Has anyone successfully appealed a long-standing Yelp advertising ban for alleged review manipulation?

I own a local, family-run small business that provides professional services directly to consumers. We have worked hard to build a reputable company, support local employees and their families, and provide dependable, professional service to our customers.

My business first established its Yelp page nearly 20 years ago, in 2006. Today, the page shows approximately 600 recommended reviews and a 2.5-star rating, although roughly 3,000 total reviews have been submitted. Many of the reviews excluded by Yelp’s recommendation software are positive, so the public-facing rating does not reflect our customers’ overall feedback.

For comparison, our business has approximately 6,000 Google reviews and a 4.8-star rating.

Years ago, we advertised heavily with Yelp, at one point spending more than $5,000 per month. The advertising performed well at first, and we also promoted our Yelp page directly to customers by showcasing it as a trusted source of information about our business.

Over time, however, we began losing prospective customers to other Yelp advertisers that were offering discounts. Customers frequently asked whether we would match those offers, so we eventually began providing similar discounts to new customers in order to remain competitive.

After completing the service, we would ask customers to share an honest review of their experience. The discounts were offered to earn the customer’s business—not as payment for reviews—and they were not conditioned on leaving a review or writing anything positive. Nevertheless, Yelp apparently interpreted the combination of customer discounts and subsequent review requests as compensated activity.

We first received a “Compensated Activity Alert,” and Yelp later permanently banned the business from advertising.

Recently, a Yelp advertising representative contacted me and signed the business up for a new advertising campaign. The representative later called back and apologized, explaining that the account was still banned. That interaction made me wonder whether there is any legitimate process for having the matter reviewed again.

I understand why review platforms prohibit paying for reviews, and our current practices are designed to comply with those policies. However, the alleged activity occurred approximately 10 years ago, and the advertising ban appears to be indefinite, with no clear appeal process or opportunity to demonstrate corrective action.

The larger concern is that search engines and AI platforms continue treating Yelp as an authoritative source. As a result, Yelp’s recommended-review rating can materially affect how our business is described online, even though thousands of reviews on Yelp and Google present a very different picture.

For a local, family-run small business, this has a genuine impact. We depend on our reputation to earn the trust of consumers, and it is frustrating to have years of professional service overshadowed by an allegation involving practices from approximately a decade ago.

Has anyone successfully:

– Appealed a permanent Yelp advertising ban?

– Had a Compensated Activity Alert reviewed or removed after several years?

– Reached someone at Yelp with authority beyond regular advertising representatives?

– Corrected an account when Yelp’s recommendation software excluded a substantial number of legitimate reviews?

– Addressed misleading Yelp information appearing in AI-generated search results?

I am not looking to manipulate reviews or evade Yelp’s policies. I am looking for a legitimate way to request a fresh review, document our current practices, and determine whether a local small business can ever move beyond an allegation from approximately 10 years ago.

Any advice from business owners, former Yelp employees, reputation-management professionals, or attorneys familiar with these disputes would be appreciated.