Should you consider deleting your Yelp account?
Yelp is one of many online business directories created to help customers find local businesses online, but sometimes businesses need help managing their account long-term. That’s why understanding the nuances of online reviews and discovering faster, more efficient ways to market your business can make all the difference in deciding if deleting your Yelp account is right for you.
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In this article, we'll dive into some topics covering why a business would want to delete their business page on Yelp, what happens once it’s deleted, and why you should continue leveraging your client’s Yelp listing for local SEO.
Why create and optimize a Yelp business account?
With a Yelp business account, your clients can create and verify their own business listing to promote themselves, update their business hours, post photos, and interact with customers.
Your client’s business becomes more visible to potential customers, leading to more sales in the long-term. When customers post positive reviews on your account, this can positively highlight the business and increase revenue. Despite all the benefits Yelp provides to a business, there are still a few reasons a business may want to delete their account.
Why would a business want to delete their Yelp account?
Some businesses have good reasons to do so, while others might not have the time or skills to manage their Yelp accounts.
Overwhelmingly negative reviews
If there is an instance where a company may have a bad review resulting in poor customer service, the business may want to delete its Yelp account. This can especially occur in cases where review bombing happens, and the sheer volume of negative reviews become too much to address or flag.
No time to manage a Yelp listing
A majority of businesses spend most of their time running the daily operations of the business itself, so their online marketing strategies often take a back seat. Add in the fact that they have a Google Business Profile (along with other listings) to manage, other less-prominent platforms will feel like an afterthought to spend time managing and optimizing.
Low activity or user interactions
Some businesses may just not see the overall value of their Yelp listing because it doesn’t receive as much attention or activity compared to their other online listings. In some cases, a client may find more success with their Google Business Profile or Meta Business Page (previously Facebook Business Page), and they may already deem Yelp as a lost cause for promoting their business.
The business is no longer operating
In other cases, the business may close or cease operations altogether. The business owner may no longer need access to the business page they claimed and will want to make the necessary changes to reflect that. This is one case where it especially makes sense for a business to close their Yelp account.
Step-by-step instructions for deleting your Yelp account
Via desktop
- Login to your account
- Submit the closure request by providing the reason for your closure decision
- Go to the associated email and click on the link to confirm that you want to close your account
- Confirm the closure request by clicking on the button “close account”
After clicking on the link, this will instantly close your account, but your reviews and pictures will take some time to disappear from the site.
Via mobile
Note: You won’t be able to delete your Yelp account using the mobile app.
- Log in to your mobile device using a browser
- Cancel the invitation to open the page in the application (it will pop up if you have the app installed)
- Click the link to submit the closure request
- Provide your reason for closing the business
What happens when you delete your Yelp account?
There are times when a business may want to delete their account for some reasons listed above. If a business wants to delete its Yelp account, consider the repercussions doing this may have to a business’s online presence.
Unable to recover important data
Deleting a Yelp business account will render you unable to recover the user-generated information your client has about their business. Besides reviews, other valuable user-generated content can such as photos, videos, and other testimonials.
However, other information, such as reviews and photos, would take a few more days before they are removed. So if a business has some negative reviews and deletes their Yelp account, Yelp will not delete all the information simultaneously.
Decrease in online presence
Visibility can lead to more traffic, which may lead to more sales. Removing your account may lead to a decrease in visibility and no longer benefit from it. Ratings and reviews that you had before will be gone, and potential customers may have difficulties trusting the credibility of your business. This can heavily impact the buyer’s journey, which impacts your client’s bottom line.
Additionally, there are potentially negative effects on local SEO that you should consider. People searching for business in your area won’t be able to find you if you don’t have an active Yelp account.
Neglecting potential customers
Today, Yelp still has more than 178 million monthly visitors, with 90 million of those users coming from mobile devices (Tech Jury). The user base for Yelp is still strong enough for users to choose it as their most ideal local business listing platform, and for your clients to reach out to their customers where they’re most active.
Why you should consider keeping your Yelp account
If your client’s business is still operating and you want to continue expanding your online presence, there are plenty of ways you can still leverage using Yelp for promotion and exposure.
You want your business to get exposure and visibility as a business owner. You also want a platform where you can interact with your customers. This is the exposure that you get when you create an account. A few reasons to keep your Yelp account include:
- Your customers will have an easier way to find you.
- A business with a Yelp account can monitor their reviews.
- You’ll have more exposure for your business. More exposure could mean more sales.
A strong and active user base
Being active on Yelp means directly responding to ratings and reviews from real customers. Taking action like this shows your company’s commitment to top-tier customer service which leads to higher ratings, which translates into increased visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs).
You can form valuable and meaningful connections with other business and local reviewers which generates more exposure and drives traffic to your business.
Opportunities for reputation management
While even the most successful businesses get a bad review occasionally, some may see this as something negative for their business. However, if a business receives a negative review, they can use this as an opportunity to improve their services. Responding to a negative review can also serve as an opportunity for your audience to see how you would respond to them if they were in a similar situation.
Before your client considers deleting their account, consider how you can apply review monitoring techniques to manage their reputation online. It could be used as an opportunity for customer recovery by engaging with customers who have had a bad experience. You could follow up with the customer who has had a bad experience to know their complaints and try to solve them. Doing this could enable your business to retain some customers.
Better online presence and search visibility
If your business has a lot of good reviews, this could help your business to interact with more potential customers. They would be more willing to do business when they see positive reviews.
Yelp allows businesses to pay for advertising space on their site. When a business pays for advertising, this could give them even more opportunity to be seen by a wider audience.
Instead of deleting the account, a local listing management service could serve as a better option to help update and optimize your client’s Yelp listing, along with their other online profiles.
Increased sales and user activity
For businesses that need more exposure and want to increase their sales, having a Yelp account is an excellent solution. You will get the opportunity to list your business, post pictures and engage with customers. The account is free to set up, and you can edit your account at any time if you want to make any changes.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to delete a yelp account?
After you complete the steps of deleting your account, Yelp will delete it immediately. However, the other information on your yelp account, such as photos, reviews and other contributions, will take another day or two to be removed entirely. If you don't want to wait for them to be deleted, you can delete them before deleting your yelp account.
Should I create a Yelp business account if I don't have one?
Yes, you should create a yelp account if you don't have one. Yelp allows you to create a free business account where you list your services, post photos and relate to customers. You can attract new customers and monitor reviews to improve your company.
