If you own a local business, you may notice your site being outranked by Yelp. This can be frustrating as you want those searching for your business to be brought to your site and not a third party review platform. We wanted to provide some context as to why this happens and some of the tips that will get you in front of Yelp!
Why Yelp ranks so high
Search engines such as Google or Bing use algorithms to determine a search results page and how each site ranks. Two of the biggest factors within a site ranking for specific keywords include Site Strength of Reliability and Backlinks. Site Strength of Reliability refers to a site’s credibility. Sites like CNN.com or ESPN.com are reputable, frequently visited, and provide users a pleasant experience more times than not. This is a similar care with Yelp. Since the site has so many pages, visitors, and links back to them, Yelp gets the benefit of the doubt from these algorithms.
What can a small business do?
Again, SEO has many aspects that are also consistently changing, but Google has announced some best practices to adhere to for competing with large review platforms. The main reason your site isn’t most likely ranking above these review sites is due to your limited online presence. Increasing your Online presence needs to be a sustained, ongoing marketing effort that does take time. Here are some ways to increase your online presence!
Create Social Media Profiles
Social media is extremely prevalent today with businesses of all sizes. Creating social media profiles increases your online presence in addition to better connecting with potential customers and the community. Another great use of social media accounts for small businesses is the ability to create legitimate backlinks back to a site, further increasing your online presence.
Verifying and filling out your Google My Business page
Google My Business appears to the right of a search result highlighting businesses hours, industry, and other frequently asked questions. Even if you have never verified the page, there is a chance the page exists just based off information Google has picked up from the internet including from your customers. Being a Google product, verifying and updating/ confirming the information, is proven to help with search results.
Consistent NAP
Google likes seeing consistency across the web regarding businesses. Be sure that within your Google My Business page, social media accounts, and the website itself, that your Name, Phone Number and Address are all consistent. With so many account and pages, it can be easier said than done especially if your business has ever gone through a name, address, or phone number change.
Boston Web Marketing can bridge the gap
As mentioned prior, these are just some aspects that go into helping your small business rank higher than Yelp, and in some cases, this may not be enough. Boston Web Marketing has a team of SEO experts who are constantly updated with Google algorithm changes and industry trends. Learn more about how we can help your business rank higher and above Yelp and other review platforms today!