Understanding Yelp And Why It Is A Great Tool For Business

There are plenty of factors that come into play that influence customers’ buying decisions. Friends and family as well as referrals are some of the main ones.

That said, a huge number of people are purchasing their products online and the number one source of information that they base their decisions on is customer reviews.

This is where Yelp comes in. It is one of the most popular customer review sites in the US. A poor review on Yelp by a customer can drastically hurt your sales.

But there is an upside to even the negative reviews. You can use this information to improve your service and products.

Let’s take a look at a few interesting Yelp stats and see why it can be a great tool for your business.

97% Of Online Shoppers Will Visit Yelp Before Making A Purchase

Up to 97% of customers will purchase after visiting Yelp and finding positive reviews on the product. Other highly popular sites that buyers visit for reviews include trip advisor and Facebook.

This number goes to show how important reviews are for your business and how they can make or break a potential sale.

Yelp Is Super Popular In The Us

Data by Alexa reveals that Yelp is the 60th most popular website in the United States. It also has high usage in other countries including India and Japan.

Its popularity goes to show just how much online shoppers trust Yelp for reviews and feedback. If your business can capitalize on Yelp then you stand a good chance of increasing your bottom line.

Not All Reviews Are To Be Trusted

One thing that you should note is that not all reviews on Yelp are authentic. As much as 20% of them are fake. Shady businessmen will pay for fake reviews on Yelp.

The key to building brand trust is to remain authentic and ensure that you only receive truthful reviews on Yelp.

64% Of Yelp Users Use The Mobile App

Yelp has over 142 million users. 92 million of these visit Yelp through their mobile app. What does this imply for online businesses? That there is a huge market that does their shopping via their mobile phones.

As a business, therefore, you should ensure that your website is mobile-friendly to take advantage of this demographic.  

Over 84% Of All Online Shoppers Base Their Shopping On Online Reviews

Online shoppers have a surprisingly huge trust in online reviews. They will even trust online reviews more than any advertisement. A previous experience by a customer with a business or product means more to them than any amount of advertising ever would.

Because of this most of the people looking to purchase products online will start on sites such as Google - SEO and Google Ads - or Yelp.

Yelp Ranks Pretty High As A Source Of Customer Reviews

The first place that online shoppers will go to in search of information and reviews about a product that they are interested in is Google. Up to 63% of online shoppers will start here.

Yelp is a close second with up to 45% of online shoppers starting their purchasing process here. This goes to show how powerful yelp is as a source of information for customers and for businesses looking to place their products in front of more buyers.

Final Thoughts

By creating a business profile on Yelp, customers can find you via search results. You can improve service delivery and quality of products using information from Yelp and be well on your way to receiving great results. If you get negative reviews, always take the information to improve your business and provide customers with what they want. This will ultimately reflect on your bottom line.