The pushback against Yelp reached a crescendo in March of 2010 when several businesses filed a class action lawsuit accusing the company of extortion.

For their part, Yelp has always maintained they do not manipulate reviews and that they are simply trying to provide a service to consumers and an advertising channel to businesses.  Yet two factors have left the majority of business owners suspicious: the fact that businesses who pay the monthly fee get to pick the top review on their company’s Yelp profile, and the murky process the site uses to filter reviews (many have long been suspicious that advertisers get preferential treatment).

Yelp’s leadership remains confident these measures will exonerate the company from the myriad “conspiracy theories” with which they feel the public has victimized them.

Yelp’s practice of using hard sell tactics (calling up business owners and pressuring them to become advertisers) will remain.  The trouble with Yelp is not their murky review ranking process, their hard-charging salesmen, or their preferential treatment of paying advertisers.

The real problem is the inherent negative motivation the company’s business plan creates: pay Yelp to get people to stop saying bad things about you on Yelp.

No one likes how that feels.  Yelp’s public relations problems will continue unless they change this basic truth about their approach to online reviews.