Yelp help

We here at SN&R have written about Yelp on numerous occasions (see “The Yelp factor” by Nick Miller, SN&R Feature Story March 20, 2014 and my essay “How I learned to hate Yelp,” SN&R May 8, 2014). Now, it's time to highlight someone else's writing about the (sometimes ethically questionable) review website. Josh Rubin, who runs a local web development and Internet marketing business called Creative California, recently emailed us an essay he published called “Our Guide for Telling Yelp to Shove It” (www.creativecali.com/dealing-with-yelp/). It brings up a few points SN&R has already touched upon (how Yelp's quite useful for finding stuff, but may be legally extorting businesses). It's also a good resource for business owners who want to learn how to respond to reviewers and Yelp salespeople in a professional manner. Personally, I think there's another good way to respond to Yelpers, which is through sarcasm and humor, as the owner of Asian Cafe demonstrated last year (Yes, we wrote about that, too, in a June 6, 2013 SN&R blog post titled “Best restaurant response to a nasty Yelp review ever!”).