What is Bing Places for Business? Along with your Google Business Profile, this is a powerful online listing you won’t want to ignore.
A key ingredient to any local SEO campaign is adding your business details to various sources on the web. As a result, your website benefits from:
- NAP (name, address & phone number) consistency.
- Helping potential customers find your business.
- Valuable links to your website (AKA backlinks).
Sites such as Freeindex, Yell, Cylex and Yelp all allow you to create a free business profile. However, listings like Places for Business provide much higher visibility.
Why? Because it’s built into the search engine. It’s quicker and easier for folks to see a selection of local businesses at the top of the search results. Here’s everything you need to know.
What is Bing Places for Business?
The Quick Answer
A useful online listing for local businesses with a physical location or service area. Bing Places for Business is the Microsoft equivalent of your Google Business Profile.
A well-managed and optimised listing will increase your visibility online. Additionally, it will help your business show up in the top map results, making it easier for people to find you.
Should my Business be Listed There?
Local businesses of all shapes and sizes are welcome to add a listing to Bing. As long as you have a physical location or visit customers in a specific area, you’re good to go.
As with a Google Business Profile, it’s usually going to help your visibility if you have a physical address.
That said, it’s easier than on Google to rank well without one. Further down, we’ll discuss showing up in the map pack (the top map results).
Bing Places for Business is a Bing portal that enables local business owners to add a listing for their business on Bing.
Setting up Your Profile
If you’ve decided a Bing listing would be beneficial for your business, you can set up your profile over at bingplaces.com.
Because most businesses already have a Google Business Profile, Bing, rather handily, allows you to transfer all of your information over.
Furthermore, you may already be listed on Bing. If so, you can take the relevant steps to claim your business.
Either way, once you’re all set up, it’s a good idea to check over all of your details. Is everything correct and up-to-date? Are there any additional sections you can fill out to help provide a more in-depth overview of your business?
Fill out as much as you can. The more, the better. Further down, we’ll also look at optimising your profile for maximum visibility.
Ayup! My name’s Mike Hindle. I’m the author of this article and a local SEO specialist based in Derby, UK.
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Will it Drive as Much Traffic as Google?
Let’s not beat around the bush here. A Places for Business listing won’t bring in anywhere near as many enquiries as a Google Business Profile.
However, that doesn’t mean you should disregard Bing. Things are a little rocky over at Google right now. For the first time in forever, they’ve got some serious competition to deal with.
While most businesses will still benefit massively from Google, what if you could acquire even more leads from people already looking for your product or service?
Diversifying your traffic sources is one of the most important SEO strategies right now. To clarify, no, it won’t bring as many phone calls as Google, but yes, your business will still increase its overall enquiries with a presence on Bing.
How do I Optimise Bing Places for Business?
Optimising your Bing listing works in pretty much the same way as your Google profile.
- Consistent NAP (name, address, phone number).
- Regular updates and additional photos, etc.
- Using the correct business category.
- Keywords – Used appropriately across your listing.
Additionally, Places for Business now has a Special Announcement feature. This is similar to posting updates on Google. Use it to promote new services, offers, or behind-the-scenes information about your business.
Take a look at your competition. Who’s rocking up in the top map results when you search for your service in your area on Bing?
Observe their listing. The wording they’ve used, their business category and the number of images. You can then use this to improve your own profile.
How do I get Reviews on Bing?
Over on your Google Business Profile, you’ll most likely be aware of the importance of reviews. Contrarily, on Bing, there’s no option to obtain reviews directly from your listing.
Nevertheless, it does pull in reviews from external sources such as Facebook, Trustpilot and Yell. Quite randomly, though, it completely ignores your Google reviews. ?
Therefore, if you want reviews to appear on your Bing listing, be sure to start requesting them on sites like Facebook or Yell.
How Long do Updates Take to go Live?
This is a minor frustration I’ve bumped into a few times. Updates to your listing can sometimes take a couple of weeks to go live.
In my humble opinion, this is quite ridiculous. For example, if you get a new phone number, your listing will still show the old one until it eventually decides to update.
In this situation, it will let you know when your updates are due to go live. Once that date has passed, check your details directly on Bing Maps rather than via your listing management page. Why? This is because sometimes your updates will show on your side, but not publically.
If this happens, the support is actually very useful. The team is easy to reach via email and provides helpful updates and solutions.
Where Can I Check my Analytics?
When you log in to your account, you’ll see an overview of your listing. At the far right is Action, which takes you to a simple analytics page.
Admittedly, it’s not hugely insightful. You can see how many views your listing is getting, as well as the number of clicks (to your site, for directions, or to call you) in comparison to similar businesses.
Is it Easy to Rank in The Top Map Results?
Lastly, you’re probably going to find it a lot easier to rank in the map pack (the top map results) on Bing.
Compared to Google, you’ll be up against less competition on Bing. Furthermore, businesses aren’t really focussing much attention anywhere other than Google.
Of course, this provides a quick win for your business. Depending on what mood it’s in, Bing will also sometimes show five map results instead of the usual three that we’re used to on Google.
Therefore, even if you’re ranking fourth or fifth, you’ll still enjoy a much higher level of visibility. Shout out to my accountant, Sibalds, who is ranking nicely here.
You’ll also notice that in this particular example, all of the listings have a physical address that clients can visit. This isn’t always the case; however, if it’s looking that way for your sector, you’ll most likely need a physical location to rank in the top five.
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What is Bing Places for Business – Conclusion
To conclude, wrapping up this introduction to an essential addition to your local SEO strategy:
What is Bing Places for Business? A handly online listing that helps improve visibility and enquiries for local businesses.
It works in much the same way as your Google Business Profile, helping you also show up in the local map pack. As we all know, in the world of SEO, this is where the magic happens. ?
Places for Business is less crowded than Google, It will also bring in fewer enquiries, but it will still drive additional traffic that no business can afford to ignore.
Is it a replacement for your Google Business Profile? Hell no! Is it a crucial, not to mention valuable addition? Hell yes!
Thanks for stopping by…
My name’s Mike Hindle. I’m a local SEO specialist and the founder of Clearcut Derby and Leaflet Lion. I love building websites, hiking, exploring, photography and butter beans.