Exposing Filtered Reviews on Yelp
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Categories Outsmarting Yelp
Want to get your Yelp visitors to see all your reviews? Inspire them to go look at your filtered reviews by putting this graphic up on your business page!
You want to put this on your Yelp Business Page? Simply right-click on the photo, then click save-as, and select where you want to save it on your hard drive. It’s that easy! With my compliments!
Do you want to learn the latest techniques to get your business seen in the best light? Then you want to join the Reputation Builder Challenge!
That will really help my small business! I got hide about 10 5 star reviews!
I've posted it on Yelp, but you can't see the graphic well unless you click on it to enlarge it. So, I also added some text in the About This Business section:
Please note that Yelp filters out real reviews. We've had positive reviews by real clients that have been filtered. You can view these reviews by looking for the link to filtered reviews below the bottom review and just above the About This Business heading.
Ambrose – you don't put that graphic on your business listing at Yelp — you post it on your OWN persona website!
It serves to instruct people to click on ## Filtered once they are ON Yelp in order to see all the reviews.
Oh yes, DO put that graphic in your photos on your Yelp review so that random visitors will also know to find out more about you there!
I added 2 photos, checked the box for storefront. The pictures are about 5×5 pics. You have to click on them to enlarge but they are so small as not to be seen. Anyway to enlarge them?
Ashley you are a genius! I love that you made a standard graphic that we can all use. I hope your graphic gets as famous as the hideous yelp logo. lol. you rock!!!!
Well it may change a bit! I have to compliment you on the idea! Sheer genius on your part! I've been trading emails with Yelp's Senior Litigation Counsel, a lovely gentleman who keeps asking me to take it down. I've already altered it to remove their logo. We'll see how they respond to my direct question to precisely what they want changed.
I know these sites don't like anyone using their trademarks, but the concept of using this graphic shouldn't really be a problem for them. They do have a link to those reviews–to their credit, I grudgingly suppose. Thanks for the idea…not sure how I will implement it…have a great day. 🙂
Yelp have filtered ALL my positive reviews and only left the ONE NEGATIVE one.
A positive one poped up there last week and this week it is suddenly gone, transferred into the FILTERED review.
So I have 6 POSITIVE and 2 negative.
I posted a reply to the one negative so the text of the reply is right above the (7 Filtered) text and my text reads:
Click on the (7 Filtered) link below to see ALL the reviews….
We have recently been ambushed by Yelp's arbitrary "Big Brother" filter. We had 1 star since 2009 from someone who was unhappy with a quote (never mind her lack of truthful details in her review.) Because Yelp's glowing 1-star review comes up as the 2nd listing on the SERP when researching our business name we have finally been giving this attention. We are small, but a 5-star company on several sites and A+ on the BBB so obviously YELP is inconsistent though, unfortunately, the most "authoritative" because of the Google SERP. It's been hurting our business. Recently we've had several 5-star reviews come in and another 1-star (problem fixed and he's supposed to remove it.) Yelp filtered out 2 of the great reviews and 1 "disappeared". After emailing Yelp they put my reviews back up. Another 5 star review came in this past Friday (a glowing review) and was filtered out by Sunday along with one of the other reviews that was "unfiltered" last week. Our star average has been 1-star, 2 1/2 stars, 3 1/2 stars, 4 stars, 2 1/2 stars, 3 1/2 stars, 2 1/2 stars over a period of 2 1/2 weeks. This is ridiculous. I'm irritated that they can't trust consumers to be intelligent enough and I would be content in ignoring them if their star rating wasn't showing under our name when someone googles us. This is unfair and absolutely not consistent with our reputation and what reviews on other sites show. It has hurt our business greatly with attracting new customers. Our current success is mostly attibutable to our repeat customers and word of mouth. I am now forced to invest money in a reputation managment company ONLY because of Yelp's arbitrary filtering and no other reason. I am terribly disappointed that our judicial system supported Yelp in the Class Action Law Suit.
I cannot agree more with all the victimized folks here. I was looking at the reviews of a small vet clinic that I took my dog to recently in el sobrante. Boy oh boy, yelp made him look so bad. I have been there personally
and the reviews were just venom spewed, probably some disgruntled employee. I would have never gone there if I had read the review. This is not fair. I am never going to believe yelp again.
Postscript to my previous post. They filtered out all the good reviews and put the link to filtered reviews at the bottom of the page in grey where you can hardy see it.and you have to pass their screen shot test to read those.
more work for seniors like me.So unfair
Thanks for the tip
I added the graphic to my Yelp page, but it is tiny.
Not sure if I want to compromise my logo size on the first photo.
I have 7 positive reviews that are filtered out.
Any suggestions on how to get the size of this image larger on the yelp page?
Thanks
AS
I am not a business owner, just a consumer. I was posting comments on Yelp about my experience at restaurants, shops and retail stores. Some were favorable and others less so but always my true experience. When I noticed that some remained posted and others were filtered, I contacted one of the businesses. All of you business owners on this site are correct, good ones stay if you pay.
I naively thought my experience might be helpful to others, but now I know that Iwas just being used by Yelp to extort money.
What has this country come too. I hope that I will be able to delete all of my posts and I will certainly never add another one
Yelp is a big scam that at some point I wish will be brought down by a huge glass action law suit.
It's so called "algorithm" which supposed to be in charge of which reviews will be published and not is corrupt and full of bugs.
Every time I complained to Yelp about its filter in a harsh email someone from Yelp called me within hours offering a marketing campaign. It's very suspicious. Yelp will never confirm the relation between the two events.
We are a small business int the town of Starbuck, WA, population 120. Our primary demographic view is that of passerby's, tourist, fisherman and campers. When I heard of Yelp I was thrilled to see my business was being rated so well, and then it happened "THE FILTER"… At first I could understand them not wanting to post bias reviews, but mine were all legit. I sent them an email about my concerns and I never heard back… Their incredibly, ridiculous, filtering system hid all of my good reviews save but one… A disgruntled Ex-Employee posting under an alias. I am infuriated with their uncouth business practices. They have hurt my business, steered away potential customers and have undermined our ability to grow. We have only been open for a year and a half; new customers are a must in order for us to survive this coming winter. Yelp is a bull$&*t company and should be banned from the internet. They are no-less then an unreliable source for information.
Yelp would not talk to me about a lie/scam review., just said "oh well, guess you should try harder". Which then Yelp responded my taking my rebuttal off. I posted the graphic about filtered reviews.
Now I have no reviews, bet they come back by morning in retaliation for this post.
Thanks for creating this graphic!!!!!!!!
Let's see if they leave it up.
Yelp block me completely from changing any information , I can't add or change anything…
Can they do it legally?
yes… i find yelp to be cyber mafia… and they call me to encourage me to better my profile by advertising with yelp…. I would love to have a lawsuit against them…… join me…. they are evil wicked demons.
Have you seen the pictures on Yelp's listing on Yelp? Just saw a few, pictures of employees you can tell they were hand picked, I don't think normal good people would want to work for Yelp! There is one picture of this "Yelps Rules" wrote in the sands! This alone shows the mind set of these inhuman people! They believe they have they are ruling our lives! They are aware of destroying lives and they are proud of it! Hoe creepy is that!
People in over seas pull down dictators by putting their lives on the line, why can't we have a organized demonstration to bring light and attention to this?
Do you have a graphic that shows how to post the graphic on your photos on your website? I'm not understanding clearly what you mean there. Thanks!
where is that standard graphic? can you point me to it? thanks!
I had to take it down. But it did afford me the pleasure speaking with Yelp's attorney for a few hours. He's awesome. And we made some big headway. 🙂
I just sent Yelp a comment in response to why I was cancelling my advertising. In it, I said that "since Yelp is directing traffic away from my business by hiding reviews, I will now be directing traffic away from you" by specifically telling my clients who wish to leave me a review, to do it on Google+ or Facebook, NOT Yelp. Fair is fair. I suggest everyone send them the same comment!
I have given up on the site. I have 32 reviews on there, a variety of review ratings, they recently disappeared and were filtered – all but one of them. I even posted my picture, have gotten comments and kudos, and still, now yelp is filtering all of them. I'm disgusted. I am also convinced some businesses and charities pay money to the site to make reviews go away.
Placing the graphic lasted about three weeks. Then Yelp removed it stating I am violation their terms…. "Sieg Heil Yelp"
Adryenn – Thank you for posting this blog post. Sadly Yelp's arguably unethical and heavy handed business practices have both permantly and negatively impacted Yelp's business reputation, and seriously hurt small businesses.
Ambrose's suggestion to post words to the effect:
"Please note that Yelp filters out real reviews. We’ve had positive reviews by real clients that have been filtered. You can view these reviews by looking for the link to filtered reviews below the bottom review and just above the About This Business heading."
…is a good move if Yelp doesn't edit out/delete the wording.
Good idea Ray. I have a drafting business and most of my customers are older 50+ working class homeowners that are unfamiliar with computers & yelp. I request that they give me a positive review if they are happy. The ones that take the time to write a review are usually first timers to Yelp, thus I believe the reason their reviews are filtered. So in a nutshell, I drive & familiarize new older customers to Yelp and in return my my efforts are for nothing as their reviews are filtered.
I made a similar note in my business description. Shortly thereafter I received an email from yelp saying they deleted that section since it violated their policy. Specifically, you are NOT ALLOWED to mention the filtered review section. Apparently, they don't want anyone knowing what they do!
Can someone please answer these 2 questions about yelp for me?
1- How come yelp does not have an independent panel of software engineers (a third party that is completely unbiased) verify that their filtering "algorithm" is truly unbiased? If there's nothing to hide, then I think this shouldn't be a problem.
2- why do they hide the filtered reviews tab on the bottom of the page, and not on top, next to the other menu choices? And why the captcha code? What purpose does this serve?
Thank you in advance.
I have been working at a spa for over two years and I love my job and my coworkers. I have never had any good or bad reviews on Yelp concerning my service. Recently I received a very long bad review. I think I will be fired because of this review and have started cleaning out my locker and looking for another job. I am a licensed massage therapist and have only had glowing verbal reviews from my customers. Also the woman who gave me the bad review gave me a 20 per cent tip.
Hello,
Yelp is hurting us too. My wife and I run a small consignment shop in Firestone, Colorado.. We have two bad reviews (unfiltered) and twenty-eight good reviews all filtered. Yelp is just BAD news.
Anyway, I came up with this "Picture" and have placed it on our Yelp page as our "Store Front" picture. I'm sure they'll rip it down but feel free to use it as yours too:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=424694228…
Why do Yelp make it so hard to read filtered reviews?
I can't figure out why Yelp made it almost impossible to read a companys filtered reviews. It's like they don't wan't me to know that they have filtered out reviews.
Is there more reasons too it than avoid robots crawling the filtered reviews?
yes they are assholes and control everything, you just have make a new account and add your business.
I have the same problem as everyone else they filtered all my reviews. They call me every month to advertise with them for $200 a month.
I posted this on my page and yelp deleted it and also "Locked" me from changing it! So, I wrote in the business description to view our filtered reviews because Yelp if removing you reviews and Yelp then deleted ALL my business info and "Locked" me from it. I also got an email saying "Yelp may take action on your Business Owner's account which could include suspending access to your listing." What does this mean? There going to lock my page so I can tell the truth. Interesting.
Hi, just need some help as to where to place the icon for people to review my positive reviews? It says to "put it on my Yelp business page"? Can someone share a link to their site so I can see what you're talking about? Much thanks! Also, I've recently learned that you can offer check-in offers whereby you give someone a discount or freebie to come and review your business. If this person is a regular reviewer on Yelp they may have a higher standing and their review will be posted? Maybe?? Fingers crossed.
We have the same problem with this filter and yelp is getting sued now for this.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericgoldman/2013/02/0…
Unfortunately the attorney's didn't talk to me first and used the wrong tactics and the plaintiff will likely now have to pay Yelp's legal costs. The only way the filter is protected is if it does what it says and they didn't attack that. They attacked the way the filter is marketed. The only legal marketing language that can be attacked is "real people. real reviews" because there is no foundation or basis for making that claim nor do they verify. That is a solid statement that cannot be claimed to be puffery, which was why they failed in court in this case. As for the filter, showing that it is tied to the advertising will require every day screen captures and documentation of the phone calls, recording if you can do it legally in your state (except Yelp is in CA which is a two party state so you'll need speaker phone and multiple witnesses) and showing a direct correlation of cause and effect.
um… isnt it the intention of the author that yall print out a copy of her sign and post it on your front door and/or at your cash register(s) ? yHellp cant touch it there?
We also have 8 filtered reviews. I was contacted by yelp shortly after most of them started to be filtered. They told me they couldn't bring them out of being filtered, but sold me on the idea of driving more traffic to my yelp ad.
$550 a month, 1100 impressions.. So far I have had 726 impressions, 7 clicks to my yelp profile, only 3 clicks from my yelp profile to my page, 2 of which bounced, one solid lead which didn't convert. So I'm paying like $92 per lead.. I should have just dumped money more in Google Adwords.
YELP. They are with the liars, unemployed & people who do not want to pay. THESE ARE ALL THE PEOPLE WE HAD REVIEWS ABOUT MY COMPANY. and we can't give our version of the story. WE ARE LOSING BUSINESS BECAUSE OF THESE SCUMBAGS. Carl
There is a an organization of sophisticated hackers (they're anonymous) out there who support small businesses and hate corrupt big business. They've hacked VISA, the Feds, etc. I think they should focus their frustration on YELP! Wouldn't we all be glad?
And who are they, LOL. I'm sure they'd get a lot of biz from peeps dissatisfied with Yelp.
I had an experience as a consumer where 30% of a veterinarian's reviews were filtered and they were all 1 STAR in 2013. I had no idea, brought my dog there and they killed her! All of these 1 STAR reviews warned people not to go there and they HID them. I still cannot believe YELP would hide perfectly honest and legitimate reviews attempting to warn the public. Class Action Lawsuits are in order. Small businesses are one thing but when you start affecting the public's health & safety that takes it to a whole new level. When I tried to post my 1 STAR rated they deleted some and filtered others. Unbelievable !
Same thing happened to me!
I think its a sham as well. Some sites have recommendations as to how to get your reviews posted ( profile picture, number of reviews, number of friends…) Yet, I have seen many recommended reviews by users with no profile photo and only 1-2 reviews. But none of my 8 reviews have been listed, all are not recommended. Some of mine have been one-star, others 4 or 5. I just use Google Reviews anymore. At least you don't have to type in a code to see the filtered reviews now. I can read some recommended reviews and know they are BS from a friend. a full page review about how fantastic and out of this world best pizza… blah blah blah… Click on that profile, search those friends, and viola, one of those friends is the business owner.
I too am very disappointed with Yelp filtering system, but just because the business owner is a friend with the person who wrote the review, doesn't mean the review is not legitimate! I personally send a friend request to each one of my clients who writes a review for my business.
I have 67 comments from patients who responded because i was so upset about the threats and lies that one patient posted about me. Sadly I had turned her into children services and she decided to get back at me on yelp. I pointed it out and it 100% violates their terms of service. SHOCK SHOCK.. they ignore me.
Funny. I could have 50 nasty comments and every one will show up. People don't want me to quick taking care of sick children so they try to encourage me. Yelps hides their opinions. To say this is censorship is way to nice. The good news is now over 60 people plus all their friends and relatives have seen the scam/sham that yelp really is. They changed the name from filter to not recommended. Really?
I agree, Yelp needs to be stopped. When I flagged a review and told them it was false, they locked me out of my account without even a response. Has anyone tried one of the companies who claim to get bad reviews off? If they can its worth the money….
Just amazed. We got this little review the other day: http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-queen-marys-dark-harb…
I flagged it due to its horrendous language as Children see this. And YELP said they have strong language tolerance. Why even allow the ability to flag a review for offensive language if this is not viewed offensive in their minds?
#amazing #yelpsucks