How to set up your business listing in Bing
Bing Places for Business is a free online directory where you can add your business. Listings appear at the top of the Bing search results and in Bing Maps and show your business’ contact details, address, and reviews.
All together, a Bing listing helps your business look more professional and build trust with potential customers — more important than ever as 97% of consumers look online for reviews of local businesses before deciding whether or not to visit.
Here’s how to set up your business listing on Bing Places for Business and some tips and best practices for managing your listing on an ongoing basis.
How to create your Bing Places for Business account
To manage a business listing in Bing, you first need an account. You can set up a brand new account or use existing accounts to log into Bing.
- Go to the Bing Places website and click “Sign in.”
- Choose whether you want to log in using an existing account from another provider. The options include Google, Facebook, and Microsoft, so it’s highly likely you already have an account with one of these services. You’ll use this account to manage your Bing listing, so make sure you use a business account rather than a personal one.
- If you don’t want to log in with one of these services, create an account.
- Add your details to create your profile. You can also change notification settings — for example, to get alerts about information that’s missing from your listing or if there are any issues with the health of your listing.
How to set up (or claim) your business listing in Bing
Once you have a Bing Places account set up, you can add your business listing or claim an existing listing for your business. The process is slightly different for each, so here’s a brief walkthrough of the process, depending on whether you’re creating a new listing or not.
To set up a new business listing
- Go to Bing Places for Business.
- Click “Get started as a new user.”
- Choose how to start your business listing. You can import business information from Google Business Profile or manually add your business. Importing from Google Business Profile will be quicker and helps ensure consistency across multiple listing directories. But if you don’t have a Google Business Profile yet, it’s very easy to add your business details manually instead.
- To add a listing manually, search for your business on Bing. Enter the phone number or business name and location to bring up a list of possible local businesses.
- Scroll to the bottom of the search results and click “My business is not listed in the search results.” Then, click “Create new business” to begin manually adding your business details.
- Add your company’s details. This includes core information like your business name, phone number, address, and website. You can also add a more detailed description, photos, links to social media profiles, and links to other directory profiles (such as Yelp). Most of the information you add will show up directly on your business listing, so you should make sure it’s accurate and gives a good representation of your business.
- Verify your business. Before your listing will show up in Bing results, you need to verify it to show it’s genuine. To verify your business, you need to choose a way for Bing to send you a PIN — via a phone call to your registered business phone number, an email to a business account, or receiving a postcard to your business address.
To claim an existing listing
- Search for your business on Bing. This will help you find the existing listing for your business.
Note: If your business has multiple locations, you can claim them all in one go by using Bing’s bulk upload tool. - Click “Claim now.” This will open a new tab to guide you through the process of claiming the listing for your business.
- Log in to your account. This is the account you set up earlier and will be the one you use to manage your listing.
- Verify your account. Before you can start changing or managing the listing, you need to prove to Bing that you own the business you’re trying to claim. Choose a way for Bing to send you a PIN — via phone, email, or physical mail. Once you receive it, you can enter the PIN to verify your account.
Bing Places for Business: Tips and best practices
Make sure your NAP is accurate
NAP means name, address, and phone number — the core information about your business. Search engines like Bing pull information about your business from external sources, like other online directory sites. Bing has no way of knowing whether that information is accurate or not, so it’s essential to keep your NAP consistent across all online directory listings.
If you set up a new business listing in Bing, you have full control over the information you’re adding. So it’s pretty straightforward to make sure you add the exact same details as on other listing sites. But if you claim an existing listing, there might be inconsistencies or inaccuracies in your NAP that could easily go unnoticed.
To make sure your NAP is accurate and consistent across all online listings, you have a couple of options:
- Manually check all of the online directories, such as Yelp, Google Business Profile, Facebook, Foursquare, and Bing.
- Use a listings management tool like Chatmeter. These help keep your local listings accurate and consistent — our systems automatically flag inaccuracies so you can update multiple listings in minutes.
Use high-quality images
Listings with images show up more prominently in search results, both in Bing Search and on Bing Maps. They help potential customers build up a picture of your business — does the location and your products look genuine and good quality? High-quality images can help create a positive first impression, while poor-quality or vague images have the opposite effect.
You can add images to your Bing business listing when you first create it, but you can also add more later on. Think carefully about what customers would want to see from your business, and try to add images that meet those needs. For example, adding images of your storefront and internal space helps customers find your business when visiting for the first time. And images of your products, services, or menu show what you can offer and help people decide whether or not to visit.
Collect and respond to reviews
Being able to manage and respond to customer reviews is one of the main benefits of having a Bing business listing. Reviews help customers decide whether to use your business or not and can really help build trust in your company.
In fact, BrightLocal found that 88% of consumers are likely to use a business if they can see the business owner responds to all of its reviews. It shows you’re willing to engage with your customers and take their experience seriously — even if they shared something negative.
Monitor your Bing business listing for new reviews. You can do this manually by logging in every day. Alternatively, Chatmeter’s reputation management solution will alert you when new reviews are posted on your listing.
Take time to respond to them all as they come in. That includes both positive and negative reviews — don’t only engage with customers who say great things about your business. It can be difficult to know what to say when faced with criticism about your business or service, so we’ve put together a list of customizable review reply templates to help you craft the perfect response.
Keep your Bing Places for Business listing up-to-date
Out-of-date business information can be a real annoyance for customers. Say you’ve changed your opening hours or days but not updated your listing. Customers will look online and show up, only to find your business closed.
Whenever you make big changes to your business — like changing your opening times, service or product offerings, or even your store signage, spend a little time updating your Bing business listing, too. This will help build trust with your customers, as they know what they see online is an accurate representation of your business.
To keep your listing updated, you can log into Bing each time and make changes there. Alternatively, you can use listings management software like Chatmeter. Our product integrates directly with listing directories (including Bing), so you can make changes in one place, and it updates across the other sites all at once.
Take control of your online listings
Now you know how to set up and manage a business listing on Bing, but it’s just one of many directories on which you’ll want to have your business listed. Keeping all those listings accurate and up-to-date is no small task, especially if your business operates in multiple locations with individual listings for each location.
Chatmeter makes it easy to keep your listings updated and make your online presence a key asset of your brand. Want to see it for yourself? Check out our self-guided product demo to see exactly how Chatmeter can benefit your business. Or, if you want to learn more, set up a call with our expert team.