How to Claim a Yelp Business Page in 4 Easy Steps

People who go to Yelp are ready to pull out their wallets and spend some money. Don’t just take our word for it – according to Nielsen, more than half of Yelp users make purchasing decisions after visiting the site. The majority of people searching Yelp are ready to make decisions about where to go for the products or services they need.

Learn how to claim your listing on Yelp because it’s free, doing so will help you reach ready-to-buy customers, and it’s easy. If that doesn’t sound like a triple-win, we don’t know what does.

Here’s what we’re going to cover in this guide on how to claim your Yelp business listing:

How to Claim Your Yelp Business Page in 4 Easy Steps
1) Lookup your business on Yelp
2) Create a Yelp business account for FREE
3) Verify your Yelp business account
4) Upload a business profile photo

New to Yelp? Here’s How to Create a Business Page

Bonus: 4 Yelp Business Optimization Tips
1) Add comprehensive business information
2) Get more reviews (and engage with reviews you already have)
3) Upload more business photos
4) Download the Yelp for Business App

How to Claim Your Yelp Business Page in 4 Easy Steps

When you claim your profile, it allows you to add or edit information about your business, respond to messages and reviewers, and access valuable metrics about visitors to your page.

Here’s how to claim your Yelp business page:

1. Lookup your business on Yelp.
2. Create a Yelp business account.
3. Verify your Yelp business account.
4. Upload a Yelp business profile photo.

1) Lookup your business on Yelp

To claim your business, visit Yelp for Business Owners and select “Manage my free listing.” Then, type in your zip and the name of your business.

Select your business from the dropdown. If your business does not appear when you type in its name, you’ll need to create a new business listing.

If you’re unable to claim your Yelp business page because it has already been claimed by someone else, you can ask the current owner of the page to share access. However, if you don’t know who this is, Yelp will not share that information due to privacy concerns. 

If you are unaware of who has claimed your business’ page, you can contact Yelp customer support for help.

2) Create a Yelp business account for FREE

Once you’ve taken that first step to claim your listing, fill out the information on the sign up page to sign up for a Yelp account.

If you already have an account, click “Log in” beneath the red “Sign Up” button on the page to continue.

There is no cost to claim your listing or have a Yelp business page, unless you choose to advertise through Yelp.

3) Verify your Yelp business account

To get the most out of your claim, you must verify your business’ account to make any changes or to manage your business on Yelp. Before you begin the verification process, make sure you’re at your business to answer a phone call from Yelp.

Yelp will provide you with a verification number that you’ll need to enter into the provided field on your business’ page.

Once you have logged in or created a new account, Yelp will automatically direct you to the verification page. When you are at your business and ready to verify your page, simply click the “Verify now” button to begin.

4) Upload a business profile photo

In order to respond to customer reviews on Yelp, you’ll need to upload a business profile photo of yourself or another prominent individual in your business, like a manager.

Each profile photo is approved or rejected by one of Yelp’s moderators, which can take several days.  Follow these guidelines to get your photo approved as quickly as possible:

• Upload a real photo of someone from your business, not a stock photo
• Ensure the image is not blurry
• Ensure you select an image where one person is the only subject; no group photos
• Do not upload an image of your logo or storefront

Here’s how to upload a Yelp business profile photo:

1. Head to your settings.
2. Select “Add photo.”
3. Click “Choose file.”
4. Select the photo you want to use as your business profile image, following the guidelines listed above.
5. Select “Open.”
6. Select “Add photo.”

New to Yelp? Here’s How to Create a Business Page

If your business is not already listed on Yelp, here’s how to add it so users can easily find it:

1. Go to the Yelp for Business Owners page.
2. Select “Manage your free listing.” 
3. Type in your business’ zip code and name, then select “Add Now” from the dropdown.

4. Fill out your business’ basic information so it’s easily searchable. Make you use exactly the same format for your business’ address as you do for all other online directories, Like Google My Business. If you abbreviate “Avenue” to “Ave.” in one, do the same for all. This makes your business more easily understood by search engines like Google:

5. Create a Yelp business account by filling out your information.

If you already have a Yelp account, click “Log in” instead. There is no cost for your business to have a page on Yelp, unless you decide to advertise with them.

6. Verify your business. Once you’ve signed up, you’ll be directed to a verification page. You must be verified before you can make any changes to your business’ listing or respond to messages or reviews.

Before you start the verification process, it’s important that you are at your place of business, as Yelp may attempt to call you listed phone number to provide a verification code. 

Enter this code in the provided field to verify your Yelp account.

Bonus: 4 Yelp Optimization Tips

So you’ve learned how to claim your listing – congrats! You’re one step closer to a strong Yelp profile. It take a little more than the basics to get the most out of your presence on this platform. Here are three easy-to-implement tips to help you optimize your business profile for maximum results:

1) Add comprehensive business information

The more information you have on Yelp, the easier it will be for customers to determine whether you’re the right business to meet their needs. Here’s a comprehensive list of information that should be included on your Yelp profile:

• Business category (be as specific with this as possible)
• Review your address and map location
• Hours of operation
• Local phone number
• Contact email
• Website
• Price range
• Menu, delivery, take-out and reservation information, if applicable
• Whether you accept credit cards
• Whether your location is good for kids or families
• Parking availability
• Whether you offer Wi-Fi

Depending on the type of business you are, there may be even more categories to fill out, like the average noise level, whether an appointment is required, and whether you have TVs. Fill out as many of the available fields as possible to attract your target demographic.

2) Get more reviews (and engage with reviews you already have)

The policies around Yelp business reviews make it hard for small businesses to get positive ratings on the platform. Essentially, they don’t permit outright asking customers for reviews, because they believe this does not result in authentic reviews. 

Unfortunately, this means businesses tend to receive lower overall ratings on Yelp, as unhappy customers are more likely to leave unsolicited reviews than happy customers are.

It’s up to you whether you want to abide by Yelp’s “don’t ask” policy or not. If you decide it’s worth the risk to ask anyway, here’s how to get Yelp reviews that don’t get filtered by Yelp’s recommendation software:

Earn customer trust before asking for a review

Ask for honest feedback you can use internally before asking for a public review. This way, you ensure it gets to the people who need to hear it, and you can make improvements to your business.

Send follow-ups

Sometimes when customers receive a review request, they simply forget to provide one. It’s in your business’ best interest to send follow-ups with customers who don’t initially leave a public review, as this can double the number of reviews you get.

Send review requests frequently

You should send out new review requests at least weekly, if not daily. Contacting customers for feedback when the experience is still fresh in their minds will make it easier for them to leave accurate reviews.

Automate the process

You don’t have time to manually ask for feedback or send follow-ups. You know that, we know that, and thankfully, there’s technology that can help streamline the process.

Check out our free trial

Interested in utilizing all of the above best practices to make your Yelp profile all it can be? Check out our yelp review management’s free trial to make getting more reviews a breeze.

3) Upload more business photos

By adding a lot of quality photos to your Yelp page, you can help give potential customers an idea of what to expect when they come to your business. It also helps your target customer base to identify that yours is the place they’re looking for.

According to Yelp, profiles with 10 or more photos get 12 times the number of leads than those without photos. Photos help legitimize your business in the eyes of consumers, so you can’t afford not to have them.

Not sure what to take pictures of? Here’s a list to help you get started:

• Exterior photos
• Interior photos
• Photos of parking availability
• Photos of products
• Staff photos
• Service trucks
• Menu boards
• Your drive-thru
• Anything else a customer might interact with as part of your business

4) Download the Yelp for Business App

Get notified immediately of new reviews and messages by downloading the Yelp for Business app. It allows you to check Yelp business page metrics, like the number of user visits and leads, right from your mobile device. 

Downloading the Yelp for Business App can help you improve response times and customer experience overall. You can respond quickly and make updates to your business’ profile no matter where you are.

The app costs nothing to download and offers multiple features to keep you on top of your online reputation.