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Most small business owners skip Bing, and the reasoning is easy to follow: Google has most of the search traffic, so Bing looks like a rounding error. That reasoning is right about the traffic but wrong about the decision, because a free listing that takes a short amount of time is worth having even when the audience is smaller.
Bing Places for Business is Microsoft’s version of a Google Business Profile, basically the free listing that controls how your business shows up in Bing search and on Bing Maps.
If you’d rather have your Bing listing handled as part of a complete local marketing plan, contact us today and we’ll talk through how we keep your listings, website, and local SEO working together.
What Bing Places for Business Actually Does
It controls the basic facts people see about your business on Bing: your name, address, phone number, hours, website, and photos. When you haven’t claimed it, whatever information Bing has collected from other places is what shows up, and you have no say in what that is.
Microsoft rebuilt the platform in October 2025. Search Engine Journal reported that listing management moved to bing.com/forbusiness, that importing from Google got faster, and that existing listings were moved over automatically.
Is Bing Places Worth It for a Small Business?
Yes, and the numbers show both why it’s a small yes and why it’s still a yes.
Bing held 8.73% of the US search market in June 2026.
That’s a little under 1 in every 11 searches, and Google still takes the vast majority. But Bing is the default search in Microsoft’s Edge browser and in Windows, so a real share of your customers search there without ever choosing it, and you’re probably not showing up for them yet.
The audience is the other half of the argument, because a smaller market share doesn’t have to mean a smaller opportunity.
41% of US users on the Microsoft Advertising search network have a household income in the top 25%.
Microsoft Advertising, Network for Search audience data (choose “United States” from the market menu)
If the audience matched the country as a whole, you’d expect about a quarter of it to land in that top group, so this one leans toward people with more money to spend. The same page says 49% of that audience graduated from college.
That number comes from Microsoft itself, it covers its whole search advertising network instead of just Bing’s website, and the page doesn’t date it, so treat it as a strong direction instead of a guarantee about your customers. Even so, a smaller audience with more buying power matters when you sell a service that costs real money.
With that in mind, the order matters. Google comes first, and if you haven’t set that up properly, start with why your Google Business Profile matters. Bing is the next listing on the list, small and cheap, and those two things are both reasons to do it.
Does Bing Places Matter for ChatGPT and AI Search?
It might, and it’s worth being clear about how much we actually know.
Search Engine Land looked at how ChatGPT handles local searches and found that it runs a Bing search, gathers the top web results, and organizes them with its own logic. The same article reports that ChatGPT doesn’t read your Bing Places profile directly, but that it frequently references business websites when they appear in Bing’s results.
So I can’t tell you a Bing listing gets you into AI answers, and nobody outside Microsoft and OpenAI can either. What I can tell you is that your website is the thing these tools end up reading, and a complete, accurate Bing presence supports it instead of replacing it. For more on that, see how AI is changing search for small businesses.
If you want your website, Google profile, and Bing listing all working from the same information, see how our local SEO work and marketing packages handle that together.
How to Claim Your Bing Places Listing
If you already have a verified Google Business Profile, importing it is the fastest way to do this.
- Go to Bing Places for Business and sign in. A Microsoft account works, and so does a Google account.
- Choose the option to import from your Google Business Profile. Sign in with the Google account that manages your profile and pick the location. If Bing offers to keep the two in sync, turn that on.
- Check every detail. Name, address, phone number, hours, website, and categories all need a look, because imports are fast but not always perfect. Pick the closest category Bing offers, since its list doesn’t match Google’s exactly.
- Verify your business. Bing walks you through it, and the options (phone, text, email, or postcard) depend on your listing.
If you don’t have a Google profile yet, you can build a Bing listing from scratch. Search for your business first, though, because Bing may already have one you can claim.
The Most Common Bing Places Mistake
The biggest problem I see with business listings in general is inconsistency. A different phone number, business name, or website on Bing than on Google and your own site confuses customers, and it confuses search engines too, since they’re all comparing the same facts across the web.
The fix is simple but easy to forget: when something changes, update everything. Hours, phone number, address, and website all need to match in every place, and a listing you set up once and never touch again is the one that drifts out of date.
Claim It Once and Keep It Matching
For most small businesses, Bing Places is a few minutes of setup for a free listing in front of a smaller audience that, by Microsoft’s own numbers, has money to spend. It’s not the most important marketing task you’ll do this year, but it’s cheap, it’s quick, and the only real cost is skipping it.
If you’d rather have this handled as part of your overall marketing, get in touch today and we’ll walk you through how we keep your website, Google profile, and Bing listing matching.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Bing Places for Business free?
Yes. Microsoft lets you create and manage a listing in Bing search and Bing Maps at no cost, according to Search Engine Journal’s coverage of the redesign. Bing ads are a separate thing and cost money.
Can I import my Google Business Profile into Bing Places?
Yes, and it’s usually the fastest way to get set up. Sign in at Bing Places for Business, choose the Google import option, and pick the location you want to bring over. Check the details afterward, since imports aren’t always perfect.
Do I need Bing Places if I already have a Google Business Profile?
You don’t need it, but it’s worth having. Bing is a smaller slice of search, but it’s a real one, and your competitors may not be on it. It costs nothing, so it’s an easy add once Google is handled.
Do Bing users have higher incomes than Google users?
Microsoft’s own data says its US search audience skews toward higher incomes, with 41% in the top 25% of household income according to its audience data page (choose “United States” from the market menu). I haven’t found independent data comparing Bing and Google users directly, so treat it as a direction instead of a guarantee. It’s still one more reason a free listing is worth the time.
Will Bing Places affect my Google rankings?
No. They’re separate listings run by two different companies, so claiming one won’t move the other. Keeping your name, address, and phone number the same on both is still a good idea.
How do I add my business to Bing Maps?
Claim or create a Bing Places listing, since that listing is what shows your business on Bing Maps. Search for your business first, because Bing may already have one you can claim.
