How to Rank in Yelp

[Davey_Tree]

Hello everyone!

I manage SEO for a pretty large brand that has close to 100 office locations nationwide. In the last year we have completely revamped our Yelp pages. This has been a great secondary source of traffic and conversions for us because of the type of industry we are in. The problem is, it can be exponentially better if we were more visible.

We have done almost everything we can to make our pages as good if not better than almost any competitor regardless of geographic location. We even have the enhanced profiles (extortion) that remove competitors ads from appearing on our listings.

Here is what we have done in the last year to each listing:

• Uploaded tons of photos
• Increased reviews
• Added proper categories
• Fine-tuned all of our CTAs
• Added in a unique and optimized business description ( Available with enhanced profiles)
• Set the proper service area range on their map
• Increased our review response rate ( both negative and positive) to 100%

Still, even after months and months have gone by we struggle to rank on the first page for our service category. Doing manual searches often turn up competitors, who do not even have their listing claimed, have no photos, little reviews will rank higher than us.

Even though we have an account rep because of our business size, bringing this issue up to them is about as useful as talking to a blanket. They push CPC so hard that its the last thing they are willing to help with. It has gotten to the point where I am honestly starting to believe in a self-curated conspiracy theory that they purposely hold larger brands back in organic to sell CPC harder. Obviously certain brands that hold the branding clout like a "Best Buy" would be hard to get away with. But still, we do all the right things and we are getting very minimal results compared to where we should be.

Has anyone else had issues with Yelp or have any ideas on some steps we could take to appease their particular algorithm?

Thanks!

-Ben

[MiriamEllis]

I know, funny video, right? So glad if it gave you some tips, Ben!

[Davey_Tree]

Thanks so much for the video, that was really helpful! I probably looked at the guy actually talking about three times during the entire duration. I just stared at the burger eating machine on his journey to the meat sweats. My favorite part was the first scene that cuts to him laying flat on the back on the seat and grabbing at napkins.

Thanks so much everyone for all your help!!!!

-Ben

[MiriamEllis]

I know! That cracked me up too - quite oddball! It certainly made me remember the video. Glad to know it may have given you a couple of ideas, Cesare.

[Cesare.Marchetti]

Hi Miriam,

Very good video with even further things to look into.

By the way I liked the guy on the other side of the table that is contributing to the video by basically saying absolutely nothing but eating hamburgers and lying on the bench...LOL...

[MiriamEllis]

Hey DaveyTree,

Some nice responses here from Cesare! I'm enjoying reading the discussion you two are having.

I agree with Cesare that it sounds like you're going above and beyond many companies in regards to your Yelp efforts, and yep, I've encountered other business owners expressing frustrations similar to yours. While it sounds like you've gained very advanced knowledge of Yelp in your efforts to promote your business, take a minute to watch this video from 2016:

http://localu.org/blog/guest-video-top-10-yelp-tips-small-business-2016/

It taught me some things I didn't know about Yelp when I first watched it, and maybe you'll get some new ideas, too.

[Cesare.Marchetti]

Hi Ben,

You are welcome. Its also interesting for me to digg deeper into the Yelp-SEO...

Right the centroid thing (is Google not relying on distance right now and not using the centroid anymore?) could be a trigger too. Try to check that out systematically, maybe you can exclude it then as the source of the above situation.

If you liked my answers you can also mark one as a good response.

Cheers,

Cesare

[Davey_Tree]

Hi Cesare,

This is an excellent outlook, I really appreciate it. These are things we are wondering as well. It may be as simple as the bad listings that are ranking high are just so close to the centroid or user search that are being populated based on convenience, much like Google, which is understandable but annoying. Just because something is closer does not mean it is a good choice. I avoid the close gas station near my work that is in the bad neighborhood all the time.

Another thing we are looking at as a possibility is citation issues, especially with Acxiom. Like you said, we do not believe their algorithm is that advanced so we are looking off-page as well and if Yelp relies heavily on third-party data to rank which we (my team) doesn't know, this may be a place to start and track any results.

Thanks again!

-Ben

[Cesare.Marchetti]

Hi Ben,

Honestly I think you are doing more than most business' do on Yelp actually. And also the right things. My 2nd suggestion is something extremely marginal I thought of that can give you an advantage if everything else is done and the competition is top too.

But this doesn't seem to be the main problem in your situation.

It seems you did your "on-page" homework on Yelp already rather well. So the reason must lie somewhere else.

Right now these are my thoughts:

• Yelp takes also into account behavioural KPI's like CTR, dwell time, etc. on the business page. Are they really so advanced? Are your competitions business pages that are 1/2 empty, with no reviews generating a better CTR, etc.: don't think so...Is there something on your pages that is negatively affecting the above KPI's, that turns off visitors?: maybe.

• Some algorithmic thing (disadvantage) from Yelp: because of your size? looks spammy? "duplicates" in different locations are normal when you have different branches. because they want to force you to CPC? hope really not: that would be very short sighted saying the least...looks over optimized? maybe yes to some extent (text/keyword-wise). on the other hand they actually want you to fill in everything and use all their features... maybe something happens here by mistake due to the poor implementation of their algorithm: rather unlikely, one should first try to look for the errors with himself and not with the others...lol

my guess (not having seen your pages) right now is some kind over optimization...

Just some other thoughts that may help you in your quest.

Cheers,

Cesare

[Davey_Tree]

Thanks Cesare,

Good call on the specialty pages. We did hit those with all of our services and keywords. As far as the reviews go with our targeted keywords, I will for sure go and test to see if some of our better offices have reviews that include our targeted keywords to see if that is what is really moving the needle. it is just mind-boggling some of the results that come up ahead of us that have no reviews period or even a photo!

Thanks so much!

-Ben

[Cesare.Marchetti]

Hi Ben,

Very interesting indeed.

We do almost nothing, i.e. only the absolut minimum for our yelp pages and rank for the relevant keywords for all of them on the 1st position. But unfortunately Yelp is of very little use over here for the industry we are in...so I don't care so much..

Independently from that I have 2 points you didn't mention explicitly above but you might already have taken care about:

1. Fill out the speciality pages and add the relevant keyword(s) there
2. Make your customers write reviews containing your relevant keywords (they are highlited and appear on search results as well)

Hope this gives you additional inspirations...

Cheers,

Cesare