Yelp Introduces Business Page Upgrades

Yelp, the company that connects people with local businesses, has released business page upgrades to help businesses stand out and attract new customers. The company is rolling out new paid products, Business Highlights, Portfolio, and Verified License, which provide businesses with greater control over how they promote themselves to potential customers.

Yelp is introducing these upgrades to address pain points specific to local businesses, such as how to establish trust with potential customers, differentiate their businesses by highlighting what makes them unique, and showcase the work that customers can expect.

"Yelp has always been a place for consumers to discover hard-working business owners who've earned their great reputation over the years," said Vivek Patel, Yelp's chief product officer, in a statement. "With these new business page upgrades, we're making a commitment to helping the entire business owner community, especially those who are newer to the platform, address key pain points by giving them the tools to stand out and acquire new customers."

Business owners can now customize their page with these new upgrades:

• Business Highlights: For only $2 a day (or $1 a day if purchased along with search ads) businesses choose up to six badges to showcase unique attributes to consumers and pick two badge icons to appear in their search results listing on Yelp. Businesses can select from more than 30 highlights, from vegetarian-friendly to number of years in operation.
• Portfolio: For $2 a day, Portfolio helps businesses build consumer trust and attract new clients by showing them the quality of work they can expect, while also getting more relevant inquiries from potential customers. Businesses can showcase the types of projects and quality of their work through images accompanied by custom descriptions, which allow them to explain their approach and price range to set expectations with consumers.
• Yelp Verified License: Launched earlier this year, this feature is indicated by a blue shield with a check mark to identify businesses with valid trade licenses. After 30 days of having a Verified License badge on their business page, businesses saw a meaningful increase in consumer engagement on Yelp, including clicks, calls, and map views. To become verified, businesses must apply through Yelp, which manually verifies each license. Verified License is available to qualified businesses for $1 a day on average within specific categories in certain states.