Connor Brooke
Yes, I really said that YELP is a MUST!
We already know that most people, when looking for information about a local business, resort to search, and that local search makes up a majority of all search queries.
If you’ve been following our Local SEO series, your business is now registered with the search engines, you’ve set up some citations, and maybe even picked up some reviews or recommendations. You’re all covered right? Maybe – have you claimed your yelp listing yet?
Yelp – Not just for Restaurants Anymore
This past week, two different local small business owners told me that they ignored yelp because it is for restaurant listings and reviews.
Yelp has been changing and reinventing itself as of late. They are now 2nd only to Google in importance in Local Search!
Yelp and Apple
With the introduction of Siri on the iPhone 4s, Apple brought “Voice activated” search into the mainstream. Whatever your 
thoughts are on Siri, many iPhone users now search with Siri rather than physically going online, and the effectiveness and availability of voice activated search will only increase in the future.
Those Apple users are no longer selecting to search on Google, Bing or Yahoo, instead they are trusting Siri to select their “search” for them.
Where does Siri get her information? You guessed it – yelp!
In addition to incorporating yelp into the Siri search results, the new iOS6 integrates yelp into its Maps program, using it to provide for “foursquare like” check-ins, and allowing it more prominent placement and exposure on the iPhone.
Yelp and Bing
Earlier this year, yelp signed an agreement with Bing and now contributes reviews to Bing’s search engine results pages as well. This not only give yelp more influence over search results, but more exposure to users and potential reviewers.
Marketing Take-Away
Yelp has become a major player within Local search.
Recent research from Piper Jaffray found that among U.S. teens, 40 percent of respondents said that they own an iPhone, while another 62 percent are looking to buy one when their current contract expires.
All “local” businesses should claim their yelp listing, but it is especially critical to those businesses that serve a younger customer base.
In addition, if you are encouraging your customers to provide reviews for your business, you should try to promote both Google+ and yelp reviews depending on your user’s phone.
Looking for help with your Local Optimization? Visit our website for more information.
Thanks for reading. As always, your comments and questions are welcome and appreciated.
This article was written for Business 2 Community by Connor Brooke.
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PLEASE! DONT BE FOOLED BY THIS! DONT put on business on YELP! This site is pure evil! I’m living the nightmare! It will destroy your business! Just Google “yelp Extortion” and see for yourself what you will be in for if you humor these extortionists!
Apple maps and Siri incorporated Yelp’s crowdsourced data which was partly why the map feature was such an epic fail. The author is pumping Yelp because of the Apple integration, but after Tim Cook’s apology to all Apple users, the argument is flawed. Besides, if a small business has a high rating on Yelp, why pay Yelp since it is advertising for you for free. Of course, if your small business has a low Yelp rating, why draw more attention to the low rating by advertising on the site?
Remember, its the star rating, not the advertising, that supposedly is driving traffic. Makes more sense to offer discounts to customers to post on Yelp than it does to spend money on advertising with the site.