Yelp Reviews

Summary: We sent out our email newsletter. We are an established business, but never had a Yelp page. Our clients would always tell us we should have a Yelp page. So we made one, and in our normal quarterly newsletter we mentioned that we now have a Yelp page. This newsletter went out to 1000 clients, and around 20 of them wrote a review. We were happy about that. Then about a week later Yelp had removed all the reviews without an explanation. When we called them to ask about this, they just gave some vague response about how their algorithm didn't like the reviews. These were all real reviews from real clients and were not solicited by us, but Yelp removed them anyway. Garbage.

Positive: In theory, Yelp is a great site where people can read and write reviews about different services and companies. In practice, however, once you see how the sausage is made, it's suspect.

Negative: They removed all of our reviews and will not give us a reason. They simply said "their algorithm does it". Suspiciously, the reviews were removed after they called us and we said we were not interested in advertising at this time.

Summary: Overall, Yelp has great information, but so do many other platforms, so that is why it isn't my first choice.

Positive: Yelp does provide some great reviews on lots of different companies that are helpful if you are trying to compare and contrast different things.

Negative: Yelp isn't my first choice to go to, because it isn't the most pretty looking website. Very outdated looking, which makes it so I naturally go to other sites.

Summary: Yelp is the go-to for reviews and crowd-sourced photos of business offerings, especially for food. Their practices are suspect, but their market dominance cannot be denied.

Positive: Yelp is an easy way to access reviews and menus for restaurants and other businesses within my area. The ability to crowd source feedback is invaluable.

Negative: Yelp's revenue system is very concerning, with them hiding bad reviews for pay. That leaves a lot to be desired both as a consumer and a business.

Summary: Overall this is great to get honest reviews of restaurants and to see pictures of the place you want to go.

Positive: I like looking up pictures of businesses before I go to get a sense of how clean it is. I like knowing what kind of business I'm going into before I get there.

Negative: I wish it did more like Apple Maps or Google Maps.