In the time of the social media giants – Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn – some of the smaller players tend to get overlooked. One of these small (but mighty) players is Yelp. Yelp boasts an average of 178 million unique users worldwide each month, so having an optimized business page can lead to major traffic in this space, to your website, and even to your storefront.
Whether you’re the business owner for a local eatery or a partner at a law firm managing reviews, there are a few things you can do to help your Yelp business page earn “5 stars.”
Use the New Features
Earlier this spring, in the midst of supporting a variety of businesses as they transitioned online due to COVID-19, Yelp rolled out new updates focused on helping business owners understand their performance and manage their experience on Yelp in a totally new, reimagined way.
These features include recommendation cards and tips, both designed to give step-by-step comprehensive feedback. Business owners will find the recommendation cards populated on their profile when they go to edit that space, as well as tips on the home page that focus on insights and next steps on how to reach consumers in that specific industry via Yelp Ads. Following a few or all of these feedback points provided from the Yelp website will help your page perform to its full potential.
Be Active & Engaged
Keep your page optimized by simply staying active. When information about your business changes (especially hours), ensure that is reflected on your Yelp business page.
When reviews come in, both positive and negative, make sure to respond in an appropriate and timely manner. How your business specifically encourages and manages reviews should be a part of your relationship management strategy that goes hand-in-hand with your holistic marketing strategy.
Don’t Skip a Beat
This may go without saying, but don’t leave any part of your business profile blank. Yelp gives preference to businesses that have a complete page full of beneficial information that viewers are searching for.
At the very least, each business page should include your main industry, hours, physical address, phone number, and link to your website. If your business has any COVID-19 specific updates to include at this time, add those in too, and they will populate at the top of your business page listing.
In addition to this, make sure to upload your business’s professional photos and encourage customers to upload their own photos with reviews. Also try incorporating relevant keywords into the page so you can optimize on a local level.
For every new star earned on Yelp, business owners see an increase of 9% ROI.
We develop a fully customized strategy based on your unique needs, and then we execute your digital marketing strategy on a daily basis. You run your business; we run your social media.
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