If you’ve spent much time following this blog at all you’ll already know I’m not a fan of paid directory listings. However, Yelp Business Listings has rolled out a recent new feature that actually may be worthwhile.
It’s called the Yelp “Call to Action” feature. Here’s what the Yelp blog has to say about it.
“Consumers come to Yelp ready to make a spending decision and they rely on Yelp’s wealth of valuable content to find a local business to fit their needs. Today we’re introducing a new feature for business owners, designed to further close the loop between discovering a business on Yelp and making a purchase at that business. Yelp’s new Call to Action feature allows business owners to promote a desired transaction of their choosing directly on their Yelp business listing.”
So you can get people to click through to your website with the idea that they’re going to schedule an appointment, make a reservation, or schedule a reservation right then and there. That’s pretty powerful stuff.
However, you’ll need to do a lot more than become a Yelp advertiser to take advantage of this feature. Since the click goes right back to your website you need to keep a few things in mind.
- Your website will need to be capable of completing the transaction in the first place.
- You may want to create a specific landing page so users don’t get lost before they find their way to the action you want them to take.
- Your overall website look and feel will need to be both professional and appealing to avoid losing customers once they get to you.
- Your Yelp listing will need to be claimed and optimized so people can find it in the first place.
- You’ll need a strategy for gathering positive reviews so that people trust your listing enough to take the desired action.
In other words, using Yelp’s Call to Action feature needs to be part of an overall internet marketing and local SEO strategy. It’s not something that’s going to stand on its own.
