Not Recommended Yelp Reviews - How Yelp Filters Reviews

A happy customer says that they’ve just posted a great review about your business on Yelp. You check your page, but the review isn’t there. Where did it go?

There’s a chance it was flagged by Yelp as “not currently recommended.” These reviews are housed in a separate, harder-to-find section of your Yelp page.

Notably, they also do not affect your star rating. 

To find your not recommended Yelp reviews, scroll down the page until you reach something that looks like this:

From there, click “X other reviews that are not currently recommended.”

This will take you to the reviews that have been hidden by Yelp. You’ll notice that the star rating is grey rather than the usual yellow.

Why are some reviews not recommended? 

Yelp isn’t fully transparent in regards to why a review would be marked as not recommended.

They list a number of factors that weigh in on their decision including potential bias, unhelpfulness, or unestablished reviewers, but they don’t give specifics.

A quick scroll through the not recommended section will feature many Yelp users who don’t have a profile picture, don’t have many “friends,” and haven’t written many reviews.

It’s clear that Yelp favors reviews from their regular users and those who appear to be real people. This article provides a deeper dive into Yelp’s algorithm. 

While it may be a relief to see negatives under the not recommended section, it can be equally frustrating to see your positive reviews stowed away where they will receive less facetime with potential customers.

Unfortunately, there is no option to change the status of reviews on your page. The process is fully automated and the Yelp Support team cannot and/or will not make changes at your request. 

What can you do?

Considering Yelp’s ability to hide reviews and their rule against soliciting reviews, it might seem like they’re totally in control.

Online reputation management services like Widewail helps you take back the power. We monitor review sites such as Yelp, Google, and Facebook on behalf of your business to ensure that every one of your happy customers is thanked in a timely manner.

For reviews written by customers who aren’t satisfied with their experience, we use your feedback to craft a response that addresses the situation and paints your business in the best light.

Ultimately, we ensure that the excellent customer service you provide in-store comes through online as well. 

One of the many benefits that come from partnering with Widewail is more frequent reviews. A study by Harvard Business Review found that hotels that began responding to their reviews saw a 12% increase in review volume. Not only that, the research showed that these hotels also saw a bump in their star rating.

Pulling in more reviews is a simple way to make up for the ones hidden by Yelp, and improving your rating comes with its own rewards. 

For more information on what Widewail can do to help your business, click here.