To rank in Bing Maps a business needs a Bing Places for Business listing, because that listing is what Bing Maps, Bing Search’s local results and Copilot’s local answers draw on. Bing shows fewer listings per search than Google, so each position carries more weight, and a business can be absent from Bing while it is fine on Google.
What Bing Places for Business is
Bing Places for Business is Microsoft’s listing manager, the counterpart of a Google Business Profile. A listing there is what Bing shows when someone searches for a trade in Bing Search, opens Bing Maps, or asks Copilot for a place nearby. Microsoft’s own announcement of the current version says a listing is there to appear in Bing search results and Bing Maps, and names Copilot as the next surface it is being wired into.
You do not have to type the listing in from scratch. Bing Places can import a Google Business Profile: sign in with a Microsoft account, choose the import, grant Bing access to the Google profile, and pick the locations to bring over. The import carries the name, hours and contact details. Read the result as a customer would, because the two services do not share every field, and a category that fits on Google may need to be set again on Bing.
An unclaimed business often exists on Bing anyway, built from other sources, with an old phone number or a pin on the wrong side of the road. Claiming that listing is the usual starting point, and it is why a business that has never looked at Bing can still be found there in some form.
Why Bing shows fewer listings per search
Search “dentist” in Google Maps and the list runs to 20 and keeps going as you scroll. Search the same word in Bing Maps and the list is short. In our tests Bing Maps lists about 7 places per point where Google Maps lists 20.
That changes what a rank means. On Google, 8th place is on the page, below the fold but present. On Bing, 8th place is not shown. The gap between 7th and 8th on Bing is the gap between visible and absent. A business that is comfortably in the top 10 on Google for a street can be nowhere on Bing for the same street, and nobody notices because nobody at the business uses Bing.
It also means a Bing grid is read differently. On a Google grid the colours run from green through orange to red before a point goes blank. On a Bing grid most points are either in the short list or blank, so the picture is of an area rather than a gradient. The edge where the business stops appearing is the thing to watch.
What the listing lets you set
Microsoft does not publish ranking factors for Bing Places, and this guide does not invent any. What the listing lets you set is documented, and a complete listing is at least a listing Bing can match to a search. The fields are the ones you would expect:
- Claim it. Claiming the listing puts the name, phone and website under your control, and lets you correct what Bing built from other sources.
- Categories. Bing has its own category list and a “segment of business” field that Google does not have. Set the primary category to the trade people search for.
- Hours. Opening hours, including holiday hours, so a search made at 7 pm does not show you closed when you are open.
- Photos. The listing shows photos on the map card. Microsoft’s recommendation tool in the dashboard asks for them.
- The pin. Check the pin sits on the building, not on the street or the car park. A pin 200 m out moves the point you are measured from.
Why Bing matters to some businesses
Bing sits behind the search box in the Windows taskbar and is the default search in Microsoft Edge, so an office computer that has never had its browser changed searches Bing. Copilot, Microsoft’s assistant, draws on Bing when it answers, so a Bing listing is part of what Copilot has to name. Businesses whose customers search from a desk during working hours, such as a courier, a printer, a dentist near an office park or a business lunch spot, see more of this than a late-night takeaway does.
Whether that is worth your time depends on the share of your customers who arrive that way, and no national figure tells you. What a grid on Bing does tell you is whether you appear at all for the people who do search there. If the answer is no, that is a listing problem to fix before it is a ranking problem.
How to check your Bing rank across an area
The method is the one used for Google, described in the guide on geo-grid rank tracking. Pick the keyword a customer types. Lay a grid over the area your customers come from, 7×7 for a storefront, wider for a trade that travels. Search Bing Maps from every point and record the position, or the absence. Then run the same grid again in a month, with nothing changed about the grid, so the two pictures compare.
RankShark Track reads Bing Maps and Bing Search from each grid point with the same grids, schedules and reports it uses for Google Maps, so one keyword can be seen on both engines over 25 months of history and exported as CSV. Bing is on the paid plans, from $29 a month; Track Free covers Google Maps. The local pack guide explains why a Search reading and a Maps reading are kept in separate columns, and the same applies on Bing.
One thing to keep in mind when reading a Bing grid: a blank point means outside the short list, not outside the top 20, so a business can be blank on Bing and 9th on Google from the same point without anything being wrong.
Google Maps and Bing Maps side by side
| Google Maps | Bing Maps | |
|---|---|---|
| Listing that feeds it | Google Business Profile. | Bing Places for Business, which can import the Google profile. |
| Listings per search | 20 a page, more on scroll. | About 7 per point in our tests. |
| What a blank point means | Outside the top 20. | Outside the short list. |
| What the grid looks like | A gradient from green to red, then blanks. | Mostly in or out, so an area with an edge. |
| Published ranking factors | Relevance, distance and prominence. | None published. |
| Other surfaces fed | The local pack on Google Search, AI Overviews. | Bing Search’s local results, Copilot. |
AI assistants are the other place a Bing listing turns up, since Copilot and some others draw on Bing for local answers. The guide on whether ChatGPT recommends your business covers how to check that.
If you have never looked, search your trade in Bing Maps from the shop today, then claim or correct the listing before you measure anything. The free audit covers Google Maps; the Bing grid comes with a Track plan.