The New Game In Town

Although Google is by far the dominant search engine, Yelp is now number two in online reviews in terms of search importance. And as my last blog post outlined, because of new strategic alliances, Yelp most likely will start closing the gap. Here are my thoughts on how to take maximum advantage of the new dynamic.

Go to yelp.com and complete your Yelp profile for your dental practice.

Start accumulating Yelp reviews from your patients. I was simply amazed when I compared Google search results to Yelp results for a dentist in a geographical area. Dentists who are high up on the local Google business page often don’t even show up on Yelp. Currently there is a big disparity here. Translation- there is a huge opportunity here.

Yelp reviews are easier to leave than Google reviews. Yelp allows any email address to be used during sign up. To leave a Google review, you need to have an existing  gmail account or have to set one up  – a major obstacle for the typically technologically-challenged individual. You also now have to join Google+Local before you can leave a Google review.

Yelp only displays the reviewer’s first name, last initial, and city.  Under the new rules of Google+Local, the reviewer’s full name is required. While this is a positive step in reducing the number of spam reviews and also the reviews by persons attempting to damage the reputation of a legitimate business, it may also be perceived as a deterrent for some people to leave a review.

Without question, local reviews are directly correlated to the success of any business. I recently read that 90% of all buying decisions – and choosing a dental practice is certainly a buying decision – are made on the Internet. Even if someone is merely validating a personal recommendation of your office,  what others are saying about you online often will seal the deal.

So continue to ask your patients for Google reviews – but in order to cover all of the bases and increase your visibility on the web,  it really is time to make the accumulation of Yelp reviews an important priority. That being said, I must warn you that I have received an inordinate amount of negative feedback from dentists all around the country regarding Yelp. In my next post, I intend to share those comments with you, and go into greater detail about the legitimate concerns we as dentists should have about online reviews.