Yelp listing
Yelp is the best-known review-driven business directory in the US. Your listing very likely already exists — Yelp lists businesses without the owner asking — so the real job is not creating one, it is claiming what is there.
Open the signup page- Cost
- Listing is free
- Verification
- Phone
- Time to live
- Usually the same day after verification
- Where it matters
- Strong in the US and Canada; weak in the UK, Ireland and Australia
Why
Why Yelp is still on the list
Yelp's own traffic has been falling for years, and ignoring that would be dishonest. It stays on the list not for its visitor numbers but because Yelp data is read as a secondary source in many places, Apple Maps among them, and a Yelp page often ranks on the first page for a business name. So even if you never use it, what your customer meets is your Yelp version. And an unclaimed listing is made of an old phone number, wrong hours and unanswered reviews.
Steps
How to get listed
- 1
Search for your business on yelp.com. You are probably already listed.
- 2
If a listing exists, use "Claim this business" to take ownership; if not, create one at biz.yelp.com.
- 3
Verify by phone. Yelp usually calls the listed number automatically and reads out a code.
- 4
Correct the details, add photos and reply to existing reviews — the negative ones especially.
Watch out: asking customers for reviews is against Yelp's rules
On Google, asking customers for reviews is allowed and encouraged. On Yelp it is prohibited — and coming from other directories, this is the mistake people make most. Yelp can place a warning badge on the pages of businesses that solicit reviews, and it filters and hides reviews it believes were solicited. Using the same email template for Google and Yelp does damage on the Yelp side.
Questions
Questions about Yelp
- Does a Yelp listing cost anything?
- Listing and claiming are free. Yelp sells paid advertising and packages such as removing competitor ads from your page; none of it is required to be listed.
- Can I get a negative review removed?
- Only if it breaks Yelp's rules — abuse, irrelevant content, a conflict of interest. It is not removed merely for being negative. In practice the best response is a calm, factual reply; later readers are the ones who see it.
More
Other directories in the guide
The free guide carries source lists for six countries: which are free, how verification works, and what order to submit in.