Since Yelp was founded in 2014, more than 53 million reviews have been posted on the website, making it hard for businesses to ignore. Yelp has always relied on the local content contributed by businesses and reviewers, and their new redesign and partnership allows for easier access to the best parts of the service.
The company recently announced a site-wide redesign, aimed at highlighting user-generated content and making basic information easy to find. The business pages in particular received a complete overhaul. Because photos are key to both businesses and consumers, Yelp placed 6 large photos at the top of the business listing.
Business pages also now feature review highlights, providing a "birds-eye-view" of highly recommended elements of a business. Reviews now receive a more prominent placement on the page, and the reviews are mined to pull out the most important information. As you can see, the new business page is clean and makes it easy to find the most important details including photos, directions, and reviews.
In streamlining their business pages, no detail was too small for Yelp. In redesigning the layout, they adjusted the column width and font size for optimal readability. The company's app is also easier than ever to navigate.
In addition to updating their website, Yelp is also branching out and recently partnered with Yahoo to offer local reviews in search results. Dashburst reports, "It hasn't yet been disclosed whether Yelp details like star ratings will appear in search results, but with search competitor Google offering its ow local star ratings in local search results and integrating Zagat badges of excellence and curated lists into Maps, it only makes sense for Yahoo to display location ratings, too."
The partnership with Yelp is one of a number of recent changes at Yahoo, such as the launch of a Yahoo Smart TV, a News Digest mobile app, and a new ad platform. Yahoo has been seeing some improvement in search in recent months, and hopes joining with Yelp with improve its search offering even further. In August, Yahoo surpassed Google in number of unique visitors for the first time since May 2011, according to comScore.
Yelp is one of the largest review databases online, and partnering with Yahoo is expected to benefit both companies. With over 120 million unique visitors each month, Yelp needs to continually optimize its presence and grow its reach to retain their position as a top review website.