Bing Places for Business is Microsoft's free tool for claiming or adding your business listing on Bing search and Bing Maps. You can import a verified Google Business Profile or verify with a PIN sent by phone, mail, email or text, and listings usually publish within 7 to 12 days in North America.
Most owner-operators set up Google, maybe Apple, and stop there. Bing gets skipped because it feels small, yet it reaches a real share of desktop searchers and costs nothing but an afternoon. Here is how to set it up properly, including the import shortcut and the duplicate-listing trap that catches a lot of businesses.
Bing Places for Business still earns its place in local search
Bing is a minority engine with a meaningful desktop audience. StatCounter's September 2026 figures put Bing at 18.8 percent of U.S. desktop search (StatCounter) and 9.89 percent across all U.S. platforms (StatCounter). That desktop audience includes people searching from work for vendors, caterers and service providers.
The listing also feeds systems beyond the results page. Microsoft describes Bing Places as a free platform for appearing in Bing search results and Bing Maps (Microsoft Bing Blogs). OpenAI says ChatGPT search sometimes partners with other search providers and may share general location with third-party providers to improve local results such as nearby businesses (OpenAI Help), and its enterprise help page names Bing as one of them (OpenAI Help). OpenAI does not say Bing Places data feeds ChatGPT's local answers, so treat that as a possible benefit. We compared how AI engines pick local sources in Gemini vs ChatGPT local search.
Claiming a Bing Places listing, step by step
Microsoft relaunched the tool in October 2025 and moved it from bingplaces.com to bing.com/forbusiness, migrating existing users automatically (Microsoft Bing Blogs). Sign in with a Microsoft, Google, Facebook or work account (Bing Places Help), search for your business, then claim the existing listing or add a new one. Microsoft says it checks the details you submit against information across search engines, websites and social platforms (Bing Places Help).
Before you start, write down the exact business name on your storefront, the address, the main phone number, your website and your hours, and use the same versions everywhere. Bing publishes edits only when they align with trusted external data, and inconsistent details may not publish or may be overwritten (Bing Places Help). Hours deserve extra care, since Google now bills some missed calls on Local Services Ads during your listed hours. A clean Google Business Profile is the best reference, which is why the import route below works well for most owners.
Bing Places verification methods and timelines
Bing verifies ownership with a PIN that can arrive by phone, mail, email or text, though some options are not available to every business. Phone verification appears only when the existing listing already holds an unedited business phone number. Postcards typically take five to six business days in the U.S., and Microsoft asks owners to wait at least 12 days before contacting support (Bing Places Help).
Verification is only half the wait. After you add or update a listing, it usually takes 7 to 12 days to publish, and up to two weeks outside North America. Editing a listing resets its publish date, so finish your changes in one session and then leave it alone (Bing Places Help). Microsoft's FAQ adds that editing is limited before verification is complete (Bing Places Help).
Importing a Google Business Profile into Bing Places
The import is the fastest route. If your business is already verified on Google, Bing automatically verifies the imported listing, which typically takes 7 to 12 days, and it can keep syncing weekly, every two weeks or monthly (Bing Places Help). When the import matches an existing Bing listing, Bing uses the Google data to overwrite the Bing information (Bing Places Help).
Know the catches before you click. You cannot pick which Google listings to import, syncing can create duplicate listings, and categories and UTM tags may not carry over exactly. Listings linked to Google cannot be edited directly in Bing; you update Google and let the sync run (Bing Places Help). So fix your Google profile first, then import. The same discipline applies on Apple Maps, which we covered in our Apple Business guide.
Filling your Bing Places listing so it ranks on Bing Maps
Bing ranks local results on relevance, distance and popularity, and it defines listings with more positive reviews and ratings on sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor as more popular (Bing Places Help). That makes your reviews elsewhere part of your Bing ranking, even though Bing Places itself does not collect them.
Within the listing, choose one primary category and up to nine more (Bing Places Help), add up to 100 photos, and for restaurants include a menu link and prices for some dishes (Bing Places Help). Keep hours current, especially holiday hours, and write a description in plain language that names your main services and neighborhood. For restaurant owners, these details sit inside the wider plan on our restaurant marketing page.
Keeping Bing Places listings accurate across locations
Listings drift unless someone owns them. Microsoft removes a closed listing from Bing after about six months and does not accept PO boxes as addresses (Bing Places Help). Multi-location businesses can group listings and use bulk verification, which takes five to seven business days to review (Bing Places Help), and agencies can bulk upload up to 10,000 businesses at once (Bing Places Help).
Put Bing on the same quarterly checklist as Google and Apple: name, address, phone, hours, categories, photos and duplicates. Microsoft has named deeper integrations with Bing Maps and Copilot as next steps for the product (Microsoft Bing Blogs), so a complete, consistent listing is worth having in place before those arrive. If you would rather hand the listings work to a team, our local business practice manages Google, Apple and Bing together, or you can get in touch.
