How To Obtain Genuine Yelp Reviews That Won’t Get Filtered

One of the biggest things that has gotten me a continual stream of new patients is Yelp. When someone else sings your praises, it is so much more effective to make a lasting impression than you singing your own (we all know this)!

I tried advertising on Yelp briefly and I spent more money than I ever got back (actually, I would have spent money but I got free credits to use toward advertising- still not worth my time to actually list my business)!

It makes sense because when I am trying to find a new restaurant or business on yelp, I immediately skip past the top two that have a big yellow “Ad” sign in them, and start looking at the real ones that aren’t forced to the top of the page because they paid for anything.

For example.. I just typed in “Mechanic” in Los Angeles, CA and this is what came up:

Don’t you naturally want to skip past the ad for West Adams Radiator and onto the #1 listed mechanic (Affordable Care of Hollywood)? They don’t even list the “Ad” as #1! It’s just so clearly an ad! Granted, it does get your name out there, but in my opinion it is extremely expensive to advertise on Yelp for the little amount you get back.

Like I’ve talked about before, content marketing is so much more effective than traditional advertising. With every business being right beyond your fingertips through the internet, businesses need to differentiate themselves beyond just advertising to get their name out there.

Content marketing is a whole class in itself though, so back to Yelp.

Yelp can be a little tricky because they filter reviews. As of right now, I have 14 reviews on yelp (that are all completely real), but it looks like I only have eight because six are “filtered.” Yelp has many algorithms that filter reviews they think are from fake accounts or that aren’t useful to the business.

This angered me when I first learned about it. These reviews were GREAT and completely real, and no one could see them! But then I learned there are ways to work with this system.

So, here we go. How to work with Yelp’s algorithms:

1. Log in to your personal account on Yelp (not “Yelp for Business Owners”). If you don’t have one, get one! It’s free and easy. Just sign up using your email address (preferably the same one you have on Facebook.. more on this later).

2. Once you’ve logged in, at the top, there is a button called “Find Friends.” Click.

You’ll get to a page that looks like this:

This is why it’s preferable to use the email address you used when you signed up for Facebook, because now Yelp automatically knows which of your Facebook friends use Yelp.

3. Scroll down to see all your Facebook friends that have written reviews on Yelp. It almost looks like you can’t scroll to find friends, but you can! The number next to the little person icon means that’s how many friends they have on Yelp, and the number next to the star signifies how many reviews they’ve written for various businesses.

Both of these numbers are important for their “standing” in Yelp. The higher the number, the better chance Yelp will not filter their review if they write one for you. If they have a picture on Yelp, that adds major points too.

4. Notice who you’ve given acupuncture to that also has a high review count and preferably a high friend count. On Facebook, these will most likely be friends and relatives. They don’t have to have paid for the treatment, they are still genuinely reviewing your skill as an acupuncturist at your business.

5. If you see people who had great acupuncture experiences with you, ask them for reviews!

On the left-hand side of the screen, there is also a button that says “In Your Email Contacts.” If you click this, you can do the exact same thing using your business email address (you can type this in after you click that link- so it doesn’t have to be the same email address you signed up on Yelp with).

This gives you a great chance of finding multiple people that you’ve given treatments to that also use Yelp. Just look for the high numbers and preferably a picture! If someone has multiple reviews and a picture, there is a great change Yelp’s algorithms won’t flag them as being a fake account, and won’t filter their review on your Yelp page.

I use a simple email to ask for reviews, but you can do it in person too of course. Just make sure if you ask in an email or in person to send them a link to your Yelp business page. Many people will forget unless they have easy access to the link in their inbox.

Make sure to state (in your email or in person) that you are hoping they can review you because you know they’ve had a great experience with acupuncture. Tell them they are under no obligation to if they don’t want to, and then thank them in advance!

This has worked so well for me to build up reviews, and I’m continually checking my friends list for more people I can ask that would give me a genuinely great review.

I hope this works wonders for your business, too.

All the best in an abundance of joyful patients that appreciate you and want to see you succeed,

Laura