Anyone tried deciphering the Yelp Sort?

Anyone tried to decipher the factor in the default sorting order on Yelp? I've not done any formal testing but from experience my gut feel is as follows (chime in with your own opinion based on your own observations).

On searches - #1 factor is of course keyword(s) appear in category business is in or business name
After that, or for just browsing categories

30% proximity of business location to location entered in address field
20% number of reviews and average rating
20% if they are paying Yelp for any services - the is unfair but I'm pretty sure it's a factor (call to action button, advertising, etc)
15% Business Profile is filled out
15% keyword (if using search) appears in specialties section (which interestingly Yelp started charging to display!)

This is a TOTAL GUESS. I'm wondering if these factors may effect it:

- Quantity photos and/or keyword matches photo captions
- How long business has been listed on Yelp
- How long ago business was started
- Whether a street address is entered or not (a factor of Google Local Results I think)

Great post... I would love to know if anyone has feedback on this. Very curious

Interesting indeed

Yelp definitely has an odd ranking system. I don't think it's all about reviews because my friend owns a weed shop in California that is ranked #1 but does not have as many reviews as #2-#10. Keep me updated I would like to learn their system.

Yelp seems to be dynamic and alter during the week. Different results Mon to Thursday from Fri to Sunday in entertainment for example. Above that I strongly feel the main aspect is interaction metrics. These can be improved with better imagery, better more explanatory text, good calls to action etc, but what I'm sure Yelp does is see the ones that, over a period of time get the best response. Most clicks, most times with on page view (and of course those that pay) and these rise to the top. All the things the OP mentions are true - but I think they are factors of engagement rather than factors themselves.

A test would be to fake engagement with a bot Search for a particular service, stay on the service page for a few minutes, click on the CTA. If it worked a bot that faked user interaction would be the winner.

I still can't believe they are now essentially charging money to display the description of your business (aka 'Specialties' in their terms) also charging to show History description, etc. So correct me if I'm wrong now all they show is name of business, location, hours, and contact info. Gee, what if you were a flooring business that did sales and no installation, or just installation and no sales, or just refinish and no install? Seems there would be no way to tell from the listing. But this is sort of a side note.

I've been doing Internet Marketing for 17 years now and I must say out of all the companies I've dealt with I hate Yelp the most. Whenever I help a client get listed I have to warn them their phone is going to start ringing off the hook from the Yelp Ad Sales people and they will NOT immediately leave you alone until you buy ads from them. Then you remember there was that whole controversy a couple two or three years ago that they were essentially extorting businesses saying if they bought advertising from them they may see some of their bad reviews get buried. It looks to me like they are still doing this to a degree. Management of that company is all about keeping their stock price high whatever they have to do.

With that said, I think (yes I could be paranoid) that whether the business is paying Yelp for something may have a heavier effect on their ranking than we'd all like to admit. I wish Google Places with their reviews would clobber Yelp and make them less relevant. For many businesses I'm already seeing more reviews on Google than Yelp so Yelp is getting desperate I think to make their money and they let someone buy them out before consumers start going more to Google. Google just needs to make an alternate business search format than simply their normal SERPS or Map search. They bought Zagat. They have the resources and the users to make Yelp and their greedy business practices irrelevant.

Number one factor: pay the piper. Nearly all the ones on the first page is not even from my city but they advertise with yelp.
BUT why am I on the first page when I owe them money? They should be kicking my butt back to page 30.
Makes no sense, right? They're the House and the House makes the rules, any rules they want so you can just throw logic out the window.

On the flip side of the coin, anybody figure out how outrank those irritating yelp pages that sit in the top three to four spots in google serp?