Yelp has a lot of influence on driving customers to local small businesses. Your rank on Yelp depends on many factors, and you can improve your listing visibility by following the latest best practices.
With that said, here are the 10 tips to help your business rank on Yelp with descriptions for each below:
- Understand what your customers are searching for.
- Create a keyword list.
- Choose your target locations.
- Provide details about your products and services.
- Add nearby areas.
- Encourage your customers to leave detailed Yelp reviews.
- Evaluate your local business listings with Moz Local.
- Mention Yelp reviews on your social media pages.
- Look at your competitors’ Yelp pages.
- Add high-quality photos to your listing.
Let’s jump in!
- Understand what your customers are searching for. Consider the queries that your target audience types into the search box on Yelp when they’re looking for your business. If you have a website, you may be able to look at your site analytics to get more insight into potential terms.
- Create a keyword list. Choose the most relevant phrases from step 1 and put them into a keyword list. You’re going to want to incorporate these words into your Yelp business listing to help people find you. Make sure that they sound natural when you use them in your business information. You don’t want to give your customers the impression that you’re trying to spam your way to the top of Yelp. That could end up doing the opposite and dropping your rank down.
- Choose your target locations. Make sure that you have your location clearly listed so there’s no confusion on where to find you.
- Provide details about your products and services. Be comprehensive in including this information. Many people will turn to Yelp before they ever get to your website or social media profiles, so it’s important to let them know what you have to offer in your listing.
- Add nearby areas. You’ll want to provide a complete list of your service areas by adding more than one location. You can also get more specific, such as the specific neighborhoods that are closest to you.
- Encourage your customers to leave detailed Yelp reviews. Sometimes the easiest way to get your customers to leave reviews on Yelp is by asking them. Ideally, they would use the keywords that you’re targeting as part of their submission. As you get more reviews, you’ll leave more of an impression that you’re a reputable small business in your area.
- Evaluate your local business listings with Moz Local. This software solution gives you a local listing management and analysis tool that provides a better understanding of your Yelp ranking. It also covers other local listing pages, which makes it an excellent addition to your local small business SEO strategy.
- Mention Yelp reviews on your social media pages. You can highlight good reviews on your social media pages and hopefully encourage other customers to add their input. Make sure to occasionally put up a post that explains why Yelp reviews are important to small businesses, and exactly how they can leave a review. If your target audience is an older demographic, it may be worth your while to create a step-by-step guide to using Yelp so they know what to do.
- Look at your competitors’ Yelp pages. Do you find your listing getting beaten out by the competition no matter what you do? Take a look at what they’re doing and how it differs from your page. You may have fewer reviews, poorly targeted keywords, or other barriers to getting the recognition that you want. Click through to their web page and any social media profiles as well. See if they mention Yelp on any of those pages, and note where and how they do so. You can use this information to guide your own strategy.
- Add high-quality photos to your listing. You don’t have long to make a good first impression on new customers. Make sure to include plenty of high quality photos that clearly display your business location, products, and services. Since user submitted photos can be lower quality or not include important aspects of your business, you’ll want to provide an official set for reference.
Choosing the right web hosting platform is also key to have a good SEO and a good rank on Yelp. Your small business ranking on Yelp is one part of a comprehensive local marketing plan. Three Tigers Media offers great social media marketing tips in that blog, which can help optimize your listing as well. Taking all the steps necessary to improve your Yelp listing, can better position yourself in the local market and maintain a competitive edge. You’ll want to continually look for chances to improve your presence on Yelp, so this is not a one and done tactic. Regularly revisit your keywords, do your search engine optimization, add in new products and services, and keep all of your business information up to date.
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