Yelp is a type of networking site that publishes crowd-sourced reviews about businesses. In Yelp, users can post reviews and rate businesses according to their real-life experience with the business. Many business owners use Yelp to increase their brand reputation, influence customer behavior, as well as promote their new products/services. Therefore, Yelp reviews play a very important role to develop brand awareness and improve search engine visibility.
However, not all the reviews of Yelp can boost your business, especially the bad ones. Therefore, a business owner should take the bad reviews of Yelp seriously. Unfortunately, business owners don’t have any control over Yelp reviews and they can’t remove them on their own. Still, business owners can try asking the customer to change/delete the negative review or can use the “Terms of Service Violations” rules to report/flag a review.
Yelp’s Content Guidelines And Regulations For Reporting And Removing A Bad Yelp Review
Business owners may not be able to delete a Yelp review but they can take proper steps against a negative or false review. Yelp has its own content guidelines and regulations for false/spam or negative reviews. The guidelines and regulations are:
1. A business review is not from a customer’s perspective
2. If the reviewer is not talking about personal experience
3. If a review disputes an existing review
4. If the review is plagiarized/spam
5. The review is about a wrong business or posted on the wrong business page
6. If the review is about a business’s policies, service offerings, etc.
7. If the review contains personal information or the name of the business employees they interact with
If any customer review related to your business makes any of the above violations then you can report Yelp for the removal of that specific review.
What Types Of Yelp Reviews Can Be Removed?
There are a few types of reviews that Yelp can remove if they are identified as violating the content guidelines. They are:
Inappropriate content: Reviews that have harassment, threats, hate speech, or other displays of racism
Conflicts Of Interest: Reviews those are posted by you for your own business, or by relatives, employees, friends, or competitors in your industry, etc.
Promotional Content: If the review has promotional content then Yelp usually removes that review.
Irrelevant Content: Reviews that are made from imagination or without real-life experience or reviews that don’t discuss the consumer experience, etc.
Violations Of Privacy: If the review violates the privacy rules of Yelp or contains close-up photos or videos of other patrons posted without their permission is removed by Yelp.
Intellectual Property: Contents that are spam or stolen from other sites or users.
Demands For Payment: Reviews that demand money for updating or giving positive feedback.
How To Remove Bad Yelp Reviews
It’s quite impossible to remove a Yelp review but there are one or two tricks that you can apply and see if it works and you are able to remove the bad reviews. First, if your business receives a bad review then check if it violates any guidelines or regulations of Yelp or landed any of the above review types. If so, then you should report the review or flag the review. Yelp will check the review and if they find any violation of rules then they will delete the review.
You can also try convincing the customer to delete the negative review or modify the review and give positive feedback. If a customer posts a bad review then you should respond to the reviewer and help change that bad impression. This is a good tactic because it will not only improve your online review score but also leave a positive impression on your other customers. You can also offer a better service or experience to rectify your mistakes.
How To Report A Review From The Yelp For Business Website
If you find a review that you feel may violate Yelp’s guidelines then you should report it and let the Yelp moderators know about it. You can easily report a review from Yelp for a business website. Here are the details:
1. First, open a browser on your computer
2. Now visit Yelp.Com from your browser
3. Then log in to your Yelp account
4. Find the review in the Reviews section of your Yelp business account
5. Now click on the Three Dots to find the more options
6. Among the options click on the “Report Review” and the process is completed
Once you report a review the Yelp moderators will evaluate the review against their Content Guidelines and it might take several days to find the result.
How To Report A Review From The Yelp For Business App
If you are using Yelp for the business apps then you can also report a review conveniently. Follow the below steps:
1. First, open the app on your mobile
2. Now log in to your Yelp account
3. Identify the review that you think violated the Yelp rules or give a false review
4. Tap the 3 dots More Options (iPhone) or Overflow Menu (Android) icon
5. From the available options click on the “Report Review” and the process is completed
Check your mail to find out the decision of Yelp; whether they have removed the review or decided to keep the review.
References:
1. https://www.brightlocal.com/learn/how-to-delete-a-yelp-review/
2. https://www.womply.com/blog/7-types-of-yelp-reviews-that-can-be-removed-and-why-bad-reviews-might-be-a-good-thing/
Last Updated on January 31, 2022 by
Magalie D. is a Diploma holder in Public Administration & Management from McGill University of Canada. She shares management tips here in MGTBlog when she has nothing to do and gets some free time after working in a multinational company at Toronto.
