Yelp is hiring a bunch of new salespeople to sell more ads

Yelp is making a big push to hire more salespeople this year.

During the company's Q4 earnings call last week, chief operating officer Geoff Donaker said Yelp plans on increasing its salesforce by around 40% in 2015.

The company had about 2,700 employees at the end of 2014.

Some business owners have complained about aggressive tactics from Yelp salespeople, who allegedly hint that they can remove or suppress bad reviews, or favor good reviews, if the business buys an ad.

Yelp has repeatedly denied that there's any connection between advertising and organic reviews, and even pointed to an independent study that debunks it.

Yelp has begun to move customers more toward a self-service model, where they buy ads through an automated system based and pay based on clickthrough rates. But on the earnings call, Yelp claimed that the majority of its customers still prefer to work with a salesperson, even if they begin the process of buying an ad themselves.