Guides / Yelp
How to leave a review on Yelp
Yelp still dominates for restaurants, contractors and local services, and its recommendation software decides who actually sees you.
- Who sees it
- Local shoppers comparing several nearby businesses at once.
- What you need
- A Yelp account with some history; brand-new accounts are frequently filtered.
Step by step
- Find the business page and click Write a Review.
- Describe the visit or job in specific detail — Yelp's software favours detailed, personal accounts.
- Add photos.
- Check a week later that your review is still shown and not moved to 'not currently recommended'.
Why Yelp removes reviews
- Yelp's recommendation software can hide a review without deleting it, especially from new or low-activity accounts.
- Reviews about second-hand experiences or about a business's politics are removed.
- Yelp does not remove a review just because the business disputes it.
Making yours stick
- Write about your own visit, in the first person, with detail only a real customer would know.
- Build a little account history before posting a high-stakes review.
- No copy-pasting the same text you posted elsewhere.
The full wording rules are in how to write a review that stays up.