Yelp Announces Verified Licenses For Service Providers
March 05 2019 - 6:00AM
Business Wire
New Product Helps Businesses Stand Out on Yelp
and Provides Peace of Mind to Consumers
Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP), the company that connects people with
great local businesses, today announced Yelp Verified Licenses, as
it continues to innovate in the home and local services category.
The Yelp Verified License is a new paid product designed for
service providers, and is available for $1 per day to qualified
providers within eligible home and local services categories,
including contractors, plumbers, movers, and other high-trust
businesses like medical, childcare and esthetics.
People who visit a Yelp Verified provider's page, identified by
a blue shield “Verified” badge, will now have more information
about the provider’s qualifications before making a spending
decision. To be eligible for a Yelp Verified License badge, a
business must have a valid trade license to perform their
advertised service within the state they serve. To become verified,
a business must apply through Yelp, which will manually verify the
license.
“Building on the significant growth of the home and local
category, we’ve been partnering closely with business owners across
the category to better understand their needs and build products
that allow them to better tell their story and increase trust with
consumers,” said Alon Shiran, Director of Product at Yelp. “We’re
excited to announce this program in response to feedback from
business owners who want the ability to display that they are
properly licensed. This is only one of the many products that we’re
building to help business owners take control of their presence on
Yelp and differentiate themselves.”
In early experiments with contractors on Yelp, the Verified
License badge helped both consumers and businesses. On average,
having a Verified License badge on a business page increased
consumer engagement, including clicks, calls, quote requests and
other actions, by 24 percent.
More importantly, having a Verified License badge helps level
the playing field for businesses that are newer to the platform and
may not yet have a large presence on Yelp. In early experiments,
contractors with zero reviews saw growth in engagement on their
pages after becoming Yelp Verified.
“Having a Yelp Verified License badge on our business page
assures customers that we're a capable, trustworthy company. Since
becoming Yelp Verified, we've seen a noticeable impact on the
number of jobs we receive,” said Oleg Hryshyn, owner of Gentlemen's
Moving Company. “During busy season, there are a number of
uncertified movers promoting themselves as competitors and, with
the help of the Yelp Verified License, consumers have peace of mind
that they're hiring movers that are properly licensed.”
The product is currently available to qualified businesses
within specified categories in Arizona, California, Florida,
Georgia, New York, Texas, and Washington and will continue to roll
out to new states. Yelp Verified has been well received by business
owners in early tests, with thousands of businesses on Yelp
currently purchasing the badge.
The introduction of Yelp Verified Licenses builds on the
momentum of the home and local services category on Yelp. In the
fourth quarter of 2018, Request A Quote project volume on Yelp,
which allows consumers to request project pricing directly from
businesses, increased 41% over the fourth quarter of 2017, growing
to 1.6 million projects, representing 4.4 million service requests
that consumers chose to send to individual service providers. In
the fourth quarter of 2018, Request A Quote’s annualized
attributable revenue more than doubled to $38 million compared to
the fourth quarter of 2017. As a result of these and other
successes, the company grew 2018 revenue in this category by 29%
year over year.
About Yelp
Yelp Inc. (www.yelp.com) connects people with great local
businesses. With unmatched local business information, photos and
review content, Yelp provides a platform for consumers to discover,
interact and transact with local businesses of all sizes. Yelp was
founded in San Francisco in July 2004. Since then, Yelp has taken
root in major metros in more than 30 countries.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190305005324/en/
Liina Potter(925) 895-3786press@yelp.com
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