Hundreds of millions of reviews are posted on Yelp, and our automated recommendation software works in the background to showcase the reviews that it determines are most helpful. These are typically written by active members of the Yelp community who are self-motivated to share their personal, detailed experiences about local businesses. It applies the same objective rules to reviews of every business and treats reviews of advertisers and non-advertisers exactly the same.

The software does something no human can—regularly analyze billions of data points from all reviews, reviewers and businesses to evaluate the usefulness and reliability of each review. It’s engineered to provide a level playing field for all businesses on Yelp. Having a great reputation on Yelp shouldn’t be about who has the time and resources to ask the most people to write reviews. Great Yelp reviews and ratings should come from consumers who had a great experience that they’re inspired to tell others about. Learn more here.