Set Up and Optimise Your Bing Places Business Profile

What Exactly is Bing Places for Business?

Bing Places for Business is the free tool that Microsoft provides for businesses to manage how they appear in Bing search results. It is the equivalent of Google Business Profile — but for Bing.

When someone searches for a local business or service on Bing, the results include a map and a panel showing business information: name, address, phone number, hours, photos, and reviews. To appear in those results, your business needs a verified and optimised Bing Places profile.

Because Bing also powers Microsoft Copilot, a verified and well-structured profile increases the likelihood that Copilot will surface your business when someone asks for recommendations in your category or area. As AI-assisted search becomes more widely used, this signal becomes increasingly important.

 

How the Setup Works

Step 1 — Your business is searched in Bing to check whether an existing listing already exists. Many businesses have unclaimed or auto-generated profiles that contain incorrect or outdated information.

Step 2 — The profile is claimed or created and verified through Microsoft’s process, which typically involves a PIN sent by phone or post.

Step 3 — All business information is completed — name, address, phone number, website, hours, categories, and description — using the details as they should appear to customers.

Step 4 — The profile is optimised with photos, the correct primary and secondary categories, and a business description written for both search visibility and clarity.

Step 5 — Consistency is confirmed across your Bing profile and any existing Google Business Profile to avoid conflicting information across platforms.

Step 6 — The live profile is reviewed and a summary of what was set up is provided so you know exactly what is in place.

 

Why Bing Visibility Matters

Local search on Bing works on the same principles as Google — relevance, proximity, and the completeness of your profile. A verified and complete listing signals to Bing that your business is legitimate and provides everything the platform needs to serve it in search results.

What many businesses do not realise is that Bing has a disproportionate share of certain audiences. Desktop users, people inside corporate networks, and anyone using a Microsoft device are all searching on Bing by default unless they change their settings. In industries where clients are office-based or work in professional environments, Bing’s share of searches can be significantly higher than the overall market average.

Bing is also the search engine behind Microsoft Copilot. As AI-powered search becomes part of how people find services and businesses, verified and structured profiles become one of the key signals that AI assistants use to surface recommendations. Businesses that are unverified or have incomplete profiles are more likely to be overlooked entirely.

 

The Unclaimed Listing Problem

Most businesses already have a Bing Places listing — they just do not know about it.

Microsoft creates auto-generated profiles for many businesses using data from third-party directories. These listings often contain outdated phone numbers, wrong addresses, old business names, or incorrect categories. Because the business owner is unaware, no one ever corrects them.

When a potential customer searches on Bing and finds inaccurate contact information, they move on. When Bing’s algorithm encounters an incomplete or inconsistent profile, it deprioritises it in local results.

Claiming and optimising your profile fixes this. It ensures that every person who finds your business through Bing sees accurate, complete information — and that the search engine treats your profile as trustworthy enough to surface.

 

What We Need From You to Set Up Your Bing Places Profile

To complete the setup, the following information is required.

• Your business name, address, and phone number as they should appear publicly
• Your website URL
• Your business hours, including any variations for different days
• Access to the email address associated with any existing Microsoft account for your business (if available)
• Three to five photos of your business, premises, or team (if available)
• A brief description of what your business does and who you serve

If any of the above is unclear, this can be confirmed before the work begins.

 

What We Will Do During Your Bing Places Setup

• Search for any existing Bing Places listing and identify errors or incorrect information
• Claim or create your Bing Places profile and complete the Microsoft verification process
• Complete all profile fields including name, address, phone number, website, hours, and business categories
• Write and add an optimised business description for search visibility and clarity
• Upload photos and confirm the correct primary and secondary categories are selected
• Check consistency between your Bing profile and any existing Google Business Profile
• Review the live profile to confirm it is appearing correctly in Bing local results
• Provide a summary of what was set up and how to access and update your profile going forward

 

When You Should Set This Up

The right time to set up your Bing Places profile is as part of building your local search presence — either at launch or as part of a broader local SEO strategy.

If you have already optimised your Google Business Profile and are investing in local visibility, Bing Places is a natural next step. The work is not substantial, but leaving the profile unclaimed or incomplete is a clear and avoidable gap.

Set this up now if you are in a professional services industry, operate a physical location that needs to be found, or are planning to run any Microsoft Advertising campaigns. Microsoft Advertising uses Bing’s map and listing data directly, so an optimised Bing Places profile supports paid campaigns as well as organic results.

If your business is already running AI visibility work — such as optimising for ChatGPT, Gemini, or Copilot — a verified Bing Places profile is a foundational step that should already be in place.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need Bing Places if I already have a Google Business Profile? A Google Business Profile only appears in Google search results. Bing has a completely separate index and its own local search results. The two platforms do not share data. If you want your business to appear correctly on Bing, a Bing Places profile is required.

How much traffic does Bing actually send? It depends on your industry and audience. Bing typically accounts for between 5% and 15% of search traffic in most markets. In professional services, finance, and B2B contexts it can be higher, because Bing is the default on Windows devices used in corporate environments. For a local business, even a modest increase in leads from a second search engine adds up over time.

Is Bing Places free? Yes. Bing Places for Business is a free platform. The cost associated with this task covers the time and expertise required to claim, verify, and optimise the profile correctly — not a platform fee.

 

Want Your Bing Places Profile Done Correctly?

Setting up a Bing Places profile sounds straightforward, but the verification process can be slow, unclaimed listings often contain errors that need to be resolved before the profile can be optimised, and the category and content choices that affect local ranking are not always obvious.

At 10x Marketing Lab, the setup is handled end-to-end. Your listing is claimed or created, verified, and fully optimised with the right categories, photos, and content to appear in Bing local results and Microsoft Copilot recommendations.

You receive confirmation of the live profile along with a clear summary of what was set up.