


How is this data useful? Maybe Yelp’s strife with businesses on promoting reviews should be reevaluated. However, an overwhelming 43.7% said reviews are a major reason they visit or use the app, where 11.1% could care less about reviews. Surprisingly, 45% of respondents couldn’t decide if reviews were that important to them. Since we’ve already established that the primary reason people use Yelp is reviews (okay, I’ll stop rubbing it in), I think it’s important to point out the impact reviews have on a person’s decision to use Yelp altogether. What Impact Do Reviews Have on Yelp Visits? For businesses targeting mostly women, perhaps giving more emphasis to “check us out on Yelp” on receipts and promotional material, and focusing on the details within the Yelp profile less about ranking criteria. How might a business owner benefit from the male vs female comparison above? For starters, businesses with a predominantly male demographic might focus more energy on being found in Yelp search results, learning about barnacle SEO, and connecting directly with male users in their area to build friendships that might later prevent a negative review.

3% of women say they primarily use the platform to engage with others). Here’s a shocker, men may be more social on Yelp than women (1% of men use Yelp to connect with other Yelpers, where only. Reviews are still the primary reason both men and women use Yelp, but as you can see from the chart below, men are looking for businesses near them nearly 8% more than women, and women possibly look deeper at business data 3% more than men. Starting with gender, it turns out that women actually care more about reviews then men, 5.5% more in fact. Now that I feel validated, I could stop writing now, post a meme on Twitter with a kid shaking a fist, tag and go home with my know it all personality in check but how fun with that be for everyone else? Let’s dive a little deeper and share some of the other data I was able to find and analyze. Our disagreement had to do with the primary reason people use or visit Yelp, and was validated with an overwhelming 60% of respondents claiming they primarily care about business reviews over finding business near them, researching business details (hours, directions, etc), socializing or for some other reason. There are many reasons to be a fan of Yelp. By the way, thanks for taking the time to chat with us Zach, if you’re reading this. Zach makes a great case for reviews playing a major role in the attraction users have toward Yelp. While not the only reason our users visit Yelp, reviews do give credibility to the business, and the volume of reviews is a trust signal for users. Yelp aims to provide the most helpful information available. I believe our users are coming to Yelp to find local businesses because they can trust the overall content they find on our site. In a brief interview with Zach Anderson, National Client Partner with Yelp, Zach had the following to say about why people use Yelp:

