What does it mean to embed a review on Yelp?
By Zyff
Short answer
Embedding a review means placing a live copy of it on your own website using a snippet of code Yelp generates, rather than retyping the words or sending readers off to Yelp. On a business page on yelp.com, open the three-dot menu beside a review, choose Embed review, and paste the code it gives you into your page.
The option appears only on the Yelp website in a web browser — not in the Yelp app or in Yelp for Business — and only for reviews Yelp currently recommends. To share a review as a plain link instead, the same menu has Share review.
Why embed instead of copying the text
A quote you retype is a claim the reader has to take on trust. An embedded review is Yelp's own rendering of it, and Yelp says it keeps the business's rating and review count up to date and makes it easy to click through to Yelp.
It also keeps the review intact. You cannot edit an embedded review's words or lift a positive sentence out of a negative one, which is exactly what makes a quoted review worth less than an embedded one. Yelp lets anyone embed a recommended review, and asks that you keep to its brand guidelines when you do.
What Yelp's embed will and will not do
It is a tool for quoting one review, and its limits follow from that.
- One review per snippet. Each embed is a review you picked by hand, and it stays that review until you replace it.
- Recommended reviews only. A review sitting behind the not-recommended link cannot be embedded.
- No photos. Photos cannot be embedded, though you can share a link to one.
- Web only. The option is on yelp.com business pages; it is not in the Yelp app, nor on the Yelp for Business website or in its app.
Sharing a link instead
To share one review without embedding it, choose Share review from the same three-dot menu; it gives you a link straight to that review. That suits a social post or a thank-you note, with the trade-off that the reader leaves your site to read it.
Your business's own Yelp link is the address of its Yelp page, which contains /biz/ followed by your business's name and usually its city — yelp.com/biz/your-business-your-city. Anything after a question mark in that address is not needed and can be dropped. That is the link to put in your footer or on your contact page, so people who want to find you on Yelp can.
When one review is not enough
An embed suits a single review you want to quote in full on a particular page. It is awkward for anything more: every embed is maintained by hand, a page of them is a page of reviews you chose, and none of them shows a review written after you set it up.
A reviews widget does the other job. Zyff's reads your public business page and shows your reviews as a feed or a compact badge, with Yelp's own rating and review count, the reviewer's name on every card and a link back to each review on Yelp. It collects again whenever you ask it to check for new reviews, so the block on your site does not stay frozen on the day you built it.
The link Yelp would rather you did not send
Every business also has a direct write-a-review address on Yelp, and it is tempting to put it in follow-up emails. Sending it to customers is asking for reviews, which Yelp asks businesses not to do — and a review written because you asked may not be recommended, in which case it does not count toward your rating at all.
Being easy to find on Yelp is a different thing from asking for a review. A link to your Yelp page lets the people who want to write about you get there on their own; the request is the part Yelp objects to.
Yelp Reviews Widget
Show your Yelp rating and reviews as a feed, a badge or a sticker.
Also asked
- What does "embed review" mean?
- How to share a Yelp review link?
- How do I get my Yelp link?
All of these have the same answer, so they share this page rather than each getting a near-identical one of their own.