How do you get and use a Yelp API Key?

Question

Accepted Answer

What is Yelp API?

The Yelp Fusion API allows its users to get local content and user reviews from millions of businesses of hospitality and service industries across 32 countries. The Yelp API is used by DirectoryImport to load listing data, images, and reviews.

How do I get the Yelp API Key?

Getting your Fusion API key is fast and easy. To do it, you have to follow these simple Yelp API guidelines.

Step 1 – Create an account

First you have log into the developers portal with your existing Yelp account or create a new one

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/RftB9KeMum/resources/762YQ4CSE1/Yelp%20Signup.png (Yelp Signup.png)

You can continue working with Yelp service through Facebook, Google, or Apple account. The other option is to sign up with your email address. In this case you’ll get a confirmation email – don’t forget to follow the link in it to verify your account.

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You’re going to have to verify you’re not a robot by completing a reCaptcha.

Step 2 – Get started with Fusion API

Once you’ve logged into the Yelp developers service, go to https://fusion.yelp.com to get to the Fusion API section of the portal. Press the Get Started button.

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Step 3 – Create an App

Create your first Yelp App to receive your personal Fusion API key. Fill in the required fields in the form, agree to Yelp API Terms of Use and Display Requirements. Then prove you’re a human, and press Create New App.

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After that you’ll get your API Key.

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Copy the API key and paste it into the configurations tab of your DirctoryImport Plugin

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/RftB9KeMum/resources/RTdsLFxEt8/API%20Configure.png (API Configure.png)

Remember to keep your personal Yelp API key to yourself! It is the credential for your call to Yelp’s API and must be used only by you.

If you need to get back to the API at a later point the best way is to browse to this link and sign-in. You should see your API at the top of the page. If you try to use the normal page to login it goes to your personal account and makes it very hard to find this page again so use this link: https://www.yelp.com/developers/v3/manage_app

What are the limits of the API?

By default, any client is limited to 5,000 API calls per 24 hours. This count is reset every midnight UTC.

Can I choose which reviews to display in an API query?

DirectoryImport only displays the data presented by Yelp. The sort and order of reviews are determined by recency, user voting, and other review quality factors to help consumers make informed decisions. The Yelp API cannot be configured to draw any alternative or hand-picked review excerpts.

Why is the Yelp API not delivering content for businesses I know are on Yelp?

Yelp API only returns the info for businesses that have some Yelp user-generated content added. Specifically, they must have at least one customer review.