It is also beneficial from a business owner’s perspective – which is why you should claim or create your Yelp business listing. If your business isn’t already utilizing Yelp, this post will explain how to add your business to Yelp, why you should optimize your profile and the importance of interacting with customers. Keep reading to learn how to become a Yelp business pro!
How to Create and Update a Yelp Business Listing
1. Claim or Add Your Yelp Business Listing
First, you should conduct a search on Yelp to check if your business has already been added to Yelp.
Anyone can add a listing, so a customer, employee or member of your community may have already added it for you. If you can’t find it, you can
fill out this form to create a listing and have it appear in search results. It’s that easy!
If you found your business on Yelp, then you’ll need to
claim your business. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be able to update information featured on the page, respond to customers and add photos. Luckily, Yelp makes it easy for business owners to claim their listings. They may call your business phone number and ask you to provide a verification code. Once this process is complete, you can get started.
2. Complete Your Yelp Profile
As we mentioned, you’ll need to add your business’s information to your listing. Enter your category, address, hours, phone number, website, and other details. Yelp has other specific sections that you can complete, including whether you take reservations, what your price range is, if you have Wi-Fi, are a wheelchair accessible establishment, and other important factors that patrons like to know. The more thorough your profile is, the better experience your patrons will have. Providing them with these details will help them determine if your business is the correct fit for their needs!
3. Add Photos
Next up, add pictures of your establishment, inventory, menu items, finished projects, or whatever else pertains to your industry. If you have a physical location, make sure to include a photo of the outside of your establishment, including the entrance. This will make it easier for patrons to find you! If you’re serious about Yelp for small business, you may want to consider hiring a professional photographer to come take photos of whatever you’d like to include on your listing. These photos will stand out and give your listing a professional look.
4. Create a Yelp Deal
In addition to giving customers must-know information about your business, you can utilize Yelp to make more sales. Yelp Deals enables you to create special offers that will appear on your business listing. You do not have to pay to use Yelp Deals, but when a customer takes advantage of the offer, Yelp will take a small percentage of that sale. Overall, you may want to consider Yelp Deals if you want to intrigue new customers to visit your business.
5. Respond to Reviews
If you receive negative reviews,
don’t be afraid to respond. Yelp gives you another way to communicate with customers and respond to their feedback. You may even find that responding to Yelp reviews helps you improve customer retention.
If a review contains false information, threats or violates other Yelp Guidelines, you can request that Yelp remove that review. If Yelp agrees that the reviewer has violated their Content Guidelines, they will email you to let you know that it has been removed.
You also have the option to message the reviewer privately. Although it looks good to other patrons to see that you respond to reviews publicly and care about your customers, there may be some issues that are better off settled in a direct message.
6. Don’t Solicit Reviews
This is a Yelp “no-no.” You can’t provide incentives for patrons in exchange for reviews. In addition, business owners are prohibited from bribing customers to remove reviews. You may wonder, how can you attract positive reviews on Yelp? Add a link to your Yelp business listing on your website, or
apply for a “Find Us on Yelp” sticker. There is also a
“People Love Us On Yelp” sticker, but those are only sent out twice a year to qualifying businesses.
7. Utilize the Yelp Dashboard
Yelp gives business owners a dashboard where they can review insights such as listing views, user actions and other results. This data can help you determine how consumers are interacting with your Yelp page, and may give you ideas on how you can improve your listing.
8. Consider Paying for Yelp’s Sponsored Options
Business owners that want to take their Yelp business listing to the next level can invest in Yelp’s sponsored advertisements, which help you appear higher up in search results and on competitors’ pages.
If you couldn’t find your business listing, now you know how to add your business to Yelp. Is your business already featured on Yelp? Then make the most of your business listing by enhancing your profile. If you take time to develop a detailed listing, it will benefit both your business and its customers.
To access more small business marketing tips, check out our free
business marketing guide.