How to list your startup on Yelp
TL;DR
Yelp is a local business directory built on customer reviews. Business pages are free ("It's free to be on Yelp"), and Yelp Ads are sold per click, with spend from about $5 a day on average and no contract. Its main markets are the United States and Canada, so it fits startups that serve customers in person there.
What is Yelp?
Yelp lists restaurants, shops, salons, clinics and home services, each with ratings, reviews, photos and hours. In its 2025 annual report, Yelp counts more than 300 million ratings and reviews on the platform, and its claim page says an average of 2.4 million people visit Yelp each day.
Which countries does Yelp serve?
The same annual report names the United States and Canada as Yelp's main markets, and its community teams work there. Country sites such as yelp.co.uk still show listings and reviews, but Yelp focuses sales and growth on North America. A startup in Europe should set up Google Business Profile first.
About the domain authority of 93: it belongs to yelp.com. Your page earns its keep through calls, direction requests and visits from people nearby.
Who should list their startup on Yelp?
Good fit:
- Startups with a café, studio, shop or clinic that customers visit in the US or Canada.
- Home and local services such as cleaning, repairs, tutoring or pet care.
Skip it:
- Online-only SaaS and apps. Yelp is built around local search.
- Founders planning a review campaign. Yelp tells businesses not to ask for reviews at all, from customers, mailing lists, friends or family, and bans incentives.
How much does Yelp cost?
- Business page: free. Yelp advertises more than 20 free tools for your page, and claiming lets you manage the page for free.
- Yelp Ads: priced per click through an auction for each placement, as Yelp's annual report explains. The Yelp Ads page says you can "spend as little as $5 per day on average", change your maximum budget whenever you want, and cancel at any time, with no term contracts for self-serve advertisers. Ads appear in Sponsored Results above and below search results and on competitors' pages, targeted by location and keyword.
How do you add your startup to Yelp?
- Go to business.yelp.com and click Verify my free listing, or open biz.yelp.com/claim directly.
- Search for your business name. If the page exists, claim it; if not, add the business with its name, address, phone number and category.
- Follow the verification steps Yelp shows you, then log in to Yelp for Business.
- Complete the page: hours, photos, services, price range and your website.
- Optional: start Yelp Ads from the same account with a low daily budget.
Tips to get more out of Yelp
- Choose exact categories, such as "Bakeries" in place of a broad food category, so Yelp shows you to the right searchers.
- Upload real photos of the space, the team and your best products.
- Reply to every review in public, the negative ones first, with what you changed.
- Skip review requests and giveaways. Yelp runs Consumer Alerts on business pages it catches buying or soliciting reviews.
- Run ads for one month on a small budget, then compare clicks and calls with what each new customer is worth to you.
Our verdict
For a local startup in the US or Canada, a free Yelp page is worth setting up next to Google Business Profile, because it puts you in front of the 2.4 million people Yelp says visit each day. Outside North America, set up Google Business Profile first and treat Yelp as a second listing.
More options: see all business directories and local listings. Planning the launch around this listing? The Fe/male Switch startup game walks women founders from idea to first customers.