How to Optimize Your Yelp Profile for SEO

A 2017 study showed that 85% of consumers trust online reviews just as much as they trust personal recommendations. Even more, the same study shared that 97% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses. That’s basically everyone.

As a business owner, you can’t ignore the importance of customer reviews and how they impact future customers. One of the most trusted review websites is Yelp, and today we want to share how you can optimize your Yelp SEO to stand out among the crowd and reach the right people.

Utilize Keywords on Yelp

You already know that keywords are really important when it comes to search engine rankings. If you think of Yelp as a mini search engine, think of your Yelp profile as a mini website. The keywords you use within your profile will determine how you rank in Yelp’s search engine.

Tips on utilizing keywords:

• Craft your content so that your keywords fit naturally within it. No keyword stuffing!
• Use keywords in any section that includes words, but dedicate extra time to the Specialties section.
• Ask for specific reviews from customers. Rather than asking clients to review your company, ask them to review the shoes they bought, the breakfast sandwich they tried, etc. Asking for these specific reviews will likely bring the right keywords to your review section, which holds a lot of weight on Yelp.

Optimize Yelp Photos

It’s important to upload high-quality pictures to your Yelp profile. But before you start uploading pictures, make sure you optimize the file names. Avoid images with titles such as IMG_1211, and give your images descriptive titles such as MomsBakery_BlueberryMuffin. It may seem small, but you should take advantage of every word you put on the internet.

Get Yelp Reviews

Customer reviews are easily the most important element of Yelp success. After all, potential clients are reading these reviews to decide if they want to use your services or not. This can be tricky, though, because Yelp is very wary of spam reviews.

How to get trustworthy Yelp reviews:

• Add a Yelp Review button to your website. Yelp provides review buttons that you can add to your website to make reviewing your business easy for people.
• Ask customers for reviews. If you go this route, don’t ask all your customers at once. Ask a few customers at a time to review your business, and encourage them to fill out their profile and review a few other local businesses as well. This is important because Yelp will not show reviews from users with incomplete accounts or few reviews.
• Treat your customers well. Organic reviews are the best kind. Keep putting your clients first, being the best at what you do, and creating a fantastic customer experience. People will notice, and they will review you.

Yelp can be a tricky tool to master, but it is well worth the effort. Set aside some time this week to optimize your Yelp profile with these tips. If you have any questions about Yelp or search engine optimization, contact us – we’d love to chat!