Bing Places for Business: Does It Bring a Tradesman Any Work?
Bing Places for Business is Microsoft's version of a Google Business Profile. Most tradespeople have never opened it. Some have been sold it as a hidden goldmine.
It is neither. It is a free listing on a search engine that sends a small slice of UK traffic, and almost none from phones. Bing search also feeds Microsoft's Copilot, and OpenAI lists Microsoft among the search providers ChatGPT sometimes uses. Whether your listing reaches either assistant is not documented.
Here is what it does, how to set it up in about fifteen minutes, and what to expect from it. Every Microsoft instruction below comes from its own help pages, checked on 26 September 2026.
The short version
- Bing Places is free. Microsoft's own help pages say so. Your listing appears in Bing search results and on Bing Maps.
- Bing sent 5.67% of UK search engine referrals in August 2026 on StatCounter's measure, and just 0.48% of mobile ones.
- You can import your Google Business Profile in one go. Check the result, because Bing overwrites matched listings with Google's data.
- Verification is by phone, text, email or a postcard with a PIN. Publishing can then take up to two weeks outside North America.
- Worth fifteen minutes, once. Not worth money, and not worth weekly attention.
What is Bing Places for Business?
Bing Places for Business is Microsoft's free tool for claiming or adding your business listing on Bing. Microsoft's help pages call it "a free Bing service that empowers businesses to claim existing listings, or add new ones". It controls your name, phone number, hours, categories, service areas and photos on Bing and Bing Maps.
If you have a Google Business Profile, you already understand the idea. A customer searches "boiler repair Walthamstow" on Bing, and the map results show local firms with a phone number, hours and reviews. Bing Places is where you check that the entry for your business is right.
One detail matters more than it first appears. Microsoft's help pages say Bing "uses many internal and external data sources" to build a listing, and Bing Places is only "one of the primary sources". If your details disagree elsewhere on the web, Bing may overwrite what you typed.
Bing moved the service from bingplaces.com to bing.com/forbusiness in October 2025, according to Microsoft's announcement.
Where does a Bing Places listing actually show up?
Microsoft states two places: "Bing search results and Bing Maps", in its October 2025 announcement. Beyond that, Microsoft's documentation says its Copilot sends web queries to the Bing search service, and OpenAI links Microsoft's privacy statement as one of ChatGPT's search providers. Neither company says your Bing Places listing is what their assistant quotes, so treat that link as likely rather than proven.
Bing and Bing Maps
This is the confirmed part. Your listing shows in Bing's local results and on Bing Maps once it is verified and published. Bing is also the default search engine in Microsoft Edge, according to Microsoft Support, which may help explain why its share is higher on computers than on phones.
Copilot
Microsoft's own documentation, Data, privacy, and security for web search in Microsoft Copilot, says that when web search is on, Copilot "generates a search query that it sends to the Bing search service". The answer is built from what Bing returns.
That document covers Microsoft's workplace Copilot (formerly Microsoft 365 Copilot) and Copilot Chat, not necessarily the free consumer app. It does not mention business listings. Microsoft's October 2025 announcement only promised "deeper integrations with Bing Maps and Copilot" in future. So Copilot runs on Bing search. Whether it shows your Bing Places details specifically is not documented.
ChatGPT
OpenAI's help page on searching the web with ChatGPT, read on 26 September 2026, says "ChatGPT search sometimes partners with other search providers" and links to the Microsoft privacy statement as one of them. Ofcom's November 2025 paper, The Era of Answer Engines, citing a 2023 press report, says ChatGPT "accesses live search data via Bing's search API".
What nobody publishes is which source feeds a given local answer. OpenAI's page does not say. We cover the wider picture in our guide to getting recommended by AI search. The honest position: a correct Bing listing is cheap insurance for ChatGPT visibility, not a proven lever.
How many people in the UK actually search on Bing?
Not many, and hardly any on phones. StatCounter put Bing at 5.67% of UK search engine referrals in August 2026. On desktop it was 10.38%. On mobile it was 0.48%. Google took 91.75% overall. For a trade whose customers search on their phone with water coming through the ceiling, Bing barely exists.
These figures come from StatCounter Global Stats, retrieved 26 September 2026. Know what they measure. StatCounter counts visits that arrive from a search engine at the websites running its tracking code. Its FAQ says the code is on "more than 1 million sites". It measures clicks through to websites, not searches typed, and not map calls.
| UK, August 2026 (StatCounter) | Bing | |
|---|---|---|
| All devices | 91.75% | 5.67% |
| Desktop | 85.9% | 10.38% |
| Mobile | 97.6% | 0.48% |
Source: StatCounter Global Stats, desktop and mobile pages, retrieved 26 September 2026.
Put simply, that is about one in eighteen search clicks overall (100 divided by 5.67 is 17.6). On mobile it is about one in two hundred (100 divided by 0.48 is 208). The Competition and Markets Authority, using a different method, put Bing under 5% of UK searches in its October 2025 decision, as quoted by Ofcom in November 2025. Two methods, same answer: small.
How do I add my business to Bing Places?
Sign in at bing.com/forbusiness with a Microsoft, Google or Facebook account. Search for your business first, because Bing may already hold a listing built from other data. Claim it if it exists. If not, import from your Google Business Profile or add the business by hand. Then verify.
Microsoft's get started page lists four sign-in options: Facebook, Google, a Microsoft account or a work account. Whichever you use owns the listing, so pick an account you will still have access to in five years. Not an apprentice's email.
Importing from Google Business Profile
This is the fast route, and for most trades the right one. Microsoft's help page says you can "link your Google My Business account" to import your listing, "saving the time and trouble of manually recreating existing listings". You sign in to Google and allow Bing access to your profile.
Read the next part of that page twice. "If listings are matched, Bing will use Google data to overwrite the Bing Places for Business listing information." And once linked, "changes made to listings in your Google account will update your Bing listing the next time a sync is performed."
That is good news if your Google profile is right. It copies any mistakes straight across if not. Get your Google category and hours sorted before you import.
Two cautions from the same help pages. Microsoft's FAQ warns that "automatic imports may bring in listings that already exist" in your account, which "can create duplicates". And services you list on Google are "automatically imported" if you sync.
Adding it by hand
If you have no Google profile, or would rather not link accounts, add the details yourself. Microsoft's listing guide asks for name, address, phone, website, hours, category and open or closed status. You can choose one primary category and up to nine more. Microsoft's help pages also allow up to 100 photos.
Name, address, phone, website, hours and category are "controlled through automated validation". Changes are "only applied if they align with trusted external data". So the details must match the rest of the web, which is exactly why NAP consistency (your name, address and phone number matching everywhere) matters.
Working from home? Hide your address
Bing handles mobile trades much as Google does. Its help page for businesses without a physical store says locksmiths and plumbers "can hide their address from search results". Microsoft's help pages add that you must still give a real address for verification. Its FAQ allows up to 20 service areas and rules out a PO Box.
If you have already made this decision on Google, make the same one on Bing. Our guide to service area or address on Google covers the thinking.
How do you verify a Bing Places listing?
Bing sends you a six-digit PIN by phone call, text, email or postcard. Which options you see depends on your listing. Phone verification only appears if Bing's existing listing already holds your business number, unedited. A postcard typically takes five to six days, and up to 12 business days. Nothing publishes until you verify.
Those details come from Microsoft's manage your listing page and its FAQ. The page adds that "some options won't be available to all customers", and that postcard timings are quoted for the United States, with international post possibly slower. It suggests waiting at least 12 days before contacting support.
A common snag, straight from the same page. If the PIN will not work, someone else may have started verification from a different account, perhaps an agency or a former web designer. The PIN only works in the account that requested it.
How long until you appear?
After verification, Microsoft's FAQ says publishing "usually takes 7-12 calendar days". Its manage your listing page says the typical publish cycle is "up to 2 weeks for the rest of the world", meaning outside North America. Every edit restarts the clock. Microsoft is explicit: "Making frequent changes while your listing is processing may cause delays."
Is Bing Places worth it for a tradesman?
Yes, for fifteen minutes. No, for anything more. It is free, the Google import does most of the work, and a correct listing protects you on Bing and Bing Maps, and may help with AI tools that draw on Bing search. But with Bing under 1% of UK mobile search clicks, it will not fill your diary.
Put it in proportion. Google took 91.75% of UK search clicks in August 2026 on StatCounter's measure. An hour spent asking customers for Google reviews will almost certainly do more than a month of tweaking Bing. That is our judgement from the share figures, not a measured result.
Where it earns a bit more
Bing's desktop share, 10.38%, is roughly one in ten UK search clicks on computers. If your work comes from people at a desk, such as office managers booking commercial cleaning or letting agents booking repairs, a Bing listing covers more of your buyers. That reasoning is ours. No published study measures trade enquiries by device.
What not to bother with
- Paying anyone to "manage" your Bing listing. Once published, a correct listing needs almost no upkeep. Microsoft says other sources may take priority if your Bing Places data "hasn't been updated for more than 6 months", so glance at it twice a year.
- Keywords in your business name. Microsoft's help page says it does not accept "keyword insertion, applied to a business name" and may discard such edits.
- Microsoft Advertising credit offers on the sign-up page. Those are for paid ads, a separate decision.
What to do this week
- Search your business name on Bing, on a computer. Note whether a listing exists and what it says.
- Check your Google Business Profile is right before importing: name, phone, hours, category, service areas.
- Sign in at bing.com/forbusiness with an email you control long term, then import from Google or claim the existing listing.
- Hide your address if customers do not come to you, and add up to 20 service areas.
- Request your PIN and put a reminder in your phone for 12 days' time in case the postcard does not arrive.
- Do not edit it again until it goes live. Then set a six-monthly reminder to check it still matches Google.
Fifteen minutes, then back to the work that actually pays.