Essentially, a “Not Recommended” review is a review of a review—Yelp’s judgement call about a review that is posted for a business by a customer. Some reasons Yelp might flag a review as “not recommended”:

• The user is not well-established with a profile picture, lots of friends, and high activity on the platform
• The review seems biased
• The review is an unhelpful rant or rave about the business

These reviews might indeed be legitimate, but because of one of the above reasons, they may mark it as “not recommended”.

In its defense, Yelp says that 75% of reviews submitted are recommended and posted. However, many smaller businesses—like veterinary practices—feel that Yelp is penalizing them by hiding positive reviews from clients who may not be regular users of the platform.

Obviously, having a lot of positive reviews unseen in the “Not Recommended” category can degrade your rating. This has become a major bone of contention for many businesses, as in addition to being unseen, these reviews now have questionable credibility due to being designated as “not recommended”.

Yelp is obviously trying to weed out illegitimate reviews and strengthen their platform by forcing people to become more active in order for their reviews to carry any weight and be easily seen. Respond to the review because that is best practice...if someone does go there to see the reviews, your response will be there. Will not help it become more visible.