Bing Places: What? How? and Why?

Well, Bing remains the default search engine on all newer Windows OS computers, tablets and devices and, as such, is used by millions daily. Brands and local businesses would be foolish to miss out on these potential clients/customers. However small…

Bing’s Places for Business feature – largely analogous to Google’s My Business – is not be smirked at. Signing up is as easy as 1-2-3:

1. More often than not, Bing will already have some details for your business. All you need to do is fill out your phone number or business name and location. If they’ve got you in the system, you’ll be asked to moderate the information. If not, just manually add your business via ‘Add New Business’.
2. Once you’ve claimed your business, you’ll be presented with a range of drop-down menus. Bing advises being as ‘complete’ as possible when it comes to info, so fill out as much as possible: details, contact info, photos, services offered, etc.
3. Verifying your business is super simple. Bing will send out a personalised PIN via post, phone or email. Of course, it’s far quicker to use the phone or email verification, the postal option however only takes 3-5 days – not too bad.

Boom! You’re on Bing Places! Still wondering why on Earth you should be bothering with Bing? Here’s a few factors to consider:

Cost

More than anything, your business is showcased to online customers at no cost. All it requires is your time to set it up.

Reach

As alluded to above, Bing is still the first port of call for certain internet users. Although market share figures do fluctuate depending on where you’re looking, Statista places Bing’s share at 12.1% in July 2018.

SEO

We’ll be honest, this one’s a deal breaker. Listing your business on Bing Places will help your Google ranking. Google, in all its omniscient majesty, looks far beyond its own borders when ranking sites. Although Bing may provide little to no traffic to your site, getting listed on Bing Places will boost your local search performance on Google – and that’s key.

Analytics

If you’re already sold on setting up your Bing Places listing and forgetting about it instantly, that’s cool with us. Dare you dig a little deeper, Bing offers some robust analytical functionality. For example: Bing provides you with useful snapshots of your local search performance in comparison to your competitors.

Bing’s Places for Business hardly reinvents the wheel of local search, but it’s worth ticking off as part of your SEO activity. Check it out.