To Yelp? Or Not To Yelp?

For Consumers:

Yelp can be a great resource for finding contractors, restaurants, hotels, etc.
But as a consumer, you must be resourceful and not only rely on Yelp for reviews. You should dig further into other sources for reviews such as facebook, Google, Trip Advisor, Angie's List, etc.

Did you know that Yelp hides most of the businesses' good reviews from consumers?

Yelp doesn't display all reviews regardless of whether or not they're 1-star or 5-star reviews.
However, most of the businesses' reviews that Yelp hides from consumers are good reviews (this has been my experience).

Before you decide on a contractor, restaurant, hotel, etc. You should take a look at the reviews "Not Recommended by Yelp". There's a gray small link on the business profile titled "other reviews that are not currently recommended". Look for it, and read the actual reviews for that business. You'd be surprised to see what Yelp is hiding from you.

For Businesses:

Did you know that Yelp has a software in place that uses its own algorithm to choose what reviews get posted on your profile? ...so they say.

I've been doing a lot of research on this, reading other businesses' complaints, comments, and reviews about Yelp.

Yelp has also been successfully sued by a company in Virginia because according to their policy, they do not remove any reviews period. So, competitors can leave a bad review (which they do), as well as people that simply don't like you.

Yelp doesn't care about destroying a business reputation. All they care about is money.

Based on my own personal experience, I've had all of my reviews (with the exception of one 5-star and one 1-star) hidden from view and sent to the "other reviews that are not currently recommended" list within my profile.

These unsolicited reviews are from legitimate clients that have hired me in the past. Yet, when I called Yelp to complain, my good reviews disappeared, and they pushed their advertising packages on me. They wanted me to pay $700 a month. When I declined, that's when my good reviews disappeared.
From that day on, whenever I get a good review, it automatically disappears within three days.

So, my only advice for new businesses out there is... DO NOT claim your Yelp business listing. If you do, they'll own you, and they can do whatever they want with your profile's reviews. Even ruin your business.