Yelp Squeaks, Big Time

Yelp is not all it shouts about as I found out this week when two reviews for Blogsite Studio disappeared from view. All that remains of them is “(2 Filtered).”

The first review, from Doug S., still remains, but there is a big difference between Doug and the BC Association of Travel Writers. Doug is a regular Yelper and the others are what the site calls, “Drive By” reviewers, according to a June 11, 2012 story by CBC.

So, if you are not an active member of Yelp’s club, your review will be filtered out. Thanks for trying.

Repurposed Yelp Reviews

When I first discovered Yelp in 2008, I thought how cool to be able to review businesses for all the world to see. I posted reviews of my favorite restaurants, clubs and wineries by pasting in snippets I had written for publications who had paid me to write, such as WE Westender.

Then I realized, if I was to write dedicated Yelp reviews, what’s in it for me? The site doesn’t pay people to write. They use your writing to boost their site and make money from advertising. So I gave up the idea of becoming a Yelper and mostly forgot about the site.

Filtered Reviews

When one of my WordPress clients offered to Yelp for me, I thought, hey, that would be a great way to promote my business. I worked up a business page and asked some other people to yelp for me. The two that did completely wasted their time when their reviews were filtered out because they were not part of the Yelp Community.

According the the CBC article, the more you yelp the less your yelps are filtered.

“If you are a user and you are writing reviews and it’s getting filtered out — keep writing reviews,” a Yelp customer service person told (complaining business owner) Desloges in a (recorded) phone conversation. “Keep using the site — if you find it helpful — and you might find yourself getting unfiltered.”

Again, there is no compensation for Yelping.

What’s worse, the site has been accused of extortion by filtering positive reviews on business that refuse to advertise.

False Reviews

Looking back over my reviews, posted between November and December of 2008, I saw that some businesses are marked “Closed.” In one that has changed hands, Yelp not only changed the review name, but adopted the review of the old store. Accordingly, the old Taylorwood is now the new Swirl. Hmmmm. False advertising? Not in my review. Time to re-edit.

So, the upshot is, if you want to be yelped about, you have to get a regular yelper to do it. And when you take advice from them, you need to realize that the reviews are written by fervent, non-professional writers who are part of a club and not the average person who just wants to endorse something they like. It makes you wonder how many great places go under the radar because a Yelper hasn’t found it yet

This make Yelp appear more squeak than shout.

I’d love to hear about your experiences with Yelp. But, you don’t have to yelp about it!