Does your business have a Yelp listing? Chances are it probably does whether you realize it or not. And, if you’re not a paying customer, your business’s listing is probably filled with ads for your competitors. Go ahead and check it out by going to Yelp and typing in the name of your business. I bet you’ll be alarmed at what you see.

Yelp certainly has a robust following and is still one of the most popular platforms for consumer ratings so it is hard to ignore, but controversy continues to tarnish the local listing giant as lawsuits pile up accusing the corporation of shady business practices such as extortion and manipulated reviews.

If you don’t pay for your own Yelp ads, your competitors can have their ads appear on your Yelp listing and you won’t be able to remove them unless you pay up. There have also been allegations of Yelp removing positive reviews after a business owner refused to pay for an ad.

Since 2008, the Federal Trade Commission has received over 2000 complaints from small business owners over Yelp’s advertising practices and in 2014 one of the lawsuits against Yelp went as far as the Virginia Supreme Court after the company refused to take down or identify anonymous reviews that were accused of being fraudulent.

The stories go on and on, but the fact that Yelp hasn’t exactly been virtuous doesn’t mean you should ignore the platform altogether. Despite all of the negative publicity and the pile of lawsuits, Yelp is still an extremely effective way to market your business, but it is something you’re going to have to stay on top of and pay very close attention to.

The first thing you should do is claim and optimize your listing and then work on acquiring new reviews. It is also very important to respond to any negative reviews you get. At that point, it is up to you to decide if you want to pay or not. Before you make that decision, please give us a call and we can discuss some different options that you can pursue.

-Art