A recent report shows that 95% of customers read reviews online before purchasing a product. They play a pivotal role in shaping consumers’ choices and will likely continue long after other consumer trends have faded out of popularity.
Right now, Yelp is one of the most trusted and frequently used platforms for business reviews. The platform has more than 178 million unique visitors monthly, and 45% of consumers are likely to check reviews on Yelp before visiting a business, second only to Google reviews.
However, many WordPress site owners struggle to effectively leverage Yelp business reviews by failing to integrate them into their site. This makes it harder for consumers to see how brands perform without having to exit the website.
In this article, we’ll provide you with a step-by-step tutorial on how to integrate Yelp reviews into a WordPress site seamlessly and without stress!
Understanding the importance of Yelp reviews on your WordPress site
Reviews are essential for any business, as they help lay the basis of a strong consumer/business relationship. They make your brand appear more trustworthy by enhancing your credibility and acting as social proof, and they have a considerable influence over purchasing decisions.
Given that Yelp is one of the most popular review platforms, it can be a valuable source of feedback for businesses.
It’s extremely widely used, with over 265 million cumulative reviews. As you can see in the infographic below, Yelp attracts all different demographics, too.
It goes without saying, then, that displaying Yelp reviews on your WordPress site can help businesses showcase their customer satisfaction and highlight positive experiences.
The benefits of integrating Yelp reviews
There are many benefits of integrating Yelp reviews into a WordPress site:
- Higher conversion rates: Yelp reviews make it easier for customers to trust your brand, making your business appear more credible. This means they are more likely to buy a product. A recent survey has shown that 92% of consumers will hesitate to make a purchase if they don’t see a customer review.
- Increase user engagement: Reading reviews means that users will likely engage more with your website or content, which in turn can also boost conversions and improve their perception of your brand.
- Improved SEO: Integrating Yelp reviews into your website can also boost your SEO efforts. As such, it could be a great way to ensure your website ranks higher on search engines such as Google.
The WP Review Slider Pro plugin is an easy way to use reviews to your advantage by seamlessly integrating Yelp reviews into your site. Not only that, but you can also use customizable templates, which can help you to improve user engagement.
The impact of Yelp reviews on SEO and user engagement
As we know, Yelp reviews can impact SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). This is because search engines like Google value fresh and relevant content, and user-generated content ticks all the right boxes. They often contain keywords or keyword phrases that can push your website higher in the rankings.
Furthermore, by using all of the features WP Review Slider Pro offers, such as its compatibility with Google rich snippets, you can further enhance your SEO efforts.
Selecting the right plugin for Yelp reviews
If you want to reap the benefits of integrating Yelp reviews into your WordPress site, you must choose the right plugin. After all, this can make the integration process much easier while enhancing your website’s overall functionality!
Ideally, you should look for the following features when choosing a Yelp plugin:
- Easy integration: This simplifies the setup process, as you don’t have to learn the art of coding, or shortcodes, to feature reviews on your website.
- Customizable display options: A good Yelp plugin will allow you to present your reviews or review widgets in the most appealing and eye-catching ways, alongside ensuring that they blend in with the rest of your website design.
- Review filtering: You should look for features to filter out negative or specific reviews so that only positive customer reviews and feedback are presented on your website.
- Multi-language support: A good reviews plugin should automatically translate reviews that are written in different languages so that reviews are accessible.
- Automatic updates: This ensures that the latest reviews are always displayed on your site.
Introducing WP Review Slider Pro
WP Review Slider Pro provides all of the key features you’re looking for when integrating Yelp Reviews into your WordPress site. In addition to easily retrieving and displaying reviews, other features include:
- Customizable templates/widgets
- Display options
- Review notifications and analytics
- Google rich snippets compatibility
WP Review Slider Pro enables you to filter reviews based on length, rating, and source page. This enables you to easily manage customer feedback, ensuring only positive reviews find their way onto your site.
It’s easy to use, whether you’d like to automatically import reviews, add them manually, or sync them with WooCommerce reviews to further heighten your credibility. The plugin uses the WordPress Cron system to keep reviews up to date on your behalf, so you don’t have to check in and update them yourself.
If you’re looking to generate more reviews, you can also embed the form submission feature into your site, which makes it easier to ask for and gather testimonials with specific information.
WP Review Slider Pro can retrieve reviews from over 90 other platforms, including Google, Trustpilot, Amazon, and Facebook.
A step-by-step guide to embedding Yelp reviews in WordPress
When using a robust plugin, it’s easier than ever to integrate Yelp reviews onto your WordPress site. Let’s take a look at how it works with WP Review Slider Pro.
- Download the WP Review Slider Pro plugin from the website.
- Go to your WordPress dashboard, and select Plugins from the sidebar, then select Upload.
- Upload and then install the WP Review Slider Pro plugin’s .zip file.
- Activate the plugin by entering your license key.
- Select the ‘WP Reviews Pro’ page, which should now be featured on your Dashboard, and go to your configuration settings.
- Select Get Reviews > Add Review Source Site and select the Yelp platform.
- Input the Yelp URL.
Once you’ve followed the above steps, you’ll be able to begin embedding Yelp reviews into your website. You’ll also be able to use the filtering tools shown below to ensure you’re putting your best foot forward when it comes to featuring reviews on your website.
For example, you can filter reviews by rating, length, or review type. This way, the best reviews will be featured on your website, as opposed to negative reviews.
Managing your Yelp reviews effectively
As mentioned above, well-managed reviews can enhance your company’s reputation, improve customer trust, and, perhaps most importantly, improve your bottom line.
The review filtering feature will enable you to showcase specific reviews that best represent your brand. If using a star rating system, you can choose to only feature reviews of four stars or above on your website.
You can also use this tool to ensure the latest reviews are featured on your site, which means customers don’t feel as though you’re using dated testimonials to sell them new products.
However, it’s also essential that you monitor reviews carefully. While filtering tools can be used to ensure that positive reviews are featured on your site, you should not disregard negative reviews entirely.
Responding to negative reviews (and offering a solution) can repair the damaged relationship with your customers and boost your reputation quite considerably.
WP Review Slider Pro’s additional features can also be useful to help businesses best use views to their advantage. The automated review notifications and review analytics features can help you stay on top of your reviews, ensuring all feedback is taken on board.
This, in turn, means you’re able to make enhanced decisions on how you can improve your online and in-person reputation.
Enhance your website with Yelp reviews today
In short, integrating Yelp online reviews onto your website can:
- Boost your SEO efforts and search engine ranking
- Increase user engagement on your website
- Improve user perception of your brand
- Build trust between your brand and customers
- Boost your sales conversions
However, it’s important that you’re able to effectively manage the Yelp reviews featured on your site. You don’t want negative or outdated reviews to feature prominently on product landing pages, as this would hardly encourage consumers to buy something.
This task is again made easy through the use of a plugin like WP Review Slider Pro, as not only can it seamlessly integrate reviews into your WordPress site, but the plugin’s comprehensive features mean that the process of managing reviews is easy and efficient.
If you’d like to take the first step toward leveraging Yelp reviews in order to grow or strengthen your business, try out WP Review Slider Pro today.
