Have You Been Yelped

Yelp (www.yelp.com) is an online review site designed to work like a local yellow pages. You can search for any type of business – from restaurants, to auto shops, to plumbers to art galleries—and find those in your neighborhood along with customer reviews. You can also join the Yelp community to write your own reviews and interact with other Yelp members.

The Yelp website states their purpose as “To connect people with great local business.” This means that your small business may be included already, and it may have positive or negative reviews. Yelp currently claims to have had 26 million visits in December, 2009-- so you should know what it says about your business. A short search of the site found listings and reviews for businesses in small and large towns alike.

As a business owner, you can claim your business and correct any inaccuracies with your listing, such as address, hours and website. With a free account you can post special offers for yelp users, as well as photos and special messages to customers. You can also post responses to reviews of your business. You can’t however hide negative reviews or affect the order in which reviews are shown. If you become a paid advertiser, you can select the highlighted review for your business. You can also advertise on other portions of the Yelp site—though this is NOT required to participate.

This type of consumer review site can help put a small business on the same playing field as larger ones. It can also be harmful, if a few disgruntled customers post negative reviews. For an in depth look at Yelp and how it can help and harm small business, read “You’ve Been Yelped” in Inc. Magazine.

Have you been Yelped? Find out now.