The Ultimate Showdown: Google Reviews vs. Yelp - Which Reigns Supreme?

According to a recent survey by Power Reviews, 99.5% of consumers research purchases online at least sometimes and nearly 87% do so regularly or always. In the same survey, 93% of shoppers say ratings and reviews impact whether or not they purchase a product.

Reviews can not only impact what products consumers buy — they can also impact where they go to dinner, stay on vacation, get their hair cut, and a whole range of other decisions. 

Businesses can use online reviews to attract new customers and also build trust and loyalty with existing ones. Using a tool like Podium’s reviews tool can help simplify the process of managing an online reputation and customer interactions, particularly for small businesses.

Now that you understand the importance of having reviews, let’s compare two popular review sites to help you decide where to focus your efforts.

Yelp

What is Yelp?

Yelp is a popular online platform and mobile application that publishes crowd-sourced reviews about businesses.

The main purpose of Yelp is to help people discover and connect with local businesses. Users can make informed decisions about where to spend their time and money based on reviews submitted by other members of the Yelp community. Businesses, in turn, can use Yelp to showcase their products and services and connect with potential and existing customers. 

How does Yelp work?

The process for using Yelp to find, review, and interact with local businesses or promote your own is simple.

Using either the Yelp website or mobile app, users can search for businesses by entering keywords related to the type of business or service they’re looking for, like “Italian restaurant” or “hair cut,” plus their location. Yelp will display a list of businesses matching your search criteria, which users can further refine using filters like distance, price range, and categories. They can then click on a listing to find out more details about the business.

Users with a Yelp account can also leave a review, which must include a brief description that’s at least 85 characters and a rating from 1 to 5 stars and can include photos. Users can also like, comment on, and share reviews by others and label them as “useful,” “funny,” or “cool.”  They can bookmark businesses, follow them to get updates and notifications about special offers or events, message them, and may even be able to make reservations or appointments or place online orders if applicable. 

As a business, you can set up a profile on Yelp and display important information, like your phone number, services offered, location, hours of operations, and review highlights. You can also respond to reviews as well as messages that customers send asking about pricing or other information not found on your listing.

Yelp Pros and Cons 

Before deciding whether Yelp is right for your business, take a look at some of the disadvantages and advantages of using it as a review platform below.

Cons

• Hidden genuine reviews: Yelp uses recommendation software, which moves any reviews it deems less reliable to a separate “Not Recommended” section of a business’s Yelp page. This may result in genuine reviews being hidden (although they are still accessible).
• Can get bad reviews even if you didn’t set up your business listing: Your business can be listed by someone else and start accruing reviews whether you claim it or not. This can damage your online reputation if you get bad reviews.  

Pros

• An engaged user community: Yelp has several built-in features to encourage user engagement as well as community ambassadors to cultivate an active community of elite users to frequently post reviews. 
• Recommended reviews: Yelp uses software to evaluate reviews based on how long the user has been using Yelp, how active the user is, and how much Yelp knows about the user and then selects some to be “recommended” as high quality, trustworthy reviews that were most likely written by real people.

Google Reviews

What are Google Reviews?

Google Reviews are user-generated reviews and ratings about businesses, places, or services that are posted on Google’s platform. They are part of Google’s broader offering for local businesses, known as Google My Business, and appear next to a business’s profile in both Google Maps and Search.

How do Google Reviews work?

To leave reviews on Google, users must search and locate the business listing and then rate the business on a scale from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). Users can include a description as well as photos and videos and also answer a series of questions, including whether they used the business and what service(s) they got. 

When looking at business listings, users can sort and filter reviews based on various criteria, such as the most recent, highest-rated, or lowest-rated reviews. They can also mark reviews as helpful or flag them for violations of Google’s review policies. 

When users look up a specific business or location on Google Maps or in search results, Google Reviews are displayed prominently alongside information like business name, address, and contact information. As a result, they can play a significant role in attracting customers to local businesses. Google Reviews are also one factor that can influence a business’s position in local search results. Positive reviews and high ratings can boost a business’s visibility and ultimately drive more website and foot traffic to your business.

Google Reviews Pros and Cons

Before deciding whether Google Reviews is right for your business, take a look at some of the disadvantages and advantages of using it as a review platform below.

Cons

• Susceptibility to spam and fake reviews: Since reviewers don’t have to leave a comment with their rating and anyone with a Google account can leave a review, you’re more susceptible to getting spam or fake reviews on Google. 
• Limited options for removing fake reviews: If your business is getting fake or biased reviews, the only option is to report them — and it’s notoriously difficult to get Google to remove reviews once they’re live. 

Pros

• Local ranking factor: Since Google reviews are also a ranking factor, positive reviews can help your business listing rank higher in local results on Google Maps and Search.
• Higher volume of reviews: Since Google’s monthly user base is in the millions and there are very few steps required to leave a review, businesses are more likely to collect a higher volume of reviews than on other review sites.  

Yelp vs Google Reviews: Which One Is Better?

To help you decide whether Yelp or Google Reviews is better for your business, we’ve evaluated each based on key factors like user base, review authenticity, and business exposure.

User base: Google

If you’re looking to reach the most users locally, then opt for Google. According to BrightLocal’s 2023 Local Consumer Review Survey, 87% of people used Google to research local businesses in 2022, up from 81% in 2021. Only 48% said they used Yelp, which decreased from 53% in 2021. 

Review authenticity: Yelp

Both companies have policies that prohibit the creation and posting of fake reviews as well as solicited reviews and unfairly biased reviews (like reviews that may be written about a competitor or someone’s own business). They also have automated detections systems and teams of human operators and analysts to help detect and review any policy-violating content. 

Yelp seems to have a more comprehensive approach to protecting the integrity of reviews and more robust punitive measures in place for violators, which makes it the ideal choice if you prioritize review authenticity. For example, Yelp’s user operations team investigates any issues raised by a community member, a business owner, or its own automated system as well as any fraudulent activity. After investigating abnormal activity, this team might apply a Consumer Alert and temporarily disable the ability to post reviews.  Additionally, violators may have their illegitimate reviews or business listings removed, get a search ranking penalty, get banned from advertising for at least one year, and be monitored for repeat violations. 

User intent: Yelp

While some consumers use Google to simply conduct research or learn more about a product or service, they rarely do on Yelp. So if you’re looking for high-intent users, you may want to focus on optimizing your Yelp profile. 92% of consumers who use consumer online review sites say they made a purchase after visiting Yelp at least sometimes, frequently or almost always and 79% of them make that purchase within a week.

Take Your Small Business to the Next Level With Podium

With Podium, your small businesses can more easily increase its monthly review volume, manage its online reputation, and improve customer communications by automating review invites, responding quickly to customers with AI-powered response suggestions, and managing your reputation across multiple review sites—all on one easy-to-use dashboard.

If you’re looking to enhance your online presence and attract more customers, learn more about Podium. 

FAQs

Q: Are Google Reviews better than Yelp?

A: Google Reviews aren’t inherently better than Yelp, but they may be a better choice for your business if your primary goal is to reach the largest local audience, generate reviews quickly, or improve your local ranking. 

Q: Do people use Yelp or Google Reviews more?

A: Looking at market share, people use Google Reviews more than Yelp. According to Review Trackers, Google dominates the online review market at 73%. Yelp is second but only accounts for 6%.

Q: Is Google Reviews trustworthy?

A: While Google uses automated spam detection measures to remove reviews that are probably spam and can remove reviews that are reported as violating Google’s policies, they have limitations in combating fake or inaccurate reviews so you can’t trust them all as genuine.