A Picture’s Worth 1,000 Yelps

As the old adage proclaims, a picture is worth a thousand words. On Yelp, we found it’s worth more than that — at least to consumers.

People often think Yelp is just about online reviews and with more than 27 million reviews contributed as of the end of last quarter, that’s understandable. That said, we like to try and provide as much information about a person’s real-life experience at a local business as possible. With millions of photos on Yelp, images about what a business looks like, favorite dishes and more, prove an incredibly important factor to consumers when making a spending decision — especially now more than ever given we’ve included photos in search results on Yelp.com and on our mobile applications.

As we did just a few weeks ago in our post about how the term “customer service” impacts Yelp ratings, both good and bad, we thought we’d quantify the impact that photos have on consumers when deciding where to spend their hard-earned money. What we found: People searching Yelp for great local businesses spend 2 and a half times as much time on a business page with photos as opposed to one without.

Los Angeles’s Bottega Louie is the business listing with the most photos on Yelp clocking in at nearly 4,000 snaps!

“But, I have no photos!” you say. Pssh, with Yelp’s free business owner tools you have no excuses. You can upload as many photos about your business as you want, for free. In addition to pictures of your storefront, interior, specialities or even popular items mentioned in your review highlights, Yelpers also love to see photos of you, your staff, and your work, such as installations, renovations, and before and after shots. Not to mention, Yelpers are already helping you out when they’re frequenting your business: 50% of photos on Yelp are uploaded from a Yelp mobile app.

So, get creative and think about shots that best represent both you and your business. Now get out there and say: “Cheese!”