Back to all directories
High GEO/AEO relevance Global Free to list

Yelp

Yelp is one of the world's most influential local business review platforms — and a primary data source AI engines rely on when recommending local businesses, from restaurants and salons to plumbers and dentists.

Visit Yelp →

Founded

2004

Headquarters

San Francisco, California, USA

Domain Authority

DA 93

Category

General Review Platforms

Pricing

Free tier available

What is Yelp?

Since 2004, Yelp has been the go-to platform for local business reviews in the United States and increasingly worldwide. With over 265 million cumulative reviews covering millions of businesses across every local service category — restaurants, healthcare, home services, retail, automotive, beauty, fitness and more — Yelp is the most comprehensive source of crowd-sourced local business intelligence on the web.

From a GEO/AEO perspective, Yelp is a foundational platform for local businesses. When someone asks an AI engine "Best Italian restaurant near me", "Reliable plumber in Brooklyn" or "Top-rated dentist in Austin", the AI model draws heavily on Yelp data — star ratings, review count, review content, business categories and service attributes. Yelp's long history, massive review volume and strict review filtering system give it a credibility that AI engines weight heavily. ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini all cite Yelp data regularly in local business recommendations.

Yelp's domain authority (DA 93) means that Yelp business pages rank prominently in search results for local queries, creating high-authority pages that AI engines crawl and reference. The platform's structured business data — categories, hours, price range, service attributes, photos, owner responses — provides precisely the kind of organized, machine-readable information that AI models need to generate specific, confident local recommendations.

Claiming and managing your Yelp business profile is free through Yelp for Business. You can update your business information, respond to reviews, add photos and track page views. Paid options include Yelp Ads for increased visibility and Yelp Reservations or Waitlist for restaurants — but the free profile, kept complete and actively managed, is what drives your AI visibility.

Pricing

Free business profile with full management tools. Yelp Ads available on a pay-per-click basis (budgets starting around $5/day). Premium features like Yelp Reservations for restaurants at additional cost.

Best for

Local businesses of all types — restaurants, healthcare providers, home services, retail shops, salons, auto repair, fitness studios, legal and financial services. Especially critical for businesses serving US customers, where Yelp's influence on AI recommendations is strongest.

AI Visibility Analysis

Why Yelp matters for GEO/AEO

1

DA 93 — one of the highest-authority local business platforms, treated as a primary source by AI engines for local recommendations

2

AI engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini) cite Yelp ratings and reviews as a top source for local business queries

3

265M+ cumulative reviews create a deep consensus signal that AI models treat as highly reliable for local services

4

Yelp's strict review filter adds credibility weight — AI engines recognize filtered reviews as more trustworthy than unfiltered platforms

5

Structured business attributes (hours, price range, service categories, amenities) enable precise matching of AI queries to your business

Frequently asked questions about Yelp

Why is Yelp important for AI visibility?
Yelp is one of the primary data sources AI engines consult for local business recommendations. When someone asks ChatGPT 'best pizza in Chicago' or Perplexity 'reliable electrician in Denver', the AI model draws on Yelp's ratings, review volume and review content to formulate its answer. With a domain authority of 93 and over 265 million reviews, Yelp provides the depth, structure and credibility that AI models need to recommend local businesses with confidence. A strong Yelp profile directly increases your chances of appearing in AI-generated local recommendations.
Is Yelp free for businesses?
Yes. Claiming and managing your Yelp business profile is completely free through Yelp for Business (business.yelp.com). The free profile includes your business listing, the ability to update all business details, respond to reviews, add photos and access basic analytics. Paid options (Yelp Ads, premium profile upgrades, reservation tools) add marketing features but are not required for AI visibility — the free profile is what AI engines crawl and cite.
How does Yelp's review filter affect AI visibility?
Yelp uses an automated recommendation software that filters reviews it considers less reliable — from new accounts, suspected fake reviews or reviews with unusual patterns. While this can be frustrating when legitimate reviews are filtered, it actually strengthens your AI visibility. AI engines recognize Yelp's filtered reviews as higher-quality signals than unfiltered platforms. A 4.5-star rating on Yelp, where reviews are actively filtered for authenticity, carries more weight in AI recommendations than the same rating on a platform with no quality controls.
What should I include on my Yelp business profile?
Complete every field available: accurate business name, full address, phone number, website URL, business hours (including holiday hours), price range, all relevant business categories, service areas, amenities and attributes (Wi-Fi, parking, outdoor seating, etc.), and high-quality photos. AI engines extract structured data from each of these fields. When someone asks an AI 'restaurants with outdoor seating in Portland', the AI checks Yelp attributes. Missing data means missed recommendations.
How do AI engines use Yelp data differently from Google Reviews?
AI engines cross-reference both sources but use them differently. Google Reviews are tied to Google Business Profile and heavily influence Google's own AI features (AI Overviews, SGE). Yelp data is treated as an independent, high-authority third-party signal — particularly strong for detailed service-level insights because Yelp reviews tend to be longer and more descriptive than Google reviews. AI engines often extract specific details from Yelp reviews ('great for date night', 'fast emergency service', 'kid-friendly') that they use to match nuanced user queries. Having strong profiles on both platforms creates the multi-source consensus that AI models need for high-confidence recommendations.

Related directories

Google Business Profile

Google Business Profile is the single most important listing for any business seeking AI visibility — it directly feeds Google's own AI products and serves as the foundational data source that all major LLMs reference when answering questions about local businesses.

View profile →
ProvenExpert

ProvenExpert is a review aggregation platform that consolidates reviews from 300+ sources into a single trust profile — making it one of the most powerful citation-building tools for AI visibility.

View profile →
Trustpilot

Trustpilot is the world's most recognized consumer review platform with over 300 million reviews — and one of the most frequently cited sources by AI engines when recommending businesses.

View profile →
Wikipedia

Wikipedia is the single most influential source in the entire AI visibility landscape — the foundational knowledge base that virtually every large language model was trained on, and the gold standard reference that AI engines cite when establishing entity authority and factual context.

View profile →

Not sure where to list your brand?

Our AI Visibility Intelligence Platform analyzes your citation profile and identifies the directories that will have the most impact on your AI visibility.

Get your AI Visibility Audit Browse all directories