Free while in beta
A hand-checked report on where you rank in Yelp search.
Tell us the business and the search terms that bring you work. A person on our team checks each position by hand and sends the report back, usually within a day or so. No tool to learn, no login, no software to buy.
Usually back within a day
| Search term | Organic | Paid slots | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| emergency plumber | 3 | 4 | Up 4 |
| water heater repair | 5 | 6 | Held |
| drain cleaning near me | 2 | 3 | Up 2 |
| slab leak detection | 9 | 5 | Up 5 |
Slab leak detection sits below five competitors who all name the service on their page. Yours does not.
How it works
- You send the business and the terms Your Yelp page and the searches that actually bring you work. Three to five terms is usually the right number.
- A person checks each position We run each search the way a client would and record what is on the page, organic and sponsored. It is done by hand because that is the only way to see the page as it really appears.
- The report usually arrives within a day One page, plain language, with a short note on what we would look at first. You are welcome to take it to any agency, including not us.
What the report shows
Column one
Your organic position
Where your page sits in the unpaid results for that term, counted from the top of the list. One number, checked the way a client would see it.
Column two
How much of the page is paid
The count of sponsored slots occupying that page. Sponsored positions move on nearly every search, so we count them rather than rank them, and the count is what informs a budget decision.
Column three
Change since your last report
Ask for a second report later and every term carries what it was last time, so movement is visible without a chart or a login.
Under the table sits a short note in plain language naming the first thing we would change. That note is written by the person who ran the searches, not generated.
Reference
Do Yelp rankings vary by location?
Organic Yelp results do not vary by where the searcher is standing. A search for a plumber in Minneapolis returns the same organic list whether it is run from Minneapolis or from Tucson, because the location is a field in the search rather than a signal read from the device. That is the opposite of Google, where local results are personalised to the searcher, and it is the reason a single hand-checked position means something on Yelp and means very little on Google.
Organic results
Consistent, so position is worth recording
The same term and the same location produce the same organic order for everyone. One check is a real reading, and two checks a month apart are a real comparison. This is why the report can be a page of numbers rather than a range.
Sponsored results
Shifting, so we count them instead
Paid slots rotate on nearly every search, so a sponsored position is not a number worth tracking. What is worth knowing is how much of the page is paid. Four sponsored slots above you is a different decision from one, and it is the honest way to weigh advertising against organic work.
What this does not do
It does not improve your ranking
The report tells you where you stand. Moving that position is a separate piece of work on the profile, the categories and the reviews.
It does not monitor your reviews
Positions only. New reviews, review responses and the filter are a different job and need watching more often than this.
It is not daily or weekly tracking yet
Each report is checked by a person, so it is a snapshot you request rather than a feed that runs. Ask for a second one whenever you want the comparison.
Request a reportCommon questions
Is the report really free?
Yes, free while it is in beta. Someone here checks the positions by hand, so there is a real cost to us and a limit to how many we can run in a week. We do it because a business that sees its own numbers usually has a better conversation with us afterwards, whether or not it ends in work.
Do Yelp results vary depending on where the searcher is?
Organic results do not. A search for a given service in a given city returns the same organic order whether it is run from that city or from across the country, because the location is typed into the search rather than read from the device. Sponsored slots are the exception: they rotate on nearly every search, which is why we count them rather than rank them.
How does Yelp rank my business?
Reviews do most of the work. Yelp weighs relevance to the search and distance from the searched location, but among businesses that are relevant and close, the ones with more reviews, and with reviews arriving steadily rather than in a burst two years ago, sit higher. Volume, recency and rating all count, and only reviews that pass Yelp's filter count at all. Everything else is table stakes: complete categories and services, accurate hours and service areas, photos. Advertising buys sponsored slots, not a better organic position.
Does it track my reviews too?
No. The report covers search positions only. Reviews need watching far more often than a requested snapshot allows, and they are handled as reputation work rather than folded in here.
Why does a Yelp ranking matter if I already rank on Google?
Because they are different audiences at different moments. Yelp visitors are usually comparing several businesses before contacting any of them, and 74 million people use it each month. A business can be first on Google and invisible on Yelp to the person who is about to choose between three names.
Can I get tracking more often than one report?
Ask for another report whenever you want one and each term will carry its previous number. Scheduled daily or weekly tracking does not exist yet. When it does we will say so here rather than describe it before it is real.
Free while in beta
Request your ranking report
A person checks every position by hand, so the report usually comes back within a day or so on business days. No account, no card, no follow-up sequence.