The "6 Key Factors" behind getting a Restaurant to the top of the Yelp Rankings for a Desired Search Keyword.

If you've been frustrated with Yelp so far, here is how to get the app to finally work for you.

5-minute read - goldmine of value

If you're anything like most restaurant owners/managers out there, you see the Yelp app as either a blessing or a curse to the food industry. If you're on the right side of the "local review app," you can bask in all of the benefits that it bestows. If you're on the wrong side of it, however, it can actually hurt your business and drive customers away.

I've used the Yelp app since it debuted. I've also been a small business-focused digital marketer for years. The reason that I'm writing this article is simple. I want to pull back the curtain and show you exactly how to get exactly what you want out of the Yelp app (more sales via new and repeat customers) by helping you understand how to use their algorithm to your advantage.

What I'll be covering in this article:

• Part 1: The "Yelp Ranking Rumor" that you should ignore (Pay-to-Play?).
• Part 2: How Yelp Works and how it ranks businesses (6 Key Factors).
• Part 3: How to build a "Yelp Ranking Engine" in your business.
• Part 4: How to build your own "Yelp Ranking Engine" in 1 week
  (even if you're super busy).

Let's dive in.

Part 1: The "Yelp Ranking Rumor" that you should ignore. (Do you have to Pay-to-Play to rank high for a Yelp Search?)

One of the most common complaints about Yelp from folks in the restaurant industry is that Yelp has become a "Pay-to-Play" only application. This means you have to subscribe to their "ads" or "upgraded subscription" to appear anywhere in the rankings.

While it is true that using either of these paid options makes it easier to appear in Yelp for search terms, it isn't the primary driver of Yelp rankings. As a matter of fact, most people who use the Yelp app aren't as trusting of the "sponsored" search results and will immediately skip past them in favor of spots with actual reviews and high star ratings. 

While it is true that you can show up higher in the Yelp search rankings and eliminate some of the ads that show up on your listing by upgrading your business to a paid subscription, this doesn't necessarily equate to more folks actually coming into your business.

The secret to turning Yelp into actual paying customers lies in understanding how the core Yelp algorithm works and how you can take advantage of that for your restaurant.

Let's dig into the Yelp algorithm and the most important factors it considers when ranking businesses in keyword searches.

Part 2: How Yelp Works and how it ranks businesses (the 6 key factors).

Before you can start taking advantage of how the Yelp algorithm works to rank your business higher for certain keywords, you need to have a clear understanding of how it works.

Disclaimer: No one outside of a few folks who work at Yelp really knows all of the pieces of their ranking algorithm. What we're walking through below is based on our years of experience using Yelp and our results with helping restaurants rank higher by giving Yelp what it wants. Please note that there are other factors, but these are the ones we have found to be most important for quickly climbing Yelp rankings.

The following 6 factors are the most important:

1. Proximity of the business location to the searcher. This is how close a person is to your business when they actually do a keyword search (or how close the location they type into the search box is).
   
   
2. How the business categorizes itself in its profile. When you fill out your Yelp business profile, you are asked to pick categories that your business fits into. This is an extremely important step that many businesses overlook when claiming or setting up their Yelp listings.
   
   
3. The keywords a business puts in its business description. This is another important factor you can change instantly, which will dramatically impact how Yelp sees your business. When filling out your business's description (think about how you fill out the items in your menu when thinking about this section).
   
   
4. The keywords people mention in their reviews. Yelp is largely about what your customers say about you. What they say in their reviews is just as important as the star rating. Getting them to mention certain keywords in their reviews is an extremely important part of ranking for those keywords in the future (we have a whole strategy behind getting customers to talk about certain keywords in their reviews).
   
   
5. The total number of reviews a business has. We never ask for reviews on Yelp. That's actually against Yelp's terms of service. What you can do is ask people to check into your business. If you do this strategically, they'll check in and review your business as well. Do it really well, and they'll leave you a big positive review.
   
   
6. The Velocity of Interactions (How frequently a business gets reviewed/checked into). This is one of the least-discussed factors in Yelp rankings, but it's extremely important. It's not enough to get a lot of reviews and check-ins. You have to keep getting them on a regular basis to be seen as active and "alive" to Yelp's algorithm. The key to this is making sure we continually nudge our customers to interact with us on Yelp.

So how do we use the "6 core factors" above to our advantage? Simple. We built a "Yelp Ranking Engine" within our restaurant to leverage Yelp's algorithm (without violating their terms of service).

Let's talk about how to build that "Ranking Engine".

Part 3: How to build a "Yelp Ranking Engine" in your business.

Remember, we don't ever want to "Review Gate" or ask our customers for reviews on Yelp directly. We want to nudge them in that direction by asking them to "check into" our business on Yelp.

So how do we do that?

We built something that we call our "Yelp Review Engine".

From above, our "Review Engine" looks something like this:

• Step 1: We build an SMS list of our customers by giving away something small but valuable inside our business. (Please note that we are not giving something away in exchange for a review. We give something away simply so we can contact our customers later.
  
  
• Step 2: We send them to a specialized opt-in page while they are eating at our establishment (via table toppers or in-store flyers). We also include business cards with our take-out orders, featuring a QR code and a link to the opt-in page.
  
  
• Step 3: We immediately send them the freebie or discount in exchange for the ability to contact them later. A few hours after their meal, and once they opt in to the page, we send them a special message reminding them to check in with us on Yelp and letting them know that it helps us continue to deliver high-quality service and food when they do.
  
  
• Step 4: Leave us a review that contains many of the keywords we need (this is accomplished via the follow-up messages we send out). 
  
  
• Step 5: As those reviews start to become frequent, we increase our star ratings and our keyword-based ranking on Yelp. That increased visibility sends more customers our way, who then go through the same "Yelp Ranking Engine," and it goes viral quickly.

This visual helps:

Part 4: How to build your own "Yelp Ranking Engine" in 1 week (even if you're super busy).

One of the hardest things restaurant owners and managers face is being a master of everything in their business. That includes the marketing a lot of the time as well. 

Over the last few years, we've been lucky enough to take the marketing burden off the plates of tons of restaurant owners and managers. If you have any questions about how to build any of the above, you can contact me directly here, and I'd be glad to help via email for free (a rising tide raises all ships). If you'd like some help building your own "Yelp Review Engine" and would like my full attention, we also have a very affordable package for any restaurant to get started (you can sign up for that here).

I hope this article helps you tame the beast that is Yelp.

Feel free to email me any questions you have at todd@localleadshoppe.com