Bing holds 3-5% of US search market share, but skews heavily toward Windows users, older demographics, and enterprise Microsoft 365 clients. Here's how local businesses should think about Bing Places and Microsoft Copilot optimization.
Google dominates local search. But "dominates" is not "monopolizes," and the AI-powered changes happening at Bing deserve more attention from local business owners than they're currently getting.
Microsoft Copilot (formerly Bing Chat) and Bing's AI-powered search represent a growing share of the local search landscape, particularly among Windows desktop users, Microsoft 365 subscribers, and Edge browser users. For certain business categories in specific demographics, Bing traffic is a meaningful portion of total local search volume.
Here's what local businesses need to know about Bing AI, Microsoft Copilot, and how to optimize for both.
This playbook adapts well to other industries, for example local SEO for B2B companies.
Google holds approximately 90–92% of the US search market. Bing holds 3–5%, with DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, and others covering the remainder.
Before dismissing that number, consider the actual user distribution:
Bing tends to over-index for:
What this means in practice: For certain business categories, B2B services, financial services, healthcare targeting older patients, estate planning, elder law, Bing's demographic skew means a disproportionate share of your target customers may be using Bing. A 5% overall market share can translate to 15–20% of your specific audience.
The Copilot dimension: Microsoft Copilot is integrated across Windows, Edge, Office 365, and Teams. Its user base is the entire Microsoft 365 enterprise ecosystem, hundreds of millions of users who encounter Copilot-powered answers without specifically choosing to use Bing.
Bing Places for Business is Bing's equivalent of Google Business Profile. It's the listing that appears in Bing Maps and Bing local search results. Most US businesses have an existing Bing Places listing auto-generated from Yelp, yellowPages, or other directory data, but these unclaimed listings are often inaccurate and incomplete.
Why Bing Places matters in 2026:
Bing Places data feeds Copilot. When Microsoft Copilot generates local business responses, it pulls from Bing Places listings. A missing or inaccurate Bing Places listing means Copilot may cite incorrect information about your business, or omit you from responses entirely.
Bing Places is free, takes 30 minutes to set up, and creates a citation signal that many competitors haven't bothered to claim.
How to claim and optimize Bing Places:
Step 1: Go to bingplaces.com and sign in with a Microsoft account.
Step 2: Search for your business. If it exists, claim it. If it doesn't, create it.
Step 3: Verify your business (typically phone or postcard verification).
Step 4: Complete all sections:
Bing Places pro tip: Bing allows you to import your Google Business Profile data directly into Bing Places through their import tool. This is the fastest way to create a complete, accurate Bing Places listing if your GBP is already fully optimized.
Microsoft Copilot processes local queries in ways that increasingly resemble Google AI Mode, generating AI summaries that may include local business citations rather than traditional ranked lists.
What Copilot draws from for local responses:
The Yelp connection: Bing's partnership with Yelp means your Yelp profile quality directly affects your visibility in Bing and Copilot local responses. A business with a complete, well-reviewed Yelp listing will appear more prominently in Bing results than one with a sparse Yelp presence.
This creates a meaningful incentive to maintain your Yelp profile even if you're Google-focused, it has dual relevance for both Yelp's own search and Bing/Copilot integration.
Most local SEO signals are consistent across both platforms (GBP/Bing Places completion, reviews, website quality). But there are meaningful differences in how the two platforms weight certain factors.
Where Bing differs from Google:
Bing weights Yelp reviews more heavily: As noted above, Bing's Yelp partnership means Yelp review count and ratings have more direct influence on Bing local rankings than on Google. For businesses where Google is primary, Yelp is often secondary, but for Bing visibility, Yelp is more equal with Google reviews.
Bing favors older, established websites: Bing's algorithm historically places more weight on domain age and consistent linking patterns than Google. For a business that's been online for 5+ years, this is a natural advantage in Bing.
Social signals: Bing places more explicit weight on social media signals (Facebook, LinkedIn) than Google in its ranking algorithm. An active Facebook Business Page with a link to your website contributes more directly to Bing rankings.
Structured data: Both platforms benefit from schema markup, but Bing's AI response systems particularly use structured LocalBusiness and Service schema to generate confident local citations.
Healthcare practices: Bing over-indexes for healthcare searches among older demographics, exactly the demographic most likely to be Microsoft Windows default users. A 60-year-old looking for a cardiologist near them is more likely to use Bing/Copilot than a 30-year-old. Healthcare practices should treat Bing Places and Yelp optimization with seriousness.
Financial services: CPA firms, financial advisors, and estate attorneys serve a demographic that is heavily represented in Bing's user base. The B2B component of financial services also overlaps with Microsoft 365 enterprise users who encounter Copilot in their workflow.
B2B local services: Businesses serving other businesses (commercial cleaning, commercial HVAC, IT support, printing) often find their target clients using corporate Windows devices where Bing is the default. B2B local service providers should prioritize Bing Places and their Yelp presence more than consumer-facing local businesses.
Microsoft has integrated Copilot directly into Windows 11, Edge, Office 365, Outlook, and Teams. This means users can ask Copilot local business questions without opening a browser:
For businesses to appear in these Copilot responses, the same optimization signals apply: complete Bing Places listing, structured website data, quality Yelp presence.
The scale of Copilot's distribution through Microsoft's ecosystem makes this a growing local search channel, one that most local businesses are not yet optimizing for.
30-minute setup (do this today if you haven't):
Ongoing optimization:
Is Bing worth optimizing for compared to Google? For most consumer-facing local businesses, Google should be the primary focus. Bing is worth 30 minutes of setup time for Bing Places (huge ROI for minimal effort) and becomes more significant for businesses serving older demographics or B2B clients on corporate Windows devices.
Does Bing Places affect Google rankings? Not directly. Bing Places is a citation that Google can cross-reference for NAP consistency, but it doesn't directly influence Google Maps rankings. The NAP consistency signal is the indirect benefit.
Is Microsoft Copilot a threat to Google's local search dominance? It's a meaningful competitor rather than a near-term threat. Microsoft Copilot's advantage is distribution, it reaches users inside the Microsoft ecosystem without requiring a search intent action. Whether that translates to significant local search market share depends on user adoption of Copilot's local features over traditional Bing search.
Do Bing reviews affect my Google Maps ranking? No. Reviews on Bing or Yelp don't contribute to Google Maps rankings directly. They contribute to Bing local rankings and, through Bing's Yelp partnership, to Bing/Copilot local search visibility.
Bing and Microsoft Copilot are not Google. For most local consumer businesses, they're a secondary priority, but a priority worth the 30 minutes it takes to set up a complete Bing Places listing.
For businesses serving older demographics, B2B clients, or enterprise market segments, the math shifts meaningfully. The Microsoft user base is real, Copilot's integration into Windows and Office means local business queries happen inside the Microsoft ecosystem, and your Yelp presence matters more for Bing than it does for Google.
Start with Bing Places. It's free, takes 30 minutes, and your competitors haven't bothered.
