Video Transcript
Hey everyone, Joe Burnich with bigwestmarketing.com, empowering small businesses to take it to the next level. Today we’re going to talk about the difference between marketing on Yelp and marketing on Google. Let’s get started with that right now.
So I had an email from a long-time client, [Don Mudge 00:00:00:34], and Don was asking, “Hey Joe, have you ever done a video on the difference between Yelp marketing and Google marketing?” And I don’t think I ever have. Over the years, I’ve never done that. So, here we go. This is going to be my opinion based on talking with hundreds of different home service-based businesses, business owners over the years, and what they think about Yelp and Google. Of course, we are a Google marketing agency, so I’ve got lots to say based on solid experience with Google. However, Yelp, I’ve never personally marketed on Yelp, I’ve only talked to people who have. So let’s jump right in. Let’s talk about Yelp first.
What I know about Yelp is that I would say 90% of the people that I talked to and Yelp comes into the conversation, they absolutely hate Yelp for different reasons. Either Yelp is like filtering their good reviews and won’t show their good reviews, they’re only showing their bad reviews. That’s a very common one. I’m not sure how Yelp is legally getting away with that, but they do. Another one is you’re not allowed to ask for reviews from Yelp anymore. So like we have an easy five star review system and the company that we partner with to run that, the engine that runs it, absolutely will not request Yelp reviews for you on your behalf because it violates Yelp’s guidelines. So Yelp has all these crazy guidelines and they hide good reviews sometimes, or filter them out.
Another thing is they’ve got some pretty ruthless sales people. So I think they got a team of salespeople, they probably make really good money. And they will lie, they will harass you. From what clients tell me, this is not my opinion, this is what clients are telling me to say, that salespeople will call up and say that there’s 10,000 people looking for water damage services, or plumbing services, or roofing services, whatever it may be on Yelp every month. And they’ll just say whatever they can, whatever they need to say to get your credit card and close the deal. That’s the opinion of a lot of people. And I’ve been called by Yelp salespeople before, and they are… There’s a lot of pressure. They don’t mess around. They’re there to make sales.
So a lot of negativity around Yelp, but on the flip side, if you’re on the West Coast, specifically, the big cities in California, then Yelp is almost a must. Like, you almost have to have Yelp. My friend Deon Bush over in Los Angeles, he’s got a four or five truck carpet cleaning water damage restoration company, and he says he gets calls from Yelp every single day. Now, how does he do that? He doesn’t pay for Yelp ads, he’s not paying for Yelp ads. How is he getting called from Yelp every single day? Well, over the last 10 years he’s put a lot of time and effort into getting Yelp reviews. I think he’s got the second highest number of Yelp reviews in his area. And most of them are very positive reviews because he does good quality work. So he is very dependent on Yelp and he gets jobs. He also hustles and gets jobs in other ways, but Yelp is still one of the main lead sources that he gets for his business.
And I’ve heard other people in areas of California say that around the rest of the country for service businesses… For restaurants Yelp is a big deal everywhere, but for service-based industries it’s not that big in the rest of the country. The bigger cities it’s somewhat big, it’s kind of secondary to Google, but in California, the big cities in California, you got to have it, it’s number one, it beats Google out every time.
Now, let’s talk about Google on the other hand. So, Google is big everywhere. So if you have a service-based business and you really want to get a constant flow of phone calls and leads and jobs, then you need to get up on Google, whether it’s ads, whether it’s SEO, the maps section or the organic section, whatever, Google is still King when it comes to getting fresh new leads, fresh clients, quality leads anyway from the internet.
Now, Google isn’t perfect either, especially now during the coronavirus there’s all kinds of issues that I have with Google. Like, they’re letting a bunch of spammy, fake business listings rank at the top of the maps section. And usually when we go in there and turn them in, report them to Google, then within a week or two, they’re gone. Right now, it’s been a couple months and Google is just kind of ignoring the whole reporting system. As you’d probably know, their reviews system was down for a while, they weren’t displaying new reviews, so it’s back up. And they keep making changes that just don’t necessarily work for service-based businesses.
So kind of like a necessary evil, you need to have Google anywhere in the country or Canada or any English speaking country. You need to have Google. You need to be up there in Google. That’s where you’re going to get the most jobs, but it comes with some drawbacks, which I’ve just mentioned. So, the big question here is Yelp versus Google. Okay? So, you don’t want to… If I was like Los Angeles and I had a service-based business, I would do both Yelp and Google. But if I was in, let’s say, I don’t know St. Louis, Missouri, I would probably just focus on Google. I’d have Yelp, have it set up, but I wouldn’t worry about it, I wouldn’t put a lot of time and energy into Yelp. I’d put most of my time and energy into Google.
So, geography does matter when it comes to deciding on Google and Yelp, which one’s better, but that’s just my opinion. Now, a lot of people will have other opinions, and maybe some people out there absolutely love Yelp. Just the majority of people I talk to you don’t. A lot of people absolutely love Google. I love Google. I get a lot of my work just from people finding me on Google. Does Google piss me off sometimes? Absolutely. Are they pissing me off currently? Absolutely. But it’s still a great way to get more jobs.
So once again, my name is Joe Burnich. I just wanted to give you my opinion based on a question that I had from a long-time client. And let me know what you think. If you’re getting this in an email, let me know, reply to the email, let me know. If you’re watching this on YouTube just put some comments below, I’d love to hear what you have to say about it. And if you have any questions or if you’d like to get a free consultation regarding SEO, Google ranking, web design, any of that kind of marketing, then please give us a call, 406-493-1881 or visit our website, and you can book right there, online, book a call, and that’s bigwestmarketing.com. So once again, I am Joe Burnich and I will talk to you soon.
