Chapter 2
How to set up and manage your TripAdvisor listing
So, TripAdvisor matters. And gaining control over your profile is essential.
In this section, we’ll run through the practicalities of setting up, claiming, and managing your TripAdvisor profile.
If you already have access to your TripAdvisor listing, skip ahead to the next section.
Adding your business to TripAdvisor
If your business is new or isn’t listed on TripAdvisor, you’ll need to add it to the site. This requires filling in an online form with information about your business, and details on you, the page owner. Providing you have all the info you need on-hand, this’ll only take you 5-10 minutes to complete.
You’ll then need to verify your connection to the business. Usually this is done through a phone call, or uploading photo ID to TripAdvisor.
You should then have access to the TripAdvisor Management Centre where you can edit and manage your listing.
Claiming your listing
If you’re the new owner of the business, or simply taking over TripAdvisor management duties from someone else, you’ll need to claim the listing.
To do this, first create a user account on TripAdvisor. Next, search for the existing listing, scroll to the end of the page to where it says ‘Is This Your Listing?’, and click Claim Your Free Listing. Follow the on-screen instructions, then go through the verification process.
Populating your listing
When you’ve successfully verified your link to your business, you can now start to populate it with content and make adjustments to the information already in place. Your first step should be to add plenty of high quality photos to your page.
These ‘management photos’ give you the opportunity to showcase the best of your establishment. There’s no limit on the number of photos you can upload, so we recommend adding plenty, particularly if there aren’t many visitor photos on your page.
You can select one of your photos to act as a ‘primary photo’ that’s displayed prominently on your listing. Be sure to choose a photo that appeals to your target market and shows off one of the best features of your establishment or menu. See how Roots, a Michelin starred restaurant in York, use their management photos to showcase their high-end dishes and their chefs.
Don’t forget about the other elements of your listing, either. Make sure your business’s description appeals to your target market and feature a couple of important keywords. Add opening times, your website address, and populate any other fields you can, to give potential visitors as much information as possible.
Keeping your listing up to date
One of the most easily avoidable types of negative TripAdvisor reviews are those caused by incorrect information. Many visitors to TripAdvisor will take note of the opening times listed on the page and, quite rightly, expect them to be accurate.
If they're wrong however...
Can't comment on food as we turned up at 8.15 on a Wednesday and on the intercom they advised the restaurant is closed. The reason I am leaving a bad review in relation to this is because of the times noted on here.[...] Since I can't trust the opening times on here we won't be visiting again any time soon.
My friend and I travelled into town especially to go to this deli as it has such lovely reviews. It said the opening times were 10am-2pm on Sunday but it was closed when we arrived. No sign indicating why. Not sure if this is the deli or TripAdvisor advertising wrong time but we were really disappointed as it looked nice.
The above are real quotes from two-star TripAdvisor reviews.
All you need to do to avoid this is to take the time to update your TripAdvisor listing whenever your opening times change. If there’s a new menu or your rooms are refurbished, add new photos and remove the outdated ones.
It only takes seconds to update your listing — there’s no excuse not to!