Why Yelp should Seriously Eat S*^&% and Die

[ryan.leslie]

Wrong or not, do you think Google will follow?

They wouldn't put out a notice, they would simply stop showing the content. It would be August 2012 all over again.

 

[craigh]

Google reviews has been difficult for us in the past.
We did a major campaign for 3 dealers, promoting reviews in their service drive.
We ran it for a month and got around 120 reviews on Google for the most successful dealer.

Fast forward 30 days (of not running this campaign) and Google deleted every single one of the reviews.
We opened a ticket with them and they replied that "Unfortunately, the reviews are no longer available in the system".
Apparently they deemed them fraudulent due to the inconsistent frequency and therefore removed them all permanently.

There are no rules for them to play by, so we ended up doubling down on DealerRater and Mobials ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Alexander Lau]

They bring up some good points, it does seem "rigged."
https://www.quora.com/Is-Yelp-rigged

 

[Alexander Lau]

Hoaxer gets his SHED to the top of TripAdvisor's London restaurant rankings
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/50842...p-of-tripadvisors-london-restaurant-rankings/

 

[Brendan Dolan]

That is hysterical!! I personally don't trust reviews any longer myself. There are too many RepMan services across all industries. Friends of mine in software pay people over seas to flood their apps with great reviews on launch week. It's a shame, but as a result The Shed makes total sense.

 

[ed.brooks]

Great article -
3 inconsistencies in Yelp’s review solicitation crackdown
Yelp has taken a hard line against review solicitation, but columnist Brian Patterson believes the company may be taking it too far.
https://searchengineland.com/3-inconsistencies-yelps-review-solicitation-crackdown-288404

 

[yagoparamo]

Yelp indexes very well specially on mobile searches, but since many mobile users are using social media apps that can bring recommendations based on geo locations (Facebook already doing that) will this new offering (in a sense a network consolidation) affect relying location indexing dependent services (like Yelp) go out of fashion?

 

[Jeff Kershner]

This email made its way into my inbox this morning and it made me laugh.

Mercedes-Benz contracts MomentFeed for a couple different services, one being Location Data Cleanup. They also offer reputation management services and such.

I thought it was funny that MomentFeed was partnering with Yelp OF ALL SERVICES to talk about fake reviews and review solicitation...

We all know that reviews are critical for local businesses; 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. In this light, soliciting reviews by offering discounts or incentives becomes really tempting. However, this practice is actually doing consumers and business owners alike a huge disservice.

You now have the chance to learn directly from Yelp as to why they're cracking down on review solicitations and how you can best position your brand for success.

Join us Wednesday, August 22nd, 2018 at 11am PDT / 2pm EDT and Learn:

1. What exactly is review solicitation and why it's harmful for both consumers and businesses
2. Yelp's position and why they are cracking down on solicited reviews
3. How to set yourself up for success on Yelp


I'm tempted to sign-up for the webinar just to hear what Yelp has to say. Damn crooks!!

 

[Baron Ringler]

I find that Google Reviews and DealerRater are losing their effectiveness. With so many stores begging for great reviews there is nothing to differentiate one place from the next. Yelp, although I think some of the methods they have employed are completely unjustified (removing good reviews from those who are a first time 'Yelper'), the reviews there are giving much more accurate feedback of what is going on in the store. What good is a review site if all it takes to get great scores is a little bit of begging and manipulation? Now, I wouldn't advertise mediocre Yelp scores, but I do use them to identify negative trends going on in the store, because usually there are issues that repeat themselves.

Since every store is equal in how Yelp works, using them as a barometer against your competition is a very legit use for them, along with identifying issues.

 

[Carluminati]

DealerRater has completely failed the dealers, and as a consumer in addition to digital marketing guy, I'm perplexed what the strategy and end game is. Am glad the guy who started it, got very rich. But once Cars.com bought it, the price more than doubled. What is now maybe a $899 monthly cost is 72% of my actual website cost, which produces millions of dollars in business every month for sales and service. How could I justify such a high expense for such a low quality lead source. Sadly, we do not have a partner anymore with the big 3rd party sites. They want to control the customer, control the deal and have it structed online (hack, hack, a joke), and take all the credit. Google is great. We flag and call our fake reviews, you have to. No dealership should just take whatever is said online about them.

Afterall, we are businesses, and we are people according to the Supreme Court. haha! The truth. And that is why WE can sue bad and fake reviews for defamation. Nobody has tried it yet.

And these reviews of our vendors, reflect actuality, not fantasy.