(NewsNation) — Restaurants, retail shops, bars, beauty salons. Millions of people rely on Yelp reviews before trying out small businesses. Now, the review company is hoping to ease the decision-making process by adding numerical ratings to the mix.
Yelp star ratings will continue to appear on reviews, but numerical ratings will be displayed directly next to them on the home screen, in search results and on business pages.
“Yelp’s numerical ratings will provide greater precision for business ratings in increments of 0.1. Just like with our star ratings, numerical ratings on Yelp will continue to be based on the total average of all recommended reviews for a business, and all ratings are calculated and displayed to all businesses on Yelp equally,” the company shared Thursday.
According to Yelp, the new numerical ratings will not impact a businesses’ star rating.
“A business with a four-star rating may have a numerical rating of 4.2, while another business with the same star rating may display a numerical rating of 3.8, based on the average rating of all their recommended reviews,” Yelp explained.
What led to the change in Yelp reviews? It’s unclear. But with social media reviews gaining popularity and reach, one of Yelp’s largest investors recently pushed the firm to consider selling itself.
Restaurant reviews on TikTok often receive millions of views and it’s estimated that more than 60% of Gen Z adults use TikTok each day. People ages 55+ make up Yelp’s highest percentage of users.
Platforms like Yelp, Google and TikTok have placed people on the same playing field as traditional food critics. With the power to help or hurt a business at their fingertips, home and local services reviews make up the most reviews on Yelp followed by restaurants and shopping. Yelp has received more than 265 million reviews on their platform.