Transcript
Hello, and thanks for joining. I’m Jason Crabtree and this video is about Yelp Business Listings. We’re going to talk about how to locate, claim, and optimize so that you get the most out of a Yelp Business Listing. So as a business owner, you may be asking yourself “Can my business benefit from Yelp?” “Well, who uses Yelp and why does it even exist?” Yelp exists for two reasons: to connect consumers and businesses and to allow consumers to engage with other consumers by means of ratings and reviews. Who’s using Yelp? Who are these people? Fifty-seven percent of Yelp users are aged 35 and over. Seventy-six percent of them have a college degree and 68% of them earn over $60K annually. Consumers are shopping on Yelp and they’re leaving reviews of businesses that they’ve shopped with and done business with. Seventy-seven million monthly visitors are using their desktop and 90 million monthly visitors are on mobile devices. Since its inception, Yelp has acquired 102 million total reviews of local businesses. How do you get started? You want to start here at www.biz.yelp.com. Go in and type in your business name and your city, and do a search. Once you do that search, you’ll either find the profile that you’re looking for for your business, or you’ll plan or create a new business profile. If you are claiming an existing profile, I want to make sure that you’re aware that the name, address, and phone number on the map are shown the same as they are on your website, your Facebook page, and your Google+ profile. That will help you a lot in rankings. Once you start creating your business information, this is where you make sure that info is accurate and matches what you have on your website, Facebook, and Google+ profile. You’ll fill in all of these required fields then you’ll hit submit. Yelp will then want to verify your business by sending you an email. They don’t want people claiming businesses that aren’t theirs, and they don’t want people signing up new businesses that don’t really exist. They really just want to verify that you are a legitimate business owner in the location where you claim to be. You’ll get something in your email that looks like this: It says “Hi there! Thanks for adding your business to Yelp. Your business page will not appear in search results until the information has been verified by our moderators.” So Yelp has their own set of human eyeballs that are going to go out and take a look at this listing that was created. Once they feel good about your claim to this business, they’re going to go ahead and publish it, and you can jump in then and optimize it. So optimization is free. Just make sure that you don’t leave any fields incomplete and be sure to add your website and pictures. Make sure you add at least five photos of your business. Create a Yelp Deal even if that deal is a free consultation. Offer the consumer something to at least prompt them to contact you. Add all your basic business information like your hours of operations your days and times of week when you’re not open and describe your business. This part is very key when you’re describing the business and you’re describing the business owner. Make sure that you use relevant keywords that consumers might search in order to find you on Yelp. Here are my optimization tips: Double-check your name, address, and phone number. Make sure it’s consistent. Add your website URL to your profile. Add at least five photos of your business (e.g., a photo of yourself and your staff.) Five photos at least. Fill out all of your business hours. List all relevant categories for your business. Create a complete description using keywords. Once you’ve done that, make sure people know you’re on Yelp. Add it to your email signature and your website, if possible. Showcase your positive reviews in your office and then you will be able to cash in on Yelp.