A couple of months ago I started working on a little video for our 600th visible Yelp review. Then we had to double our advertising with them. Now our reviews are disappearing.
Having a high number of visible reviews in our industry (particularly while retaining a 5-star average) is rather difficult. That’s why I get particularly bitter when we lose more than 80 reviews AFTER we more than double our advertising with them. Yelp does this from time to time. I don’t know what they’re doing out there and they’re not saying. All I know is that our hard-earned, legitimate reviews disappear by five or so per day lately. It’s happened before. It’ll likely happen again.
One thing rings in my ears, though: When I asked our rep what was going on, she talked, a lot, but said nothing. Except one thing: “You are slightly below the average for advertising dollars for your area…”
And yet, they’ll maintain that the advertising side of things is “totally separate” from the review side of things.
BS. I haven’t believed it for years and I don’t believe it now.
So, thanks again, Yelp. You’ve once again proven that you’re a protection racket under the code of omertà.