Your website on Bing and other search engines

Google gets most of the attention, but plenty of your customers search somewhere else: on Bing, which is the default on many Windows computers, through Yahoo or DuckDuckGo, or by asking the assistant on their phone. Claiming your Bing Places for Business listing and adding your site to Bing Webmaster Tools takes under an hour if your Google profile is already in order, because Bing can copy most of it. Here is how, and what else is worth a few minutes.

Who actually searches on Bing

Think about who your customers are. Bing comes built into the Edge browser and the Windows search box, and many people never change that. Office computers, library computers and the laptop a grandchild set up years ago often search with Bing without the person ever choosing it. Yahoo's search results are supplied by Bing, and DuckDuckGo draws heavily on Bing too. Microsoft's Copilot assistant also leans on Bing's index.

So a listing on Bing is not about a second-place search engine. It is about the customers who reach you through all of those.

Claiming Bing Places for Business

Bing's version of the Google Business Profile is called Bing Places for Business. It is free and it is what Bing shows on its map and in the box with your hours, phone and directions.

1. Go to bingplaces.com and sign in. You can use a Microsoft account, or a Google or Facebook account.
2. Choose Import from Google Business Profile if you have one. Bing will ask permission to read your Google listing and copy your name, address, phone, hours, categories and photos. This is the quickest route and keeps the two consistent.
3. If you do not have a Google profile, or the import fails, choose to add a new business and search for yours. Bing may already have a listing built from other sources. Claim it rather than creating a second one.
4. Check every field before you submit. Imports sometimes pick the wrong category or drop the suite number.
5. Verify. Bing offers verification by phone, by email or by a postcard to your address, depending on the business. Imported listings from a verified Google profile are often verified straight away.

After verification it can take a few days for changes to show in Bing's results.

Things to fill in by hand

Even after an import, look at:

• Categories. Pick the one that matches what customers search for, such as "Plumber" rather than "Contractor".
• Service area, if you go to customers rather than them coming to you. You can hide your street address the same way you can on Google. Service-area businesses on Google explains the reasoning, and it applies to Bing as well.
• Website. Use your real domain, with the same version (with or without www) that your site uses.
• Photos. A shopfront, your van, your team, your work. Bing shows them in the listing.

Adding your site to Bing Webmaster Tools

Bing Places is your listing. Bing Webmaster Tools is the other half, the one for your website. It is Bing's equivalent of Google Search Console: it shows whether Bing has your pages, what people searched to find them, and any problems Bing ran into.

1. Go to bing.com/webmasters and sign in.
2. Choose Import from Google Search Console if your site is already there. Bing copies the verified site and your sitemap in a couple of clicks, with no code to add.
3. If not, add your site by its address and verify it, either with a small code your web person adds or a DNS record (a line in your domain settings).
4. Under Sitemaps, check that your sitemap is listed. If your site has one, it is usually at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml. What is a sitemap explains what it does.

Once it is set up, glance at it every couple of months. The Search Performance page shows which words brought people to you on Bing, which is often a slightly older crowd and slightly different wording from Google.

Apple Maps, the other big map

If a customer with an iPhone asks Siri for "a dentist near me" or taps an address in a text message, the answer comes from Apple Maps, not Google. Apple has its own free tool for owners called Apple Business Connect. It deserves its own walkthrough, and Apple Maps and your business listing has the steps.

DuckDuckGo, Yahoo and the rest

You do not need a separate account for every search engine:

• Yahoo shows Bing's results, so your Bing work covers it.
• DuckDuckGo has no owner tool. Its web results draw on Bing and others, and its maps and addresses come from Apple Maps. Get Bing and Apple right and DuckDuckGo usually follows.
• Ecosia and other small search engines largely run on Bing's results as well.
• AI assistants that answer questions about local businesses draw from these same listings and from your website. Clear facts on your site and consistent listings are what help here, not a special trick.

Keeping it all consistent

Every place your business is listed should say the same name, address and phone number, and ideally the same hours. When those disagree, search engines are less sure which one is right, and customers turn up at the old address or call a number you gave up years ago. Name, address and phone: why they must match everywhere goes through it.

The practical habit is simple. When something changes, such as holiday hours, a new phone number or a move, update Google first, then Bing Places and Apple Business Connect the same day. Bing does not always pick up Google changes after the first import, so do it by hand.

What to do this week

• Search Bing for your business name and see what it shows, on a computer and on a phone.
• Claim your listing at bingplaces.com, importing from Google if you can.
• Add your site to Bing Webmaster Tools by importing from Search Console.
• Check your category, hours, website address and photos on Bing.
• Put a note in your calendar to update Google, Bing and Apple together whenever your details change.

If your listings are fine but the website they point to is old or awkward on a phone, you can see your site rebuilt first and judge it side by side with the one you have now.