As a small business owner it can be difficult to decide on the proper advertising methods with a limited marketing budget. In understanding your limits, it’s important to note why Yelp is a terrible way to advertise your business. At GK Media, we’re here to help. Here’s why you should opt for other advertising methods instead.

Check the Statistics

Research has shown that 70% of all online searches are made on Google. Alternatively, Yelp is the 6th most visited internet site. While this figure isn’t necessarily bad, it’s clear that Google proves to be superior in the sense that most people are utilizing this as a search engine.

Yelp is Pay-to-Rank

Yelp is known as being a pay-to-rank website, meaning that in order to have visibility you must pay for your ranking. As a small business owner, not only is this detrimental to your marketing, but it steals that #1 spot from local keywords and phrases. The only way for you to get back to a #1 spot is to pay your way back.

Lacking In-Depth Data

With Yelp it is hard to have an in-depth understanding of your return on investment (ROI) because the site lacks statistics or data on how your ads are performing. The only way to pull some of this crucial information is by spending a significant amount of time data mining. 

BBB Complaints

Complaints specifically about Yelp are constantly flowing from small business owners to Consumer Reports (CR) and the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Yelp has over 1,200 reviews on BBB and ranks at a staggering 1 star. Think of other businesses you would consider hiring to work with, like a plumber, for example. Would you ever even think of hiring a plumber with a 1-star rating?

Illegitimate Reviews

Issues arising about illegitimate reviews has been an ongoing issue with sites such as Yelp. So much so, that a court hearing went all the way up to the California Supreme Court in 2018. Even if you find out a negative review about your business is illegitimate, according to this ruling, you still cannot have the review taken down.

Contact GK Media Inc Today!

Thankfully, with GK Media, we have so much more to offer your small business outside of Yelp. We handle everything from SEO to social media marketing and more!

GK Media is a top-ranked Long Beach SEO Company with customized services to drive new customers to your business, including optimizing SEO and social media marketing. Visit us online for a FREE SEO evaluation report of your website and see how we can help you improve your business!