Do you still need Bing Maps? Pros and cons for Business
There are two main places for your Bing listing to appear in Bing Maps and Search Results. So, here Bing follows pretty much the same logic as Google. In order to appear there, you need to have the following information updated: Business Name, Address, Phone Number (NAP), Website, primary category, and your working hours.
You also need to claim and verify your listing, so if you already have some experience with Google Business Profile you shouldn’t have any problems. Moreover, Bing Places for Business works in the same way as Google Business Profile by displaying your information on its own Knowledge or Local Panel of Bing search results. If the search is broader it will appear above organic search results.
However, there are some interesting things that separate Bing from Google. Bing still uses older factors to help websites and listings rank higher. For instance, if Google dismissed exact keywords on title tags and meta descriptions Bing still prioritizes them. As has been stated by Myta Santiago: “Bing still relies on finding keywords on heading tags as well as throughout the web content so it’s important to do thorough keyword research and lay them out strategically on your website and blogs.”
Therefore, your business listing ranking will depend on how accurate the information about it is being represented on other listings, websites, and social media platforms. This will give Bing a signal that information about your business is actually true and accurate. Moreover, some SEO people prefer Bing because it more in-depth image and video search over Google. To get more details on it we would like to recommend you an article by Winston Burton “Google vs Microsoft Bing: A Detailed Comparison of Two Search Engines”, but speaking of Bing Maps it might be a good idea to consistently upload new photos to your listings.
Moreover, there are a lot of businesses and sites that use Bing Maps. Can you guess how many of them are out there? You’ll be probably surprised - 27447, and you can download a full list of them out here. These companies range from real estate to navigation platforms that look to Bing Maps for accurate web mapping. Therefore, if these businesses that use Bing Maps are near your location you have a higher chance of being seen as well.
In addition to that, Bing is partnering up with OpenStreetMaps since 2010, when OSM became an added layer on Bing Maps. OpenStreetMaps is a free and editable world map, where people can contribute and update their local area. That means that, if you’re present on either map you will be found. Moreover, because OpenStreetMaps is free and many organizations use them, you have a higher chance of appearing on different maps and sites at the same time without the need to additionally transport your data. Thanks to OSM you could find yourself on the following sites:
- Wikipedia
- Foursquare
- Uber
- Pokemon Go (you heard that right)
Another huge factor is that Bing has its own audience. Bing's market share of search engines is not as massive as Google Maps and Bing currently has a 2.47% share of the worldwide search engine market. Bing's cut of the market has increased by 1.23% since 2019 and Bing is still the second biggest search engine after Google. It’s more widely used in larger markets like the US and UK, so if you are thinking of expanding to those countries or regions, it’s best to have some visibility outside of Google. Moreover, it’s audience is typically more mature and less tech-savvy and they tend to accept whatever browser is available straight out of the box. For all Windows users, it will be Bing, as it is a default search engine in all Microsoft Edge browsers.
Moreover, Ahrefs ran an interesting study, analyzing top 100 queries on Bing in US and worldwide. Still curious that in US as a query “Google” was ranked with the search volume of 8,060,698, while globally it was the 1st one with 40,958,757. Not sure if people on Google are looking for Bing that often, but you got my point from the previous paragraph - Bing still has a massive market. Moreover, due to the nature of online listings owning a listing on Bing helps your ranking on Google as it shows search engines that your business has relevant information in multiple directories.
All of that sounds interesting, right? You might be still wondering - what’s the overall difference between Bing and Google Maps? We will get to it in our next article.