Free to claim, and full of rules that work the opposite of every other platform.
Verified August 2026.
Yelp is worth claiming. It's also the platform where doing the obvious thing gets you in trouble.
On every other listing in the complete setup guide, you upload a logo, ask happy customers for reviews, and check in once a year. On Yelp, the first gets rejected, the second is prohibited, and the third can cost you the listing entirely.
Read the four warnings before you start.
The four things that surprise everyone
1. Do not ask customers for Yelp reviews
Yelp explicitly prohibits soliciting reviews. Its recommendation software also filters reviews it believes were solicited — meaning a burst of positive reviews arriving after you asked can end up hidden, and your effort produces nothing visible.
This is the opposite of Google, which permits and encourages review requests.
What you can do: display a Yelp badge, mention you're on Yelp passively, and provide service worth writing about. What you can't do is ask.
2. Your responder photo must be a face, not a logo
Yelp requires the business representative photo to be a clear, real photograph of the person representing the business. Moderators reject logos, storefronts, group shots, stock photography, and distant or obscured images.
Every other platform in this guide wants your logo. Yelp wants your face.
3. Adding your logo to the page requires paying
The business logo on the page itself is part of Yelp's paid Upgrade Package, not the free tier.
4. A claimed page can revert to unclaimed
Yelp may return your page to unclaimed status if nobody logs into the business account for 90 days.
This is the trap that catches businesses who set everything up properly and then move on. Put a recurring quarterly reminder on the calendar now.
Before you start
- A photograph of the person who will represent the business — clear, well-lit, face filling the frame
- Business name, address, phone, hours, website
- Photos of your business, work, or space
- Your business email
Step 1: Find your existing page
Yelp generates business listings from third-party data, so yours very likely already exists. Search your business name on Yelp.
You are almost certainly claiming, not creating.
If nothing exists, you can add your business — but check thoroughly first, including under old names or a previous address.
Step 2: Claim it
Go to Yelp's business claim page and search for your listing. Yelp verifies you represent the business, usually by phone call or text to the number on file.
If the number on file is wrong — common on unclaimed listings — you'll need to work through Yelp support to establish ownership.
Most new claims are approved within about 24 hours.
Step 3: Complete the page
Business information. Name, address, phone, hours, website — matching your standard NAP.
Categories. Yelp's taxonomy is specific. Choose accurately.
Business description. Yelp doesn't publish a character limit for the "From the Business" section. Draft to roughly 750 characters and check for truncation before saving. (Unconfirmed.)
Specialties, history, and owner bio. Yelp offers several distinct free-text fields. Most businesses fill one and skip the rest. Fill them all — they're indexed and they're what a browsing customer reads.
Attributes. Parking, accessibility, payment methods, appointment requirements. These are search filters, so they affect discoverability.
Service area, if you travel to customers.
Step 4: Photos
| Asset | Specification |
|---|---|
| Photos | Under 8000 × 8000 px, JPG or PNG |
| Responder photo | No published dimension; upload 1080 × 1080 (Unconfirmed) |
| Logo | Requires paid Upgrade Package |
Yelp publishes a maximum but not a recommended size, which is unusual. 1080 × 1080 for the responder photo and 1080 px or wider for business photos will work.
Upload real photos of your space, your team, and your work. Yelp is a visual platform and photo-rich pages substantially outperform bare ones.
Step 5: Understand the review filter
Yelp runs recommendation software that decides which reviews display prominently and which get pushed behind a "not currently recommended" link. Reviews can be filtered for reasons including:
- The reviewer is new or has little activity
- A cluster of reviews arrived at once
- The review appears solicited
- Patterns suggesting inauthenticity
Filtered reviews don't count toward your star rating.
This catches legitimate reviews from real customers routinely, and there is no appeal process. You cannot control it. What you can do is not do the things that trigger it — chiefly, not running a review campaign.
Step 6: Respond to reviews
You can respond publicly or message the reviewer privately.
Respond to negative reviews publicly, calmly, and factually. Prospective customers read responses as closely as reviews, and a measured reply to an unfair review does more good than arguing ever will.
Do not offer anything in exchange for removing or changing a review. Yelp treats that as review manipulation.
If your profession is regulated, your rules on testimonials govern here regardless of platform policy. Medical and dental practices must consider HIPAA before any response acknowledging someone is a patient — including a thank-you, which confirms the relationship.
About the sales calls
Claiming your page generates sales contact from Yelp about advertising. This is expected and you can decline.
Yelp advertising is a separate decision from having a claimed page. The free page is worth having on its own. Evaluate the ads as an ordinary marketing spend, against your actual lead flow.
Common problems
Responder photo rejected. It's a logo, a group shot, stock, or too distant. Must be a clear individual face.
Reviews disappeared. The filter. No appeal.
Page reverted to unclaimed. Nobody logged in for 90 days. Re-claim and set a reminder.
Can't claim — verification calls the wrong number. Work through Yelp support with documentation.
Duplicate listings. Claim both, request a merge.
Maintenance
- Quarterly, without fail: log in. This is the one platform where inactivity costs you the listing.
- Monthly: respond to new reviews
- Annually: verify all information and refresh photos
- Immediately: any change of hours, address, or phone
Next steps
That completes Tier 1. From here, either move to data aggregators if your information appears wrong on directories you don't recognize, or start Tier 3 with Instagram, YouTube, Nextdoor, or X.
Full checklist: the complete setup guide.
Verified August 2026 against Yelp documentation and current published sources. Yelp does not publish specifications for several fields; items marked Unconfirmed should be verified against field behavior during setup.