Did you know there are more than 163 million reviews on Yelp? Or how about the fact that Yelp generates an average of 72 million monthly mobile web unique visitors?

With statistics like these, you can’t turn a blind eye as a business owner. Instead, you need to embrace the power of Yelp, as the reviews your company receives can be the difference between sustained success and immediate failure.

Yelp reviews impact your business in many ways. Generally speaking, it all comes down to rating distribution.

If the majority of your ratings are positive, past and potential customers are more likely to visit you in the future.

Conversely, if the majority of your ratings leave something to be desired, it can begin to drag down your business.

According to Yelp, rating distributions are as follows:

• 5 stars: 48 percent
• 4 stars: 20 percent
• 3 stars: 9 percent
• 2 stars: 7 percent
• 1 star: 16 percent

While nearly half of the ratings are of 5 star distinction, approximately 1/3 are 3 stars or less.

How to Generate More Positive Yelp Reviews

Over time, you can be rest assured your customers will leave reviews on Yelp. Your job is to help generate as many of these as possible, all with the idea of keeping your average rating score near five stars.

Here are some things you can do to help your cause:

1. Provide Top of the Line Service

While there are other things that go into an online review, customer service typically plays a big part.

When you focus on providing top of the line service, even during a bad experience, it improves the likelihood of a positive (or neutral) review.

2. Just Ask

You aren’t permitted to tell customers what to say, but there’s nothing wrong with asking them to leave a review.

Explain why it’s important, what you’re looking for, and how positive reviews impact your business for the better. From there, you can sit back and hope for the best.

Tip: ask friends and family to jumpstart your Yelp business page.

3. Use Signage

Depending on your industry, it can be difficult to personally and consistently ask customers to provide a Yelp review.

In this case, you can do two things:

• Place a Yelp badge on your website
• Display a “Find us on Yelp” sign in a prominent place

When you do these things you’re letting customers know that you’re on Yelp, and that you’re welcome to their feedback.

For more insights on marketing strategy that actually works for small business, subscribe to the FreshLime Newsletter here. Connect with Jay Bean, Founder of FreshLime and Small Business Marketing Expert on LinkedIn and Twitter. And last of all, if any of these tips have helped you or if you have anything to add please comment below. We’d love to hear from you!