Yelp is ranking above our own site for our restaurant brand. Can this be changed?

Yelp outranking a restaurant’s own site for its brand name is common, and on its own it is not a crisis. Yelp’s pages are built to rank for local business names, so the better response is to own the results you can control rather than trying to displace Yelp head-on.

Manage the page, don’t fight Yelp

A branded search is a whole page, not a single blue link. Make sure the business owns the assets it controls, so Yelp becomes one of several results rather than the default destination.

1. Strengthen the corporate site. Improve the site’s authority and on-page signals so it holds the top organic position for the brand name.
2. Fully optimize the Google Business Profile. This matters more for a local business: complete and accurate information, correct categories, current photos, regular posts, and responses to reviews. That way the business owns the Map pack and the Knowledge Panel that appear above or beside the organic results.

Why the Business Profile matters most

• Complete, accurate profile information makes a business more likely to show up in local search results.
• The profile drives the local Map pack and feeds the Knowledge Panel, which are the elements a user sees first on a brand-name search.
• More reviews and positive ratings can help local ranking, and responding to reviews keeps the profile active.

Someone searching the restaurant should see the business’s own panel and Maps presence first, with Yelp as one result among several. We track the full branded result set with IMPACT™, including the local pack, so the view is the whole page and not just the organic links.