Yelp Reports Major Growth in Searches for Diverse Businesses

SEO October 2, 2024

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Yelp’s latest local economic impact report highlights a significant increase in searches for diverse businesses over the past year.

The report defines diverse businesses as establishments that are women-owned, Black-owned, Asian-owned, or Latinx-owned. These businesses can showcase specific attributes on their Yelp pages to help people find diverse options. Business owners can opt into multiple attributes, such as Black-owned and women-owned, if applicable.

Yelp tracks when business owners add these attributes to their business pages. The latest report measures the impact of the pandemic on consumer interest in diverse businesses. Notable highlights from the report include search data and the introduction of a new identity attribute for business owners.

Growing Consumer Interest in Diverse Businesses

From February 2020 to February 2021, searches for diverse businesses surged by 2,930%. Specific highlights include:

Searches for women-owned businesses in the U.S. increased by 264%
Searches for Black-owned businesses in the U.S. increased by 3,085%
Searches for Latinx-owned businesses in the U.S. increased by 4,077%
Searches for Asian-owned businesses in the U.S. increased by 130%

Certain business types saw notable increases in consumer interest:

Women-owned: restaurant searches grew 8,620%
Latinx-owned: nail salon searches up 1,589%, hair salon searches up 5,762%
Black-owned: flower shop searches up 5,740%, vegan restaurant searches up 2,142%
Asian-owned: bakery searches up 721%, coffee shop searches up 652%

Consumer engagement with diverse businesses also rose. Engagement includes viewing a business page, posting a review, or uploading a photo. This increase was particularly notable after businesses added an identity attribute to their Yelp page.

Additional Highlights From Yelp’s Report

Consumers rate many businesses owned by women, Black people, and Latinx people higher than other businesses.
Women, Black, and Latinx business owners engage more with consumer feedback on Yelp than other business owners.
In 94% of categories with women-owned businesses, these businesses have higher average star ratings than the category overall.
In 86% of categories with Black-owned businesses, these businesses have higher average star ratings than the category overall.
In 90% of categories with Latinx-owned businesses, these businesses have higher average star ratings than the category overall.

New Attribute for Asian-Owned Businesses

Yelp introduced a new attribute allowing businesses to self-identify as Asian-owned. Business owners can manually add this attribute to their Yelp page, making it searchable for other users. Steps to add the attribute are: