Yelp stickers can be seen on the doors and inside establishments everywhere you go. They simply say, “People Love Us On Yelp” or “Rate Us On Yelp,” but to some customers, they might also sound like “Complain Here.” Either way, it’s been over 20 years since Yelp launched, and reviews on the platform still bring debates, can you really trust them? Are they real, and are the businesses with the highest ratings simply owned by people who are just great marketers who are meticulous about every detail, including online reviews?

Yelp Overview

Yelp is a popular search and review network that allows people to rank and review local businesses. It was founded in 2004, Yelp helps customers to research and review businesses such as restaurants, shops, service providers and more. Through the years it became a go-to place to find user reviews, ratings, photos and business information. Yelp reviews play a big role in business online reputation, influencing consumer decisions, driving growth and sales.

The network can be super competitive in local markets. Some business owners use all kinds of strategies to generate more reviews, call them good salespeople or highly competitive individuals, you all know this type of person who almost “terrorize” local markets with all kind of advertising. Unfortunately, some even resort to unethical practices like posting fake reviews or sabotaging competitors. This requires other businesses to keep up with positive reviews and monitor their profiles frequently.

The Importance of Yelp Reviews for Local Businesses

A business reputation on Yelp significantly affects its online presence and web visibility, where positive reviews improve credibility and compliment search engine rankings, while negative reviews can be damaging.

1. Yelp reviews impact consumer behavior. Statistically, 9 out of 10 customers look up reviews before making a purchase. Positive reviews can bring new customers, and negative ones can deter potential sales.
2. Online Reputation Management. A business’s reputation on Yelp can affect its overall online presence and visibility. Consistently high ratings and positive feedback can enhance a business’s credibility and at the same time, bad reviews can harm a business’s reputation.
3. Yelp profiles with star ratings often appear in search engine results like Google and Bing, increasing a business’s online visibility. Yelp page with positive reviews can improve search engine rankings, improve traffic quality, decrease bounce rate and increase engagement.
4. Reviews from Yelp provide valuable feedback from customers. Businesses can use this information to find areas for improvement.
5. Competitive Advantage. Businesses with strong Yelp reviews can gain a competitive edge in their industry. Customers often review competitors or compare your business, and can change their decision in your favor if your reviews stand out.
6. Positive Yelp reviews can be leveraged for marketing purposes. Businesses can highlight favorable reviews and star rating on their website, social media, and promotional materials. You can see Yelp stickers displayed on store fronts online and offline.
7. Yelp reviews help to improve AI rankings by providing relevant user generated content that enhances AI’s ability to evaluate a business’s reputation, helping it rank higher. ChatGPT, for example, includes Yelp reviews when recommending businesses.

Here a real life example, we were invited to meet with a car dealership in Boston because their sales were lagging compared to other local dealers for the same automaker. The automaker shared monthly reports on each dealership’s sales, and they were the bottom performer.

After our audit, we found that while all marketing channels like PPC, local ads, news, print, radio etc. were running fine, the dealership had poor reviews (below 3 stars) across multiple platforms, including Yelp. These bad reviews stood out when people were searching for dealerships and comparing options. Once we helped improve their reviews, sales recovered and performed the same with other dealerships in the area.

Yelp Pages Rank High in Google Local Searches and Complement SEO Efforts

Search engines prioritize Yelp reviews, often displaying star ratings on the top of search results. This increases the likelihood of clicks and improves the click-through rate (CTR) for your business.

Many Yelp profiles appear on the first page of search results when searching for business name. Therefore, some branded terms can lead to Yelp profile page instead of company’s website.

Yelp Reviews Impact AI Rankings and Appear in GenAI Recommendations

Since the launch of ChatGPT, Yelp reviews have begun appearing and being quoted by ChatGPT and many other AI platforms like DeepSeek, Google Gemini, Bing Copilot, and more. For example, ChatGPT algorithms use Yelp reviews for rankings and recommendations, with positive reviews becoming a big part of generative engine optimization efforts.

Lately, we’ve been getting more and more questions from businesses of all sizes about how reviews affect GenAI performance and visibility, and people are seeing them more often in ChatGPT and other platforms when testing how their business appears.

Yelp Reviews Appear Across Multiple Networks

Maintaining Yelp reviews is important because it appears not only on Yelp but other networks across the web. It means, if you successfully remove negative Yelp review, it will disappear on other networks as well.

Some of these networks and services include:

1. ChatGPT and other AI platforms use Yelp reviews to evaluate businesses and often quote and display them in recommendations.
2. Google – displays Yelp results in organic and paid ads as a snippet or extension
3. Bing – displays Yelp reviews in its search results for local business.
4. Yahoo – local business listings display Yelp reviews.
5. Apple Maps – Yelp reviews are integrated into Apple Maps, providing users with local Yelp reviews and star ratings directly within the apps.
6. Amazon Alexa – Amazon’s Alexa uses Yelp reviews for local business inquiries, gives ratings, and summaries.
7. Microsoft Cortana – Just like to Alexa, Microsoft’s virtual assistant Cortana use Yelp reviews to provide information on local business requests.
8. DuckDuckGo – Search engine includes Yelp reviews in its search results for local businesses.

These integrations help extend the reach of Yelp reviews, allowing businesses to appear in more places than just Yelp itself.

Who Can Post Reviews on Yelp?

Anyone with a registered Yelp account can post reviews on Yelp. This includes people who interacted with business or have used a business’s services or purchased their products, allowing them to share their experiences and opinions. Yelp has guidelines to ensure that reviews are genuine and useful, prohibiting reviews from business owners about their own businesses or those of their competitors, as well as reviews that are fake, defamatory, or irrelevant. You can find reviews from:

• Customers. Individuals who visited, purchased or just interacted with a business can leave reviews based on their experiences. They can rate the businesses on a scale of one to five stars and write comments and full reviews.
• Clients, majority Yelp reviews come from B2C, but occasionally you can find B2B reviews from clients can also share their experience.
• Former and current employees can give their insights. Normally they use platforms like Glassdoor or Indeed, but sometimes those reviews come to Yelp as well.
  • Disgruntled employees can leave negative reviews and this can be flagged by businesses.
• Competitors, spammers, and trolls can leave fake or misleading reviews on Yelp. This can harm a business’s reputation, and if not reported, these reviews will stay up permanently.

Also, one criticism Yelp is facing, it appears to prioritize reviews from users with a history of using Yelp on a regular basis. Those who just registered or aren’t frequent users often find their reviews buried in so called “hidden” section. This raises the question of whether only a few active users feedback truly counts and the opinions of others are disregarded.

Think this, what if someone was treated extremely poorly and decided to write a review for the first time, only to find out that their complaint was hidden? These people experience even more frustration and may even think that Yelp and the business are somehow partnering to hide those negative reviews.

On the other hand, non-active customer might decide to help a business they love by writing glowing feedback, but this genuine review gets hidden as well and doesn’t count. This is unfair to both the business and the regular customer and brings a lot of debates on social media.

Anyway, it’s up to businesses to monitor and respond to Yelp reviews they believe violate Yelp’s Content Guidelines.

Is It Possible to Remove Negative Yelp Reviews?

If your business received a negative review, you have a chance to appeal it. Yelp’s content guidelines clearly explain what is not appropriate in reviews. If the review breaks any of these guidelines, you’re in luck! You can flag it and request its removal.

How to Handle Bad, Unjust, and Fake Reviews on Yelp

Building a business and a loyal customers base takes years of hard work, but a few bad reviews can quickly undermine all that effort.

Steps to Effectively Handle Negative Yelp Reviews

1. Try to resolve the issue offline. Reach out to the reviewer directly. They might change their mind and either update their review to something more positive or take it down.
2. Respond to the review publicly from your Yelp Business Account with an explanation and a proposed resolution. This shows to the public that you care about customer feedback.
3. Flag and appeal if the review violates Yelp’s guidelines, you can have it removed.
4. If you believe you’re being targeted by spammers, scammers, or trolls who post fake reviews, contact Yelp directly for investigation.

In this post, we’ll guide you through the tough decisions of dealing with negative reviews and help you find the best solutions.

How to Report and Remove Negative Yelp Reviews

There are several ways to report negative Yelp reviews you believe violate Yelp’s rules and fall under restricted content.

You can flag review as a user or consumer

• You need to be logged in to your Yelp account in order to report reviews
• Click three dots and then “Report Review”
• Select an option why you want to report a review from a drop down menu
• Provide specific details where you can write the explanation, evidence or how it violates Yelp’s Content Guidelines
• Click “Send”

It is not ideal to report a review as a user and the chance for success to delete the review is low. Yelp encourages to use business account to flag and report reviews in question.

Report Questionable Reviews with Your Yelp Business Account

• Create Yelp Business Account
• Verify your business
• Go to “Reviews” section and find review in question
• Click three dots and then “Report Review”
• Select the most appropriate option why you want to report a review from a drop down menu
• Provide details where you can write the explanation, evidence or how it violates Yelp’s Content Guidelines
• Click “Send”

If yelp comes back and decides to keep the review despite your report, you can escalate and appeal for second look:

• Go to Questionable Content page on Yelp
• Provide case number from email reply on review you reported
• Provide detailed comments with clear explanations and evidence as to why the review violates Yelp’s Content Guidelines. The more evidence you provide, the better chance you have of successfully getting it removed.
• Click “Submit” the appeal

Yelp Review Appeal, What to Expect for Response Time

After submitting your appeal for a questionable review, Yelp moderators will evaluate it and respond shortly, usually within a few business days.

Types of Yelp Reviews You Can Flag and Report

Yelp has strict rules for reviews about local businesses, products, and services. If a review doesn’t follow these guidelines, you can flag and appeal to have it removed.

1. Reviews should be relevant, real and genuine and focus on real experience as a customer. Customers should avoid discussing unrelated topics like politics, business practices, or personal circumstances.
2. Use appropriate language. Threats, harassment, hate speech, or bigotry are not allowed.
3. Reviews should be fair and unbiased to avoid conflict of interest. It can’t review your own business, your employer, friends’ or relatives’ businesses, competitors, or businesses in networking group. Also, according to Yelp, businesses should never ask customers to write reviews.
4. Customers can’t share private information about others. For example, posts with photos or videos of other people without their permission or use their full names without consent are not allowed.
5. No promotional content, reviews can’t advertise products or services
6. Original content only, no copy-paste content from other sites and networks.

What Are the Chances of Successfully Removing a Negative Review After Reporting?

Yelp doesn’t share how often they remove reported reviews and there is unclear if this type of data exists. Successful removal depends on factors like why it’s reported, how it breaks Yelp’s rules, and the evidence business provided. Reviews that clearly violate the rules are more likely to come down, but it’s still not guaranteed. Sometimes, it takes multiple tries to remove a review, and businesses can use Yelp’s “second chance” appeal process with the case number from email communication.

Anecdotal stories suggest that it’s easier to appeal reviews posted from accounts without any history, while it’s much harder to remove reviews from long term users with an established history on Yelp. Also, many reviews from newly created accounts will go to the hidden section on Yelp anyway, it’s some sort of “sandbox” until Yelp can verify that it’s a real account and not a one-off account created just to post a single review.

Services that promise to remove reviews may claim different success rates, but no one can guarantee 100% removal. Be careful of anyone who says otherwise, they might be trying to scam you.

How to Increase Your Chances of Flagging and Removing Negative Yelp Reviews

• Provide detailed information and evidence, include as much relevant information as possible to show how it violates Yelp’s content guidelines.
• Understand Yelp’s Content Guidelines, familiarize yourself with Yelp’s rules for reviews to better navigate the reporting process and increase your chances of success.
• Choose the right timing, take a moment to gather your thoughts before reporting a negative review. Avoid emotional responses and focus on presenting clear evidence how the review violates Yelp’s Content Guidelines.

Will My Overall Rating Change if a Bad Review Is Removed?

Good news if Yelp removes a negative review after your appeal, your overall rating will be recalculated and can improve. Removing a 1 or 2-star review can make a big difference, especially for smaller businesses with not a lot of reviews from the beginning. For companies with many reviews, it may take removing multiple negative reviews and adding new positive ones to see a noticeable change in their Yelp star rating.

Building Positive Yelp Reviews to Offset Any Future Negativity

To build a strong defense against future negative reviews, it’s important to consistently gather new Yelp reviews from satisfied customers. This proactive strategy, whether handled internally or by an online reputation management (ORM) service, helps accumulate more positive feedback and better star rating over time. This not only improves your online reputation but also offsets any occasional negative feedback in the future, making it less impactful in the long run. This also builds trust and loyalty among your current customer base, ultimately contributing to the long term success of your business.

For example, we worked with a barber shop in Boston that had a 4.9 star rating on Yelp, thanks to exceptional service by the owner. Customers just loved him. Eventually, the time came for him to exit the business he had built for over 30 years and retire. He was able to sell it, and the perfect ratings across Yelp and other platforms helped him get an even better price for the entire business.

The new ownership is okay, but it’s clear they can’t provide the same exceptional service, as it’s now under the umbrella of a larger company. You can see more negative reviews popping up, but even two years later, the barber shop still has a 4.7 star rating on Yelp, much higher than local competitors. That’s a great example on how old reviews can help maintain strong ratings for years to come.

Are There Reviews That Can’t Be Removed from Yelp?

Of course there are some reviews that are well written and follow all of Yelp’s rules and guidelines. These reviews can not be removed even after multiple appeals. Practically, it is nearly impossible to appeal reviews written by long time Yelp users with an extensive history. As mentioned earlier in the post, the best approach for handling such reviews is to address them directly offline or reply.

And why try to remove all negative reviews as long as there are no “red flags”? A good negative review offers an opportunity to reply professionally and show customers that you care. According to Yelp’s survey, 90% consumers are likely to overlook a negative review if they see a response from the business.

Can a Successfully Removed Negative Yelp Review Reappear?

Yes, a removed negative Yelp review can reappear in some cases. For example, if the original reviewer edits and reposts it, Yelp’s system will recognize it as a new review. Also, if Yelp initially removed the review due to moderation but later determines it meets their guidelines, it could be reposted.

Why Are Reviews That Clearly Violate Yelp’s Content Guidelines Still Approved?

It’s been more than 20 years since Yelp launched, and many still question whether we can trust online reviews there. Clearly, there are several issues with the platform, some can be easily addressed, though sometimes with delays from the network. Others are caused by “bad actors” who find new ways to exploit the system by posting fake reviews to boost their own profiles, sabotage businesses for different reasons, or harm competitors.

According to research, more than 23% of online reviews are fake:

Breakdown of Genuine vs. Fake Reviews. Data and Statistics Research on the Impact of Fake Reviews Across Major Platforms

This underscores the importance for businesses to vigilantly monitor their online profiles and reviews.

Examples of Reviews We’ve Successfully Helped Remove From Yelp

With over 20 years of experience in digital marketing, RetainTrust helped customers remove thousands reviews, here some examples:

1. A customer at a car dealership wrote a review criticizing a specific employee providing person’t full first and last name. It was flagged as a personal attack and for sharing identifiable information. Yelp removed this review.
   
2. A restaurant customer left a derogatory review claiming a server didn’t understand their language and made multiple mistakes, also mentioning the servers national origin. This review was flagged for bullying, harassment, and discrimination, and Yelp removed it as well.
   
3. A former disgruntled employee left over 10 fake reviews using different fake Yelp accounts and posted unrelated misleading photos of the business. It took us about 6 weeks, but we successfully removed most of the reviews and all the misleading images from the profile.

These cases show how we’ve helped our reputation management clients to navigate and resolve challenging situations on Yelp.

Can I Completely Remove My Business from Yelp?

You can delete your Yelp business account, but you cannot remove your business listing from Yelp. All the information, customer reviews and ratings will stay, the business will be listed as “unclaimed”.

At the same time, it can be a concern, there have been cases in the past where scammers, hackers, and people unaffiliated with a business took over the ownership of “unclaimed” Yelp profiles. Therefore, it’s better to claim and own your profile, whether you love it or hate it.

Mistakes to Avoid When Managing Your Yelp Reputation

Here common mistakes businesses make when dealing with bad, defamatory, and unfair reviews on Yelp:

• Avoid restricting customer feedback or asking customers not to post reviews, it can backfire and generate even more negativity online.
• Responding too defensively to bad or unfair reviews can escalate conflict instead of resolving.
  • Instead of being defensive, acknowledge feedback to avoid alienating customers.
• Threatening legal action against customers or Yelp can backfire and counterproductive.
• Posting fake positive reviews on your behalf can damage trust and have serious consequences.
• Submitting duplicate removal requests or way too often, you can overwhelm the moderators.

One mistake we’ve noticed while working with businesses, is that many don’t manage their Yelp profiles at all and then suddenly rush to improve their ratings hoping for instant change. Many create multiple accounts and write their own reviews (fake positive ones) or ask family and friends to write for them. In many cases, these reviews end up in the “hidden section”, and all those efforts go to waste. And even if the reviews get approved and appear on the profile, very often look spammy because people notice the sudden influx of positive reviews within a short time period. The best practice for managing Yelp reviews is to do it patiently, regularly and over time.

Why Companies Struggle to Respond to and Flag Negative Reviews?

In our experience, customers who hire us to manage Yelp reviews come for different reasons. Often, they neglect managing their Yelp profiles for years due to a lack of resources, staff, or understanding on how the platform work. Tougher competition or a slowdown in business often forces them to seek help from professionals like us. In fact, many of them initially tried to manage their profiles in-house but failed to keep up.

Another common reason is when new ownership, marketing, or sales leadership takes over and wants to fix what was left behind by previous employees.

We also see many large enterprise and institutional companies come to us for help because they can’t determine who should manage Yelp reviews internally, whether it’s the marketing, PR team, customer success, or sales team.

For any reason, what seems like an easy task often turns into a long process involving extensive management, responding, follow-ups, and juggling multiple tasks. That’s why hiring a professional company to manage Yelp becomes the best solution.

Is It Ethical to Report and Remove Bad Reviews on Sites Like Yelp?

Appealing a bad or unfair review can be compared to seeking legal lawyer advice in a dispute, where both parties trying to protect their interests. Platforms where customers can review businesses, such as Yelp, provide businesses with tools to respond to or flag content they believe is unjust or violates the rules. It’s regular practice for companies to challenge negative feedback that could harm their online reputation and customer trust. This process actually helps maintain fairness and accuracy in online reviews.

Does Seeking Legal Advice Help Fight Negative Yelp Reviews?

Seeking legal advice to fight Yelp reviews can be an option in certain situations, but it often doesn’t result in the review being removed. Yelp has strict policies regarding free speech and user generated content, and they generally won’t take down reviews unless they violate their content guidelines (e.g., containing hate speech, threats, or personal attacks). Also, Yelp won’t take sides if you take a person who rote the review to court. However, pursuing legal action can be time consuming, costly, create bad publicity, and unlikely to result in Yelp removing the review.

For example, some cases where business owners took a reviewer to court became viral and reached media attention, like this case that appeared on Good Morning America. As a result, business suffered even more negative reviews and bad publicity.

Advantages of Hiring Professional Review Removal Services to Address Negative, Defamatory, False, and Fake Yelp Reviews

Hiring a professional company for negative review removal and reputation management offers many benefits for businesses. It saves time by quickly addressing review issues across local business platforms like Yelp. These services have expertise in the removal process and understand sometimes confusing platform rules, processes, and interpretations, increasing the chances of successful removals.

Monitoring online reviews and appealing their removal can be challenging for business owners. This often requires many attempts and appeals for success. For busy business owners and employees focused on daily operations, handling online negativity can be hard.

Outsourcing this to a professional reputation management service allows business owners to focus on core activities without the hassle of managing online reputation and responding individually to negative content.

Partnering with a reputation management service helps business owners improve online presence, maintain a positive brand image, and focus on driving sales.

What Is the Cost of Hiring a Review Removal Service Company?

With most firms, you will typically pay only after the review is successfully removed from platform like Yelp. Some companies may charge a small service fee regardless of success. At RetainTrust, we operate on a no removal, no fee basis. We believe in paying for results, not promises.