In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore how Bing Maps differs from Google Maps, look at factors that make Bing the right choice for your business, and explore how you can create and optimize a Bing Maps listing.
Bing has many search features that are similar to its main competitor, like featured snippets and people also ask sections. Bing also has a world map populated by business profiles, Bing Places for Business.
Local Bing search results are typically displayed in regular search when the search query has local words in it, like “near me” or the name of a location.
The business listings shown in the results provide basic business information like open hours, address, and business phone number, as well as a link to the company’s website.
Like any other map-based business directory, Bing Places allows users to find businesses with a retail location near them, and businesses to promote their services to the users.
Since Bing is second to Google in terms of search, and not a close second, it’s best to look at Bing Places in comparison to its main competitor. We’ll explore how they compare in functionality and usage trends.
Bing Maps and Google Maps show up similarly in search — a map with the top three businesses that match the search query. The user can open a map to see more matching businesses or expand one of the business profiles.
Business listings on Bing provide a basic set of business details:
The desktop version doesn’t have a call button, but the mobile version does.
On top of the basics, Bing allows you to add:
Bing has some features restricted to specific regions. For instance, you can only set up special hours in the UK, the US, and Canada.
Google Maps shows a similar list of features, with the booking link and LGBTQ+ friendly badge being one of the few absent from Bing.
Google has its own review system. It’s being used quite heavily, and it’s not uncommon to see hundreds of reviews for a small business.
Bing’s review system would likely not have as many reviews due to lower popularity, so Bing Places imports reviews from external sources instead.
Facebook is the most convenient way to import reviews, but you can also synchronize with your accounts on Yelp, TripAdvisor, Yellow Pages, and industry-specific review websites. The availability of certain review platforms may differ from region to region. It’s also not always automatic, you might have to add links to review pages to your profile.
Both platforms offer additional features like FAQs and posts on the profile. Bing can import the FAQ section from the company website.
A lot of Bing’s growth in popularity is attributed to Microsoft Copilot being integrated with Windows. Copilot has 33 million active monthly users as of Q1 2025, so it makes sense to look at local search in both companies’ AI engines.
Google’s Gemini tends to treat local searches like informational ones on desktop and returns a list of suggestions on choosing the best business.
The mobile version of Gemini returns a list of businesses and shows them on Google Maps.
Copilot doesn’t show a map, but does return several businesses from the area with their addresses and phone numbers. The list of businesses shown by Copilot corresponds to the top of local Bing search results.
It’s not the most useful way to discover businesses, as there’s no map for users’ reference, but it does provide a way for companies to gain visibility in AI search.
Google dominates the global search market, but Bing remains its closest competitor. Here’s how the two compare in terms of search market share.
Bing receives 100 million search queries per day as of 2024 and has increased its search market share by 1% since its previous plateau, which was relatively stable in the last decade. This is mostly due to Bing being the default search engine of Microsoft Copilot in the Windows operating system.
There isn’t a clear statistic on how many search queries Google receives, but based on multiple quotes from Google’s blog and employees, the number is in the billions.
Google stated it served over 200 million business profiles in 2022. There’s no clear data on the number of Bing Places for Business profiles. Some estimates put it at 150,000, but their methodology is unclear. It’s safe to assume Bing has a lot fewer business listings on the map than Google.
A quick search for a niche local business in a mid-sized US city on Google shows well over a hundred results.
The same local keyword on Bing Maps only shows 26 businesses.
Overall, Bing has less user base than Google, but 7% of the US search market is worth tapping into.
Since most Bing search traffic is from desktop browsers and Google dominates mobile search, we can assume businesses that rely on impulse or opportunity-based visits won’t benefit from Bing.
Those with a longer sales cycle that users typically would research on a PC have better odds of generating relevant traffic.
The biggest question that always comes up for Bing optimization is whether it’s worth the effort.
Google is definitely the leader in search, both in terms of regular and local searches. If you do local marketing, creating and optimizing a Google Business Profile is a must.
But Bing isn’t without its uses. It allows you to:
Bing Places isn’t for everyone, though. It makes sense to invest in creating a profile if you:
If this list fits your company, read on to find out how to create and optimize your Bing business listing.
The best part about setting up a Bing Places for Business account is that you don’t have to do much. If you already have a Google Business Profile, you can import all the data from there.
Bing supports this integration natively and will even instantly verify your business listing if you’re already verified on Google.
If you don’t have a Google Business Profile yet, it’s best to go ahead and create one first because you’ll be missing out on 87% of North American search traffic. But if you want to create a new listing on Bing Maps first, here’s what you have to do:
If you have under 10 business locations, you’ll have to create a Bing business listing for each of them individually. If you have over ten, you can upload all the business information in a spreadsheet and verify all listings all at once.
There’s also the option to create an agency account to manage multiple locations for multiple clients.
If you’re importing data from Google, double-check the accuracy and make sure all the fields are filled in. You may have to add data that isn’t present on Google.
After submitting the profile, you’ll have to verify it. Bing will send a verification PIN to your business address, email, or deliver it over a phone call. It takes 5-6 business days for the verification code to arrive at your physical location.
Enter the PIN on the verification page, and you’ll be able to make authorized edits to the listing and track its performance.
Once the listing is verified, you can add a new user to the Bing business profile and populate it with advanced business information. This includes amenities and business relationships.
Amenities let you add information on:
Business relationships show whether your business is located in another place, like a mall or a business center, to help customers find you. It also lets professionals who work for an agency, like real estate brokers or lawyers, show their place of employment.
Fill out all the fields with correct information. This is important both for user convenience and for ranking.
All search engines use a proprietary algorithm for ranking, and it’s hard to know the exact factors and their importance. Most local ranking algorithms follow a basic high-level formula that consists of three parts.
Bing Places lists these three factors that contribute to ranking.
You can’t influence the distance to the user, but the other two ranking factors have a lot of optimization opportunities.
Here is a short checklist to optimize your Bing Maps listing for ranking:
These should be enough to boost your local Bing rankings in an area with mild competition.
Now, let’s explore in more detail how you can optimize your Bing Places profile for both ranking and click-through rate.
Bing Places listing doesn’t have many places you can use for keyword optimization, so you should make the most of them. You can add keywords to the name of the business and the business description.
For research, you can use Bing’s Keyword Research tool after verifying your website or a third-party SEO tool. You can use your main keywords for Bing optimization even if they don’t show up in Bing research, as long as there’s a similar keyword with good search volume numbers.
Use the keyword that’s the most relevant to your business and has a good search volume in the business name, but try to keep it natural. Use keywords that describe your other services and have less search volume in the profile description.
You can also add local modifiers in the description — names of areas you work in.
The two main types of keywords you’ll use for keyword optimization are keywords that describe your services and the areas you serve. These correspond to Bing’s categories and service areas.
Even if you don’t have a particular keyword in your profile, but have chosen the category that has that keyword, you’ll still rank. For instance, this business doesn’t have the keyword in its business name and description, but ranks well.
Its primary category corresponds to a keyword, and it ranks second for the related search query. Bing takes all of the ten categories you choose, but only displays the primary one.
If your business provides only a few services, choosing the categories is straightforward. The difficulties begin when you’re providing multiple services because Bing allows adding only ten categories.
Do a bit of keyword research and choose the ones that have higher search volume on Bing.
Choose the category that you mainly work in as your primary category. If your company doesn’t have a single area of specialization, pick the one that has the most search volume.
This is the only category that will be displayed on your Bing Places profile, the secondary ones will only be stored in the profile for ranking purposes.
If you serve an area instead of providing business to customers coming in the door, service areas can act as local keywords for you.
There doesn’t seem to be a limit to how many service areas you can add to Bing Places for Business. Add the places you’re licensed to work in or ones you prefer to serve. You can do keyword research to see which local keywords have more search volume and prioritize those.
Add both broad and specific areas to capture more searches. If you provide services in several counties, you can add the following as your service areas:
It’s best not to add too many service areas, though. Displaying 50 areas in your profile will clutter it visually and might result in poor performance. Ideally, keep that number under 15.
Optimizing your category list and Bing Places profile isn’t the only way you can signal to Bing when to show your listing. It also analyzes your website to find keywords associated with your business. Considering that Bing clearly states it takes website optimization into account, it’s safe to assume it’s a ranking factor on Bing Places for Business.
If you did your job optimizing your website for organic search, you probably won’t have to do much apart from submitting your sitemap URL to Bing through Webmaster Tools. If you haven’t, do keyword research and optimize your website.
Here’s a quick checklist for website keyword optimization that will help with Bing Maps ranking.
You might have to do a lot more to optimize your site for organic search on Google and Bing, but this should be enough for correct local ranking on Bing Maps.
Keep in mind that even though Bing crawlers can render some JavaScript code, they might not support the latest frameworks. If your website runs on JS, you might have to implement dynamic rendering to get your site properly indexed.
The three points above cover one of the three major ranking factors, relevance. With them, your Bing Places listing will be considered when a user searches for a related keyword.
What makes it rank higher than the other listings is popularity. One component of it is mentions of your business across the web.
From a brief analysis of high-ranking Bing Places listings, it seems you don’t have to invest heavily in link building to have a chance of being in the top 3. A large part of local business websites don’t have hundreds of backlinks.
What they have is a consistent presence of mentions in:
You can create business directory profiles for your company either for free or for a low annual fee. It also helps with Google Business Profile optimization, so you’re investing in more than Bing optimization.
Get listed on as many reputable sites like these as you can, and update business details across all directories if any of them change.
The second part of the popularity assessment is reviews on different platforms.
Bing Places for Business listings that rank high typically have a high number of Facebook reviews. Bing also imports reviews from other popular review platforms like Yelp and industry-specific review platforms like Lawyers.com.
Since Bing likely won’t provide as much traffic, it doesn’t make sense to invest heavily in gathering reviews on platforms you don’t otherwise care about. That’s why it’s best to create and optimize a Bing Places listing if you already have a presence on Facebook or an industry review website.
It’s also fine if you’re planning to expand your presence on either platform.
Here are the general guidelines to gain more reviews:
Photos aren’t a ranking factor for Bing Places for Business. In fact, many businesses that rank in the top 3 don’t have a single photo in the profile.
You can add a few photos to improve the click-through rate. Businesses with photos generally seem more approachable because photos are an indication that the profile is being updated, and the listing has accurate information. One small-scale case study suggests improving photos on a GBP listing can result in a double-digit increase in CTR.
Here are a few ideas of what you can add:
Decide which photo should be the thumbnail based on your branding. For instance, a casual photo of the team for a more personable brand, and the company logo for a more professional one.
You can upload high-quality images from your Facebook business profile to save time.
Once you’re done with optimization, add Bing Places for Business analytics to your analytics stack and monitor your progress. It provides data on profile views, clicks, and calls. For local ranking information, you’ll need to use a third-party tool.
Wait for a few days for your listing to be added, monitor performance, and change your approach based on the local insights.
Keep in mind that some users will discover your business listing on Bing and will do research on other places, which can prevent proper sales attribution.
Now, let’s look at how well-optimized Bing Places profiles look in a couple of different industries.
This is a great example of a law firm’s Bing business listing.
It contains all the basic information about the business, its location, and a contact button to prompt users to visit the business.
The images are a mix of branding and team photos. The first image is a simple stock photo, though. It’s best to avoid those.
This Bing business’s profile doesn’t have exact match keywords in the description, it’s tailored more towards conversion.
Another Bing business profile has a better approach to images. It has the founder’s photo as the thumbnail and a few logo images.
It also has a CTA button and links to Facebook reviews. The profile ranks high despite having a rating of 3.6 because few competing profiles have reviews.
The FAQ section on this listing is massive thanks to a large catalogue of questions and answers on the website.
Neither of these businesses has that many backlinks on their websites, but they have multiple directory profiles on relevant websites.
Here are the review websites that often appear on Bing Maps for the legal niche:
All of the businesses in the top three in this search are well optimized. A linked reviews profile, keywords in the business name, and good photos.
Most also have a list of services they offer.
This section can act as a list of keywords that help your listing appear in more searches.
Here’s another good example of a Bing Maps profile in the medical field.
It has a good approach towards images with a branded photo as a thumbnail and provides an appointment link.
Only two websites consistently appear as review sources in the medical niche on Bing:
These two businesses are good examples of optimizing a Bing Maps listing of a professional services company.
You should emulate:
These websites are the most widespread as review sources in this niche on Bing:
Bing Maps optimization is something you can easily do yourself if you already have a Google Business Profile and some reviews on third-party websites. If you’re only thinking of doing local search marketing, it’s best to partner with professionals to achieve your goals faster.
dNOVO Group can help your local business:
Contact us to get a free marketing audit.
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