In my experience, the review filtering punishes small businesses
I am writing this as a small business owner sharing my own experience and opinion. My page has two 1-star reviews showing publicly, while around twenty-five 5-star reviews are hidden in the "not recommended" section. I disputed both 1-star reviews. One was for the wrong business entirely. The other contained an accusation I know to be untrue, and the reviewer's profile matched the characteristics Yelp itself describes as signs of a fake account. I submitted both disputes with that context. Neither was removed. In my opinion, it makes no sense that the two negative reviews stay up while two dozen genuine positive ones are filtered out of sight. Based on my own experience, it is hard not to feel the system is built to keep small businesses anxious about their rating and open to paying for advertising. That is my honest read of it. My experience with Yelp's sales team was also poor. I found the calls aggressive and high pressure. One more thing every owner should know. In my experience you cannot remove or delete your business profile once it exists. You are tied to it whether you want to be or not. In my opinion that is the most troubling part, because it leaves you with no way out and no leverage. It feels like being held in place against your will. This is my personal opinion based on what happened to me. I would not recommend any business owner create a Yelp profile, because once it is there you cannot take it down. I think Yelp's practices work against small business owners, and I want other owners to know they are not imagining it.