Using Yelp In The Middle Of Nowhere
My kids, brothers, nephew, and I take motorcycle trips every summer, and I just got back from our recent excursion through the Colorado Rockies.
Everywhere we went, no matter how remote, my nephew would pull out his phone to search Yelp for places to eat – and Yelp proved to be pretty reliable.
Nonetheless, one of my sons speculated that Yelp is dying and my nephew responded that maybe it was for other services but not for restaurants.
The Reddit crowd seems to agree with my son though, as that demographic is obviously frustrated with Yelp for the following reasons: (1) “20% of reviews are false;” (2) “Yelp extorts small businesses for ad dollars;” (3) “too many reviews are written by angry customers in the wrong state of mind;” and (4) “Google reviews are now proving to be more powerful;” I got all of this from Reddit after searching “is Yelp dead,” and I am not sure about the accuracy of any of the statements.
BUT – I am going to disagree with the Redditors for the following reasons: (1) We still get a substantial amount of business from Yelp; (2) Yelp still provides more authentic reviews than many other review platforms, and consumers know that: and (3) I know many other businesses that still garner a huge amount of their business from Yelp, including an exterminator, a plumber and an electrician we just hired because of their Yelp reviews (all asked for Yelp reviews from us too because they still consider them so valuable).
In addition, a company called WallStreetZen reached out to me today to ask if we could add this Yelp Statistics Link to my 2019 blog, titled, Rethinking Yelp – Why We Hate Them And Love Them (a short blog I still highly recommend).
As an aside, firms and blog writers reach out to us all the time to request that we add their links to our website; this is because our SEO is so strong and they want to use it to enhance their own SEO.
Yelp User Demographics Are Excellent!
Anyway – WallStreetZen’s data shows that Yelp had 75 million unique visitors last year, and the majority of them are in the coveted 35 to 54 age range (peak homebuying age) demographic; 61% are college-educated; and 54% earn over $100,000 annually.
So – Yelp is not dead yet by any means, although they may be fading.
This is both because of their aggressive practices that turn off potential users and because they have to compete with monsters like Google.
But – until the last nail is in the coffin, I still love (and hate) Yelp.
I also recommend garnering reviews on multiple sites just in case Yelp fades faster than we might expect.
And finally – I highly recommend skimming the data provided by WallStreetZen, as it is really interesting.
Jay Voorhees
Founder/Broker | JVM Lending
(855) 855-4491 | DRE# 1197176, NMLS# 310167
