my biz uses yelp. we have great reviews and generate business off of it. You can upgrade ur business listing for $$$. You get bold listing, higher placement, and more photos to post. we thought about paying them but our reviews are great as is, so we opted not to. If you have shitty reviews, paying yelp aint gonna help.
They did get in trouble for removing bad reviews from paying businesses and supposedly they do not do that any more......