A happy customer tells you they left you a five-star review on Yelp. You look, and it is not there. Or it is there, but tucked away at the bottom of your page under "reviews that are not currently recommended", and your rating has not moved.
This is one of the most common frustrations business owners have with Yelp. Here is what is going on, based on what Yelp itself publishes, and what you can and cannot do about it.
What "not recommended" means
Yelp runs every review through automated recommendation software. In Yelp's words on its Trust and Safety pages, the reviews the software "identifies as the most helpful and reliable are recommended."
The rest are not deleted. They sit behind a link at the bottom of your Yelp page, and they also appear on the reviewer's own profile. Anyone can click through and read them.
The part that matters most for your business: according to Yelp, reviews that are not recommended "don't factor into the business's overall star rating or review count." A not recommended five-star review does nothing for your score. A not recommended one-star review does not hurt it either.
Yelp's support center says about three quarters of reviews across the platform are recommended. So it is normal for some of your reviews to land in the other section.
Why a real review gets filtered
Yelp says its software uses "hundreds of signals of quality, reliability, and user activity." It does not publish the full list, but it does name the main reasons:
| Reason Yelp gives | What it often looks like in practice |
|---|---|
| The software does not know enough about the reviewer | A first-time Yelp user with no photo, no friends and no other reviews |
| The review looks solicited | Several new reviews arrive soon after a business asks customers to review it on Yelp |
| A possible conflict of interest | Reviews from friends, family, employees or competitors |
| The review is not very helpful | Very short rants or raves, or text about something unrelated |
The first reason catches a lot of genuine customers. Someone who joined Yelp just to praise you is exactly the kind of reviewer the software knows least about.
Asking for Yelp reviews makes it worse
Yelp is different from Google here. Google allows you to ask every customer for a review, as long as you do not offer incentives or filter out unhappy customers. Yelp asks businesses not to solicit reviews at all.
In a post on its official blog, Yelp says its recommendation software "actively targets reviews that have been solicited." So a campaign of "please review us on Yelp" cards, emails or texts can push new reviews straight into the not recommended section.
What is fine on Yelp:
- Putting a Yelp badge or "Find us on Yelp" sticker in your window or on your website
- Linking to your Yelp page so people can read reviews
- Replying to the reviews you already have
What to avoid:
- Directly asking customers to review you on Yelp
- Asking only happy customers, on any site. That is review gating, and Google prohibits it. See why review gating is banned.
- Offering anything in return for a review. See the rules on incentives.
Put your review requests where they are allowed, such as Google, and let Yelp reviews come on their own.
Can you get a review moved back?
Not by asking. Yelp's FAQ is direct about this: "No employee at Yelp has the ability to override the decisions that the software makes." Calling Yelp, emailing support or paying for advertising will not move a review.
On advertising, Yelp states there is "no connection between advertising on Yelp and how the recommendation software treats a business's ratings and reviews."
What can change things is time. Yelp says reviews "can move from not recommended to recommended (and vice versa) over time" as the software learns more about the reviewer. If a customer goes on to use Yelp normally, writing other reviews and adding photos, their review of you may later be recommended. You cannot make that happen, and you should not ask customers to write other reviews to help it along.
What you can do instead
- Reply to your not recommended reviews anyway. People do read that section. A short thank-you, or a calm reply to a complaint, still shows you care.
- Focus on the experience, not the platform. Customers who are already active on Yelp will review you there without being asked if the service is memorable.
- Ask for reviews on Google, where asking every customer is allowed. Our guide to getting more Google reviews without breaking the rules explains how.
- Report reviews that break Yelp's rules, such as reviews about a different business or from someone who was never a customer. Do this through Yelp's business account, not by asking for a review to be filtered.
- Do not create or buy reviews to make up the numbers. The FTC consumer reviews rule, in force since October 2024, allows civil penalties up to $51,744 per violation (2024 figure) for fake reviews.
Example replies for the not recommended section
A positive review
Thank you, Dana. We are so glad the new color came out the way you wanted. See you in six weeks.
A negative review
Thank you for the feedback, and I am sorry the wait was longer than we told you. I would like to hear more about your visit. Please contact me, Lee, on 555-0100.
Keep replies the same quality as on your recommended reviews. In the BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, 50% of consumers said templated replies put them off.
When reviews disappear completely
A review in the not recommended section is still on Yelp. A review that has vanished entirely is different. It may have been removed by the reviewer, removed by Yelp for breaking its content rules, or the reviewer's account may have been closed. If this is happening on Google, our guide on why Google reviews disappear covers the causes there.
Showing customers your reviews are real
Yelp's filter exists because fake and biased reviews are a real problem. You can make the same point for your business on your own terms.
Reputfy seals each review with a SHA-256 fingerprint timestamped via OpenTimestamps, so anyone can see it has not been changed since it was collected. Review requests go to every customer the same way, with a record kept, which is the opposite of gating. Visitors can check your Reputfy seal against six published criteria. See our plans.
