.

But the common worries that plague businesses regarding negative Yelp reviews are many and varied. Some fear the potential loss of customers, others dread the damage to their online reputation. There's also the worry about a single negative review tarnishing years of hard work and dedication. And let's not forget the concern that competitors may be behind those scathing reviews (more about how to report a fake review in a bit).

But here's the real kicker: 

The ramifications of NOT addressing these concerns can be far more damaging. Ignoring negative reviews doesn't make them disappear; it simply makes your business appear indifferent to customer feedback.

A bad review left unanswered can create a snowball effect, deterring potential customers who might think you don't care about their experiences.

In the end, it's not just about the negative review itself, but how you handle it that counts.

So, instead of losing sleep over those one-star ratings, let's roll up our sleeves and turn them into opportunities for growth and improvement. It's time to embrace the challenge head-on!

How to Get Bad Yelp Reviews Removed

The semi-bad news is that regardless of whether or not you’re a Yelp advertising customer or not, the only way you can get rid of bad Yelp reviews is if the review itself is inappropriate and violates the Yelp TOS (terms of service), in which case you can report the review to Yelp and it will be reviewed for possible removal.

Here’s the actual process…

Reporting a Review on Yelp for Takedown

Not all reviews are created equal, and sometimes, they may violate Yelp's Content Guidelines. If you come across a review that seems inappropriate or fake, you can report it to Yelp for possible removal.

Here's what constitutes a violation of Yelp's guidelines (you can read more about Yelps guidelines here):

If you have a review violating these guidelines on your Yelp profile, follow these steps to report it (you will have to have claimed your page and logged in to report it):

After you report a review, Yelp's moderators will evaluate it against their guidelines. If it's found to be in violation, it may be removed. But often, they leave reviews in place. 

So what can you do if Yelp refuses to take down a bad review?

Other Actions You Should Take

When crafting your response, keep these guidelines in mind:

Example

Now, let's look at a case study that perfectly illustrates the power of an appropriate response. 

A local café received a scathing review about their slow service during peak hours.

Instead of ignoring the review, the café owner responded promptly. He apologized for the long wait, explained that they were short-staffed that day, and invited the reviewer back for a complimentary meal. This response showed their commitment to customer satisfaction, transparency, and willingness to accept responsibility.

The result? 

The disgruntled customer revised their review, praising the café for their excellent customer service, and became a regular patron.

Remember, a negative review isn't the end of the world. It's how you respond that counts!

Use AI Chat to Write Review Replies

In the fast-paced world of online reviews, responding swiftly and effectively is essential. This is where Artificial Intelligence (AI) chat can come into play, helping you craft professional, personalized responses in a timely manner. You can use any number of free AI Chat services, including Chat GPT. 

Example Prompts You Can Use for AI Chat (i.e., Chat GPT):

Using AI chat to craft professional responses to negative reviews can be as simple as providing the right prompts. Here are a few examples and explanations on how to guide the AI in adopting your preferred tone and style.

Example 1:

Prompt: "AI, draft a response to this negative review: 'The service at your restaurant was extremely slow, and the food was cold when it arrived.' Please write in a polite and empathetic tone."

By specifying the tone as "polite and empathetic," you're instructing the AI to approach the situation with understanding and respect, while remaining professional.

Example 2:

Prompt: "AI, respond to this negative review: 'Your product broke within a week of purchase.' Write in a confident and solution-oriented style."

In this case, you're asking the AI to exude confidence in addressing the issue, focusing on solutions rather than dwelling on the problem.

Example 3:

Prompt: "AI, craft a response to this review: 'I found your staff to be rude and unhelpful.' Use a sincere and apologetic tone."

Here, you're directing the AI to acknowledge the customer's dissatisfaction and offer an apology, conveying sincerity in the response.

Remember, the key is to be explicit about the tone and style you want the AI to adopt in its response. This will help ensure that the AI's output aligns with your brand's voice and values, while effectively addressing the customer's concerns.

Benefits of using AI Chat:

Limitations when using AI Chat to write your responses:

Best Practices:

AI chat can be a valuable tool for managing your Yelp reviews, but remember, it's a tool, not a replacement for genuine, human interaction. Use it to assist and enhance your response efforts, but always keep the human touch front and center.

A final word of caution about requesting reviews.

Yelp's heavy-handed algorithm buries many reviews that never see the light of day. Nobody knows precisely what this algorithm is looking for, but I do know if reviews are unnatural, they will be hidden and not shown. 

For example, if too many reviews come in too quickly or at a pace that is unnatural, they will likely be flagged and not shown.

If Yelp can't confirm if the person actually was at the location, the review might not be shown.

There are hundreds of reasons why reviews will not be shown. So, proceed with caution and at your own risk of encouraging reviews. Often the best course of action is to ensure you have great customer service and a great product to start with. And use your reviews as feedback to improve. 

Let me know what your experience has been with Yelp reviews in the comments below.

Prefer to watch a video?

Are Yelp Ads Worth it?

Yelp advertising can be an effective way for businesses to reach potential customers, but it's not without its drawbacks. And there are more effective options out there. Some of the most common concerns include:

Don’t Take My Word For It 

As you read through the post, don’t forget to read the comments at the bottom for additional insight - there are dozens of comments from past Yelp advertisers and their first-hand experiences.  

One thing is certain:
Interest in Yelp Advertising has been steadily declining for several years. Below is a recent Google Trends graph highlighting declining search interest in Yelp Ads. 

First, Where Does Your Target Audience Hang Out?

Does your ideal customer visit Yelp often?

Not sure?

Study your competitors’ Yelp presence.

Make a list of businesses similar to yours in terms of products, services, target audience, and location. Consider both direct and indirect competitors. Search for their Yelp profiles. Are the profiles filled out well? Do you see ads from your competitors on Yelp? 

Not that your competitors’ strategies are the best for your business, but if not many in your local market have much of a presence there, then you should consider that. 

Next, Be Clear About Your Goals

Clearly defined advertising goals, such as increasing brand awareness, driving sales, or acquiring new customers, helps you stay focused on what you want to achieve with your advertising efforts. 

And when you clearly understand your objectives, you can dedicate resources—such as time and money—more effectively. 

This helps you maximize your return on investment (ROI) by prioritizing tasks and actions that directly contribute to achieving your goals. And at the end of the day, it helps maximize your cash flow - after all, the last thing you want is negative cash flow from advertising. 

For example, if you have specific sales goals, you might not be able to achieve those goals using Yelp Ads for various reasons. Perhaps there isn’t enough traffic on Yelp to achieve your sales goals. Or the cost is beyond your budget. There’s too much competition. Or your customer just isn’t on Yelp looking for you. 

Targeting Options

Geotargeting Options Of Yelp Ad Campaigns

Yelp provides a couple of options. You can target based on:

For businesses that have the search volume in Yelp, you might see these two options. 

If your target market is small geographically, say within a few miles of your location, you may have difficulty reaching enough customers. And likely, you’ll have wasted ad spend since the smallest radius you can target is 5 miles. 

From a reporting perspective, Yelp is not for you if you want data. There’s little you can change to affect performance other than change the actual geographic area of where your ads show, your budget, and the keywords you’re targeting. 

Below is an example of what Yelp shows regarding where ads show. In this particular case, it’s for a business in the Houston Heights area. These data are interesting but not helpful or actionable. 

What would be beneficial is to see where the actual conversions or phone calls were coming from, not just where the ads are served. 

In this case, this business’ clients are within a 3 - 5-mile radius. But notice the red-hot spot to the south near Pearland? This is likely wasted ad spend. This area is 25 miles away, and the drive can take anywhere from 30 min to an hour, depending on the time of day. But we’ll never know if the advertising in Pearland is worth it since we cannot see conversion data on the map.

In comparison, in Google Ads, you have greater flexibility in your geotargeting and transparency on what geo areas drive results. 

For example, in Google Ads, you can see where conversions, phone calls, clicks, and impressions are coming from geographically. Then, you can bid more aggressively using bid modifiers for areas you know convert more searchers to customers making your ad spend as efficient as possible and eliminating wasted ad spend.

Keyword Targeting: What Keywords or Topics Is Yelp Showing Your Ads For?

Similar to Google Ads, you can choose keywords for your business. Here’s an example of a plumber:

Like the geo-targeting issue earlier, there’s minimal transparency in what keywords or topics your ads are showing for. Some of your keywords perform well, and some just burn your budget, but you’ll have no idea.

Unlike Google Ads, where you have complete control and transparency with keywords and topics, you are limited in the Yelp ad platform. And that’s the scary part – how much ad money are you wasting on keywords or topics that are not producing sales and profit? I would imagine Yelp doesn’t show that to advertisers because if it did, advertisers would spend a fraction of what they could be spending once they uncovered underperforming keywords.

What Is The Cost To Advertise On Yelp?

Yelp charges you based on CPC (cost-per-click).

The CPC you pay varies widely – advertisers pay as low as $0.30 per click (for some food establishments) and more than $50+ per click for more competitive niches like personal injury law. You can choose your ad budget and set it as low as $5 per day.

Generally speaking, Yelp cost-per-clicks in some industries is less than Google Ads in Search campaigns. But Yelp also provides less ad efficiency and effectiveness. 

However, suppose you’re in a highly competitive niche where the cost-per-click (CPC) is very high in Google, as it is personal injury law or leak detection for plumbers. In that case, you may consider adding Yelp ads to your marketing mix in addition to a Google Ads campaign.

Here’s an anecdotal example of a personal injury law firm using Yelp Ads and Google Ads. The cost per lead coming from Yelp was slightly lower. And for leads, we didn’t count leads as Yelp counts them, but instead as calls and messages. 

Remember that this niche is highly competitive ($50 per click on Yelp, $200+ per click in Google Ads). However, for many other businesses, the competition is less fierce. 

Campaign Performance Metrics 

The first chart here shows the “leads” breakdown. I put leads in quotations because that is a loosely defined term with Yelp. Most of what Yelp calls “leads” are not leads, as most business owners would describe them.

I define a lead for this business as someone who booked an appointment, called and wanted to know more about the company, or submitted a form online. I estimate that ONLY 10% - 15% of what they call “leads” are true leads. But the data do look lovely in a chart, so there’s that (lol). 

Here’s a closer look at the breakdown of leads:

Very few Directions and Map Views are legit leads - many of those may be repeat customers or people just checking to see how far away you are from them and whether it’s worth the drive. Similar situation with Website Visits - many people want to learn more about you, but a low percentage are converting to actual leads (i.e. booked appointments).

What Does Yelp Do Well?

Yelp does a good job with SEO and ranking its pages in Google searches which means potentially more exposure for you as a Yelp advertiser.

Many queries in Google will show Yelp pages appearing at the top of the organic listings For example, below are the search results in Google for the query, “med spas near me.”  Yelp is the first traditional organic listing, so it’s pulling in traffic for Google searches which can benefit you. 

Don’t expect your business’ Yelp page to rank in Google – most of Yelp’s pages ranking in Google are its category or search pages, not individual business pages. The key point is that if you’re advertising on Yelp, you can capture more traffic than just Yelp’s internal traffic – in this case, the organic traffic that’s coming from Google as well.

Diminishing Returns for Yelp from Google

However, Yelp’s presence in Google continues to diminish as Google maximizes its own opportunities. 

Because Google is dominating the top part of its search pages so well with its own properties (Local Service Ads, Google Ads, Google Local Packs, Featured Snippets ranking in position 0, etc), it’s increasingly difficult for Yelp to continue to acquire non-paid traffic from Google organic searches and thus deliver more traffic to Yelp advertisers.

This trend with Yelp’s pages ranking in Google is most evident with service-based businesses where Google shows the following properties ahead of Yelp pages:

Google pushes the Yelp organic listings way below the fold and below its own properties.

In Summary

Overall Positives

Overall Negatives

Google Has The Most Searchers

Google captures 70% or more of all search traffic between the 3 search engines (which is really just two search engines). It's one of the first places people go to begin their research about a product or service. And consider that the majority of mobile phone users are using Google's Android operating system. You don't want to miss these searchers.

No Contracts

Google Ads do not have contracts. Yelp, on the other hand, often pushes contracts and prefers 12 months. They do offer a self-serve option, but the sales reps probably won't tell you about this option. So if you're considering advertising, ask about the self-serve option before being locked down in a contract.

Tracking & Analytics Of Your Ads

Google Ads provides an overwhelming amount of actionable data on exactly what keywords are driving traffic, campaign performance, where users that are clicking on your ads are searching from, and it integrates completely with Google Analytics.

Yelp provides almost no data whatsoever about what keywords people are using and who is seeing your ads or clicking. Yelp does allow you to set general keywords and to block specific keywords, but these are pre-designated in Yelp's system.

Here's an example of specifying topics or niches within the Yelp ad platform for a personal injury attorney:

Pre-qualified Leads

People completing Google searches are pre-qualified. You know exactly what queries are driving clicks to your website and which queries are converting to leads.

This is not as clear with Yelp ads as Yelp determines which queries to show your ad for, and you have no visibility whatsoever into the actual query data as you do with Google.  As indicated in the above image, you can specify in Yelp general categories of search - in this case, attorney, auto accident attorney, etc, but those are general topics.

Here's an example of the keyword terms that a similar Google ad campaign shows - this is just a snippet but in this particular case there were more than 600 search terms over a 2 week period that Google searchers used to find this business - what I'm showing is just a sample.

Remarketing/Retargeting

Most of your customers will not convert on the first visit to your website, but that's ok if you're using Google Remarketing because you can target those people for more than a year serving them ads about your brand to bring them back to convert them to a lead. Can't do this with Yelp.

Also, Yelp sends a low percentage of people through to your site (obviously since they want to keep that traffic on Yelp) so even if you are using Google retargeting, almost none of your Yelp traffic will end up in your Google retargeting lists. (I would add that the little traffic that Yelp does send through to your website is very low bounce rate which is a positive).

Here are some metrics for clicks and traffic- the first bar chart shows 614 clicks from Yelp ads. The second table shows Google Analytics data over the same period that show only 34 people clicked through to the website from Yelp...and some of those are likely not even coming from the Yelp ads, just organic non-paid Yelp traffic.

Easily Start or Stop

Google Ads allows you to start or stop a campaign very quickly, and thus control your spend. If you signed a contract with Yelp, you're locked in (see point 2 above).

Flexibility To Go After Different Types of Customers

Keyword selections in Google Ads allow you to target customers at different stages of the buying cycle based on the type of query.

For example, people just starting to search for digital cameras might query for, "digital SLR versus Point and Shoot Cameras" - this customer is not ready to buy, but you could target that query to at least create awareness of your brand.

Or you could put all your budget on the bottom of the funnel search queries where people are ready to buy right now, "where to buy digital SLR cameras near me."

Yelp advertises you in your industry/niche, but there's no choosing the types of queries you go after, and those other industries could be too far afield from yours.

Geotargeting Options

Google provides incredible flexibility in geotargeting on the map. You can target a radius from 1 mile or km up to 500 miles or km. You can specify an address and target right around that, or specify a zip code, city, county, or state for targeting. With Google Ads, you can also exclude certain areas as well to ensure your ads don't show in those particular areas. A related post here on Google Ads Local Targeting.

Yelp provides 3 radius options - 5 miles, 10 miles, 15 miles - that's it!

Integration with Facebook, Cross Marketing

Using UTM parameters, you can target just your Google ad visitors on Facebook.

Conversely, when looking in Google Analytics at referral traffic from Yelp to your website, it's very low so you cannot easily integrate Yelp with other marketing campaigns (i.e. through retargeting Yelp website visitors on Google, Facebook) to cross-market.

Lowest Cost-Per-Click (CPC)

Google's ad auction system is designed so that you pay exactly the lowest cost per click possible to maintain your ad position (referred to as the Adwords Discounter. More info here), and its Smart Pricing system will actually reduce the cost-per-click if it believes a click is less likely to lead to a conversion.

Whether your particular industry has lower CPC in Google vs Yelp depends on your industry and geolocation. I have seen the CPC higher in Yelp in some industries and higher over in Google in other industries. For example, the CPC cost in Google for personal injury attorneys is often far higher in Google, yet in massage therapy, the CPC cost in Yelp is higher vs Google.

With Yelp advertising, the amount you pay is primarily determined by Yelp - there's no real-time auction ensuring you pay the minimum. And for most campaigns, that means CPC for Yelp from our discussions with reps is usually in the $3 - $4 range for many industries. Your industry CPC can vary greatly depending on your industry - certain attorney niches pay upwards of $50 per click.

Cost Per Lead - Google vs Yelp

From the below anecdotal example, we looked at the same period in Google and Yelp to identify the cost per lead data between both. It's not possible to capture every lead, but this is a good comparison. They both have a similar cost per lead (keep in mind this is a law firm where the cost are extremely high). Your mileage will vary greatly depending on your industry.

Support

Google provides a toll-free number for support (866-2-GOOGLE) with technical Adwords specialists, or Google Analytics reps. Yelp provides a sales rep.

Google Ads Provides Full-Funnel Marketing and Advertising 

Google provides a complete full-funnel marketing solution for businesses that targets your customers at the earliest stages of discovery long before they become a customer all the way through the funnel until they are ready to purchase.

The Yelp Ads platform provides a simple solution that is lacking in most of the robust features in Google Ads.

Conclusion

Every situation is unique and has to be evaluated on its own, but from working with dozens of businesses and looking at the corresponding data among both platforms, if you have to choose one over the other, my recommendation is to start with Google Ads.

 What are your thoughts? Which do you prefer and why?

For those of you new to Google Adwords and paid campaigns, a couple of related posts here will help: 

What is Google Adwords and how does it work?
And How much should I spend on Google ads

You can also read Yelp’s Terms of Service.

On the individual review there’s a small flag in the lower right – click that.

Then you will get a drop-down menu of options that are similar to the content guidelines list:

The first item in the list makes you believe that you can report a review based on false information but here is a screenshot of what you will see if you select this option:

Once you select a viable option, you are asked to support that option with “proof” (specific details):

When providing specific details, it is best to be very clear as to how the reviewer violated the guideline.  Here’s an example:

“We would like to request that this review be removed for hate speech.  When the reviewer states that our employee, Karen, cannot speak English and should not work at our business, we believe she is discriminating against her race which is a violation of content guidelines.  We would appreciate your support in removing this review.  Thank you for your time and consideration.”

Following submission of the flagged review, you get an email from Yelp that states the following:

Within 1-5 days, you get a notice of agreement or disagreement with your request for removal.

For other related Yelp posts: Yelp Ad Results, and How To Get Rid of Bad Yelp Reviews

Send Me This Post To Read Later >>

Facebook Review Removal Request:

For Facebook, you have to make sure you’re in the review tab or section of your business’s Facebook page. Comments which appear on your posts are different from reviews – you have control over comments so they can be deleted if need be. I don’t always recommend deleting a comment for a couple of reasons:

One, unless you feel it’s absolutely necessary as a disgruntled reviewer may feel like you’re just trying to make it go away and she may come after you on other social sites. And two, responding can show you are engaged and care about your customers.

But in the case you have a review on the review tab for your business’s Facebook page that you want to report, here’s how you do it.

Click the drop-down on the review:

You select it and a box that says, “I don’t like this review”, you select it:

Then you get two options:

If you choose the first option, it is submitted to Facebook, and they review it. If you select the second option, you are presented with another set of options related to the Facebook Community Standards. Here is a link to the Facebook community standards.

When you select any of the above options, you are walked through a series of checkboxes related to the type of violation. For instance, if you select “It’s harassment or hate speech” you are presented with the following additional options:

For Facebook, the reporting method seems more limited versus Yelp.

But, Facebook does give you the option to ban the user from your page or to hide all from the user as seen below. In our experience, when you ban the user while the review is still there (and factored into your rating score), you cannot see the review anymore which is a good option.

Google Review Removal Request:

Always a good a good idea to read Google’s review guidelines.

To Submit a review to Google Plus, you flag it as shown below:

Once you flag it, you are given the following options for reporting.  The options directly related to Google’s review content policies.

Hope this helps – leave your comments below about your experiences with any of these review sites.