ClickZ recently posted an article about Yelp’s new Wordmap, which can help you map out word usage in certain areas. The author points out that you could find the areas in San Francisco where the word “hipster” appears most often in reviews and avoid hipster-ish places by going to establishments outside the highlighted area on the map. Similarly, you can click “tourist” to avoid heavy tourist areas or “view” to find high concentrations of restaurants and bars that afford their customers great views (hint: you might find them by the water).

I suppose this is great if you don’t know a city and you want to narrow down the neighborhoods  you’re going to visit. But it also gives a narrow view as well — by generalizing. Which can actually hurt the businesses listed on Yelp.

Let’s say I own a great, authentic Italian restaurant that happens to be located in an area where hipster-type places have been popping up. That means people looking for an authentic, non-hipster dining experience (a.k.a. my target audience) will pass over my neighborhood, and thus my restaurant, and get their meatballs from my competitor across town.

While this may be an anomaly, it’s something that Yelp should have taken into consideration, especially since local businesses are the ones paying for ad space on their site.

If you happen to own one of those businesses, you might want to play around in Wordmap a bit before you plunk down any dough for your next ad. Make sure that big blur of red is actually helping your brand instead of becoming one of the latest obstacles for small businesses like yours.