Initially known for it’s infamous 5-star rating system that can either make or break a business, Yelp has found it’s own business stuck between a rock and a hard place lately. Last week, after announcing a less than ideal full-year revenue outlook and a poor retention of local advertisers, the review company’s stock fell nearly 20%. The company is now tasked to focus on it’s additional new services as well as improve it’s advertising appeal in order to keep up with competitors such as Google.
Founded in 2004, Yelp has an estimated 127 million reviews under it’s belt for restaurants, hotels, retail stores and local businesses of all industries. Although the site plans on keeping business reviews first at foremost for it’s users, they’ve also rolled out the ability to make restaurant reservations, order food for delivery, and get price or service estimates from businesses.
As we all know, you need an income to run a business — and as such Yelp charges businesses monthly fees for using their new reservation or food delivery services (just as Google takes a certain amount for customers who run Adwords campaigns). Yelp’s poor revenue report is due to high advertiser turnover because their client base is mostly smaller businesses, stated the company. The real question is whether or not the review site can find better incentives for business owners to use their services without charging higher monthly fees.
Is Yelp Good For Your Company?
If you own a restaurant, retail store, hotel or other business that deals in a B2C manner, it’s important (read: pertinent) to have a Yelp page that is fully optimized with correct contact and company information, a brief blurb about the company, as well as a few pages taken by you or your staff. Not all small businesses need to run Yelp ad campaigns and it may be more beneficial to start a Google Adwords Campaign instead due to higher monthly user rates.
If you need assistance claiming or managing your Yelp page or are looking to start up a paid advertising campaign, contact our Boston-based SEO company today!