Claim your listing in Bing Places for Business, verify it, and copy the name, address, phone, hours and categories from your Google listing exactly. Then check it once a year.

The search engine on the office computer

Most owners check how their business looks on Google, usually on their own phone. Many of their customers search somewhere else.

On a Windows computer, the browser and the search box on the taskbar send searches to Bing unless someone has changed the settings. In offices, often nobody has.

Bing's share of searches is far smaller than Google's, but its users include the people at desks: estimators, purchasing staff, office managers and property managers.

And Bing builds a local listing for most businesses whether or not anyone ever claimed it.

Where Bing's answers appear

The second is the one most owners have never tried. Type a business name into that box, and the answer that comes back, often with a phone number and hours, is Bing's.

What an unclaimed listing gets wrong

Bing assembles listings from directories, data suppliers and old records. Nobody at the business checks them, because nobody there uses Bing.

The usual faults: an address from before a move, a phone number that now rings somebody else, a category the business left years ago, and hours that were never right.

There can be two listings for one business, one at the old address and one at the new, both apparently genuine.

A wrong category matters more than it looks. It decides which searches the business appears for, so a fabricator filed as a roofer turns up for roof repairs and not for ductwork.

Claiming the listing

Go to Bing Places for Business and sign in with a Microsoft account. Use one created for the business, not a personal account belonging to whoever is at the desk that day.

Search for the business, claim the listing that matches, and verify it. Verification is usually a PIN sent by post, or a call to the listed number where that option is offered.

If the listed number is wrong, the call goes to the wrong place, so choose the postcard and allow time for the post.

Keep the login with the business

Whoever claims the listing controls it. If that is an employee's personal Microsoft account, the listing leaves when they do, and getting it back means proving ownership all over again.

Create the account with a business email address, store the password with the other listing logins, and make sure a second person can get in.

Matching it to your Google listing

Copy the details from your Google listing, character for character. Customers and search engines both compare listings, and small differences make a business look less certain.

Use the name on the sign, with no added keywords. Write the address in the same format, with the unit number in the same place.

Use the same main phone number, the same hours and the same website address. Choose the closest categories Bing offers, which will not match Google's list word for word.

Bing also has room for a description of the business, which Google's listing does not currently offer. Two plain sentences about what you do and where will serve.

Photos and the details people act on

Give the hours customers actually need. A pickup counter may close earlier than the office, and drivers care about the counter.

Add photographs of the entrance and the sign, so a first-time visitor recognises the building, and link to the website rather than to a directory page.

A worked example

A sheet metal fabricator making ductwork, flashing and custom enclosures moved to a larger unit across town three years ago. Its Google listing was updated the same week.

Bing still showed the old unit, the old fax number as the main phone, and the category roofing contractor.

Nobody noticed until a mechanical contractor's driver arrived at the old address to collect an order. The purchasing manager had looked the shop up in the search box on his office computer.

The owner claimed the listing by postcard, since the phone option would have rung the fax line. The address, phone, hours and categories now match Google, with photos of the loading door.

The listing at the old address was flagged to Bing as a duplicate, and a reminder to check both listings sits in the January calendar.

Reviews and the sites behind Bing

Bing does not run its own reviews. The ratings beside a listing are mostly drawn from other review sites, so those listings need the same correct details.

If a review site still shows the old address, Bing may keep finding it there. Fix the source, not just the copy.

Once a year, and after any move

Bing listings change less often than Google's, so a yearly check is enough for most businesses, alongside the January review of other listings.

A move, a new phone number or new hours is different. Add Bing to the list of places updated on the day: Google, Bing, Apple Maps, Facebook and the website itself.

Keep that list in one document, with the login for each place beside it, so the next move takes an afternoon rather than a month of discoveries.

The counter-case

A business whose customers mostly search on phones, at home or on the move, may see few visits from Bing, and Google deserves its attention first.

Even then, a wrong listing sends the occasional customer to the wrong place, and fixing it is an hour's work once the postcard arrives.

It is not a reason to start advertising on Bing. It is a reason to make sure the free listing is right.

Claim it, match it to Google exactly, and look at it once a year.

The check

  1. Search for your business on Bing.
  2. Try the Windows search box as well.
  3. Sign in to Bing Places with a business account.
  4. Claim and verify the correct listing.
  5. Copy every detail from your Google listing.
  6. Report duplicates at old addresses.
  7. Set a yearly reminder for January.

Step five is where the value lies. A listing that matches Google exactly gives the person at the office computer the same answer as the person on a phone, and removes one more way to reach the wrong place.

What customers read into the Google listing beyond its basic details is covered in popular times on your Google listing.

Frequently asked questions

Why should a business care about Bing?

Bing answers searches typed on many office computers, in the Windows search box and in default browsers, so customers at work may see its listing first.

Does Bing list my business without asking?

Usually, yes. It builds listings from directories, data suppliers and old records, which is why unclaimed listings often show old addresses and phone numbers.

How do I claim a Bing listing?

Sign in to Bing Places for Business with a Microsoft account created for the business, find the listing, claim it and verify it by postcard or phone.

Which verification method should I choose?

The postcard, whenever the listed phone number is wrong, because the phone option calls the number on the listing rather than the one you use now.

What should match my Google listing?

The business name as on the sign, the address format, the main phone number, the hours and the website address, character for character.

How often should I check Bing Places?

Once a year, alongside the January check of your other listings, and on the day of any move, new phone number or change in hours.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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