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Bing holds 6-8% of US search market share, which translates to millions of local searches every day that most businesses completely ignore.
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Every local business owner I work with is focused on Google. That's correct, Google has roughly 90% of the US search market, and Google Maps is where local SEO investment belongs first.
But here's what most guides skip: Bing holds 6–8% of US search market share. That sounds small, until you realize it represents tens of millions of searches per day. And the Bing user demographic tends to skew older and toward desktop, populations that often have higher disposable income and stronger purchase intent for local services.
Setting up Bing Places takes 20 minutes. Most of your competitors haven't done it. That's 20 minutes to capture traffic your competitors are ignoring.
On the technical side, see our guide to bing ai microsoft copilot local search.
Want the numbers behind this? Download the free AI search and local business report to compare your own results.
Bing is the default search engine on Windows computers and the default search powering Cortana (Microsoft's assistant) and many business computers that run Windows as their corporate standard. In enterprise and professional services markets, Bing's share of desktop searches is notably higher than the overall average.
More importantly: in 2026, Bing powers Microsoft Copilot's search results. As AI-assisted search grows, having an accurate, complete Bing Places listing means you're discoverable in Copilot-assisted local searches, a category that's growing faster than traditional blue-link search.
The practical case: it's a 20-minute setup, it's free, and your competitors almost certainly haven't done it. Being listed accurately on Bing gives you visibility on:
That last one matters: DuckDuckGo has a meaningful user base among privacy-conscious consumers, and it runs on Bing's data for local business information.
📊 Flento Data: Based on Flento's citation audit data, 71% of US local businesses have unclaimed or incorrect Bing Places listings, representing significant uncaptured search visibility.
🛠️ Action Step: Go to bingplaces.com and search your business name right now. Note whether there's an existing unverified listing or whether you need to create one from scratch.
Go to bingplaces.com and click "Get started."
If your business already has a Bing listing (common): Search for your business by name and city. If an existing listing appears, click "Claim this business." You'll be asked to verify ownership via phone, email, or postcard.
If no listing exists: Click "Add new business" and fill in your business information from scratch.
Verification process:
Phone verification is the fastest, if your business phone is available when you're setting this up, use it.
Sign in with your Microsoft account: Bing Places uses a Microsoft account (Outlook or any Microsoft login) for access. If you don't have one, create a dedicated Microsoft account for your business's digital presence management.
🛠️ Action Step: Start your claim at bingplaces.com today. Have your business phone accessible for phone verification.
Once claimed, fill in every available field. Bing Places has a similar set of information fields to Google Business Profile:
Essential fields:
Extended fields:
The NAP consistency rule: Your Name, Address, and Phone on Bing Places must match your GBP exactly. The same formatting standards apply, "Main St" vs "Main Street," "Suite 200" vs "#200" are inconsistencies. Match your GBP character-for-character on the core NAP fields.
⚠️ Common Mistake: Setting up Bing Places quickly with approximate information ("close enough") rather than matching your GBP exactly. Even small NAP inconsistencies between Bing and Google can create confusion in cross-platform citation signals that affect both platforms' ranking of your business.
Bing Places supports the same types of photos as Google Business Profile: logo, cover photo, and gallery images.
Minimum photo requirements for a complete Bing Places listing:
If you already have optimized photos for your GBP, use the same photos for Bing Places. The same quality standards apply, real photos of your business, not stock images.
Bing Places photos appear in Bing Maps search results the same way GBP photos appear in Google Maps, they're visible to searchers evaluating businesses before clicking through.
🔥 Quick Win: Download your GBP photos and upload them directly to Bing Places. Same images, same quality, 10 minutes of work for a completely different search platform.
Bing Places offers a direct import feature from Google Business Profile. This is the fastest way to create a complete Bing Places listing if your GBP is already well-optimized.
How to use the GBP import:
The import copies your business name, address, phone, website, hours, category, and description. Photos may or may not transfer cleanly, verify the photo import and add manually if needed.
After importing: Don't just accept the import as complete. Review every field for accuracy, check that your hours are correct, and verify the category is the most specific option available on Bing (which has a different category taxonomy than Google).
💡 Pro Tip: Even if you use the import function, spend 10 minutes reviewing the result. Import isn't always perfect, incorrect category mappings and formatting differences are common.
Unlike Google Business Profile, Bing Places doesn't have the same robust activity signals (posts, Q&A, regular photo uploads) that reward ongoing engagement. But maintenance matters for accuracy:
Regular accuracy checks: Set a quarterly reminder to log into Bing Places and verify:
User edits: Bing allows anyone to suggest edits to a business listing, similar to Google Maps. Check your Bing Places dashboard monthly for suggested edits and approve or reject them.
New locations: If you open a new location, add it to Bing Places within the same week you set up its GBP.
⚠️ Common Mistake: Setting up Bing Places once and never logging back in. An outdated Bing listing with wrong hours or an old phone number is actively damaging, customers who try to reach you based on that information and can't will leave frustrated.
| Factor | Google Maps | Bing Maps |
|---|---|---|
| US search share | ~90% | ~6-8% |
| Primary users | Universal | Windows users, enterprise, older demographics |
| AI integration | Google AI Overviews | Microsoft Copilot |
| Reviews system | Google Reviews | TripAdvisor (imported) |
| Post/update feature | Yes | No |
| Q&A feature | Yes | No |
| Setup complexity | Moderate | Lower |
| Ongoing maintenance | High | Low |
The key practical implication: Bing Places is a set-it-and-maintain-it platform, not an active optimization platform. You won't post weekly or generate platform-specific reviews, you set it up accurately and keep it current. That's the full commitment.
Flento's Business Listing Management Software runs the Flento NAP Lock across 50+ directories, Bing Places included. When your business information changes (new phone number, new address, updated hours), Flento identifies which platforms still have the old information and flags them for update.
For agencies managing multiple client listings, Flento's multi-location dashboard shows the status of Bing Places listings alongside GBP, so you can see at a glance which clients have unclaimed or outdated Bing listings.
✅ Done? Check your listing consistency across all 50+ directories with Flento → Try Flento free
Does Bing Places affect my Google Maps ranking? Not directly. They're separate platforms. But maintaining consistent NAP across both contributes to overall citation consistency, which is a positive signal for Google Maps ranking.
Do Bing Places listings have customer reviews? Bing Maps displays TripAdvisor reviews for businesses in categories where TripAdvisor has coverage (hospitality, restaurants, attractions). For most service businesses, Bing Maps doesn't show reviews the way Google Maps does. This makes the listing optimization factors even more important, since there's no review volume to compete on.
Is Bing Places more important for some business types? Yes. Businesses serving enterprise clients, government agencies, or demographics that use Windows computers heavily (financial services, legal, B2B services) tend to see more Bing traffic than consumer-focused businesses. Healthcare and professional services also tend to have higher Bing visibility than, say, restaurants.
How does DuckDuckGo use Bing Places data? DuckDuckGo uses Bing's data (including Bing Places listing information) for its local business results. When someone searches for a business on DuckDuckGo, the business information displayed, name, address, phone, hours, comes from Bing Places. An unclaimed or inaccurate Bing Places listing means inaccurate DuckDuckGo results.