I have a client with a Yelp listing that has a 3 Star review average. Even though several positive reviews have since been added, Yelp is not showing them and we are considering the option of removing the listing. Any thoughts on how this might affect website ranking, or other concerns?
As Yelp's return links are no-follow, in terms of people coming directly to your site from the search engine I wouldn't sweat it. That said, Yelp is likely to rank higher than your own site, so people will be more likely to find you if it is on Yelp. Some people even go straight to Yelp to search for things so they can see rankings. It is very easy to obsess over rankings whilst omitting more important factors, like actual traffic, repeat business, and genuine promotion. Promoting the site organically, offering a quality service that makes people recommend/share you online, and so forth is not only more important for your business than search ranking, it can naturally improve your search ranking in a far more stable manner. Basically, dropping yelp likely won't impact your search rankings, but it could cost you traffic.
Thanks for taking the time to reply death... I specialize in website SEO and have had this client a decade. They have one of the top SE rankings in their local industry, so I am not concerned about Yelp traffic. I outrank Yelp for most phrases and actually, I have always felt like their Yelp listing hurt them, cost them sales. I personally don't use businesses with 3-star ratings. Their Google rating is 4.5 stars and much more accurately reflects the quality of their service. But I look for every advantage, and Yelp currently seems negative.
Hence why I put "could" in italics. So many factors to consider. How much traffic does that Yelp listing generate? How much of that traffic becomes conversions? Those are where you should be looking. You could probably glean at least some of that data from the server logs using webalizer, analog, or some such. Tracking HTTP_REFERER whilst spotty, should at least give an idea of how much (if any) traffic is coming from Yelp. That would probably be the real deciding factor for me. If you can show little to no traffic in the server logs, kill it with fire.
Good point. My WebCEO software provides that information from GA. I don't manage the Yelp account and was surprised to find 66 visitors a year arriving from the listing. Question answered, thanks.
Google, Bing as well as different important search engines indicator Yelp outcome, therefore optimizing your profile at precisely exactly the exact same manner your site will help one to increase your positions, in addition to creating some fine chances for traffic as individuals connect to your site and Yelp profile on the web. Hyphenet is really just actually a great example.