Yelp for business owners is Great in My Opinion
The majority of business owners who interact with Yelp seem to like it. I have personally helped several business owners get on Yelp, and they pretty much all have thanked me for it.
I highly recommend Yelp to small business owners. I recommend that business owners get over to Yelp and claim their business and interact with their reviews.
I also suggest that business owners understand the Yelp review system. Not every bad review will end up on your page, nor will every good review.
Yelp Review Filter Explained
Yelp just put out a video that gives an overview of their review filter and which follows up on the reason business owners should not ask people to write reviews for them (this advice was given out last year on the Yelp blog).
There is very little value in a review system which is manipulated and just like some people are unhappy with Google that their site doesn’t rank well, some business owners are unhappy that their reviews do not always show up. If you are a business owner and you have your friends and family review you it can be seen as spam. Many people who are unhappy with Yelp are people who have even stated that this is exactly what they did, they asked people to write them good reviews, the people wrote the reviews, and some of them didn’t appear on Yelp.
They then assumed that Yelp is “withholding reviews” so they can get money out of business owners.
Which simply isn’t the case.
Just like Google identifies links that have value, Yelp identifies reviews that have value.
A review coming from a Yelp user that has been using Yelp for a long time and who has reviewed many businesses is considered a stronger review than one written by a first time user of Yelp.
Some sort of filter is naturally needed to ensure that reviews seen by users are legit. If they did not do this, then a business owners could just create a whole bunch of usernames and make bad reviews about their competitors.
The very same business owners who are complaining now about not having instant good reviews on Yelp would also be complaining if Yelp let reviews go up instantly that were negative about their businesses.
Use Yelp Well
Here is a great video of a business owner who is taking full advantage of Yelp for his business…
Yelp is great. I highly recommend it. They also have a great blog.
There are people complaining about Yelp right now, but not many people praising them for what they have done overall, which is create some of the most trusted reviews on the web and a wonderful resource for both business owners and business customers.
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Yelps review filter is horrible for Business owners, and frankly a scam on Yelps part to try to lure people into PAYING for a service that should be free. I’m a small legitimate, honest business owner, with some customers that very much like my work and want to demonstrate that happiness buy posting reviews. Three costumers have posted these reviews and ALL THREE have disappeared. So it looks like I’ll take my reviews to another website that actually allows users to post legitimate REVIEWS -Isn’t that a novel concept. Thanks, but no thanks YELP!
Yelp is horrible IMO. I had posted a half dozen for well over a year about various busineses and they NEVER show up. I am just a regular guy, with no other motive than to post my opinion.
Their system does not work, this prooves it. I see other reviewers have their review show up with just one single review. It makes no sense!
Yelp is horrible for local photographers, which is why I dont see many advertising on there.
As a photographer, you depend on word of mouth to get more business. You build a much more personal relationship with your clients than lets say, McDonalds.
I depend on their reviews to get me more leads and with Yelp, they frown on this. Which in turn causes almost all of my reviews to be deleted.
Boo Yelp…I am moving to another site.
Yelp obviously does not get small business. Seriously.
Many shops and small businesses start up with the support of family, friends and neighbors. I don’t accept a Yelp explanation that the opinion of these first customers is any less valid than someone that walks in off the street to buy a cupcake or widget and is sufficiently satisfied enough with the service to go online and make an unsolicited review. Does Yelp test each product to know?
Let the Yelp audience discern the validity of a positive or negative review. A five star review can be a red flag, just as a no star review can be a red flag about an unscrupulous competitor or a disgruntled customer that wanted to get back at the vendor.
And having filtered a review, just wait a couple of days and a rep from Yelp will be offering you the chance to pay for an enhanced profile. Again, seriously Yelp?
Yelp is the worsest review filter Ive ever experience basically i tell my customers about yelp for the first time and they publish the review which gets filtered, really unfair i tell customers about yelp, but yelp treats me with nothing yelp really needs to pay me, for telling word about them, in order for the review to stay u need to find a old yelper to leave you a review, from now on i will ask my customers if they have account with yelp if not screw yelp move on with Google.
MasterTek
http://www.imastertek.com
Yelp
Wow, that is really weird. They filter first time reviewers! Just doesn’t make any sense to me. I tried to post reviews about two businesses and they never appeared. I’m not a kind of person who goes writing reviews left and right but when I really liked something I wanted to share my experience with other people. Just because it’s my first review, why it is supposed to be filtered????
I’ve posted reviews on yelp, and funny, if i don’t like a place it gets filtered. WTF? Isnt that what Yelp is supposed to be about? The good and THE BAD?
Yelp is a huge scam. I recently opened a new restaurant with raging reviews from my clients. Little did I know that Yelp was holding back from posting my greta reviews. Like all restaurants we started off with the few angry customers not getting the attention they deserved and I respected there constructive criticism. However, over the next couple of weeks we had ten amazing reviews that were quickly taken off two days later. We did receive a phone call with a sales pitch. Our Yelp sales person completely denies taking off any reviews. Fortunately, before our employee meeting I was able to print off all twelve reviews and share them with our staff. I think it is complete bullshit. I would love to have a crack at suing these asholes.
I don’t trust Yelp. Their “filter” is nothing more than manipulation. Most of my own reviews get filtered. I get the distinct impression that their business “partners” who pay them money get more favorable service and unfavorable reviews get “filtered.”
SCAM
When I do read a Yelp page on a business(because there aren’t really many other choices out there right now) I make a point to read the filtered reviews as well as the unfiltered ones. I’m a fairly mindful person who knows how to read between the lines. The filtered reviews are often the most revealing -and this is usually validated after visiting the business myself.
Yelp is a scam. I don’t trust them. I put them one position lower than politicians, lawyers, and used car salesmen. It’s only a matter of time before someone else comes up with an ethical, truthful alternative.
I’m shocked by the comments and really happy with the post. Thanks Pat for taking the time to outline the review filter process (as much as we’re privy to it from Yelp) and how business owners should address it. Also for including it in Get Listed as so many business owners don’t understand that they can claim their business and respond to reviews.
I do agree with some of the comments that good reviews sometimes get caught in the filter (Yelp specifically says this can happen), but when the site is trying to weed out the bad from the good, casualties will occur. On the whole I think Yelp does a fantastic job of giving a snapshot of a business. Business owners that learn to lose some control and respond effectively can do great things with Yelp. My love affair continues…
YELP’S REVIEW FILTER DISSECTED
A lot of people have done “research” on how Yelp’s review filter works. There’s a good primer on the Reputation Armor website, suggesting some of the factors used by the filter. I’ve done a few experiments myself and have some thoughts on how the filter works. The Yelp filter is very comprehensive and considers many factors:
- First-timers. First-time user reviews appear to be filtered out a lot.
- Timing. When someone puts a good review on Yelp immediately after a bad one, it’s suspicious. Yelp thinks a five-star review going up the day after a one-star is likely someone trying to balance the score.
- Flags. Yelp users themselves are part of the filter – people can flag a review that looks fishy. If the Yelp mods agree, the review gets filtered.
- Frequency. A big jump in the number of reviews during a certain period is a statistical anomaly, easily noticed by Yelp’s automated system.
- Duplication. It’s pretty easy for Yelp to screen multiple reviews from the same user account, or even the same IP address. And also very easy for Yelp to screen “cut & paste” duplicates, or even reviews using similar unusual language.
- Proximity. Although some Elite users are globetrotters whose continent-spanning reviews don’t get filtered, it’s pretty suspicious when you’ve got 10 reviews within 5 miles of your house and then you post one in a different state.
- Gilding the lily. Lavishing 5-star praise on a business when everyone else is claiming one or two stars is fishy, even if you really had a five-star experience.
- Proxy/spoofing. Hiding your true IP can be detected, especially from well-known proxy servers which are easy to screen.
- Check-ins. Ironically, if you are a regular and have checked in a lot at a particular location, Yelp may perceive your opinion as less objective, therefore less reliable, and filter it.
- Facebook. This is a bit scary, but Yelp and Facebook are working together. So Yelp may know who your Facebook friends are – and if a bunch of you are posting reviews on the same business, it will look like a concerted attempt to defeat the filter.
- Competitor. If you have registered as a business owner, and you’re posting negative reviews about other local businesses in the same category or with the same keyword tags, an automated system could easily pick that up.
- Subjective user review. Someone posting comments on Yelp’s boards that say “The review filter sucks!” is probably going to be scrutinized by Yelp. There’s no First Amendment protection for your Yelp trustworthiness – watch what you say on the boards. You don’t know who’s listening.
So if you have been legitimately screwed by Yelp’s review filter, how do you beat it? If you want to play by Yelp’s rules, you could try flagging unusual negative reviews to get them filtered.
You might also try personally contacting the user who posted the review and invite them back in for a re-evaluation.
But the likely solution is that you would need submission of a lot of positive trustworthy reviews. What makes them trustworthy is that they are from different users with established review histories, with no readily apparent connection to each other, spread out randomly over a period of time.
Not that easy, huh? Maybe not – but that’s why Yelp’s review filter is actually pretty good at what it does.
It is terrible for Yelp to filter reviews. My honest review got filtered and I am upset. Yelp is not specific on how the filter works. Someone who knows the system can easily get your reviews filtered for a fee. I know of a business where someone offered to take the bad reviews down for a fee. It appears that people who know how the filters wok could profit from this.
Obviously Yelp doesn’t trust reviewers to think for themselves. It’s really not that hard to read a company review and recognize it as being written either by someone associated with that company, or its competitor. I have used Yelp on and off for almost two years, though I don’t post reviews too often. Since my reviews never show up, I won’t be posting any more. I don’t care to be assoicated with a site that seems to view people with bad grammar as being more credible than I am.
I posted three review about three different companies. All three showed up for a number of months. Then ‘poof’ all three were filtered out. They still show up as filtered reviews but really what good does it do… nothing. I have to agree with most of the above posts. Yelp is removing perfectly good reviews for no honest reason.
Yelp is without a shadow of a doubt completely against small business and I would give them a dime if they were the last lemonade stand on earth and the planet was a barren desert. I am a business owner and have a large following of loyal customers who have said they’ve left glowing reviews about my business. When you look up my business, the only ones that show up are the bad reviews. The truly ironic part is that if you look at the person leaving the bad review, all that person does is leave bad reviews and slander business if they weren’t getting something for free or didn’t feel like they got one over on the shop. The site is geared towards chronic complainers that have nothing better to do than sit in their mothers’ basement, eat twinkies, and complain because they didn’t get an extra free shot of espresso in their frappaccino. I can’t wait till somebody files a class action against this site and levels these bums. It’s only a matter of time before their scam is exposed.
Yelp is without a shadow of a doubt completely against small business and I wouldn’t give them a dime if they were the last lemonade stand on earth and the planet was a barren desert. I am a business owner and have a large following of loyal customers who have said they’ve left glowing reviews about my business. When you look up my business, the only ones that show up are the bad reviews. The truly ironic part is that if you look at the person leaving the bad review, all that person does is leave bad reviews and slander business if they weren’t getting something for free or didn’t feel like they got one over on the shop. The site is geared towards chronic complainers that have nothing better to do than sit in their mothers’ basement, eat twinkies, and complain because they didn’t get an extra free shot of espresso in their frappaccino. I can’t wait till somebody files a class action against this site and levels these bums. It’s only a matter of time before their scam is exposed.
yelp filter is not fair, my reviews get filtered even though i’m a real customer.
Yelp is great for small business, but their reviews need some help. More often then not getting a person to leave nice feedback is difficult but when they take the time to write it and it does not get displayed…..ugh
I’m a regular guy and I wrote 2 reviews about businesses I thought were outstanding, gave them 5 stars and a good review. I was trying to spread the word about these outstanding businesses, and what happened? These reviews were “filtered”. What a great system that is! Because I don’t write a lot of reviews, my opinion doesn’t matter? I guess only the professional Yelp reviewers can do reviews for a business? Maybe if I write a review and say some things were not so great and give them 2 or only 3 starts it will get through? I DON’T GET IT! If a customer likes a business and decides to write a nice review, but hasn’t written one before, it get’s filtered, because the program thinks it’s fake, when it’s not. And because of that, these reviews don’t get tallied into ratings? WOW, is that fair to the business? Yelp needs to find a better way to filter content then using some program that isn’t fair!
I agree with everyone above. Has anyone found a credible alternative that offers brand recognition on par with Yelp?
I wrote a review for a real good pet sitter to try to spread the word and somehow yelp didn’t seem to like that review and didn’t show it. I was wondering why that happened good post here now I know, I am a new user, but the only reason I signed up with yelp was to write a review for that business with service that I really liked. I guess my opinion is not as good as someone just spamming the site with negative comments as a previous user stated. Anyways good informative post
Yelps filter is ridiculous. I am a small business owner and have taken the time to respond to a couple of negative reviews that have shown up. I did not respond to the obvious duplicate customers that sign up with new names to make new reviews of the same manner because their first review was filtered.
Here is a fact to ligitimize the scam known as Yelp: the reviewer is allowed what seems to be unlimited amounts of characters to go off on a tirade. Small business owners that wish to respond are allowed a total of 600 characters to address everything the reveiwer wrote. Seomoves, you are completely incorrect. Yelp is NOT good for small business. Yelp does not give a fair opportunity for rebuttal.
Some small businesses do not process as many customers as other small businesses. Do you think that a restaurant processes as many customers as a custom wood working shop? Reviews can be the make or break of the custom wood working shop as maybe they only have 10 customers a week. Compare that to how many customers per DAY a restaurant might see..
Yelp sucks.
Yelp removed 17 positive reviews, and left 2 negative ones. That makes a bad guy, right?
Yelp filtering system is a total joke, and its adjusted manually if they want to. I am moving to Google review system.
Yelp removed 17 positive reviews, and left 2 negative ones. That makes me a bad guy, right?
Yelp filtering system is a total joke, and its adjusted manually if they want to. I am moving to Google review system.
Yeah, Yelp has issues (i.e. likely conflicts of interests) in that businesses can partner with it, thus Yelp has an interest in not promoting businesses that have not partnered. Hence, their “neutral” and “automated” filtering. As an consumer, shopper, and non business owner, I’ve reviewed places, HONESTLY, only to have Yelp suppress those comments because the company has partnered with the business in question. So much for neutrality.
I wrote several reviews for various business but they were filtered. Again, I don’t normally write reviews unless a place is particularly good or bad. Apparently Yelp system sees that as a scam? Well, It seems like Yelp is losing its charm anyways. I am taking my reviews else where. Simple. Is there a place to post a full length serious review about using Yelp?
I’m glad I’m not the only person here who feels that Yelp’s filtering system sucks. Why should a first time poster’s sensible and well written review be filtered? Not to mention the next five or ten reviews they post? Just because they’re new to Yelp? I’ve seen dozens of reviews of businesses that just say “Awesome” or “cool.” How do THOSE count as actual reviews? Those one-worded responses should not count, no matter how many reviews the person has written; and yet well articulated reviews that talk about the business and the employees behind it are filtered because the reviewer is either new, or it doesn’t meet Yelp’s “standards.” I’ve discovered that some of the more honest reviews are the ones that have been filtered. I’ve only written a handful of reviews over the past year or so, and all of them have been filtered. I guess my opinion doesn’t count because I’m still considered “new,” I don’t spam with one-worded nonsense, and I don’t kiss Yelp’s butt.
I had all 15 off my yelp reviews yanked. WTF. I obviously hit a few tripwires in their ridiculous, predatory, extortionary (for businesses) system.
I am a long time customer, but only lately had the time and inclination to review places , which I did with a frenzy, maybe 10 in the month. Playing catchup, is how is see it. I would argue that is normal web behaviour. We all have our Facebook phase, our blogging phase, Farmville temporary addiction etc.
Geography. I work as a contractor. SF Bay Area, Los Angeles, upstate NY within a year. So, thats a crime?
Yeeesh. The net badly needs a good Yelp, but I fear it has yet to emerge. The key is integrity, and from everthing I have read and experienced, Yelp gets a D minus.
I have legitimately reviewed several small businesses (8 or so at this point), & several of my reviews are filtered. I can think of no above-board reason for this. I’m not (to use Yelp’s words) “gaming the system.” Frustrating, especially as they do not explain their system for filtering. I did watch Yelp’s video, which sounds reasonable, on the surface–but I cannot believe it, based on my experience. Thumbs down to the filter!
I wrote a review, then noticed that the company I was reviewing was under same name but different links on Yelp, so I posted them under each one. I dealt with this company over the internet via phone number and email only. Yelp, later either removed or filtered my reviews.
Out of curiousity , I had checked periodically; had read other people’s reviews for this same company, and noticed each time, each one of their reviews was filtered.
This type of review filtering sounds too suspicious, almost like Yelp is getting some kind of ‘kick back’ for filtering reviews.
Just one question…If yelps review filters are legit and they are REALLY trying to improve reliability, then why do I have Yelp salespeople calling me and offering to restore all of my great reviews if I spend hundreds of dollars in advertisement per month with them? I have one thing to say: MY filter is picking up on a scam from yelp.
scam scam scam scam scam. Yelp is a scam. Yelp is a scam. Yelp is a scam! Don’t deal with them, stay away from them.
Keith, thanks for the breakdown. I agree that those make sense, but your examples of what gets filtered is exactly why a terrible experience several people had at a local coffeeshop/bar/venue will go largely unrecognized by Yelp readers.
Two bands played at this venue on Saturday, and one of the bands was verbally abused by the owner. Patrons overheard this. Admittedly, many of these patrons were folks who had come out to hear the band. So they were all Facebook friends, posting during the same time span, and were first-time users. Most of the other reviews were 4 and 5 star because the negative ones had been filtered for other reasons, so this glut of negative reviews probably looked suspicious.
The frustrating part is that there’s no way to contact Yelp in order to get filtered reviews unfiltered. While I’m sure they have parameters set in place to catch people posting under different names and using proxies, I wonder if the same is true of people who use different accounts to flag different reviews?
Yelp intentionally hurts small business by demanding 300 in monthly advertising fees well subtly linking the amount of positive reviews to the amount of monies paid monthly to the company, according to many small business owners.
I personally have seen critical reviews be filtered that simply do not meet the criteria listed above. The criterion is misguided and is clearly a Red herring. Yelp takes money from businesses and then filters negative ads accordingly…. Simply Google “yelp sucks” and observe the thousands of small businesses who all have the same experience…. positive reviews yanked unless they are paying Yelp, negative reviews filtered after they agree to pay more.
Yelp can continue to tout its “filtering” system, but I personally will never take another review seriously.
299-500 dollars a month to filter? That is mafia-esque extortion and this situation clearly needs a legal remedy, not a filter.
As consumers we should all stop utilizing this service, small business powers our communities, and according to those who know, yelp is shaking them down month to month.
ONE LAST ITEM YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN:
YELP LOSES EXTORTION CASE IN FEDERL COURT, confirmed to have engaged in UNETHICAL BUSINESS PRACTICES:
(Reuters, 3/31/11. Washington D.C.) “Federal Judge Phyllis Pokits handed down her ruling today against the San Francisco-based website http://Yelp.com. Accused often over the past five years of extorting advertising revenues from local businesses around America in exchange for hiding negative reviews and moving positive ones to the top of the queue, Yelp was found guilty on seven charges of unethical business practices, and will be fined next week.
The judge commented, “It’s very clear as well that the entire Yelp set-up is aimed at encouraging certain heavy users to give good reviews for establishments that agree to host parties for them. Time and again we see rashes of five-star reviews for places that have recently held Yelp parties. The defendant’s claim that there are separate review pages for these parties is clearly a ruse, as the same places always get top reviews soon thereafter on their normal pages as well. This is tantamount to buying good publicity on a site that purports to be unbiased, and seems to subvert the entire concept of the site altogether.”
YELP HATE IS JUSTIFIED
This is an interesting discussion. But re-read the ‘name’ of the supposed Federal Judge, Rebecca: “Phyliss Pokits”. Does that sound like anything suggestive, given the allegations of Yelp profiteering? Note too that this ‘story’ was originally posted on 31st March this year i.e. just before April 1st.
See this Yelp page for more info:
http://www.yelp.com/topic/austin-yelp-loses-federal-extortion-case
yelp filters dont make sense to me, i reviewed a dry cleaner who clearly messed up my coat, and said i should contact the manufacturer for a new coat, then reviewed a salon where the stylist passed me off to someone else who didnt speak english because she was on the phone, readers of yelp need to know about every review that the business has and make an informed decision for themselves, based on what reviews they read.
the youtube video about filtering still doesnt make sense to me, i also have several good reviews that havent shown up on yelp, wtf?? so if all of my reviews are filtered whats the point of me even going on yelp and reviewing busineses? none really
My business has received 5 reviews and all of them have been filtered. Some of the reviewers have places reviews on 3, 4, or 5 other Yelp profiles or more and they still get filtered. Yelp is becomng a big waste of time and money for a lote of people. How the hell do you expect someone to continue to review when all of their reviews are getting filtered. A Waste of Time. And a Waste of Money for my business
Dissapointed. in Seattle !!!!
I have gone down from 4.5 stars and 6 great reviews to 3 not so great reviews, they are the only 3 not so great reviews that are showing since then. I had a would be client call and scream at me on the phone tonight, that she would be putting a negative review on yelp, I said why, your not even a client! I tried to engage in a intelligent conversation, she put the phone down on me, angry. Yet she is allowed to do that, there are no checks and balances for these people who are mean-spirited, read the terms and services on yelp. There needs to be a warning to people that you cannot defame businesses just because you are in a bad mood before yelp, you would share a complaint justified or not with a friend as a sounding board. This is ridiculous, there is more, 3 of my 5 star reviews have been removed for terms of service, what? There were an extra (3) 5 star reviews which I didn’t get to see as they were taken down as soon as they were put up, this has all happened very quickly, it has been a month of nightmares with yelp since I gave a definitive “no” on advertising. I now want to pay them their basic $300 to get a voice on the other end of the phone and the life of my business back, I employ other people and it hurts them even more if they cannot earn money. Yelp has the reviews filtered, yelp has filtered my (9) other 5 star reviews. There is no face to talk to, no customer number, the only number I have is the person who tried to sell me advertising, she doesn’t want to listen to these serious flaws in yelp. I am only a very small business and this seriously harms us. By the way, the person who unjustly screamed at me today, only came to a appointment, the professional was running late due to a fender bender, just 5 mins late, I did not know this, does this warrant a negative review on yelp? We don’t live in a perfect world, this yelp is bringing out the worst in people. There was a time when this was a organic trusted source which is what they started out to be, then advertising and other financial gains are taking over, they still have organic search results because of how they started. I google a business, first to come up is yelp, easy to look at to get info. In addition, I want to add because I only have 3 not so great reviews, they only show the star rating for those particular reviews, not the other 9 5 star reviews that are hidden. Allow clients to make up their own mind about reviews, get customer service too such as amazon does, yelp is feeding the world of negativity. Why is it that those bad reviewers cannot spell or use grammar properly, why is yelp not looking at what is happening to businesses, there are some wildly exagerated claims if you begin to check out these reviewers you will find they only have one review or if they have others, there reviews are entirely weird, for instance, one of my bad reviewers went back to a massage place that was weird, why would you go back to a place where you had a weird experience and pay for it all over again while watching the clock or that a restaurant owner has screamed at her to get out and took her plates away as she was asking for sauce on her meal and he did not like it???!! Truly, checks and balances, yelp. Terms of service should say, remedy with the business first before coming to complain on yelp and that businesses and yelp take these claims seriously, there comments will live on the internet forever and will also follow them and their profile on the internet. Library of congress is recording all tweets since it started. We are not school children, this is the real world, the qualifications are none for reviewers, no editors, no warnings.
It really is a shame to see people abusing the system and yelp allowing this to happen too. Here is a link for the Courtney Love twitter, shows were it is goinghttp://www.searchengineoptimisation.eu/news/courtney-love-sued-for-twitter-comments/35801/
I used to spend close to $500 to $700 a month on yelp
and $700 on google adwords.
i think with google you get more customers based on the amount of clicks you receive.
plus Google lets customer leave feedback and you can respond to them.
Yelp removes positive feedback and keeps the bad ones.
i just reduced my budget to $6 a day on yelp and i put $45 a day on Google
believe me Google is much better.
Thank you
Yelp removed my negative comments and when I complained, they closed my account stating I violated the terms of their agreement by creating multiple accounts.
My experience with Yelps filters is pretty poor. We see reviews pop on and off our yelp page as yelps filter constantly decides that it is good or bad and can’t seem to make up its mind. Some of these are from customers who’s names I recognize and others are from people who’s names I don’t recognize. Keep in mind these reviews are not just 5 star reviews. We have a review from someone who wrote a terrible review that we can’t seem to make go away even though the person is apparently not a customer. (he has admitted this in communications via yelp)
Personally I find that unfiltered reviews are just fine. Using reviews on Amazon you can quickly and easily scan reviews to see a constant theme in them. This is more important than a few great reviews that toot the horn. Consumers are smart enough to be able to look at reviews and self filter by seeing the constants and seeing the outliers. In my opinion Yelp takes away peoples abilities to see legit reviews from legit reviewers while filtering reviews that may be legit or may not be legit. Personally I thought yelp was a good resource until I got the hang of how it works and now if I check it I read all the filtered reviews too before I make a decision.
While I wish my numerous filtered reviews were unfiltered I personally agree with yelp and there review system. There are to many unethical companies out there trying to game the systems and I figure over time filtered reviews will become unfiltered. I have 4 showing and 15 filtered so I do understand. Yelp has been a good thing overall though. Bill
Yelp filters are horrible. I have 23 reviews, 20 five star and three one star. Most of them, the 20 real reviews by real clients are filtered out, only one five star and the three one star review are up. I asked yelp, (yes I did get them live) why the one five star stayed up and they said because he was involved and on yelp all the time. Funny thing is I asked my client if this was true and he told me the only time he went on yelp was to post the review! What a bunch of BS!
Its too bad they can make use of the first amendment, they need to be taught a lesson, but now a days these big profit web companies have money to throw at attorneys. even the government can’t keep up with them .
Yelp is horrible, their filters are stupid, they like to leave negative reviews because human nature is to look for the worst in people. Drive more people to the site make more $$.
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yelp sucks. they have a monopoly on the review system because when they started several years ago they WERE good. citysearch sucks and is basically out of business. and there are no other worthwhile sites with a decent amount of reviews. so yelp uses this to advantage to do as they see fit. a friend of mine with a small business was more or less harassed by yelp to sign up and pay for the service. when he declined, many of his good reviews disappeared. they are just a sketchy website, and their whole “elite” thing is a bunch of BS. those people need to find friends in real life instead of cyberspace.
I have posted six reviews on Yelp so far. Two of these have been filtered out. This is frustrating as I have spent quite a bit of time writing each review, going into detail.
- Mike
I posted an honest review on Yelp after a particularly bad experience at a sushi restaurant. What I said wasn’t inflammatory, just that food at the restaurant wasn’t any good. My whole family disliked the experience, so why not share this fact with others to help ensure they don’t waste their evening and money in the same fashion that we did?
Well, sure enough Yelp’s filter decided my review didn’t meet their criteria. As a result, Yelp doesn’t meet mine. I will never use their sham of a website again.
Yelp’s filter is a joke, or worse, a fraud to the consumer. I got a 74% rate increase from Trupanion. My review was filtered (hidden) overnight. I found the tiny “filtered” button which revealed that 7 of 8 reviews there were negative. Per Yelp policy, these reviews do not count in the overall rating. Yelp DECEPTION! Trupanion probably supports Yelp with advertising. Find the “filter” link to get a much better view of a business.
as a business owener yelp personally approached me and told me that if i didn’t pay them at least $800/month that they would burry my listing and post ads by my competitors on the page that shows up when people search of my business specifically. the first two review for my business were totally fake and created by yelp workers. they copied and paraphrased some of my reviews from citysearch, which was a reputable and well-known site 15 years ago. good luck trying to avoid the extortion of yelp.com They’re true evil, total criminals, i wish more people know and there was a better, more well known service. i like to see signs around town that say, “yelpers not welcome here.” you know what? yelpers don’t actually exist. not anymore, now they’re all fake. they’ve totally given in to sin. i’m convinced.
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