Yelp announced on November 06, 2017 that businesses should not work with reputation management or review solicitation companies.
Yelp had stated, “We’ve been vocal about Yelp’s policy against asking for or soliciting reviews: don’t do it. Long story short, soliciting reviews leads to biased content, and Yelp’s priority is to encourage quality content that best reflects the opinions of the Yelp community.”
They go onto say that they have started to actively demote businesses in their search results that show indications that reputation management companies have engaged in organized review solicitation on the client’s behalf. Yelp also says they have been actively engaging in educating both consumers and businesses on the merits of unbiased reviews.
Once a business has been demoted, the way to get their rankings back is to first stop engaging in the process of asking for reviews and second they can submit a Compliance Verification form when logged into their Yelp account.
If the business complies, Yelp will remove the penalty in about 30 – 45 days. If they don’t comply within the first 90 days of the warning period, then the penalty may last indefinitely.
So, to recap, just say “No” to engaging in solicited reviews for Yelp. And if you do, then stop and clean up your mess quickly.
Citations
https://www.yelpblog.com/2017/11/businesses-not-work-review-solicitation-companies
https://searchengineland.com/how-does-yelps-review-solicitation-penalty-work-299893
