It has been revealed that Yelp had received over 2,000 complaints filed with the FTC. Of these complaints, some allege that Yelp goes so far as to push positive reviews into its filter until businesses pay up. This has smaller companies wondering if Yelp is even worth the hassle anymore. Yelp doesn’t ask permission to list a business, and seems to lobby businesses aggressively to pay for things like pushing competitors down in rank.
Yelp is supposed to be one of the only destinations on the Web for an honest review. It was once a place where consumers honestly and thoughtfully discussed their experiences as customers. It used to be a helpful service, but these new allegations shed a darker light on some of their practices.
Is Yelp’s star system of reviews really effective at showing the true face of a business? Are there users running around and leaving faked reviews on websites, and should Yelp take more aggressive steps to find and filter these users?
The CEO of our company, Pierre Zarokian, discusses this recent development in the world of Yelp reputation management on Search Engine Journal.