How to Avoid Negative Yelp Consumer Alerts that Could Hurt Your Physical Therapy Marketing Efforts

Patient reviews are powerful. Consumers trust their peers more than anyone else when making buying decisions. Studies indicate that great Yelp reviews can positively impact business growth.

Pew Internet studies indicate that 19 percent of patients consult reviews when making health care decisions.

Yelp Wrong and It Could Cost You

Yelp is continuously making efforts to obtain consistent and authentic reviews from consumers. As such they have “review filter” system in place that will flag suspicious activity.

Yelp Takes Suspicious Reviews to the Next Level

I have often written about the importance of not fabricating reviews or equally important, not using the same computer (i.e. IP address) to collect reviews.

Yelp has taken it to the next level. If they think you are buying reviews, they will hit you with the Big Red Box that says “Consumer Alert”!

As Yelp management said in their a couple months back:

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…the allure of a page full of five-star reviews can turn even the most ethical business owner starry-eyed and persuade some to attempt to game the system by paying for reviews.

This pretty much breaks every rule in the book, not to mention it’s just wrong to mislead consumers with fake reviews. To combat this, we’ve put on our detective hats, tracked down these rogue solicitations and are now giving you a heads up. Starting today, when we’ve determined that there have been significant attempts to pay for reviews, you may see a warning (like the one below) that some shady practices may be at play.

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If you purchase reviews or try to game the system, it could impact your business.

We recommend you get authentic reviews, from consumers that feel you have delivered exceptional care.

The Easy Way to Gather Yelp Reviews

One of the easiest ways to do this is to direct them to your Yelp page from your mobile website. The patient “yelper” then logs in to their own account and does their own review. This is one of the better and easier ways to build your online footprint.

If you have questions about this, don’t hesitate to give me a call.

So, go out and build your practice’s online footprint. It will pay off.