WHAT IS YELP? 

Yelp is an online urban city guide that helps people find cool places to eat, shop, drink, relax and play, based on the informed opinions of a vibrant and active community of locals in the know. Yelp is the fun and easy way to find, review and talk about what's great — and not so great — in your world.

Yes! Anyone can view, post reviews and set up standard business listings for free. This partnership of eFlorist and Yelp allows members to access the premium (paid) service at a discounted cost.

WHO USES YELP? 

You'll find a wide range of people on Yelp, including locals who are "in the know" about what's cool and happening in their city, visitors who want to get an insider's local perspective, and anyone trying to find a great local business.

DO BUSINESS OWNERS HAVE A VOICE ON YELP? 

Every business owner can claim their business and set up a business owner’s account on Yelp. The free tools provided allow a business owner to respond to reviews (both privately and publicly), post descriptive information about their business, add photos, and track activity and customer leads from their Yelp page. This is all available at biz.yelp.com.

WHAT KIND OF INFORMATION CAN I GET FROM YELP?
Yelp hosts regular webinars for business owners, which you can join for free every week. In addition, the eFlorist team will post information to this page about Yelp and this program. 

ARE REVIEWS DISPLAYED IN ANY PARTICULAR ORDER?
Users can decide for themselves how best to order reviews by clicking one of the links just above the reviews (e.g., date, rating, voting, etc.). Yelp's default sort order takes a number of factors into account and reflects their own attempt to present reviews in a meaningful order. For example, they'll favor reviews from your friends and the users you follow. The sort algorithm does not take into account whether the business is an advertiser or not.

HOW IS THE RANKING OF SEARCH RESULTS DETERMINED?
Yelp's search results are based on an algorithm that is designed to provide the best results based on a number of different factors including review text, ratings, and number of reviews. We are constantly working on improving our search results so that we can deliver the most relevant local results to our users.

HOW DID MY BUSINESS INFORMATION END UP ON YELP?
Yelp licenses basic business information from third party data providers who gather this type of information from public records and other sources. They also get business information from Yelp users and business owners themselves. For this program with eFlorist, the information listed in your shop’s eFlorist account is used for your Yelp business listing. 

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STANDARD AND BRANDED LISTINGS?
Yelp offers businesses the opportunity to claim and manage your business listing for free, similar to Google and Bing. The branded profiles offered through this program have increased control and more features than standard claimed listings, like the ability to post a call to action to drive customers to your website. When you pay for a branded profile you can also upload an unlimited number of photos and arrange them in any order you want and they will scroll on your page. Free listings limit how many business photos you can upload and does not allow you to rearrange the order of photos. For more information about Yelp's premium services, visit their advertising page here.

WHAT IF I ALREADY HAD A LISTING THAT I CLAIMED AND MANAGED FOR FREE?
If you had existing shop information already uploaded to Yelp, this program will not alter what you've created. The eFlorist team may supplement your images with more product images, but we will not change your shop information or message.

HOW DO I GET A LOGIN FOR MY LISTING?
If you already claimed a free Yelp listing, you can use the same login to access your Branded Profile. If you did not have a claimed listing, you will receive an email with your new username and password from Yelp once your Branded Profile is set up.  Please contact eFlorist Support if you have questions.

No. You cannot pay Yelp to remove or reorder your bad reviews. Reviewers, who are providing feedback, are often your most loyal customers.  Use this opportunity to respond to them.