Reviews on Facebook, Google and Yelp: Where to Focus

Archive note. This article describes the situation as it stood when it was published. The rules, tools and features it mentions may have changed since. Check the current information with the official source before acting.

Reviews on Facebook, Google and Yelp compete for the same short block of time you can give to your reputation each week, and most local owners spread that block too thin. In my work with small businesses around Greater Montréal, I tell people to start with Google My Business, add Facebook where a Page is already busy, and treat Yelp mainly as a restaurant question. Pick one platform, build a steady flow, then widen out once it runs on its own.

Reviews on Facebook, Google and Yelp: where a Greater Montréal business should focus first

Google My Business earns the first slot for most local businesses here, because its reviews sit beside your listing the moment someone searches for what you sell. That single placement does two jobs at once: it shows a rating to the person deciding whether to call, and reviews are one of the signals behind local SEO. Facebook comes next, but only where you already keep an active Page and answer messages. Of the online review platforms most Greater Montréal owners can reach, Yelp sits last, and it earns real attention mainly for restaurants and cafés in the busy centre of Montréal. Trying to run all three at once usually means none of them gets a steady flow.

Google My Business reviews and how the star rating shows in local search

Google My Business reviews show as a star rating right beside your listing, in the map results, and in the panel on the right of a search. A person comparing two shops sees those ratings before they read a word of either website, so the reviews you gather shape the first impression. To collect them, send customers the link to your listing after a job or a purchase, while the visit is still fresh in their mind. You reply from the Google My Business dashboard, and a short, specific answer to each review reads far better than a template. Keep the asking simple and keep it regular, because a slow trickle of honest reviews holds up better than a burst that arrives all at once.

Facebook reviews and why they are tied to a personal profile

Facebook reviews are tied to a personal profile: anyone who rates your Page has to be signed in to a real account, so anonymous reviews are not possible. That rule helps you: it makes drive-by fakes harder to post, and the person behind each rating is someone you can actually answer. The rating shows on your Facebook Page as a score out of five, alongside whatever the reviewer chose to write. When you reply, you reply as the Page, in public, to a named person. Reviewers use real accounts, so their activity can surface to their own friends, which puts your name in front of nearby people without extra work from you. For a community-minded shop with regulars, that reach is worth more than it looks.

Yelp reviews, the review filter and why activity clusters in central Montréal

Yelp reviews run through an automated filter that hides reviews from accounts with little history, so some genuine reviews never count toward your public rating. Owners find this maddening, and there is no switch to turn it off. The filter is Yelp trying to weed out reviews it cannot vouch for, and a first-time reviewer with an empty profile often lands on the wrong side of it. The other thing to know is geographic. In Greater Montréal, Yelp activity clusters in the dense restaurant neighbourhoods, the Plateau, Mile End and downtown, where people already browse it before choosing a table. A hair salon in Mascouche or a garage in Repentigny may see almost no Yelp traffic at all. If you run a restaurant in the centre, Yelp still deserves your attention. A suburban trade, though, should not spend its first hour there when Google is where its customers search.

Review requests without incentives: what each platform forbids

Every one of these platforms forbids paying for reviews or trading a discount, a draw entry or anything else for them, and Yelp goes further by discouraging you from asking for reviews at all. On Google and Facebook you can invite an honest review, so mention it after good service and hand over the link, but never offer a reward and never post reviews from your own accounts. On Yelp, the safer path is to let reviews arrive on their own and put your energy into the experience that earns them. Fake reviews and bought reviews carry a real risk of removal on all three, and a filtered or deleted review helps no one. If keeping up with replies across platforms is more than you can fit around the actual work, I handle reputation management for owners who would rather stay on the tools.

Replies in French or English: matching the reviewer's language

Reply in the language the reviewer used, French to a French review and English to an English one, since a good share of reviews here arrive in French. Mirroring the language reads as respect, and switching for no reason can feel dismissive to the person who took the time to write. When a reviewer moves between French and English, I lean toward French in Québec. You do not need flawless grammar. A clear, warm reply in the reviewer's own language does the job, and it tells the next reader that a real person is paying attention.

Business type priorities: restaurants, clinics, trades and shops

Restaurants are the one type that should court both Google and Yelp, while clinics, trades and shops get the most from Google first. People deciding where to eat check both, especially in the central neighbourhoods, so a restaurant that ignores Yelp leaves a real audience on the table. A clinic or a health professional starts with Google, because patients search by location and service and read the ratings before they book. Plumbers, electricians and other trades lean on Google too, since those searches are urgent and the caller acts fast. A retail shop can begin with Google, then add Facebook once it sees that its customers are the community-regular kind who already follow the Page.

Review-platform priority checklist

Before you split your attention across three platforms, run through a few questions to decide where the first reviews should go:

• Do customers find you through Google Search or Maps? Start with Google My Business.
• Do you run a restaurant, bar or café in a busy central neighbourhood? Add Yelp next.
• Do people already reach you through an active Facebook Page or local groups? Give Facebook the second slot instead.
• Are you in a regulated field such as healthcare or law? Google and Facebook usually serve you better than Yelp.
• Do most of your reviews come in French? Set up to reply in French from day one.

Answer those honestly, and start where the fit is clearest.