Yelp.com is a popular business review website enjoying tremendous growth. Quantcast.com, which tracks website popularity, has found that Yelp.com’s traffic has doubled in the period between October 2008 and March 2009. With such rapid growth in popularity, it’s obvious that Yelp.com that can be beneficial for the promotion of your business now and in the future. Here’s how you go about using Yelp.com to your advantage:

Step One: Join the club. Browse the Yelp directory for your business listing. If it’s already listed, time to create your business profile. If a listing is not found, then it’s time to make one. This will help send visitors to your site.

Step Two: Begin Yelping. Set aside an hour a day each week to get used to how Yelp works. Get a feel of Yelp.com by reviewing a favorite bookstore or coffee shop. Get more perspective by reading other reviews by your fellow Yelpers.

Step Three: Get reviewed. After getting listed, a lot of business owners are tempted to email their close friends and business partners and ask them for a friendly Yelp review. While there’s certainly nothing wrong with this – in fact, I highly recommend it – Yelp.com has a system for deleting these types of reviews if you’re not careful.

Yelp users who only post a single review will probably have their review deleted in pretty short order. Yelp.com’s system automatically tags these types of reviews – good or bad – as „spam.“ So if you want the good reviews from your friends and family to „stick,“ ask them to post several reviews on other businesses first before leaving a comment on yours. This ensures that their feedback will always be there, and it makes them look like natural Yelpers.

Step Four: Build a killer profile. Many business owners make the mistake of thinking that their business hours and products are enough for a good profile. This isn’t so. Take the time to make your Yelp.com profile informative and interesting, and don’t forget you can advertise a coupon for your business for free.

Step Five: Reach out to the community. Under your business profile, you’re allowed to recommend as many as five businesses (related or not). While it might be tempting to recommend your friends and acquaintances, it’s important that to recognize active Yelp users are more likely to reciprocate a recommendation (and/or leave a good review). Choose your recommendations carefully.

Step Six: Encourage your customers to review you. Make sure to tell all your customers that your business is listed on Yelp and that you would appreciate a review. Customers that really like your service will often jump at the chance to sing your praises. Place a sign on your door, a note in your menu, or a blurb in your next customer newsletter.

Step Seven: Network. Networking is both fun and easy. You can exchange great feedback with other businesses. Utilize all of Yelps resources to the hilt. Gain more friends, and get them to have a taste of what your business can offer. Your profile is made all the better when you have a good network of friends on Yelp.com.

Getting on the Yelp.com bandwagon now while it’s steadily growing can lead to more customers (and more business) for years to come. Participate, get those positive reviews, and grow your business with Yelp!