Yelp Business Reviews: Actionable Yelp Tips for Businesses
Last updated on October 3rd, 2025
Online reviews can make or break a local business.
As one of the most-used review platforms out there, Yelp is a powerful tool not only for consumers, but increasingly search engines and AI tools to figure out which businesses are top notch.
In this article, we’ll explore what makes Yelp business reviews special, and how to use them for local business success.
What are Yelp reviews?
With Yelp, customers post reviews of local businesses that potential customers can see when looking for services like yours.
Yelp business reviews combine star ratings (1-5 stars), detailed comments, and user-generated photos and videos to help potential customers choose between local businesses.
It’s designed to be local-first, helping consumers discover the next restaurant, dentist, or car dealer to try and trust. While it specializes in brick and mortar businesses, Yelp also helps mobile businesses and contractors such as plumbers and electricians connect with customers.
Why do Yelp reviews matter?
As we’ve already mentioned, our annual Local Consumer Review Survey shows that Yelp is one of the most popular review platforms for consumers. Data shows that in recent years it’s become the second most popular site for reviews behind Google.
Every day, 2.5 million people visit Yelp looking for local businesses. And with more than 308 million reviews to sift through on the platform, strong Yelp reviews make it easier for potential customers to trust your business.
Yelp reviews can have a big impact on the bottom line. Back in 2011, a Harvard Business School study found that a one-star improvement in restaurants’ Yelp ratings led to a 5-7% increase in revenue.
Today, Yelp reports that 82% of users go on to hire or buy from a business they found on Yelp within a week of searching. Frankly, leaving your Yelp profile unclaimed and uncared for is leaving money on the table.
While the exact Yelp algorithm remains a closely guarded secret, a steady stream of high-quality reviews will help your listing get seen by more potential customers. Yelp’s default search focuses on the user’s search terms and distance, as well as the business’s ratings, transactions using Yelp’s tools, user engagement data, and relevant reviews.
And now, it’s not just your real-life customers who are looking to Yelp for information; it’s AI, too. We found that Yelp is used as a source in a third of LLM searches for local business-related prompts. Not only do LLMs use Yelp to extract business information, but they also pull content from customer reviews to answer queries. Yelp also entered a partnership with Perplexity AI and is used as a source in nearly all of its results.
Put simply, Yelp reviews are a key part of building a strong online presence and attracting new customers.
Claiming Your Business on Yelp
The first step to getting reviews on Yelp is to get your business listed on the website. Before you go ahead and add your business, you should first check if it’s already there by searching for your business.
You can follow our step-by-step on how to add or claim a Yelp listing, but the gist of it is:
- Create a Yelp business account
- Add your information, like business phone number, address, website, and category
- Verify your business, either by phone or email
- Add images and descriptions
- Add additional locations
Then you’re ready to start collecting reviews.
How to Optimize Your Yelp Business Page
Much like your website, your Yelp business page needs careful optimization if you want to maximize results.
A complete, keyword-rich Yelp profile with eye-catching photos and videos helps you get found and gives customers confidence in choosing your business.
The first step in Yelp optimization is to check you have all your information filled out. This includes your business name, address, phone number, website, business categories, and more. Make it simple for customers to reach you and trust your information, because mistakes can cost you leads.
Much like other business listings, Yelp is open to user-suggested edits. It’s important to regularly review your profile to check that your details stay accurate and consistent across the web. It’s also important to keep everything up to date, which you can do from centralised tools with your other listings.
Tools like BrightLocal’s Active Sync allow you to manage listings, including Yelp. They help you monitor them for unexpected changes, keep track of reviews, and push out your own updates.
What is a ‘good’ Yelp review?
So you know you need to get loads of good Yelp reviews for your business… but what does that actually mean?
In short, a “good” Yelp review is genuine, detailed, and helpful. Reviews that describe specific experiences, mention particular products or services, and include photos or videos are highly likely to be useful to Yelp users.
The Local Consumer Review Survey shows that customers pay attention to recent reviews, high star ratings, and the overall number of reviews when deciding which local businesses to trust. A business with a steady stream of positive, detailed reviews instantly looks more credible and appealing.
Yelp reviews tend to be longer and more detailed than other review platforms. Research from the FTC found that just 2% of Yelp reviews contained fewer than 100 characters, compared to 50% of Google reviews. For consumers looking for genuine advice, Yelp is often the first port of call.
When writing a review, Yelp users are guided using Interactive Review Topics that suggest areas to cover. Once these are included, you get a satisfying green tick.
Yelp has its own criteria when choosing which reviews to highlight. Reviews are categorized as Recommended or Not Recommended, with the latter tucked behind a link. Some of this is due to Yelp’s big position on non-incentivized reviews (more on this below), but unfavorable or incomplete reviews can also be filtered if Yelp doesn’t know enough about the reviewer.
Like all review sites, fake Yelp reviews can be a challenge, but Yelp has measures in place to combat these.
Yelp-specific review features
Yelp business reviews are more than just 5 stars and a couple of words. Yelp continually enhances its platform to provide users with richer, more engaging ways to share and discover experiences. Check out some key Yelp review features:
Video and image reviews
Visual content is powerful. Users can upload photos and short videos to Yelp reviews to showcase their experience and help potential customers know what to expect.
Community-generated information
With Yelp, it’s not just reviews you need to keep a close eye on. There are plenty of opportunities for the community to share information and get questions answered by others. If you’re not monitoring these, misinformation could easily sneak in.
Review Insights
Yelp launched AI-powered “Review Insights” for restaurant, food, and nightlife businesses in December 2024. This feature summarizes customer sentiments using intuitive icons, helping users quickly grasp the overall sentiment of reviews. This feature isn’t widespread yet, but could be one to watch for the future.
Review Contributor Badges
Yelp’s Recognitions program awards badges to active reviewers who contribute valuable content. Similar to Google Local Guides, these badges highlight top contributors and encourage quality reviews across various categories. The Yelp Elite Squad launched in 2025 to highlight the most prominent reviewers, with perks and exclusive events.
Advertiser perks
For businesses with the budget to boost visibility, Yelp offers advertising and profile-enhancing features, including:
- Yelp Ads: Promote your listing in search results and competitor pages
- Request a Quote: Let customers contact you directly–super useful for service area businesses!
- Yelp Guaranteed: A money-back guarantee for customers using eligible services
- Verified License: Showcase your credentials by showing Yelp has checked your license is legit
- Portfolio: Display your best work and projects
- Business Highlights: Emphasize the key offerings and features that make your business stand out
Promoted listings put your business in front of more people, but you’ll need a strong review profile so those extra eyes see you as a business worth choosing.
By leveraging Yelp’s features, businesses make it easier for potential customers to find and trust them. Yelp is constantly evolving to improve the experience for both customers and local businesses, so it’s important to stay up-to-date with the platform’s latest features.
How to get more Yelp reviews
We are often asked how to get more reviews. In many cases, the answer is simply, “Just ask.”
But when it comes to asking for Yelp reviews? This is not the case.
Yelp has very strict guidelines on review solicitation. Yelp believes that asking for reviews can lead to biased ratings, as some businesses only ask happy customers for reviews (also known as review gating). They say:
“It shouldn’t be about who has the time and resources to ask the most people to write reviews. Great Yelp reviews and ratings should come from consumers who had a great experience that they’re inspired to tell others about.”
But that’s not to say your Yelp listing should be a secret from your customers. Make it simple to find your Yelp profile, linking it on your website, in emails, social channels, and even in-store. Businesses in the US and Canada can request a Find Us On Yelp sticker to pop in their window or at the front desk to spark customers to leave a genuine review.
The best way to get good reviews is to deliver exceptional customer experiences that naturally motivate reviews, but of course, that’s far easier said than done!
Responding to reviews on Yelp
You should always be responding to the reviews you receive, both positive and negative.
When you get a negative review, your response says a lot about your business. If you’re defensive or quick to anger, it’s going to make you and your business look bad. But apologizing for the bad experience and publicly attempting to make it right can go a long way in the eyes of review readers.
If people see that you’re happy to respond to reviews, they’re more likely to leave them.
Reputation management software can help you stay on top of your reviews, so you can action feedback and respond as soon as possible.
Using your Yelp reviews
Getting reviews is only half the battle, and where many businesses stop. But we believe the real value comes from how you use these to make a better business.
Reviews can have a huge impact on future customers, so why not make sure your best reviews are seen beyond those looking at your Yelp listing? Highlight glowing reviews on your website, social channels, emails, and print materials to build trust with potential customers. You can easily and professionally display your best feedback with Showcase Reviews, part of the BrightLocal Reputation Management offering.
But don’t just stop at promotion. Every review is also a window into what your customers think. Keep an open mind to complaints or common suggestions: these could highlight areas where you can improve. Keep an eye on competitors’ reviews too. If their customers rave about something you don’t offer, consider whether it’s worth adding to your own services.
In short, stop seeing Yelp reviews as testimonials of your past work. They’re opportunities to grow in the future.
Yelp and you
Yelp remains one of the most important review platforms, especially for businesses in the US and Canada. It continues to shape customer decisions and is increasingly used to feed AI tools with valuable insights.
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Keeping your profile up-to-date and engaging with your customers on Yelp ensures you remain visible and trusted by potential customers.
