How to Use Yelp to Improve Your Local Search Rank

You know that online reviews are impacting your bottom line.

No doubt you’ve heard that word of mouth is the best marketing strategy but these days, almost 80% of consumers trust online reviews as if they’re a recommendation from a trusted friend.

Year over year, more people turn to them for the last word on whether or not they can trust a business.

For local businesses, these facts are even more important – after all, about 50% of mobile search is local.

It makes sense; when you’re out and about and you need to find a place nearby, you’ll fire up your phone and then judge where to go by the reviews.

So how can you make that work for you? One answer is to incorporate Yelp into your SEO strategy.

Not sure where to start? We’ve got you covered.

Here’s how to think like a local SEO company when it comes to Yelp.

Optimize Your Site For Yelp

Recently, Yelp rolled out a new penalty that targets websites that aren’t mobile-friendly.

If you want to get noticed on Yelp, you’ll have to make sure your website is optimized for mobile and Yelp searches.

Here are a few tips:

• No pop-ups – Make sure there are no pop ups that cover content on your main page
• Above the fold ads – Don’t make your clients scroll for content
• Interstitials – If your site shows an interstitial that your users have to dismiss to get to the main page, Yelp will penalize you.

Doing these things will make your site more user-friendly and keep you in Yelp’s good graces.

Don’t Ask For Reviews

Lots of reviews, and good ones, help your site rank; any local SEO company can tell you that.

What’s important to remember when getting reviews on Yelp is to grow your reviews organically.

Believe it or not, Yelp will punish you if they suspect you’re trying to boost your reviews.

For example, the reviewer determines the rank of the review.

If the reviewer’s account is brand new and they’ve barely reviewed anything else, Yelp will suspect it’s a dummy account and drop your rank.

Same thing if a bunch of reviews come in at the same time.

If you send a mass email out to your customers to post reviews and suddenly, Yelp gets a ton of them at once, your views will be penalized.

Grow Reviews Organically

So how can you improve your SEO rankings with Yelp organically?

A good local SEO company trick is to make sure your customers know you’re on Yelp.

• Put a Yelp button on your website
• Add a Yelp decal to your storefront
• Put a Yelp button in your email signature

Eventually, the reviews will flow in.

Learn From The Best Local SEO Company

Now that you’ve got a few Yelp tricks under your belt, go and try them out.

To take your SEO to the next level, partner with SMA Marketing, one of the best local SEO companies out there.

Contact them today for a free SEO audit. They’ll make sure that not only are you generating traffic but that every view counts.