If you’ve been keeping up with the SEO world, you’ve likely heard about the recent Google algorithm leak – the biggest in the company’s history. While plenty of articles, like Michael King’s deep dive, have covered the details, one revelation stood out: click-through rate (CTR) can influence rankings.
For years, SEOs have speculated about CTR’s impact, and now we have confirmation straight from Google’s own (leaked) documents. But here’s where it gets interesting – some major review sites, like TripAdvisor and Yelp, seem to be using every trick in the book to drive more traffic and, by extension revenue, at any cost, even if that means hurting businesses.
As SEOs, we have some tricks on our toolbox to “maximise” CTR. For certain people, it’s through structured data and rich snippets. Google understood that too and discontinued for instance the FAQ rich-snippet, which was largely used (and abused) by SEOs to push other results down. We also used meta descriptions for a while but now that Google rewrites 70% of the meta descriptions, it’s not worth it anymore.
In this article, we’ll explore the grey area of CTR manipulation – the strategies some well-known websites use dodgy techniques to increase CTR.
Yelp & TripAdvisor: How review giants dominate search results
TripAdvisor is among the biggest booking and review sites used in the tourism and hospitality industries. Chances are, you’ve used it at some point while travelling, to find an activity or a restaurant. And that’s for a good reason: it’s reliable and reviews are genuine.
Until now, everything has been fine. However, when doing some searches recently, I’ve stumbled upon some interesting SERPs that caught my eye.
Whenever Tripadvisor appears in the SERPs for activities, they use the following pattern in their title: “[Business name]: All You MUST Know Before You Go [current year]”. Sounds a bit dramatic, doesn’t it?
Obviously, that’s a prime example of how to influence CTR by creating a sentiment of fear, which is a good technique. Now, let’s see how it is implemented in the backend…
If we look at that page title, without surprise, we find what we saw in the SERPs.
However, you might be aware that Google sometimes picks up the H1 and uses it in the SERPs. TripAdvisor knows this too.
While digging deeper into their pages, I discovered something interesting: they don’t just have one H1 – they have two!
Curious to see it for myself, I went looking and what I found was pretty amusing. That second H1? It’s buried at the very bottom of the page, tucked beneath the reviews in a tiny font. You’d never notice it unless you were actively searching for it.
There’s nothing outright black-hat about this, but it’s a clever example of subtle SEO tactics at play.
Business name + reviews: what appears in the SERPs
I wanted to dig deeper and to see what are the results when you search for a business name + reviews.
Using the example “Sydney Bridge Climbing,” I found several results, and the first one stood out immediately.
Sitting right at the top of the SERPs, even above the business’s own website, was a highly negative review.
The second result is positive and displays the average rating and a glowing review. This is the kind of result that should stand out, as it provides a more balanced reflection of the business. The negative result above, however, doesn’t represent the full picture and can unfairly impact the business’s reputation.
This issue isn’t just limited to [business name + reviews] searches. In some cases, even a simple search for [business name] can surface overwhelmingly negative results.
Taking the same example of Tripadvisor, I discussed with a colleague the case of World Expeditions, a tour operator business.
If you search for them in Google, your first impression will most likely be negative based on the first result from Tripadvisor.
In this case, the top-ranking result wasn’t the official business listing – it was an independent review page. Unfortunately for World Expeditions, this is the one that dominates the search results.
Now let’s look at this page and see what happened there.
The page that ranks at the top? It’s based on a single review from 12 years ago. What makes this even more frustrating is that if you scroll through the page, you’ll find 22 replies from past customers, all of whom contradict the negative review and praise the business’s professionalism.
But here’s the real question: Should a business be defined by one outdated review for over a decade? Even if a mistake was made on that particular day, does it really deserve to dominate branded search results for 12 years? Personally, I don’t think so.
Review sites need to be aware of the impact they can have on businesses, especially considering that the majority of tour operations are SMBs and any negative review can have a dramatic impact on their revenue.
We all know why these businesses like to push negative or fearful titles in the SERPs: it increases CTR. This is just Psychology 101. Humans are naturally wired to focus on negative elements. And when it comes to reviews, one negative experience can outweigh many positive ones.
According to Ruby Newell-Legner, it takes 12 positive experiences to make up for a single bad one, while Inc even considers it takes 40 positive customer experiences to offset a negative one, as happy customers are less likely to post a review.
We all want to increase CTR and drive more traffic – that’s the nature of digital marketing and SEO. But when tactics start to harm real businesses and livelihoods, it crosses a line.
Unfortunately, there’s one platform that, in my opinion, has taken things too far: Yelp.
Leveraging the power of negative reviews for CTR: a Yelp case study
If you’re from the US or Canada, you’re probably familiar with Yelp. Here in Australia, it’s not as popular, but I’ve worked with a few US-based clients who are listed on the platform.
One of them came to me with a Yelp problem. Their brand reputation was taking a hit in Google’s search results because of a single negative review that was ranking prominently.
Now, here’s where it gets problematic.
The bad review wasn’t even left by an existing customer. Instead, it came from an angry individual who created the business’s Yelp account just to post the complaint.
If you wonder, that business has many positive reviews on Google so we asked happy customers to leave a review on Yelp too to fix this problem. Turns out new reviews never appeared although clients left some. How is that possible? Well, because Yelp “filters” reviews and decides which ones appear and which ones don’t.
When my client asked me what was going on, I found out that these reviews were on our page, but hidden at the bottom of the reviews, under a link that says “not currently recommended”.
Not currently recommended: the way to “select” reviews
To illustrate how this works, I looked at a random example – not one of my clients, in case you were wondering.
When you click into Yelp’s “not recommended” review section, you’ll often find dozens of hidden reviews. But here’s the catch: after scrolling through them, I couldn’t find any clear reason why they were filtered out. Many seemed just as legitimate as the visible ones.
So what’s the logic behind Yelp’s selection process? If you have any insights or experiences with this, feel free to share in the comments!
To get a better idea of how it can impact local businesses, especially tradies and small businesses, I looked for a random plumber in St Louis, Missouri: Kirkwood.
I compared the number of Google reviews vs. Yelp and – no surprise here – Yelp had far fewer reviews. But what stood out even more was the rating difference. On Google, the business had a solid 4.6-star rating, whereas Yeld had 3.6.
Yelp profile reviews
As we can see, this plumber has 22 reviews on Yelp, but 11 of them are hidden. Out of curiosity, I checked those hidden reviews and without surprise, almost all these reviews are 5 stars. If they had been included, the business’s average rating would have been significantly higher.
So that raises the question: Why does Yelp classify certain reviews as “not recommended,” and how does this system actually work?
How Yelp’s review filter works
According to Jack & Bean, Yelp uses a filter to hide reviews based on:
- The reviewer’s account
- The content of the review and whether it violates Yelp’s guidelines
One of the most common reasons for filtering is if a profile is “too new”. Yelp assumes new accounts have a higher chance of being fake or were created solely to leave a review.
Meanwhile, Synup affirms it scores its users based on:
- The frequency at which they use the platform
- The number of check-ins they record
- The number and quality of reviews they give
- The number of followers the profile has
You may have heard about Yelp’s “don’t ask” policy. Going back to my client’s example, this is likely why their positive reviews never appeared. Yelp is capable of recognising URLs with UTM parameters if you include them in an email asking for a review.
Yelp’s justification – and why it’s problematic
According to Forbes, Yelp argues this system is good for consumers because solicited reviews lead to biased reviews that “artificially inflate…search rankings and online reputations”.
On paper, it’s a valid argument. But in practice, there are several problems.
Short reviews are often dismissed as “unhelpful.”
First, most ‘short” reviews are considered fake or “unhelpful” because they don’t give information about the service. If we believe this, that only leaves us with lengthy or elaborate reviews. But who wants to write this kind of review all the time? While this seems like a good idea, this will shrink the reviewers’ pool to dedicated users, also known as “Yelpers” or “professional review leavers”, which tend to leave negative reviews according to a Quora user, “blowing up small issues and making them huge”, which I tend to agree with.
It ignores the natural bias of online reviews.
Forbes points out that dissatisfied customers are far more likely to leave reviews than happy ones. Allowing businesses to request feedback from satisfied customers doesn’t skew the rating; it balances it. Otherwise, online reviews become heavily skewed toward negative experiences, misrepresenting a business’s actual service quality.
How Yelp’s review system hurts businesses
I won’t dive too deep into this, but there’s no shortage of business owners claiming they’ve suffered – or even gone out of business – because of Yelp’s review filtering. The main issue being that too many negative reviews showed up in search results, while positive ones were buried.
One study showed that increasing your average rating by 1 star can boost revenue by 9-15%. So when legitimate positive reviews are hidden, it’s easy to see how Yelp’s system could financially cripple small businesses.
One restaurant owner could see competitors publish these negative reviews but couldn’t get Yelp to get rid of them. If you search Quora or Reddit, you can find plenty of first-hand accounts.
What’s even more concerning is the number of business owners accusing Yelp of extortion. Many have shared stories about contacting Yelp to dispute unfair reviews, only to have Yelp’s sales reps offer to “fix” the issue in exchange for paid advertising.
You can find more details on these Reddit threads:
What to do if you’re being penalised by Yelp
So, what can you do if your business is suffering from a low Yelp rating?
As you’ve seen, there’s no real way to negotiate with Yelp, unless you’re willing to spend heavily on paid services. Asking happy customers to leave reviews? That won’t help either – those reviews will likely get filtered and hidden under “not recommended.”
So, what’s the last resort? Well, as some business owners mentioned, the best way is to make your Yelp account disappear (only if it doesn’t help at all with business),
Now you might be wondering, how can I do that? I did some research and found this video from the Marketing Consultant.
How to hide negative Yelp reviews
The basic strategy involves completely changing your Yelp listing so that Google no longer associates it with your brand. Here’s how:
- Change everything—title, description, location, and photos.
- Rename the business to a fictional name (just make sure it’s not already taken).
- Delete all responses to customer reviews.
Within a week, the SERPs are updated and the Yelp result will disappear from your branded search results, as it will have a completely different name and entity. This typically works for a few months until Yelp detects the changes and reverts them. When that happens, you do the same thing again. It’s a game of cat and mouse but overtime, Yelp will give up!
I tested this on my client’s Yelp page – and it worked! The account disappeared from the SERPs within a week. The client was extremely happy with the result as most of their traffic was branded and this result was highly penalising it.
Yelp vs. TripAdvisor: How traffic is the key to their revenue
Yelp and TripAdvisor rely heavily on traffic to generate revenue. However, their business models differ.
TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor relies on several revenue sources from the traffic that goes to its website(s) and app. According to The Strategy, the main sources of revenue are:
- Hotel, media and platform
- Click-based advertising from travel partners (CPC)
- + CPA if a user converts (they earn a referral commission)
- Branded display and Platform revenue
- Click-based advertising from travel partners (CPC)
- Experience and dining
- Users can book experiences or restaurant reservations
- TripAdvisor will earn a referral commission for experiences and a transaction fee for restaurant reservations
- B2B services for restaurant owners (online reservation, marketing analytics tools…)
- Users can book experiences or restaurant reservations
Yelp
Unlike TripAdvisor, Yelp has a much simpler revenue model. According to Business Model Analyst, 90% of its revenue comes from advertising services (which they sell to local businesses that are listed on Yelp) through a CPC model.
They also make money through their “Premium profile” feature, where business owners can have access to a more robust profile that includes slideshows, better CTA buttons and so on.
Based on this, it’s not surprising that many business owners say they have been “harassed” by Yelp’s sales rep to delete negative reviews in exchange for advertising retainers, as paid advertising is the bread and butter of the business.
How business owners can protect themselves
We’ve seen review sites use stratagems to influence CTR, such as fear and our natural curiosity for negative reviews. However, their techniques can come at a cost for businesses, as it can have a terrible impact on their reputation and by default on revenue.
So, what can business owners do?
One common approach is to “push down” the negative results by adding more positive results in the SERPs for branded searches, which is known as “reputation management”. However, this strategy is expensive and time-consuming, which makes it tough or small businesses to implement.
The best long-term strategy is to establish a strong review management strategy across all platforms ( Google Business Profile, Yelp, TripAdvisor, etc.). This means:
- Encouraging satisfied customers to leave reviews, but in a way that aligns with platform policies.
- Making the review process easy by reducing friction:
- Using QR codes that link directly to review pages/ GBP account.
- Displaying review site logos on invoices and receipts as a subtle nudge.
- Sending text messages or follow-up emails post-purchase.
The goal is to increase the number of organic, positive reviews, ensuring they naturally outweigh any negative ones.
While review platforms will always have the upper hand, a well-structured review management strategy can help businesses regain control over their online reputation.
Even though I’ve been critical of TripAdvisor and Yelp, if your business relies on these platforms, it’s important to follow their guidelines to avoid penalties.
Understanding their rules also gives you legitimacy when disputing issues—for example, TripAdvisor doesn’t allow reviews for experiences that happened over a year ago. Knowing these details can help when challenging unfair reviews or addressing account issues.
Knowing the rules and guidelines of platforms like Yelp and TripAdvisor isn’t just about compliance, it also gives you leverage if something goes wrong with your account or if you receive an unfair review. For example, TripAdvisor doesn’t allow reviews for experiences older than a year, so if your business is targeted by outdated complaints, you have grounds to challenge them.
Ultimately, we could also question Google’s responsibility in this matter. Google undoubtedly prioritises these two review sites because they have strong authority and are industry leaders. However, it’s worth questioning why Google chooses to display a second H1, even when it’s buried at the bottom of the page in a small font.
This isn’t a simple black and white issue. But it is slightly unfair for publicly-listed companies to use questionable techniques that can penalise and even put down businesses, just to increase their revenue, without facing any consequences.