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Yelp, which posts opinions about restaurants and businesses, will let visitors see all the reviews.

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Yelp Inc. made several significant changes to its review policies on Tuesday, following a series of class-action complaints accusing the popular San Francisco site of extorting companies into buying advertising.

The lawsuits, which include several Bay Area plaintiffs, allege that the company’s salespeople offered to highlight positive reviews and bury negative ones for businesses that agreed to advertise on the site. Further, some said that positive reviews of their businesses disappeared or brutally negative ones popped up after they refused the offers.

Operators of the site, which carries more than 9 million online reviews for restaurants, retailers and other businesses in more than 30 markets, have vehemently denied the charges. Yelp executives attribute the claims to misunderstandings about how the service works.

Only those reviews that operators suspect were created or solicited by the businesses are removed, Yelp spokesman Vince Sollitto said in an earlier interview. Advertisers can post a positive review at the top of the page, but it’s labeled as an ad and doesn’t alter the other reviews, he added.

But on Tuesday, the company removed the “Favorite Review” feature and is allowing users to see reviews previously eliminated by the filter, by clicking on a small gray link at the bottom of a business’ page.

“We’re pretty convinced that it will provide folks with the transparency that they need to better understand that Yelp treats review content for advertisers and non-advertisers equally,” said Stephanie Ichinose, a Yelp spokesman.

Lawyer Greg Weston called the move a partial victory. His San Diego law firm filed a class-action complaint in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles in late February. Plaintiffs include Mermaid Cruise of San Francisco and Sofa Outlet of San Mateo.

He said the firm will continue to pursue the case, however, because they’re still seeking refunds for companies that felt pressured into advertising. The plaintiffs also want assurances that Yelp salespeople will be trained and compensated in a way that doesn’t encourage overly aggressive practices, and a guarantee that the company won’t return to its previous policies after the public spotlight fades.

“We want some kind of formal agreement,” he said.

A second class-action complaint against Yelp was filed in the same Los Angeles court in early March. On March 12, the owner of Renaissance Furniture Restoration, a 17-year-old business on Ocean Avenue in San Francisco, filed a third lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court.

E-mail James Temple at jtemple@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page D – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle