Where do you go when you need to find the best Italian restaurant in your city?
Or the trendiest salon in the town you’re visiting?
If your answer is Google, you’re right.
But there’s another site you can use to find “the best local businesses in your area.”
A site that helps you choose one business over another based on ratings and reviews.
It’s Yelp.
Let’s find out more about it!
What Is Yelp?
Yelp is a social platform for everything local.
When you sign up, you can find the best businesses in your area.
There are lists of restaurants, hotels, dentists, and gyms.
If you’re looking for professional services, you can find landscapers, contractors, electricians, and plumbers.
Curious about that new restaurant down the block?
You can check Yelp to read customer reviews.
Want to do something fun this weekend?
Yelp lists popular activities near you.
What Yelp does is highlight the best in your area for you.
If you aren’t using Yelp yet, read on to find out why it might be a good fit for your business.
If you already have an account, it’s useful to know Yelp’s history and fun facts that not many of your fellow Yelpers know.
Here are 15 facts you might not know about Yelp.
1. Yelp Was Once a ‘Glorified Email Circle’
In 2004, PayPal employee Jeremy Stoppelman fell sick.
When he searched online for the best doctor, he realized there wasn’t much information on whether Doctor A or Doctor B was a better option.
To fill this information gap, Jeremy and his PayPal colleague Russell Simmons raised $1 million to form an email circle. Friends inside the circle could write and swap business reviews with each other.
This is how Yelp was born.
2. What’s Behind the Name?
Jeremy Stoppelman wanted to call his business “Yocal,” but was unable to obtain the domain name.
The business continued without a name until one of its earliest employees, David Calbraith, came up with “Yelp.”
The idea was initially rejected as “Yelp” sounds close to “Help.”
After reconsidering, Stoppelman realized the name made perfect sense. Yelp’s first mission, after all, is to help people with their local needs.
3. 92% of Yelp Visitors Make a Purchase after Visiting the Social Network
Need an incentive to list your business on Yelp?
Consider these facts:
- 42% of people who visit Yelp will make a purchase on the same day.
- 25% will make a purchase within a few hours.
- 85% of Yelp users who are satisfied with a business will share it with their friends.
4. Yelp Is the #1 Site for Public Directories Online
The average Yelp visit is 3:10 minutes long, and the average visitor clicks through to 7.10 pages, according to SimilarWeb.
5. 55% of People Searching for a Restaurant on Yelp Have Ordered Delivery or Takeout from a Restaurant They Found on the Platform
53% of people who ordered from a restaurant on Yelp weren’t familiar with the restaurant before they found it on the platform.
6. Yelp Doesn’t Issue ‘People Love Us on Yelp’ Stickers to Everyone
Ever notice this sticker on the window of a restaurant you love?
Although it seems like a simple sticker, these are given only to qualified businesses.
If you get one, it means Yelp appreciates your establishment. You:
- Provide excellent customer service.
- Earned a ton of good reviews and high ratings from customers.
- Respond quickly to both positive and negative comments.
- Follow Yelp’s best business practices.
To apply for a Yelp sticker, fill out a form on their website.
7. Businesses with Higher Yelp Ratings & More Reviews Experience Faster Revenue Growth
If your rating increases by one star on Yelp, you’ll enjoy a revenue growth of one to two percentage points.
Ten new business reviews mean you’ll get an average of two revenue growth percentage points.
8. Businesses with 4.5 Ratings Experienced the Largest Revenue Growth from 2016-2019
Surprisingly, businesses with 4.5 stars on Yelp grew more than businesses with five stars!
9. Google Offered to Buy Yelp in 2005
Yelp started out with a two-year license that allowed Google to use Yelp content in organic search. In 2005, Google offered to buy Yelp for $550 million.
Stoppelman, however, refused to sell his company. In an interview with Time, he said:
10. You Can Now Personalize the Yelp App
Are you a vegetarian? Indicate this on the app, and your home screen will display the best vegetarian-friendly restaurants in your area.
Do you love hiking? Yelp will show you excellent places for day trips, picnics, and family activities.
A fan of coffee? You’ll get suggestions about amazing cafes to visit near you.
Simply spend two minutes indicating your preferences on the Yelp app, and you’ll get a personalized home screen and experience.
11. Yelp Has 68.76 Million Mobile Web Unique Visitors
It also has 35.6 million mobile app unique visitors.
12. 64% of Yelp Users Have Gone to College; Other Yelp User Facts
- 18% of Yelp users haven’t been to college, while 18% have gone to graduate school.
- Yelp usage is evenly divided by age group. 35% of users are aged 35-54. 33% are 18-33, and 32% are over 55.
- 51% of Yelp users earn over $100K. 25% earn below $59K and 24% earn $60-$99K.
13. Restaurants Are the #1 Reviewed Business on Yelp
Next to restaurants come Home/Local Services and Shopping.
They’re followed closely by Beauty and Fitness, Health, Auto, Travel and Hotel, Arts, and Nightlife.
14. Yelp Has 205 Million Reviews
Each year, Yelp obtains 16% more reviews than the year before.
15. Yelp Enjoys Global Domination
Yelp isn’t only used to find local businesses in the U.S. In fact, people from over 35 countries worldwide use the app.
It’s available in 42 different languages (including local variants).
How Yelp Can Increase Your Business’s ROI
Of the 2 trillion online searches per year, 46% will be local searches.
But it isn’t enough to get noticed by prospects.
You need to impress them and show them they’ll be satisfied with your products or services.
And what better way to do this than by “word of mouth?”
With Yelp, you’re taking word of mouth to the next level.
If you have something excellent to offer plus great customer service, people will start talking about you with their Yelp “friends.”
And the more reviews you have, the higher your revenue growth will be.
More Resources:
- Yelp SEO: How to Optimize Your Listings & Rank Higher
- Citations & Local SEO: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide
- Local SEO: The Definitive Guide to Improve Your Local Search Rankings
Image Credits
All images taken by author, April 2020
