Yelp Not Recommended Reviews: Why Reviews Disappear and What to Do
Why Yelp moves some reviews to a "not currently recommended" section, where to find them, why a review might be filtered, and what businesses should and shouldn't do about it.
By Editorial Team
7 min read
Yelp not recommended reviews are reviews that Yelp’s automated recommendation software has moved off the main part of your page because it isn’t confident they’re reliable or useful. They aren’t deleted. They sit in a separate “not currently recommended” section, don’t count toward your star rating, and can move back to the main page later as the software re-evaluates them. Businesses can’t pay to change which reviews are recommended, and the software affects positive and negative reviews alike.
If a five-star review from a loyal customer just vanished, or a one-star review you expected to be filtered is still front and center, this is almost always why.
How Yelp’s recommendation software works
Yelp runs every review through automated software. Yelp describes it as a system that looks at a wide range of signals to decide which reviews are most likely to be helpful and reliable for readers. Reviews it’s confident about appear on the main page. The rest are moved aside.
A few points Yelp is consistent about:
- It’s automated. Yelp says the same rules apply to every business, and staff don’t hand-pick which reviews are recommended.
- It’s ongoing. The software re-evaluates reviews over time. A review that isn’t recommended today may be recommended next month, and the reverse can happen too.
- Advertising doesn’t change it. Yelp states that advertisers and non-advertisers are treated the same.
- It doesn’t judge the review’s sentiment. Filtering isn’t about whether a review is positive or negative. Plenty of glowing reviews end up not recommended.
Yelp doesn’t publish the exact signals, which makes sense: a public formula would be easy to game. What it does share are general factors, covered below.
Where to find not recommended reviews
On your Yelp page, scroll to the bottom of the reviews section. There’s usually a link to reviews that are not currently recommended, along with a short explanation from Yelp. Clicking it shows the filtered reviews, and anyone can read them, not just the business owner.
It’s worth checking this section every so often, not just when a review goes missing. It shows you which customers wrote about you without appearing on the main page, and a filtered review that describes a real problem is still useful feedback.
The link can be harder to find in the mobile app, so the desktop site is usually the easiest place to look. Keep in mind that these reviews are visible but don’t factor into your star rating or the main review count.
Why a review might not be recommended
Yelp describes several kinds of reviews its software tends not to recommend. In general terms:
| Factor | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| New or inactive reviewer accounts | A person who joined Yelp to write one review and hasn’t used it since. The software has little to go on, so it’s cautious. |
| Reviews that seem solicited | Reviews that arrive after a business asks for them, especially several at once. Yelp’s software tries not to recommend reviews it believes were requested. |
| Possible conflicts of interest | Reviews that may come from the owner, staff, friends, family or competitors. |
| Unusual patterns | A sudden cluster of reviews, similar wording across several reviews, or activity that looks coordinated. |
| Less useful content | Very short or vague reviews that don’t describe a real experience in any detail. |
Context matters as well. A review that arrives alongside many similar reviews in a short period is likely to be treated more cautiously than one written by a regular Yelp user in the normal course of things, even if both describe genuine visits.
None of these means a review is fake. A real customer who wrote a thoughtful review on a brand-new account may simply be filtered because Yelp doesn’t know them yet. As that person writes more reviews, adds friends and uses Yelp more, their earlier reviews may be recommended.
Not recommended vs removed reviews
| Not recommended | Removed | |
|---|---|---|
| Who decides | Automated recommendation software | Yelp’s moderators, often after a report |
| Why | The software isn’t confident the review is reliable or useful | The review breaks Yelp’s Content Guidelines |
| Still visible? | Yes, in the not currently recommended section | No |
| Counts toward rating? | No | No |
| Can it come back? | Yes, the software re-evaluates over time | Generally no |
| Can a business influence it? | No, other than by not soliciting reviews | Only by reporting reviews that genuinely break the rules |
If you want a review taken down because it breaks the rules, the route is a report. Our guide on removing Yelp reviews explains what qualifies and how to write a good report.
A worked example
This is an illustrative scenario, not a real business.
A new yoga studio has eight reviews on Yelp. After a free community class, the owner emails attendees a link to the studio’s Yelp page and asks them to “share their experience”. Over the next week, eleven five-star reviews arrive, most from people who created Yelp accounts that day.
Within days, nearly all the new reviews move to the not recommended section. Meanwhile, a two-star review from a long-time Yelp user who complained about the parking stays on the main page. The owner assumes Yelp is punishing her.
What actually happened is what the software is designed to do: a burst of reviews from new accounts, shortly after the business asked for them, looks solicited. The owner stops asking for Yelp reviews, replies calmly to the parking complaint with the details of a nearby lot, and moves her review requests to Google, where asking every customer is allowed. Over the following months, a few of the filtered reviews move back to the main page as those customers use Yelp more. Others stay filtered, and that’s out of her hands.
Not sure where to start?
Get a free audit of your search results and review profiles, with a prioritized fix list.
Get a free auditWhat businesses should do
- Stop asking for Yelp reviews. Yelp asks businesses not to solicit reviews, and solicited reviews are a common reason reviews get filtered. You can let people know you’re on Yelp with signage, but don’t ask them to write a review.
- Claim and maintain your page. An accurate, complete page with current photos and hours gives visitors confidence. If you haven’t done it yet, our guide on claiming your Yelp business page walks through it.
- Reply to reviews on the main page. These are the ones readers see and the ones that affect your rating. A calm, specific reply does more than worrying about the filtered ones.
- Report reviews that break the rules. If a review on the main page comes from a competitor or isn’t a firsthand experience, report it with a clear explanation.
- Focus on the experience itself. Customers who are active on Yelp and had a good experience tend to write about it without being asked.
- Build reviews where asking is allowed. Google lets you ask every customer, provided you don’t offer incentives or ask selectively.
What not to do
- Don’t ask filtered reviewers to post again. A second review from the same account won’t fix anything and can look like manipulation.
- Don’t offer incentives. Discounts or freebies for reviews break Yelp’s rules, and incentives tied to a review’s sentiment are banned under the FTC’s 2024 rule on consumer reviews.
- Don’t pay anyone who claims they can get reviews recommended. Nobody outside Yelp controls the software.
- Don’t buy ads expecting a change. Yelp says advertising has no effect on recommendations.
- Don’t post reviews from staff, friends or family. They’re likely to be filtered or removed and can lead to a Consumer Alert on your page.
- Don’t attack Yelp in your replies. Complaining about the filter publicly draws attention to it and doesn’t change the outcome.
If filtering and review management across Yelp and other sites is taking up too much of your time, our page on Yelp reputation management explains how we help within Yelp’s rules. For restaurants, see our restaurant reputation management page too.
Frequently asked questions
Why are my positive Yelp reviews disappearing?
They have most likely been moved to the not currently recommended section by Yelp’s software, often because the reviewers are new or inactive on Yelp, or because the reviews look solicited. They’re still visible through the link at the bottom of your page and may move back over time.
Do not recommended reviews count toward my Yelp rating?
No. Yelp says reviews in the not currently recommended section don’t factor into a business’s overall star rating. They remain visible to anyone who clicks through.
Can I ask Yelp to recommend a review?
No. Yelp’s recommendations are automated and apply the same way to every business. There’s no request form, and paying for advertising doesn’t change them.
Why is my Yelp review not showing up?
If you wrote the review, it may have been placed in the not recommended section, particularly if your account is new or you haven’t written many reviews. It’s still on Yelp. As you use Yelp more, the software may recommend it later.
Can a negative review be not recommended too?
Yes. The software doesn’t consider whether a review is positive or negative. Negative reviews from new or inactive accounts are filtered in the same way, which is why a harsh review sometimes disappears from the main page on its own.
