Yelp: Business INTRODUCTION

Yelp is composed of two main elements: personal and business. As was discussed in the previous section, 'personal' refers to Yelp as a platform for the posting of reviews. In Canada, this is accessed

through yelp.ca and in the United States through yelp.com. The business side of Yelp encompasses how businesses describe, build, and optimize their profiles through biz.yelp.ca or biz.yelp.com. Many businesses are on Yelp whether they choose to be or not. A listing for a business can be created by any Yelp account holder, so it's important that the company itself claims its listing. That way, the business can build out its profile, enabling users not only to find it, but see the images and information the business wants to convey

.BUSINESS PAGE LAYOUT AND COMPONENTS

#2 Average Star Rating Out of Total Reviews: If a business owner or Yelper clicks on the 'details' button, he or she will see a bar graph that shows how many stars the business has received in each star category (e.g. 14 five-star reviews, 3 four-star reviews, etc.). Yelp calculates the average star rating only using reviews that have been recommended using its software (this will be discussed later in the chapter).

#3 Business Category: A business can select up to three categories on its Yelp page. They are listed in order too. The first one is how the business owner primarily identifies his or her operation. The second and third are secondary and tertiary.16

#4 Images: On this business page, there are images. Pictures are important; "the more high quality photos the more interesting [a] page is going to be. According to Review Trackers research, people searching Yelp for local businesses spend 2.5 times more time on a Yelp listing with photos." Ideally, a business should include pictures with people in them. For example, a staff picture is much more powerful than a picture of the company's logo or the business' retail location. Seeing images of people helps the target audience to connect on a more human level to the business. This is especially important, as the majority of brands on Yelp are B2C.

#8 Recommended Reviews & #13 Hidden Reviews:

On this business page, there are recommended reviews and hidden reviews. Obviously, the more reviews a business has, particularly positive ones, the better it is likely to be perceived. If an individual clicks on the hidden reviews, he or she will often see a mix of positive and negative ones. So, why is Yelp hiding these, especially when the positive ones could help the business? Interestingly, whether a review is hidden or not has nothing to do with the nature of the business itself. Instead, Yelp's focus is on the reviewer. I

he or she is posting fake reviews (indicated by the fact that multiple reviews under different names are coming from the same computer) or is biased (the reviewer is related to the business owner), then that reviewer's content will be hidden.

However, a reviewer's content can also be hidden if he or she has not built up credibility through an established history of reviews on Yelp. Therefore, if a reviewer is new and posts his or her first review. Yelp won't show it. Or, if someone has only posted one or two reviews over a year, they won't be shown either. As the reviewer posts more, his or her previous content will start appearing. This process is built into Yelp's often misunderstood algorithm.

#12 Search Terms (Key to SEO): The information in this section indicates that these terms should appear in the business' description, if they are not there already, with the proviso that they must represent the company's Unique Selling Proposition (USP). In other words, if a brand wants to rank higher in Yelp search results, it needs to optimize its page using the right terminology. On the flip side, business owners and marketers should be aware that reviews containing these keywords will also help to rank a company in Yelp search results, making it more visible.

Note 1: Yelp needs an algorithm such as this because it must stay relevant, useful, and credible. If people stop viewing Yelp as a trustworthy source, no one will continue to utilize it and it will ultimately fail. With this in mind, Yelp has a vested interest in being perceived as an honest, reliable source of feedback.

Note 2: This sample page contains all the necessary information Yelp suggests the owner fill out. It also contains images. A more complete page appears better and ranks higher.

Question and activity:

1) Find the business page or company that he or she has just critiqued.

2. Read through the page and the reviews.

3. You now need to imagine that you are the owner of the business that is associated with this Yelp page, and your partner is a marketer you have hired to help improve your page.

4. What is your recommendations for improvements.