Top 21 facts: why don't some businesses show up in Yelp search results?

Top 21 facts: why don’t some businesses show up in Yelp search results?

The #1 reason businesses don’t show up in the search results is because they haven’t yet been added to Yelp’s database. Based on your excellent question details, we know that is not the case here.

Others have said it’s because the business hasn’t been claimed yet. That’s kind of true.

Business owners claim their business all the time, and one of the first things they do is clean up all their data. The reason I said kind of is because I’m a Yelp Elite, and I also clean up business data all the time.

Two especially important areas are business hours and Yelp Categories. Here are a couple of related examples.

You’re dying for a pizza for lunch, so you use pizza as a search term and filter for “Open now.” The hours for one pizza place are incorrect, and the show closed at lunchtime. Whoops, it won’t show in your very common search results.
Let’s talk Yelp Categories. This poor pizza place has screwed up hours, and their Yelp Category is Restaurant Italian. Nothing about Pizza. This is huge! You may say, “But won’t the search engine pick up “pizza” from the great reviews?” Maybe yes, but maybe no. Do you know how easy it is to write a great review of a pizza joint without using the word pizza? It’s very easy to use the word pie. Whoops, now you have a great pizza joint with screwed-up hours and very few instances of pizza as a search term. Not good!

Some of the SEO marketing folks will say it’s more complicated than that, and it is. But if you are a business owner, the examples are great illustrations of how important it is to

Clean up your data
Understand how Yelp works.

So it’s very possible that something like this was at the heart of your search result.

Why don’t some businesses show up in Yelp search results?

With its enormous database and user-generated ratings, Yelp has established itself as a go-to resource for customers looking for local companies. But occasionally, a company that you anticipated seeing on Yelp needs to show up in the search results. This blog explores the variables that can affect whether or not companies appear in Yelp search results in an effort to shed insight on the likely causes of this phenomenon.

Inaccurate or incomplete business profiles are a frequent cause of a company’s failure to show up in Yelp search results. It becomes difficult for Yelp’s algorithms to appropriately categorize and index a company when it doesn’t offer enough information or forgets to update its profile. The likelihood that your company will appear in Yelp search results rises if your business profile is thorough, accurate, and current.
Lack of Yelp reviews: Yelp mainly relies on user reviews to rank and assess businesses. A company may not appear high in search results if it has few or no reviews on Yelp. Yelp’s algorithms give businesses with a large number of reviews and good ratings priority because people regard them as more dependable and relevant. Yelp reviews greatly increase your company’s exposure and probability of turning up in search results by enticing customers to post reviews.
Yelp standards and guidelines are quite tight, and companies are expected to abide by them. Businesses that violate these rules, such as by posting phony reviews, changing ratings, or participating in other unethical behavior, risk being punished or even removed from Yelp’s search results. To guarantee their position on Yelp, companies must uphold moral standards and follow the platform’s rules.
Limited Yelp Advertising: Yelp gives companies the opportunity to advertise in order to increase their visibility and rank well in search results. Businesses that elect to refrain from spending money on Yelp advertising may find that they rank lower in search results than their rivals who have chosen paid advertising. Advertising can boost the probability of showing up in search results and getting noticed by more people, even if it cannot guarantee visibility.
Geographic and Category Filters: Yelp search results are affected by user-defined categories and geographic location. Businesses that do not fit the criteria may not appear in the results if a user includes a specific area or category in their search query. Your business’s visibility in Yelp search results may be increased by making sure it is appropriately listed and properly classified.
Yelp uses a sophisticated algorithm to decide where searches should appear in the results list. Although the algorithm’s exact workings are proprietary and not made public, it is known that it considers a number of variables, including the business’s relevance to the user’s search query, its overall rating and review count, the quantity and caliber of recent reviews, and the engagement and activity on its Yelp page. A company could only rank well in search results if it closely matched certain algorithmic variables.
Businesses that are new or have yet to claim their Yelp pages may experience difficulties showing up in search results. To guarantee the integrity of the companies featured on its site, Yelp relies on reliable information and verification. Businesses that are less established or that have yet to go through the verification procedure might not be as visible as those that have. Your business’s chances of showing up in search results might be increased by claiming and validating it on Yelp.
Technical Problems or Glitches: On occasion, Yelp’s system may have technical problems or glitches that temporarily remove companies from search results. The technical team at Yelp can temporarily fix these problems. Contacting Yelp’s support team to look into any possible technical difficulties may be helpful if you feel that your company should be showing up in the search results but needs to be added.
Geographical variation: Depending on geographical circumstances, Yelp’s search results may also change. Depending on user activity, competition, and other local considerations, the availability and popularity of companies on Yelp might vary from one place to another. When evaluating your company’s visibility in Yelp search results, it’s crucial to take local dynamics into account.

While Yelp offers companies a useful platform for increasing visibility and luring visitors, a number of factors might affect whether a business shows up in Yelp search results. Companies may not appear in Yelp search results for a variety of reasons, including incomplete profiles, a lack of reviews, policy violations, restricted advertising, algorithmic variables, unclaimed companies, technological difficulties, and regional differences. You can increase your company’s chances of being prominently displayed in Yelp search results and reaching a larger audience by actively managing your Yelp profile, interacting with clients to collect reviews, adhering to rules, thinking about advertising options, and taking care of technical issues as soon as they arise.

Why does Google allow Yelp to rank so highly in search?

Google’s job as a search engine is to present the most relevant answers to their users’ queries. Their algorithm, something they’ve worked on since the beginning and are constantly improving upon, determines those that are the most relevant without any preferential treatment or weighting based on who ends up in those results.

Outside of some very specific circumstances, Google has very little say in the matter when it comes to who shows up at the top of results based on its algorithm.

Yelp does a great job at making itself the most relevant. It provides lots of specific content about businesses; it builds its site properly; therefore, other sites gladly link to their site, sometimes even the business they are promoting.

Basically, Yelp markets itself well, and Google loves that in a site.

As far as “allowing” them to do it, as if Yelp is doing something wrong by existing in the first place, stealing business from Google itself, or misrepresenting the businesses it represents, why would it not? If Google decided to start changing results to make themselves more money rather than creating the best product possible, they would lose customers fast.

Users want answers to their questions, and they will use whatever sites properly answer those questions, no matter if it is Google, Yelp, or the business’s site.

Good luck. Be awesome.

How does Yelp search work?

Originally Answered: How does Yelp search work?

I Have done some brief research previously. Here are my findings:

On Yelp, The restaurants are not ranked on the basis of ratings and # of reviews alone. As can be seen from the search results, when we search “restaurants” at”95 Morton Street, New York”, we get these results, which are not based entirely on ratings or the number of reviews.

Key Findings:

1. The businesses that don’t have any reviews are ranked below those that do have them.

2. When a Yelp search is made, if the restaurant’s category matches it, the restaurant is immediately ranked higher for that search. For Example, Searching for a “Sushi bar” will first return to restaurants that have “sushi bar” as a category.

3. For a more generic search (Which Yelp Platform might not find in the categories), Yelp looks at the keyword search parameters and ranks restaurants by the “elite members” reviews. ( Yelp Platform assigns “elite” rankings to some reviewers. These people’s reviews must add some firepower to the restaurant’s ranking.) For Example, a search for “Chocolate Shake” on the Yelp platform will return restaurants having the most positive “chocolate shake” reviews, in turn, ranked by if the reviews are by the most trusted elite reviewers.

4. Title Important: A well-mentioned name will help a business improve its ranking on Yelp. For Example, If a person searches for Chicken BBQ, then a place named “XYZ Chicken BBQ will be ranked higher” than a place named “XYZ.”

5. Completed Yelp profiles are ranked better in general.

6. Location: When we searched for ”Restaurants” near “95 Morton Place,” we found out that all the restaurants were in a 0.2-mile radius of the place. While the location aspect is difficult to crack, a logical interpretation would be that Yelp first selects all the restaurants that are within a 0.2-mile radius of “95 Morton Place” (which is our set address) and then works its algorithm.

While Yelp does not reveal the basic algorithm and factors that go into the review, these findings might provide an educated guess.

From The Yelp Site: “Yelp’s search results are based on an algorithm that is designed to provide the best results based on a number of different factors including review text, ratings, and number of reviews. We are constantly working on improving our search results so that we can deliver the most relevant local results to our users.”

About the second question – The ice cream category, Yelp has a very good NER applied to the site, which allows it to extract the named entity “ice cream” from the number of reviews for a particular restaurant. It then ranks the restaurant according to the sentiment analysis related to the NER keyword.

How long does it take Yelp to add a business listing to its search results once it is created?

It’s pretty quick, but keep in mind that we reject listings that don’t make sense for Yelp (e.g., B2B businesses, certain online-only businesses, illegal businesses, etc…….).

Sometimes, these decisions are harder than they sound, and we inevitably make mistakes from time to time, too. Either way, I doubt the problem is a delay in the process.

Feel free to let me know what your business is so we can look into it.

How many reviews does a business need on Yelp to show up in search results?

The exact number of reviews a business needs on Yelp to show up in search results can vary depending on various factors such as location, industry, and competition. Yelp’s algorithm considers a combination of factors beyond just the number of reviews, including the quality, recency, and engagement of those reviews.

Having a substantial number of positive reviews can improve a business’s visibility in search results on Yelp. However, Yelp doesn’t disclose a specific threshold number of reviews required for businesses to appear in search results.

How does Yelp rank the search results?

According to this article, Yelp Ranking Factors

Major factors (I’m 99% sure Yelp takes these into account):

1. Existence of reviews. Almost all of the businesses that have reviews rank above the businesses that do not have any reviews. Think of it as a poker game with an ante of one review. If you don’t get that one review, you’re not even at the table.

2. Keyword relevance of reviews. Spammers and scammers know about this, too, but Yelp’s filters do a pretty good job of weeding out the bad apples.

3. Business categories specified.

4. Name of business. This is something you can’t control on Yelp. But if you have a relevantly phrased business name, that will work in your favor.

5. Number of reviews.

6. Reviews by “Elite” members. These people are the wizened, weathered village elders. Their words seem to carry extra heft.

7. Check-ins via smartphone. These are going to be even more important once Apple Maps rolls into town.

8. Quality of reviews. Are they 1-star or 5-star? This doesn’t seem to be as big a factor as you might think, but it does seem to be a factor.

Why does Yelp have better results than Google when searching for local businesses?

Yelp and Google use different algorithms and data sources to generate their search results for local businesses. While Yelp focuses exclusively on business listings and reviews, Google incorporates a wider range of data, including user reviews, business information from various sources, and personalized data based on the user’s search history and location.

The perceived superiority of Yelp’s results over Google’s may vary depending on individual experiences and preferences. Yelp has traditionally been known for its strong focus on user-generated reviews and ratings, which some people find valuable for assessing local businesses. Yelp also emphasizes the quality and authenticity of its reviews by implementing strict guidelines and review filtering algorithms.

On the other hand, Google’s search results provide a broader scope of information beyond reviews, such as business hours, contact details, website links, and additional data from authoritative sources. Google’s search algorithms consider various factors, including relevance, proximity, and prominence, to deliver personalized and location-specific results.

Ultimately, the perceived superiority of Yelp or Google’s results can be subjective and dependent on specific search queries and user preferences. It is advisable to use both platforms and consider multiple sources of information when searching for local businesses.

How does Yelp affect Google search ranking?

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Yelp is a popular review website that allows users to rate and review local businesses. While Yelp itself does not directly affect Google search rankings, there are a few ways in which it can indirectly impact them.

Firstly, businesses with high ratings and positive reviews on Yelp are more likely to have their business information featured prominently in Google search results. This can include the business’s name, address, phone number, and hours of operation.

Secondly, Google may use information from Yelp to help determine the relevance and authority of a business’s website. Having a strong presence on Yelp can potentially improve a business’s search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.

Lastly, Yelp reviews and ratings can influence consumer behavior, which can, in turn, impact a business’s search rankings. Businesses with high ratings and positive reviews are more likely to attract customers, which can result in more clicks, shares, and links to their websites – all of which are factors that Google considers when ranking websites.

In summary, while Yelp does not directly affect Google search rankings, there are several ways in which it can indirectly impact them, including:

Providing business information for inclusion in Google search results
Contributing to a business’s overall online authority and relevance
Influencing consumer behavior and resulting in more clicks, shares, and links to a business’s website

Here are three examples of businesses that have successfully used Yelp to improve their search rankings:

A local restaurant with a high rating and positive reviews on Yelp has seen an increase in traffic to its website, which has resulted in improved search rankings and more business.
A home services company with a strong Yelp presence has been able to compete with larger companies in their industry and improve their search rankings for local search terms.
A small retail store with a loyal following on Yelp has been able to increase its online visibility and attract new customers through positive reviews and word-of-mouth referrals.

Why doesn’t my new (2-week-old) business show up in Yelp search results?

You may need more content on your business’s Yelp page to improve its SEO. Believe it or not, SEO is not just for Google Search! It can also help your business rank higher on review sites like Yelp, voice assistants like Siri and Alexa, and social media websites.

How can you get your business to appear at the top of Yelp search results for specific keywords?

Thanks for your time cause you are a wise person and try to figure out each and everything manually.

Let’s move to the topic:

Verify /claim your Yelp listings first.
Update/add main category section.
After verification, you will get access to the updated business description. Insert eye catchy and most relevant business description in short.
Add Services Minimum 4–8.
Add geo-tagged business images and give a title with the desired keywords. For example, the best lawyer near Dartford.
Add opening hour’s
Add social media pages.
Must add a clear logo for your business.
Now, ask your existing customers /clients to leave positive reviews and include your targeted keywords in the review section. It will help you most when someone recommends it.
Reply to reviews politely if even it’s negative; there are no options to remove bad reviews from Yelp, so handle it carefully.

In short, you need to optimize perfectly and provide accurate information so that your customers can get help through your business page.

How long will a moved business location show up on a Yelp search?

To Whom It May Concern,

This period varies depending on a couple of factors, but on average, it ranges from 6 months to a year. Yelp will also keep a listing active for a while to determine if the “Permanently Closed” moniker is appropriate, as it could’ve been changed by a nefarious competitor, disgruntled former employee, or angry customer.

Moving also may be farther away than other relocations and may not require the listing to be taken down. For example, if a business grew and took over a neighboring address (123 Main Street, Suite A grew and took over 123 Main Street, Suite B).

If the business in this fictitious example wanted to change its address from Suite A to Suite B but still technically operates out of the same address, then that is a good reason Yelp may not do that.

You can have duplicate listings merged if, for some reason, a new listing was created for Suite B, but that would heavily rely on whether the listing was even claimed in the first place.

I hope this helps!

How easy is it for an average Google employee to see my search history?

They can see your search history, but they need help to know it is ‘your’ history. Let me explain.

Google’s logging systems anonymize and log activities for analytics purposes and sometimes for personalization, but employees need help to map log entries to actual email IDs / PII (Personally identifiable information). To start with, most data analytics engineers still need to get ‘raw access’ to even these logs and can only perform aggregate operations. Even those with raw access can only trace the path associated with a cookie, but again, it is forbidden to associate this with a user ID. Outside the logging systems, Google’s privacy and security teams also make sure that no application maintains such a map in any of their data backends as part of the launch approval processes.

All these, put together, make it virtually impossible for an average Google employee to associate your search history with your ID. They might still be able to see your search events in their weblogs.

Why is Yelp search so bad?

I like Yelp as a product, but I agree with the premise of the question that Yelp search is terrible for anything beyond a basic search, and Yelp search quality feels like it’s decidedly stuck in the late 90’s.

I don’t have any inside knowledge and would love a more authoritative answer from someone at Yelp, but I suspect the reasoning for this is something like this:

The advanced search cases are fragmented
Some of the bad results are still acceptably good ( like non-Chipotle burrito joints ).
The number of power users using the advanced cases could be higher.
Fixing those use cases individually would take a lot
Google search is an acceptable substitute for many of those advanced cases
It’s hard to measure the tangible impact of search quality

Someone on the Yelp team probably decided they would make a small number of people happy for the relative effort involved and decided to stack rank it lower vs. other features that are far more direct and tangible to get right.

How does Google Maps know the name and location of my business despite the fact that I never do any advertisements?

Because Google permits users to upload data.

Specifically, it lets and wants users to give the salient details of a business so it may be incorporated into Google’s algorithms. They want to know where it is, what hours it’s open, and most importantly, what people’s reviews of it are. With that information, they can make suggestions and even guess what people searching for services want.

I have added and removed businesses in my city that otherwise had no web presence or had an out-of-date presence that needed to be updated.

So the short answer is: It’s not you, it’s us. It’s every last Google user who loves to update information on Maps/Earth so other users can have a better view of the world around them.

How do you make your Yelp business page more visible on Google?

Making your Yelp business page more visible on Google involves optimizing your Yelp listing and implementing good SEO practices. Here are some steps you can take to improve the visibility of your Yelp business page on Google:

Claim and Verify Your Business: Ensure you have claimed and verified your business on Yelp. This allows you to control and update the information on your business page.
Complete Your Business Profile: Provide accurate and detailed information about your business. Include your business name, address, phone number, website URL, business hours, and a thorough description of your products or services. Make sure the information matches what’s listed on your website and other online platforms.
Use Relevant Keywords: Incorporate relevant keywords in your business description, categories, and other sections of your Yelp profile. Think about the terms potential customers might use to search for businesses like yours.
Optimize Images: Add high-quality images of your business, products, and services. Use descriptive filenames and captions that include relevant keywords.

Collect Positive Reviews: Encourage satisfied customers to leave positive reviews on your Yelp page. Google takes into consideration the quantity and quality of reviews when ranking search results.
Engage with Customers: Respond to customer reviews, both positive and negative, professionally and courteously. Engagement shows potential customers that you care about their feedback and experience.
Get Backlinks and Citations: Obtain backlinks (links from other websites) and citations (mentions of your business name, address, and phone number) from reputable websites. These signals can improve your business’s online authority and visibility.
Optimize Your Website: Ensure your business’s website is well-optimized for search engines. Use relevant keywords in your website content, meta tags, and headings. Make sure your website is mobile-friendly and loads quickly.
Local SEO: Implement local SEO strategies, such as creating location-based content, optimizing for “near me” searches, and ensuring your business is listed accurately on other local directories.
Use Schema Markup: Implement schema markup on your website to provide search engines with structured data about your business, such as your business type, address, phone number, and opening hours.
Share Content: Share valuable and relevant content on your Yelp page, such as blog posts, news, or updates about your business. This can help attract more visitors and improve engagement.
Monitor and Analyze: Regularly monitor the performance of your Yelp page using Yelp’s analytics tools. Pay attention to how users are finding and interacting with your page. Adjust your strategies based on the data you collect.

Remember that SEO efforts take time to yield results, so be patient and consistent in your optimization efforts. Additionally, Google’s ranking algorithms may change over time, so staying informed about best practices and adapting to algorithm updates is crucial for maintaining your visibility on Google.

Why does Google rank Yelp higher than Google’s business review pages in their searches?

Google doesn’t look at the sites in a way that ranks its own higher.

It ranks all sites the same. It looks at backlinks, content, site reputation, etc., and ranks the URL. If Yelp happens to have a higher number in the calculations, it will rank higher and show earlier than Google itself.

How does Yelp get away with its search result pages getting indexed in Google search?

Those pages are valuable, useful, unique, and highly relevant to the searcher’s intent. At various points, Yelp has had trouble with getting those URLs indexed, but they made changes and upgrades to create pages that are closer to “landing pages” or “category pages” than search results.

I’d argue that pages like Hairdresser Santa Monica, CA, are very close to the best result Google can provide for the query “hairdresser Santa Monica.”

How do local businesses show up in search results?

Local businesses typically rank higher in search results when they are relevant to the query and include high-quality, well-written content. When writing your content, it’s important to focus on providing valuable information that is relevant to your target audience.

The best way to show up in search results will vary depending on your industry and niche. However, some general tips that can help your business rank higher include:

1. Make sure your website is updated and optimized – Keeping your website up to date and optimized for search engines will help you rank higher in relevant searches.

2. Create high-quality content – Including quality, relevant information in your content will help you rank higher in search results.

3. Develop a strong online marketing strategy – Including targeted online marketing tactics such as SEO, pay-per-click (PPC), social media, and email marketing can help increase traffic to your site and boost rankings.

4. Offer valuable products or services – Offering valuable products or services that are hard to find elsewhere can help you rank higher in search results.

5. Use keywords throughout your website – Including keywords throughout your website will help improve the ranking of your site for specific queries.

6. Advertise strategically – Placing ads strategically on websites that match your target audience can help increase traffic to your site and boost rankings.

Here are some tips for writing effective content:

1. Research your target audience – Before you start writing, make sure to do some research on the topic you plan to write about. This will help you create content that is relevant and useful to your target audience.

2. Write for your readers – When you’re writing, think about how your readers would want to read it. Write clearly and concisely, using active verbs and clear language.

3. Use keywords effectively – Make sure to include relevant keywords throughout your content so that Google search engines can find it.

4. Offer helpful resources – In addition to providing valuable content, local businesses can also offer helpful resources such as tutorials, product descriptions, or customer service information.

By following these tips, you’ll be well on your way to ranking higher in local searches!

Is Yelp a search engine?

Yelp search engine, while not a conventional search engine like Google or Bing, functions as a specialized platform for discovering and reviewing local businesses. It is similar to conventional search engines in that it indexes content and provides search results based on user queries.

Yelp’s primary objective is to aggregate user-generated reviews and ratings for local businesses, thereby empowering users to make informed decisions. This specialization distinguishes Yelp from search engines with a broader focus.

Yelp plays a significant role for businesses seeking to enhance their online visibility and reputation in the context of search engine optimization and comprehensive SEO. Optimizing a company’s Yelp profile with accurate information, relevant keywords, and high-quality images can increase its discoverability on Yelp, which may indirectly affect its rankings on other search engines, as Yelp’s reviews and ratings are occasionally displayed within Google’s search results.

How many active business listings has Yelp blocked in their search results?

Hi there! I’m in charge of listing management at Yelp and would like to help out.

To answer the original question: Anonymous Yelp employee is misinformed. There are plenty of listings that need to be revised from Yelp for reasons other than a data problem. Those reasons include, but are not limited to, things like:

Ineligible businesses – we don’t feature other online directories like Facebook or Amazon, lead-generation services, or quasi businesses – like my personal favorite, Weird Guy, selling local eggs next to Whole Foods – Raleigh, NC.
Ineligible non-businesses – Yelpers are a chatty, fun-loving bunch and may create and review things that we don’t want to feature – from ex-boyfriends or ex-girlfriends (both get about 2.5 stars) to Onion jokes like the Abortionplex (I’ll let you find these on your own).

Businesses that are eligible for Yelp are not typically deindexed, though, of course, there’s some margin of error (we may need more contact/location info to feel confident about showing the business to users, for example).

Many listings need to be in search results. With that said, your concerns are specifically about your listing, so I want to address some of the questions there. Your business needs to be fixed, for starters. (Anonymous Yelp employee, feel free to ping me if you want any more info here).

Search is hard, however, and we may not be doing as well as we can with your listing. I’m out of my league speaking to specifics, and with that in mind, I’ve sent a note to our engineering team and asked them to take a look at your page.

Your page has never been deindexed – there’s no way I know of to prove this to you, but you have my word on it. You can prove it is not currently deindexed by looking at the source code. There’s a slight oddity in the URL structure – your listing is currently eddie-h–ernandez-photography – that may be impacting your name-specific search queries; I am not 100% confident about that (and will fix it after posting this). Otherwise, I’ve sent this example to our search team; my Occam’s razor guess is a simple hiccup in indexing.