Why Is My Yelp Review Only Visible To Me

Yelp is a top-rated local review platform with a wide range of business listings and user reviews. Whether you need a restaurant recommendation, landscaping services, or a reliable hairstylist, Yelp offers a wealth of choices. 57% of users reach out to a business they discover on Yelp within a single day.

In today's world, quality often takes precedence over quantity, whether we're talking about dress materials or restaurants. Now, let's delve into a comparison of the value of Google reviews and Yelp reviews.

Google reviews vs. Yelp reviews

Yelp has gained a reputation for being prolific and trusted among users due to its filtered reviews. These filtered reviews are known for their high quality. On Yelp, the platform makes an effort to weed out questionable testimonials, ensuring that users can rely on the reviews they read. 

Google reviews, on the other hand, frequently present reviews with little context, and users may encounter star ratings that lack context or overly enthusiastic reviews that appear to be fake. This difference in review quality has contributed to Yelp's positioning as a trusted review site, partly thanks to its review filter algorithm.

 Why is My Yelp Review only visible to me, and not to the public? 

Yelp employs a review filter to combat spam and fake reviews, which is generally beneficial. However, this filter sometimes has the unintended consequence of hiding legitimate, positive reviews. 

Note that your reviews are not deleted; they are simply concealed from public view. 

Every review can be seen, but some don't appear on the main page. If you scroll to the bottom, you'll find a grey section where these reviews are kept. Yelp considers them suspicious and not suitable for public view. In this section, many reviewers don't even have profiles or have only written one review before. These are the reasons for your question “Why is Yelp only visible to me”. 

Before jumping to the reasons, let’s fix it with the steps.   

Also read: Why is Yelp Business Not Working

Accessing Yelp's "Not Recommended" Reviews

To find the Yelp "Not Recommended" reviews for your business, follow these steps:

• Visit Your Business Page: Go to your business page on Yelp.

• Scroll Down: Scroll down to the bottom of the first page of reviews.

• Click on the grey text at the bottom of the page 

• Look for a line of grey text that says "other reviews that are not currently recommended."

• Click on Grey Text: Click on the grey text, and it will expand the page to reveal a video titled "Why Does Yelp Recommend Reviews?" followed by all the hidden, filtered reviews.

• Contact Yelp Support: If you believe a legitimate review has been unfairly filtered, you can contact Yelp's support and request a review reassessment. Provide specific details about the review and why Yelp is only visible to me. 

• Encourage Legitimate Reviews: Continue encouraging satisfied customers to leave honest and legitimate reviews on your Yelp page.

You can optionally watch the video to gain a better understanding of how Yelp's filtering algorithm works. Yelp's software filters out reviews that may appear unreliable, partly based on the reviewer's activity within the Yelp community. This means a review might be hidden if the reviewer has written only a few reviews and lacks a significant number of Yelp friends.

Reasons why my Yelp is only visible to me and not to the public

1. If the profile is too new 

Yelp often filters new profiles because they can appear suspicious. Newer profiles are more likely to be fake or created solely to leave a review. Several indicators can make a Yelp profile seem "too new," including:

• Few Friends: When a user has very few friends on Yelp,

• Limited Reviews: If the user hasn't left many reviews.

• No Profile Information: When the user's profile lacks information.

Consider how bots typically lack friends, profile information, or a profile picture, which can make them appear questionable. The Yelp filter uses similar logic to identify and filter potentially unreliable profiles.

2. Overly positive or negative reviews on Yelp

Yelp's filter identifies reviews that are exceptionally positive or negative as potentially fake. This is because extreme sentiments are relatively rare among genuine customer reviews. While it can be frustrating to have some of your best reviews hidden due to their positivity, it's a precaution against fake feedback.

One factor that can trigger this filter is having family members leave reviews. Although your family and friends may be proud of your business, their reviews can appear biased. To avoid the risk of positive reviews being filtered, it's best not to ask your close circle to leave reviews, as Yelp's algorithm can detect this bias.

3. Short or uninformative reviews on Yelp

Reviews that are too brief, such as "Service was great!" without additional details, are at risk of being hidden. This happens because they lack usefulness for potential customers. Providing limited information like this doesn't offer insights into the specific reasons behind the positive feedback.

For example, in a restaurant review, simply stating that the service was great doesn't clarify whether it was due to prompt food delivery or exceptional waiter service when there were delays. Yelp values reviews that contain more information, as they are considered more helpful, and these are less likely to be hidden.

4. Reviews filtered due to violating Yelp's guidelines

Reviews that violate Yelp's guidelines are understandably filtered out from your page. These guidelines cover several categories, and reviews falling into these categories are likely to be hidden:

• Inappropriate Content: This includes reviews with offensive language or explicit details.

• Conflicts of Interest: Reviews from friends or family and those acquired by directly asking for Yelp reviews are not permitted.

• Promotional Content: Reviews promoting your own business on a competitor's page in an attempt to divert business are against the rules.

• Relevance: Reviews unrelated to the consumer experience, such as rants about political ideologies or employment practices, are considered irrelevant.

• Privacy: Sharing close-up photos of other patrons without permission, revealing full names, or disclosing private information without consent is prohibited.

• Intellectual Property: Copying and pasting someone else's review is not allowed.

• Demanding Payment: Using a review to demand payment from a business, except in the case of requesting a refund after poor service, is discouraged.

While these guidelines generally serve the best interests of business owners, it's important to note that Yelp's filtering system is automated. As a result, some legitimate reviews may inadvertently be hidden. Instead of dwelling on lost reviews, it's advisable to proactively collect more reviews and maintain a strong presence on the platform.

Let’s look at some of the solutions that we can use to fix the problem

Key points for managing Yelp reviews 

• Focus on Recent Positive Reviews: Instead of unhiding all filtered reviews, target recent 4 or 5-star reviews from legitimate customers. Your goal is to demonstrate to Yelp that these customers are active users.

  
  

• Identifying and Connecting with Users: To interact with filtered reviews, log in to your Yelp business profile. Leave public comments on the identified reviews, thank customers, and visit their profiles. Engage with their other reviews by tagging them as useful, Funny, or Cool to show their value in the Yelp community.

  
  

• Prevent New Reviews from Being Filtered: Be proactive to prevent new positive reviews from being filtered. Monitor your business page for new reviews using review management software, like Cloodot. 

To enhance your presence on Yelp, it's essential to engage in some behind-the-scenes actions. Continuously update your business information, including any changes like moving, adding new locations, or offering different services. Keeping your page up-to-date is crucial.

Customers are more likely to interact with your business online, such as leaving reviews, when they know you're active and responsive. Demonstrating your online presence encourages them to reciprocate the effort.

Additionally, when you receive a new Yelp review, don't leave it unattended. Responding to reviews, whether positive or negative, is vital for your online image and customer satisfaction. For negative reviews, consider employing thoughtful responses and using helpful tips for addressing negative feedback.

To gather all your reviews from multi-channel you need the best review management platform called Cloodot, which will help you gather all your reviews, chats, and analysis reports from multi-channel under one roof. 

Talk with our experts to find out more about Cloodot.