The general goal of this type of behavior is to lure you into an image-damaging dialogue, which is a no-win scenario. Unmerited attacks (trolling): It is generally advisable to ignore these kinds of negative reviews. At all costs, you must not attack them, as this is likely to provoke further attacks from them and may quickly spiral out of control (Yelp users are notoriously verbose). Responding to this is similar to responding to constructive criticism, in that you want to publicly respond to them, keep a very positive tone, and most importantly apologize for their bad experience (assuming that it is a legitimate complaint, if not then follow instructions for unmerited attacks). Merited attack: This is the most dangerous kind of review to respond to, and requires a great deal of care. It is important to remember that this type of customer may bring repeat business if you respond positively to them. If the customer is suggesting you handle an aspect of your business in a different way that does not make sense to you, the suggested response is to publicly respond to them and explain why you handle things the way you do, but thank them for their input. It is also advisable to friend them as well as check the boxes underneath their review (useful, funny, cool) to help the review stay out of the Yelp filter (more on this below).Ĭonstructive criticism: It is important to be careful when responding to these types of reviews. It is not advisable to use this as an opportunity to pitch to them. The suggested course of action is to send them a brief private response thanking them. First off, it strengthens the relationship with an already satisfied customer and increases the odds that they will bring repeat business. Positive: It is advisable to respond to positive feedback for a few reasons. Respond strategically to reviews, both negative and positive Even a negative review from a very active yelp user can push a business to the top of the search page (obviously a positive review from said user is infinitely more beneficial, both in rankings and reputation). Reviews from active yelp users are weighted more than those from less active users. Review weighting is based primarily on who wrote the review. The key is to be subtle nobody likes to be pestered into writing a review. Also including yelp logos on business cards or putting yelp stickers on windows help. Good ways to encourage reviews are including yelp badges on your website (which link to your yelp profile), or mentioning in the site content how much people love your business on yelp (with a profile link of course). Just whatever you do, don’t post anything on your yelp profile or website offering incentives for writing reviews. Yelp explicitly tells you not to ask people for reviews, but most businesses do it anyway. If possible, subtly suggest to customers to include keywords in reviews, as well as mention specific products/services. Include keywords from your website’s SEO strategy throughout your profile, particularly in the business information, history, and owner/employee profiles (you have an SEO strategy, right?). Irrelevant categories hurt rankings and can even result in nasty reviews. It is advisable to pick as many categories as your business can reasonably fit into, but don’t use categories that don’t apply just to reach the maximum three. The process is very similar to selecting categories for Google local, with the main difference being that you cannot create custom categories. The best strategy for this is to look at competitor profiles to see which categories they picked. Here is a list of all available categories: 2. CategoriesĮvery business can pick up to 3 categories to describe their business. Posting inaccurate information will result in negative customer experiences, negative reviews, rankings penalties, and possibly even de-listing if the offenses are great enough. Additionally, complete information helps immensely with user experience and creates less work for the business owner by answering common questions from customers (a pet peeve of mine is when businesses don’t list their hours of operation).Īlso important is to regularly update your business profile when anything changes. Preferential ranking treatment is given to businesses with complete information, plus customers tend to trust businesses more when information is available about the business as well as the owners and staff. You know why reviews are important to local businesses, but how do you work it? Key Factors in Yelp Ranking Algorithm: Yelp Optimization Guide: 10 Steps to Yelp Domination
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