*Updated on 8/28/23
When talking about local listings for your business, Bing is often overlooked due to Google's massive presence. Yet, Bing is the second largest search engine, with over 1.2 billion users. A Bing Places listing could be a great opportunity for small businesses or those in a hyper-competitive market. Bing Places connects your local business with the local population, customers, and potential new ones. In this blog post, we'll discuss the importance of Bing as a search engine and how to get started on your Bing listing.
What is Bing Places for Business?
Bing is the second-largest search engine, and Places for Business, similar to Google Business Profile, is a free online platform that allows business owners to create, manage, and optimize their business profiles on Bing. When someone searches for a business on Bing, they are able to see specific information such as the business name, website, phone number, etc., on a knowledge panel above the search results. Bing Places for Business listings also appear in the maps section of a query and will include the same information as the local search results. It’s important to note that Bing will only display information that you input, so ensure that you include all the necessary information you want potential customers to see.
A Bing Places listing example for search term "des plaines web design"
Is Bing Places for Business Free?
Bing Places for Business is a completely free platform that’s accessible to businesses of all sizes. The process of setting up your listing is user-friendly and can be done in three simple steps. First, check to see if Bing has a listing for your business already, and if they do, claim your listing. If not, add a new one, and if your business has multiple locations, you can add them using their bulk upload tool. Second, complete you listing profile by adding complete information about your business, including photos, services, hours of operation, and ways to contact you. Finally, it’s important to protect your listing from unauthorized changes by verifying your listing through receiving a PIN at your business address, phone number, or email.
A Few Facts About Bing
Bing is a part of the Microsoft universe and is operated by MS. The search engine launched in 2009, and even though it currently holds "less than 3% of the global search engine market," it is the second most popular search engine. Bing’s global market share in the desktop search engine market has steadily grown from 2.32% in 2009 to 6.15% in 2021. Bing is available in 105 different languages and 238 countries, with more than a billion visits monthly.
The search engine holds a customer satisfaction score of 71% and generated over 8 billion dollars in search advertising revenue for the 2021 fiscal year. Even though Bing may seem small compared to Google, it’s still incredibly influential for businesses. For example, if your business were to capture 0.01% of Bing’s billion monthly users, your site would be visited by 100,000 people.
Bing Places vs. Google Business Profile
Bing Places and Google Business Profile operate similarly in that they both enable the following:
- Helps show the most relevant search results.
- Tells users what your business does.
- Can be managed through the app or online.
- Has the ability to share offers.
- Can link to social media profiles.
While both tools work to accomplish the same overall goals, they have a few differences. First, Bing’s main focus is to bring more visibility to social sites, and Google is more focused on visibility to informative sites.
Bing is dominated by local listings, which makes it a great platform for local businesses to promote themselves. Additionally, it integrates with Facebook, which enables people to see results for their profiles, including ratings and reviews. This is a feature that’s unique to Facebook and gives local businesses the opportunity to boost their rankings on social media sites.
Google Business Profile’s algorithm is a bit more complicated, with a strong emphasis on the importance of having businesses optimize their website and integrate specific keywords. Due to Google’s ranking factors of keywords, session durations, and backlinks, it’s incredibly difficult to link spam through Google. Google’s algorithm tends to generate more informative based-results that’s based on integrated keywords.
A Google Business Profile listing example for search term “des plaines web design”
Benefits of Using Bing Place for Business
Implementing Bing Places for Business can be extremely beneficial for your business. One of the biggest benefits to Bing is that there’s less competition for business listings on Bing. This means that it’s easier for your business to rank higher on search results. At the same time, ads on Bing are usually cheaper, and the platform gives you the opportunity to create an ad that has more targeted demographic options. Because Bing is a part of Microsoft Windows, using Bing helps boost the desktop user numbers, giving your business an opportunity to reach a wide audience on a platform that isn’t as populated as Google.
How to Get Your Business on Bing
Creating a Bing business listing is fairly simple to do. Once you’re on the Bing Places website, check to see if Bing has already created a listing for your business. If they have, claim the listing and if they haven’t, begin creating one for yourself. Then, go through all the details of your business, including address, phone number, website, and details about your offerings. Finally, you must verify your business listing, which can be done three different ways.
The first way you can verify your listing is to opt for verification via mail. Through this process, Bing Places for Business will mail a code to your physical business address, and you will follow the steps for verification from them. The second method is through the Bing Places app, where you’ll receive a verification code immediately, and it will then take one to two business days to finalize. After you verify your business, you’ll b contacted by Bing to confirm that you have successfully added or claimed your business. If you already have a business listing through Google Business Profile, you can verify your listing through syncing your information into Bing.
When going through the verification process for your Bing Places for Business, it’s important to ensure that all of your information is correct. If you choose to verify your listing through the mail, it’s imperative to ensure that your business address is accurate and that you check your mail regularly for the verification code.
How to Optimize Bing Places
When it comes to optimizing your Bing business listing, it’s important to have a clear understanding of how to optimize in order to bring in the most amount of traffic to your listing. There are a variety of things that you can do to optimize your listing, including the following:
- Ensure that your profile is fully complete with the most accurate information, including a detailed description of your business and services/products, hours of operation, contact information, and the category of your business.
- Add multiple high-quality images to the listing to showcase your business and your offerings.
- Encourage your customers to write reviews about your business and ensure that you’re responding to them in order to build trust and credibility with your audience.
- Optimize your website with relevant keywords, improving site speed, and ensuring a mobile-friendly design in order for it to rank well in search queries.
Are you looking to optimize your website for Bing Places? Contact us today and explore our SEO services to help you improve your site’s visibility and ranking.
Bing Places for Business Features
Alongside Bing Places for Business giving business owners the opportunity to create a listing with their most up to date information, they also offer many features for business owners to implement. These features include analytics, insights, and promotional tools.
The analytics and insights that Bing Places for Business offers to business owners allows you to understand how your business listing is performing on the Bing search engine. These insights can offer valuable information about your online visibility, customer interactions, and the effectiveness of your listing. Some of the insights and analytics that Bing offers includes the following:
- Impressions
- Clicks
- Direction requests
- Actions
- User demographics
- Photo and video engagement
- Comparative performance
- Review insights
- Mobile vs. desktop usage
In regard to the promotional tools that Bing Places for Business offers, they have a wide range of tools that can be used in order to manage your online presence and engage with customers. On the platform, business owners can post updates, announcements, and special offers directly to your business listing in order to keep you customers informed. In addition, you can use the analytics and insights that are offered in order to keep and eye on how your listing is performing as well as staying engaged with your audience.
Do you have a Bing Places listing and want to make the most of it? Our analytics and data analysis services can help you understand the insights of your listing and make data-driven decisions to boost your business. Contact us today!
Bing Places for Business Management Services
Here at Americaneagle.com, we offer Bing Places for Business Management Services as a comprehensive solution for your business if you’re looking to optimize your Bing Places listing. Through our services, we can help your business claim, verify, and optimize your listing on Bing and ensure that your profiles are engaging, up to date, and accurate. We can help your business save time that you would spend creating your listing, giving you more time to run your business. We can also implement our SEO services to improve your online visibility and thus, increase the overall sales of your business.
Our expert SEO team is highly skilled in creating optimized business listings on Bing. Through keyword research, image optimization, and review management, we can continuously update your listing in order to keep your information accurate and improve rankings on local searches.
If you’re looking to explore our Bing Places for Business Management services, contact us today to learn more about our process and how we can help!
Bing Places for Business FAQs
What is Bing Places for Business and why is it important for my business?
Bing Places for Business is a free platform on Bing that gives business owners the opportunity to create and manage their online business profiles. This is an important tool because it helps your business appear in local search results and maps, making it easier for potential customers to find your business and the services or products you offer.
How do I claim my Bing Places for Business listing?
If Bing already has a partially or incomplete business listing for your business, go to Bing Places for Business, find your listing, and follow the prompts to complete it. You will need to verify your listing via email, the Bing Places app, or through syncing with your Google Business Profile.
What information should I include in my Bing Places for Business listing?
Your Bing Places for Business listing should include the most accurate information about your business, including your business name, address, website, phone number, hours of operation, primary category, and a detailed description of your business and offerings.
How can I optimize my Bing Places for Business listing?
In order to optimize your listing, complete your profile with the most accurate information, include high-quality images, encourage customer reviews and make sure to respond to them, and optimize your website with relevant keywords and a mobile-friendly design.
How can a digital agency help me manage my Bing Places for Business listing?
A digital agency can help you with the process of claiming, verifying, and optimizing your Bing Places for Business listing. They can ensure that your listing is accurate and engaging, as well as monitor your listing’s performance, respond to customer reviews, and implement strategies designed to improve your online visibility and conversions.
What are the benefits of hiring a digital agency to manage my Bing Places for Business listing?
Hiring a digital agency can save your business time and effort in managing your listing, giving you more time to focus on running your business. An agency also has industry experts who can help you optimize your listing and online presence, which can lead to an increase in conversions, customer engagement, and brand visibility.
How can I track the performance of my Bing Places for Business listing?
Tracking your Bing Places for Business listing is simple because Bing offers analytics and insights, allowing you to monitor your listings performance. This include the number of views, clicks, and customer actions that come from interacting with your business listing. If you’re working with a digital agency, you can also ask for regular reports and insights that allow you to better understand the impact that your listing has on your business.
How does Bing Places for Business compare to other local listing platforms?
Bing Places for Business is similar to other local listing platforms like the Google Business Profile in terms of functionality. However, Bing offers unique features such as integration with Facebook for ratings and reviews, and it offers less competition due to fewer businesses utilizing Bing for a business listing.
Can I promote special offers or events on my Bing Places for Business listing?
Yes, you have full capabilities to promote special offers or events on your Bing Places for Business listing to attract more customers. If you’re working with a digital agency, they can help with creating and managing promotional campaigns that can maximize the impact.
How can I get started with a digital agency's Bing Places for Business Management Services?
If you’re looking to get started with a digital agency, first be sure to contact them to discuss your business’s needs and goals. From there, they can help you through the onboarding process, which can include a consultation, review of your current online presence, and development of a customized strategy for managing your Bing Places for Business listing and online presence.
Get Started with Bing Places for Business
Creating a Bing local listing for your business is only part of an intelligent search and marketing strategy. Americaneagle.com provides digital marketing agency services across a number of disciplines, including local SEO. We have in-house SEO experts to help ensure your business is showing up for local searchers. They’re also well-versed in crafting targeting SEO, PPC, and social media campaigns to drive even more traffic to your site. Contact us today to learn more about our services.
This article was written with contributions from Americaneagle.com Senior Content Writer Jill Case.
