Customer feedback and reviews play a huge role in this internet-savvy world for businesses. One cannot underestimate the need for customer reviews while running a business. In today’s world, customers are enjoying online shopping and they trust customer reviews that are available on the online review platforms. Yelp is one such online review platform that stands out among customers. Yelp was launched in the year 2004 and it enables people to review and search businesses, restaurants, shops, bars, and other local services.
Businesses need to add a Yelp review widget on their websites to display customer reviews and ratings. Yelp has grown to become one of the most popular and largest online review websites since its inception. Yelp is mainly used in the hospitality industry, i.e. in the catering and hotel industries. This renowned platform permits users to share their experiences with the brands or businesses they have visited. Read this blog and learn the growth hack for small businesses with the review widget of Yelp.
How Yelp Can Help Small Businesses To Grow?
For small businesses, Yelp can be a great resource, but you have to be proactive to get the most out of it. To utilize Yelp for the growth of your business, follow the below-mentioned steps.
1. Create A Business Profile
The first and foremost thing for any business is to create a great business profile on Yelp. If you’re new to Yelp and requesting a free business account, search for your restaurant or hotel. If you already created a strong business profile on Yelp then explore the profiles of your local competitors.
Try to look for the details that draw more customers to the business by comparing all types of competitors. Types of details like location, name, category, timings, address, and phone number must be visible on your Yelp profile.
2. Optimize Your Yelp Page
Very minimum efforts are required to set up your Yelp page at the start of the beginning. From a marketing perspective, Yelp provides several optimization and customization options that can boost your page. Consider adding bright images to your page that display the products you offer. Optimizing your business’s Yelp page will help customers easily find your company. Some Yelp tools have a price and for at least some functions, it’s often worth paying.
3. Reply To All Yelp Reviews
Respond to every Yelp review because customer reviews hold immense value. You can display your customers by easily replying to both negative and positive customers that you genuinely care about their feedback and will make efforts to improve their experience.
For the quality of your services or staff behavior, positive reviews on Yelp add a massive amount of social proof. Remember, they all increase your business’s Yelp star rating. Negative reviews on Yelp will allow you to improve the elements where your service is lacking. Respond to negative reviews in a very professional and polite manner.
4. Add Yelp Reviews On Your Website
For more than just improving your rating on Yelp, online customer reviews can be leveraged. Using a review aggregator, you can easily select some of the best customer reviews online and embed Yelp reviews on your official website. When visitors make extra efforts to visit your website, it will give you an extra edge over your competitors.
To increase the vibrancy of your website, you can integrate positive reviews on your website not only on Yelp. It also increases the time users spend on your website. Ultimately, the online distribution of these customer reviews motivates users to make booking decisions and make the final reservation.
5. Showcase Yelp Customer Reviews On Digital Signage
A sub-segment of signage, digital signage that displays multimedia images, websites, videos, streaming media, and information. To generate social trust among customers, many hotels and restaurants successfully employ digital signage by showing user-generated content. For your restaurant and hospitality business, online customer reviews on Yelp also act as user-generated content if they are showcased on digital signage. For your social media, you can add Yelp as a source and easily display it as part of your digital signage.
6. Rank Higher On Yelp
Get as many customer reviews as possible to make sure that your Yelp listing ranks well. With search engines, this is the main case. For example, When customers search on Google, the more reviews and online presence your business has the higher it will appear.
7. Fetch More Yelp Reviews
Yelp doesn’t only request customers for reviews but it also has gone as far as “outing” businesses that break this rule. To encourage customers to leave reviews on your Yelp listing there are several other ethical methods. Here are some of the methods you can apply to develop your Yelp page reviews.
- From your company’s website, link your Yelp review page.
- To highlight the testimonial, add a review carousel to your website.
- On your premises, use Yelp stickers.
- On your company’s social media channels, promote your most favorable customer reviews.
- With a special first-time offer, provide customers with a great introduction to your business.
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Over To You
Yelp finds its applications in other businesses such as salons, bars, dentists, mechanics, retail stores, and so on not just the hospitality industry. One of the most powerful forms of marketing is online customer reviews in this digital era. To develop social trust among your customers, utilizing customer reviews, using a social wall on your website, and making a strong UGC marketing strategy are the best ways to grow your small business.