Tag yelp reviews

From October 5-8, Las Vegas will be taken over by Pubcon. The gathering is one of the largest annual meetings of search marketing professionals, and discussions will delve deep into all manner of organic search topics. Joining these brilliant minds in search is the veteran SEO and social media marketer: Pierre Zarokian.

Zarokian, who is CEO of Reputation Stars and Submit Express, is an expert on the art of reputation management. Through Reputation Stars, Pierre is successfully growing the reputation management arm of his successful search marketing business. He has developed a proprietary approach that can remove negative reviews and press from Google search results.

“One of the key aspects we look at is Yelp,” says Zarokian, “if a business has a bad Yelp profile, they may lose a lot of business.” Zarokian will discuss the effects that a bad Yelp reputation can have on a growing business, and he will focus on some key takeaways businesses can use to increase positive Yelp reviews.

“Yelp is all over the Web, so there is a good chance it’s the first thing someone sees when they search for local businesses,” says Pierre Zarokian. “Often, the user will bypass Google entirely and go to Yelp to search for businesses in their area.”

Starting at 3:55 on Tuesday, October 6th, Pierre will be joined by other colleagues in the search marketing industry in a roundtable discussion on reputation management. If you attend Pubcon, and you want to grow your business, this session promises insight into one of the next frontiers in search marketing.

If you are interested in attending Pubcon, here is a coupon code that will give you 15% discount: rc-1943915

Yelp was created to try and help users familiarize themselves with amazing spots in a city they thought they were familiar with. It used the opinions of friends to try and source these recommendations. At a small scale, this worked very well. Reviews were honest and people used the check-in feature to add authenticity. As Yelp scaled, it failed to deal with the underlying of problem of transparency. CEO of Reputation Stars, Pierre Zarokian, understands this problem all to well. Reputation Stars helps businesses develop strategies to fight negative reviews on Yelp.

The State of Yelp

Yelp has added some new features that may help with the authenticity of a review. Users have been able to add photos for some time, but videos will be coming soon. Until then, Yelp still has issues identifying who the real reviewers are. They ran a recent sting operation to weed some of these fakers out, but there is a very real problem that exists with Yelp’s transparency. Business owners aren’t feeling very much more confident after a recent ruling that declared Yelp was free to reorder its reviews.

Yelp doesn’t require check-ins or proof that a transaction actually occurred. Yelp can rearrange reviews the way it sees fit, affecting the reputation of countless businesses without publishing any kind of standards or style guide to help real reviews stick. Businesses are powerless against Yelp too, as the company outs those who incentivize or pay for reviews with an embarrassing banner.

Fighting Yelp

The key to fighting Yelp, says Pierre Zarokian, is to engage customers and get more positive reviews. Stop paying for a temporary fix. This video contains important information businesses need to know about how to fight Yelp.

Read some articles Pierre Zarokian wrote in Search Engine Journal about Yelp here.

Yelp, the online review database that has become an ubiquitous part of the Web, is being accused of shielding companies who pay premiums from bad reviews. Yelp’s sales team has been using poor reviews as a sales tool, implying that businesses can pay their way out of hot water caused by user reviews. Since 2008, some 2,000 complaints have been filed by businesses and consumers.

Yelp also has several problems with anonymous reviews, and currently faces a court order demanding they reveal the identity of users who posted on their website. Yelp has states in its FAQ that pay to play is out, but 2,000 complaints don’t come out of thin air. Something is wrong, and the CEO of our company, Pierre Zarokian, has the latest news on this recent development from his new article featured on Search Engine Journal.

A class action lawsuit filed in California seeks to get Yelpers paid for reviews. The lawsuit claims that Yelp runs a cult like environment and instead of paying the reviewers, it offers them badges,  titles such as “Elite”, praise,  free liquor and food, and free promotional Yelp attire, such as red panties with ‘Make Me Yelp!’

We spoke to one of the plaintiffs, Lilly Jueng, who is an Elite reviewer. She claimed that Yelp was very restrictive of what she was able to post and cancelled her account when they were not happy with a review that she left.  “Reviewers should be able to post any review they want on any public company without restrictions,” said Jueng.

The plaintiffs also claim that yelp often hosted parties for Elite reviewers and the Yelpers were expected to leave positive reviews for the restaurant hosting the event.

We also spoke to Daniel Bernath, one of the lead attorneys on the case. He stated: “A worker is not permitted to waive their rights to wages under the federal Fair Standards Labor Act.” Mr. Bernath feels that they have real good chance of winning the case based on current labor laws. He stated that it does not matter that some people may think this lawsuit is ridiculous, because the laws are build in a way that supports their claims. “The trial court judge will read the complaint and will apply the law. It is a settled law and we are confident that our clients will get paid for their labors.”

Our CEO, Pierre Zarokian, has written a more detailed article for  Search Engine Watch .

Recently Yelp held a town hall meeting and invited a few business owners to attend so they can discuss their programs and answer any questions about Yelp Advertising services. However, the meeting backfired and turned out to be a complaint forum from pissed up businesses.  The audience got aggressive with their questions and complaints on how their legit reviews get filtered. However, Yelp only wanted to discuss the benefits of their advertising services.

LA Times was there to cover the story. Read more details here.

Ever since L.A. County began to require public publishing of restaurant grades, the playing field has been incredibly leveled. A-rated restaurants as well as those with C’s had to bear all to public scrutiny, affecting business practices in the food industry greatly. Studies by Stanford and the University of Maryland calculated that customers rewarded eateries with 5% more revenue after the shift in practice, and those who failed to deliver a healthy environment dropped earnings by more than 20%. This kind of immediate response to consumer demand is what pushed New York City to do the same thing in 2010, although studies didn’t produce the same results.

Experts say that online reviews including Google and Yelp allow us to make informed choices before we eat at a restaurant. We no longer rely on health inspectors for information when quick access to fellow impartial foodies is all we need to determine where we want to eat. We can now easily hop on the internet and decide within a few seconds whether or not we want to eat at a particular place. We know that other customers are going to be honest about their experiences so we can trust them.

Other counties are starting to follow suit, as San Francisco has been publishing health inspections online since 2007. Apps like ABCEats in New York City make information instantly public. But government organizations are already using bad reviews to actually find unsanitary conditions before even entering the facility, giving restaurants less time to prepare for inspection. While researchers are developing algorithms to find subtle hints of fake reviews, reputation management may be needed for those who have been wrongly attacked.

If you have bad reviews on Yelp and need help with Yelp Review Removals or increasing your positive reviews, please visit our Yelp Review Removal page.

Yelp is under attack again, and it’s the same old story. The social review site was recently featured in the Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times regarding a claim that it manipulates reviews and ratings to favor advertisers or punish non-advertisers.

In an effort to clear Yelp’s reputation, Vince Sollitto, Yelp’s vice president of communications and public affairs, wrote in a company blog post, “ Let me be clear: This claim is not – and has never been – true.”

However, many business owners continue to say otherwise. The problem? Good reviews are often filtered while negative reviews are posted in plain sight for the online world to see. The Los Angeles Times reported that many business owners are upset, concerned, or just plain confused about Yelp’s review filter. According to companies that have filed lawsuits against Yelp, sales agents have offered to fix the issue as long as they paid for advertising on the site.

Nevertheless, Yelp continues to deny these claims. According to the blog, there are three reasons why this claim is not true: 1) Independent research by Harvard Business School and Yale professors has not found a connection between advertising and Yelp’s filter system. 2) The courts continue to dismiss the claims. 3) A Google search reveals that a simple Google search reveals that there are plenty of non-advertisers with four and five-star ratings.

While Yelp has received a lot of criticism for its filters, it has also been a blessing to many businesses. A Harvard Business School study conducted in 2011 on the impact of consumer reviews on the restaurant industry found that a “one-star increase in Yelp rating leads to a 5-9 percent increase in revenue.” The study also found that customers prefer ratings with a higher number of reviews and whether the reviews are written by “elite” reviewers.

If you need help with Yelp reputation management, please visit our Yelp Review Removal page.

So, the service you received from a local business was terrible and you’re eager to voice your opinion; just make sure you’re telling the truth before you go posting a bad review on Yelp or Angie’s List. That’s because you could get sued. NPR reported on December 9 that a housing contractor sued a former customer for a negative review about his company on Yelp.

According to NPR, Christopher Dietz, owner of Dietz Development LLC, sued Jane Perez for $750,000 in defamation charges for her reviews of his business on Yelp. She wrote that his company damaged her home, and that jewelry was missing after they left. After taking her to court, the judge took his side and ordered her to remove certain parts of the reviews.

Online customer review sites are fairly new, which is why these types of cases are uncommon, Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman told NPR News. According to Goldman, laws are still being created about how to deal with these issues, and there is nothing today that supports lawsuits for one, negative review.

So how damaging is a negative review on sites such as Yelp or Angie’s list? According to a Harvard Study in 2011, a one-star increase on Yelp turns into a 5 to 9 percent raise in income. So you could image was a one-star decrease could do. According to the article, this is why so many businesses are so adamant about protecting their online reputation.

Even though sites such as Yelp allow negative reviews, the information that we write on these sites could be used against us. Does that mean we should avoid writing negative reviews? According to the article, not necessarily. As long as the review is not untrue, defamatory, or libelous, the writer should be safe.