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How To Remove Businesses on Yelp Listings

Yelp is one of the most popular online review platforms, with over 200 million monthly visitors. As a business owner, having your business listed on Yelp can be very beneficial for gaining visibility and acquiring new customers. However, you may wish to remove your business from Yelp for various reasons. Unfortunately, it is not possible to completely delete a business listing from Yelp [1].

Here is what you need to know about removing businesses on Yelp:

Why You May Want To Remove Your Business From Yelp

There are a few common reasons business owners may want to remove their Yelp listing:

  • You are receiving a large volume of spam calls and want them to stop
  • You have relocated, closed down, or rebranded your business
  • You want a fresh start due to consistently poor reviews
  • A competitor maliciously created a listing without your consent

Steps To Try and Limit Your Business’s Presence

While Yelp does not allow business accounts to be deleted, there are some steps you can take to reduce your visibility:

Temporarily Close Your Business Listing

  • Log into your Yelp business account and select “Edit Business Info”
  • Choose the “Temporary Closed” option to signal your business is not operating[1].

This will communicate to users that you are not open.

Unclaim Your Business Page

  • Visit the business account closure page at http://www.yelp.com/support/contact/business_unclaim[2].
  • Enter your business name and location details.
  • Confirm you want to unclaim the page.

Unclaiming means you will no longer have access to manage the page, but it will still be publicly visible.

Alternative Option: Pursue Legal Action

Some business owners have successfully gotten court orders for Yelp to remove listings by filing lawsuits and citing reasons like defamation, trademark infringement etc[3].

However, legal action can be expensive, time-consuming and still not guaranteed to work. Consult an attorney to see if you have grounds for a case.

Tips To Improve Your Yelp Presence

Rather than removing your listing altogether, focus on improving your reputation by:

  • Responding professionally to all reviews – Customers appreciate personal responses[4].
  • Encouraging happy customers to post reviews – This can offset negative feedback.
  • Offering promotions – Entice customers to visit and have a positive experience.
  • Keeping all business info updated – Accurate nitty-gritty details improve SEO and credibility.
  • Adding photos and menus – Visuals make pages more engaging and informative[5].

The more complete and accurate your Yelp page, the better it will rank in local search results[5]. A strong presence is better than no presence at all.

While deleting a Yelp business listing is very difficult, there are tactics you can try to downplay your visibility, defend your reputation, or pursue legal removal as a last resort. The most effective approach is to actively improve the customer experience and your page’s content.

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