With nearly 30 million reviews and 70 million monthly visitors – Yelp is, for many small businesses, one of the most important sites affecting their social success. That’s a big claim and while there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that your Yelp review leads to more business, can it really be proved?
Yes!
A recent study from UC Berkeley illustrated a distinct correlation of business success based on the difference of just a ½ start rating on Yelp!
Focused on restaurant availability there was a 20% swing in available seating between establishments with 4 stars vs. 3.5 stars. The Yelp Study by Cal Professor Michal Anderson used statistical regression discontinuity to measure the effect of the star ratings and estimated about $1,000 weekly profit impact for the average local restaurant in review.
Sure, there are many variables at work such as overall restaurant size that could impact results; however , with over 400 locations reviewed – this is a pretty strong directional guidance illustrating the importance of Yelp on helping a business succeed.
There’s a lot of Social Platforms out there and it is important to prioritize which ones make the most sense for your business or organization. For a retail establishment in any sector, Yelp ranks high along with Google Plus as a key place to focus. And now with data driven empirical evidence proving the impact of the site, taking some time to get the most out of Yelp makes a lot of sense.
