25+ Groundbreaking Yelp Statistics to Make 2024 Count

Hello there, business owners, Yelpers or simply curious minds!

Let’s talk Yelp today! The platform that allows people to review small and local businesses, which is now competing with the giants on the market TripAdvisor (for statistics on that one, go here), Google Reviews, and Facebook.

We dug deeper into some Yelp statistics from the last couple of years that highlight the influence of customer reviews on business.

Social media presence, in general, is essential for all businesses. That said, acknowledging customers’ opinions, in particular, is a powerful strategy to grow your audience.

Our goal – to help you notice some emerging trends from the clustered Yelp facts below.

Shall we start with some fascinating bits and pieces of data and turn them into stories?

Here Are Some Most Fascinating Yelp Facts:

• With 184 million reviews worldwide, Yelp helps millions of consumers see which businesses are available in their area and how each one has performed for their clients
• Yelp.com is the 44th most visited website in the US according to Alexa
• Yelp boasts an average of 92 million unique mobile users per month
• Yelp has more than 178 million unique visitors monthly across mobile, desktop and app platforms
• Up to 9% increase in revenue for every new star earned on Yelp
• 45% of customers are likely to check Yelp reviews before visiting a business
• 35% of people searching on Yelp will make a visit to the site they check within 24 hours

Digital PR is starkly powerful today – as many as 97% of people will read local businesses reviews before giving them a shot. We need to be out there and not just listen to consumer feedback, but also adapt to it. While acknowledging positive reviews is the obvious step toward building a good reputation for your business, negative ones are not to be dismissed either.

When users are reading your reviews, negative comments will attract attention as a magnet. So it is important that you reply to any complaints, as consumers will closely examine your reaction before hitting the ‘Buy Now’ button or stopping by your place.

Let’s dive deep into the Yelp factsheet.

1. With 184 million reviews worldwide, Yelp helps millions of consumers see which businesses are available in their area and how they rate compared to their competitors.

(Source: Thryv)

• A Yelp Nielsen study reveals that 92% of the users make a purchase after visiting the platform. Talk about the importance of the word of mouth marketing!
• The Yelp restaurants category continues to receive the greatest number of reviews on Yelp – 49% of all reviews combined.
• Interestingly enough, 75% of the Gen-Z have never written a Yelp review (for more info on this group, check this out).
• Most reviewed local businesses in 2018 fall into the Restaurants category (19%) closely followed by Shopping and Home & local services’ categories.

Yelp review sites are not only intended for restaurants and shopping reviews – hotel owners can also find them really helpful. 78% of all hotel-related searches on Yelp are non-brand related. Getting a premium position is really what you would need to attract more visitors to your business.

2. Yelp.com is the 44th most visited website in the US according to Alexa.

(Source: Alexa)

• The global Yelp traffic puts yelp.com in a leading position in its niche followed by whitepages.com and yellowpages.com.
• 4 out of 5 Yelp users are ready to buy when attempting to visit a Yelp page.
• With 145 million unique visitors per month as of March 2016, Yelp ranks as one of the go-to sites for finding information on local businesses.

How do you decide which review platform to use? There are dozens of Yelp competitors out there. Do your homework and search for the top industry listings in your area. Consider creating a profile in at least a few of the top results from your search. Most importantly, make sure people can find you with ease.

3. Yelp boasts an average of 92 million unique mobile users per month.

(Source: WordStream)

• 37 million unique mobile users per month accessing the Yelp mobile app for the second quarter of 2019.
• 80% of all searches and 76% of all ad clicks on Yelp made via mobile devices.
• As of June 2019, 72% of all new Yelp reviews were submitted via mobile devices.

Most of the traffic to the platform comes from the mobile version of the website or via desktop users. Yelp’s mobile app makes no exception from the overall trend – the mobile traffic curve is steadily going up and replacing desktop traffic. In 2018, 50% of all internet traffic came via mobile apps.

The Yelp app download stats in Google Play Store alone count over 10 million installs. Apps have become powerful lately.

4. Yelp has more than 178 million unique visitors monthly across mobile and desktop.

(Source: QSR Magazine)

• 77 million unique users per month accessing the Yelp platform via the mobile-optimized website and 62 million – via desktop.
• USA visitors account for 90% of all visitors to the website for the last 30 days.
• As of September 2018, Yelp claims they have 171 million reviews and 69 million monthly desktop users.

While it is true that visitors use the desktop and the mobile Yelp websites more than the mobile app, there’s an emerging trend here. With half of the global internet traffic coming from mobile apps and millions of app downloads, it is a matter of time for Yelp’s mobile app to take the lead.

5. Businesses see an up to 9% increase in revenue for every new star earned on Yelp.

(Source: ReviewTrackers)

• 846.8 million USD net revenue achieved in 2017, representing 19% growth over 2016.
• Primarily, revenue is generated by the sale of advertising on the website and mobile app to businesses – 91% for 2017 and 97% for 2018.
• By Dec 2018 businesses claimed about 5 million business listing pages on Yelp.
• 942 million USD net revenue achieved in 2018, representing 11% growth over 2017.

6. 45% of customers are likely to check Yelp reviews before visiting a business.

(Source: ReviewTrackers)

• Excellent reviews account for 50% of all reviews in 2019, while 1-star ratings – for 16%.
• 70% of all reviews for 2019 are Recommended and 22% – Not Recommended.
• 7% of all submitted reviews for 2018 has been removed from Yelp as per the company Removal of Reviews policy.

Are you still wondering why you need those reviews?

44% of local businesses say they depend on social media to generate brand awareness, and 41% depend on it to drive revenue. So, if you need to be visible to a certain audience, if you need to raise the popularity of your services. If you need people to talk about you, then you know what to do.

Get on social media, consider key platforms such as Yelp and embrace those reviews – all of them! Negative and positive – it all counts!

7. 35% of people searching on Yelp will make a visit to the site they check within 24 hours.

(Source: Vivial)

• Visitors spend 3.39 min per day on Yelp’s page.
• Yelp users with a well established social profile are 10 times more prolific in terms of the number of submitted reviews, compared to anonymous reviewers.

There are some new features introduced by Yelp in the last 12 months. Let’s look into some of them:

• A Portfolio allows businesses to showcase projects that they work on and build customer trust.
• A Verified Licence on a business page profile increases customer engagement in terms of clicks, calls, and reviews.
• The Business Highlight functionality allows businesses to choose from over 30 highlights such as vegan-friendly, pets-friendly, number of years in the business, etc.

And the diamond in the crown – the Personalization feature, introduced in Aug 2019. The feature is oriented towards yelpers and allows them to specify their favorite foods, activities, and lifestyle preferences. The application updates in real-time.

Digital PR is having an enormous impact on us as consumers on one side and as providers of services on the other. The bottom line is you need to be out there on social media as much as possible.

Wrap Up

After all the mentioned Yelp facts, we hope that by now you feel comfortable taking advantage of the Yelp effect on business. Whether you are a small shoe store owner, a local restaurant owner, or a coffee corner holder in your town, acknowledging customers’ reviews and experiences will make a difference. Sharing one’s viewpoint not only empowers people but also keeps businesses constantly improving.

As business owners, we hope these Yelp statistics will help you identify key tendencies about what drives customers’ satisfaction. That way you can deliver those top-notch services and tilt the revenue curve up.

As fellow yelpers, we hope that your feedback gets appreciated as we all know that the customer is king after all!

See you soon!