Why use Yelp?

Yelp aims to connect people with local businesses and allows Yelp business account holders to share information with the Yelp community. As mentioned in our previous article “Have you just lost 400 million customers” it is important for your business to be listed on Yelp to make the most of Apples 400 million strong user base. Yelp helps more than 40 million people a month find great local businesses such as restaurants, dentists, lawyers and plumbers (literally any consumer-facing business) and is known for its loyal and active audience.

In Q3 of 2012, over 84 million people visited Yelp to make spending decisions. To help businesses make the most out of their online presence, Yelp business accounts offer a suite of free tools to enable businesses to:

• Communicate with customers (both publicly and privately) and respond to their reviews.
• Track how many people view their business page
• Add an unlimited number of photos, a detailed business description, up to date information, history and specialities
• Recommend other businesses (and in turn be recommended by others)

What are the benefits?

• Yelp makes it easy for you to connect with local people who are already looking around town for things like your business. Using the reviews, you can gain valuable feedback to enable you to stay on top of your customers’ needs and desires.
• Reviews to boost your reputation. Every time you have a happy customer, ask them to write a quick review on your business listing on Yelp. This will help to boost your reputation and gain new customers.
• The different ways of communicating with customers. Being able to contact a customer privately can turn a disappointed customer into a satisfied one, and commenting publicly on a review allows you to correct any inaccuracies.
• Tourists are increasingly using Yelp to find out which businesses are recommended in the area they are visiting. Detailed information and reviews on your Yelp listing can really make a difference to a tourist looking for your business.
• By using your business graph, you can not only track how many people are viewing your listing, you can also see the connection between views of your business listing and customers coming through your door. In addition to this, you could also see how your current marketing campaign is going by keeping track of any increases in viewing numbers.
• You can motivate past customers to view your business listing on a regular basis (and entice new customers) by periodically promoting discounts, special events, and limited time offers on your page.
• You can use Yelp to showcase your business so that customers can choose you over your competitors

How do you add your business listing?

Adding a business listing is easy and also free! Simply follow our step by step guide below:

Step 1

Go to Yelp (www.biz.yelp.com)

Step 2

If you already have a Yelp account, login using your email address and password. If you do not already have a Yelp account, click on create your free account now and complete the form to create your account. You will then be sent a verification email, click on the link in the email to complete the account creation.

Step 3

Check your business has not already been listed on Yelp by entering your business name and location and clicking search. If your business has already been listed, it will appear in the search results, if it has not been listed, click on the add a business button at the bottom of the screen.

Step 4

You will then need to enter the details of your business. When you do this, ensure that the information you are entering is detailed, up to date and the correct categories have been selected, as customers will use Yelp to learn about your business.

Step 5

Yelp will then send you an email with a link to enable you to claim your business page. Once you click on the link, your business listing will be put into a review queue to verify that you are the business. Once your business has been accepted (note the small print advising that it will take 48 hours for a newly listed business to appear in a search), you will be able to add information to the listing such as photos, opening hours, payments accepted etc.

Your Yelp business page is now up and running!

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