Yelp is a source of aggravation, but it doesn't have to be. The best way to lessen the death grip Yelp seems to have on your ratings and ranking in Google is to get MORE ratings on OTHER review sites and get ratings and content ON YOUR SITE.
Step 4: Drive More Reviews to Other Rating Sites - Getting reviews on websites like Healthgrades, Vitals, and RateMDs causes a shift to occur that Yelp doesn't like, but Google does. You want more reviews on other rating sites, as well as your own website, in order to move them UP on the page, and push Yelp DOWN the page. The lower the listing is, the less clicks and influence a rating site has. In a recent study (http://bit.ly/gclik), 71.3% of searches result in a page one Google link click. Pages 2 and 3 account for only 5.6%. This reinforces the saying "The best place to hide a dead body is on page 3 of Google search results". The first through third position links account for 55% of all clicks. Push Yelp down to fourth or lower, or even off the first page of search results, and Yelp is no longer a problem. But to do this, you've got to light a fire under other review sites and get them to crawl up higher on the page when people search for you.
Google looks at all websites and measures them based on a wide variety of factors - how long has the site been around, how frequent is the change (i.e. new content) and how many people link to the site, etc. This gives a general score called "PageRank". Google uses this to position sites within its search engine results. If that was the only measurement Google used, you'd be hosed in your attempts to push Yelp off the page. Website movement would rarely change, searches would slow down, businesses would fold, economies would collapse, and we'd all plummet into the next ice age.
But, luckily, Google looks at a few other factors that make rating site movement within search results page possible: does the website look more authoritative about YOU? Yelp is powerful and is a trusted site by Google. But if patients are talking more frequently about you on Healthgrades, etc., then those sites (also trusted and powerful) will move higher. Second, are other sites about you pointing at those sites? Consider this: the most authoritative site about you should be your practice website. Its all about you and has multiple pages with your name on it. If you are a hospital employee, you may be at a disadvantage of sorts because hospital sites are behemoths and you usually only get one page on the beast. If this is you, you should strongly consider supplementing with your own web presence.
Assuming you have the ability to modify your practice site, you should immediately place the Healthgrades, Vitals, and RateMDs badges on your website, ideally on your bio page. This links your website (authoritative source about you) to review sites you choose to give credibility. Next, make a few tweaks on your bio page to ensure Google sees your page as authoritative about you. Check to see if your bio page has a title element (the little tab at the top of your browser) that reflects your title as: Dr. Your Name, MD - City, State - Orthopedic surgeon. This is the exact structure most review sites use, and Google appreciates the localization and categorization provided. Ensure that your full name is used multiple times in your bio and reference cities and towns you practice in. Finally, have your web developers drop in rich data schema that identifies you as a doctor. This last bit is technical and will keep your developers on their toes. The point of these changes is to give Google all the data it needs to know about you, localize you and enhance the results which are weighted to your town, and to connect your page with preferred review sites, giving them a boost over Yelp.
Now it's time to boost scores on review sites. The simplest way to get reviews is to ask your patients. Its not unprofessional to ask for feedback. You can simply write down links to your review sites and hand them out to patients. Or, better, sign up for RateStarz, a free review creation service we've created for our Becker’s audience at http://ratestarz.com/register. This gets you a set of cards pointing to your top rating sites. Have your scheduler/front desk hand them to your patients, and you'll see reviews increase. You can add more sites, print more cards, etc. and the service is zero cost. If you want a more detailed in-practice third-party review system, contact us or search for any of the review management companies out there.
Active change on websites you point to will cause these sites to rise higher, pushing Yelp down. But the most effective way of crushing Yelp is to use your best weapon - your own website. Learn more about this in Part 5 - Add Content and Reviews to Your Website.
Dick Pepper is President of VoxMD, a medical marketing and technology company, and creator of PracticeRate, a reputation management and marketing tool. Visit VoxMD at http://voxmd.com, and feel free to ask questions at info@voxmd.com.