New Yelp Solicitation Guidelines

The peer-review platform is cracking down on resorts asking for reviews.

Yelp is rolling out stricter guidelines on review solicitation. The new policy forbids a business to ask customers for reviews in any way, even on other review platforms. The policy states that if Yelp finds indicators of systematic review solicitation, they will apply a search-ranking penalty to affected Yelp business pages.

Showcasing a resort’s presence on Yelp is allowed—in fact, Yelp will give businesses free stickers and web graphics—but asking for reviews is verboten. “Our goal is to discourage the reputation-management industry from offering services to artificially boost Yelp ratings,” a Yelp spokesperson says. “We want to educate business owners on the impacts of trying to manipulate reviews on Yelp via email solicitation and survey campaigns.”

To maintain a positive profile, Yelp advises businesses to provide as much information and be as responsive as possible: “Complete your Yelp listing thoroughly and respond to your reviews publicly or privately through Yelp for Business Owners.”

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