Why does Bing Places matter for AI search?
Because two of the biggest assistants look at Bing before they answer. A business that's easy to find in Bing is easier for them to name.
For years, most small businesses set up a Google Business Profile and ignored Bing, because few of their customers used it. AI assistants have changed that. Microsoft Copilot answers questions using Bing's search results, and ChatGPT search leans on Bing as well. So a question asked in Copilot or ChatGPT can depend on data that comes from Bing, even if the person asking has never opened Bing in their life.
Local questions lean heavily on listings. "Who can fix a boiler in Melton Mowbray this week?" is answered from business profiles, maps data and reviews as much as from websites. If you're not in Bing's local data, you're missing from one of the sources those answers draw on.
What is Bing Places for Business?
It's Microsoft's free business listing service, at bingplaces.com. It controls how your business appears in Bing search, Bing Maps and Bing's local results.
A listing holds your name, address, phone number, website, opening hours, categories, a description and photos. It does for Bing what a Google Business Profile does for Google. Many businesses already have a Bing listing they've never claimed, built from public data, which can be out of date.
How do Copilot and ChatGPT use Bing?
Copilot is Microsoft's own assistant, and it grounds its answers with Bing search. ChatGPT search leans on Bing for many of its results, alongside OpenAI's own crawler.
OpenAI hasn't said exactly which local data ChatGPT uses, so we don't claim a Bing Places listing feeds ChatGPT directly. What we can say is that both assistants draw on Bing, a complete listing makes you easier to find there, and it costs nothing to set up.
What should a Bing Places listing include?
Everything a buyer, or an assistant, needs to pick you. Fill in every field you can.
- Your business name, exactly as it appears on your website and Google profile.
- Your address and phone number, in the same format everywhere.
- Your main category, plus any secondary categories that fit.
- A description that says what you do, who for and where, in plain words. Reuse the one-line description from your website.
- Opening hours, including bank holidays.
- Your website, linking to the most relevant page.
- Real photos of your work, premises or team.
How do you set up Bing Places, step by step?
Nine steps. The first six take most businesses well under an afternoon.
- Sign in at bingplaces.com with a Microsoft account you'll keep, ideally a shared business one.
- Search for your business to see whether a listing already exists, and claim it if it does.
- If you have a Google Business Profile, use the import option to copy it across. If not, create a new listing.
- Check the name, address and phone number match your website exactly, character for character.
- Pick your categories, add your opening hours and write your description.
- Add your website and photos, then complete the verification Bing asks for.
- Set up Bing Webmaster Tools for your website, submit your sitemap and turn on IndexNow, so new pages are picked up quickly.
- Ask Copilot and ChatGPT the local questions your customers ask, and note who gets named.
- Put a reminder in the diary to check the listing whenever your hours, address or services change.
What's the difference between Bing Places and Bing Webmaster Tools?
Bing Places is your business listing. Bing Webmaster Tools is how Bing crawls and indexes your website. You want both.
Webmaster Tools lets you submit your sitemap, see which pages Bing has indexed, and spot crawl errors. You can import your site from Google Search Console to save time. Without it, Bing may be slow to find new pages, which means the assistants that lean on Bing are slow to find them too.
Why does matching every detail matter so much?
Because assistants trust facts that several sources agree on. A different phone number on Bing than on your website makes them less sure who you are.
Check your website, Google Business Profile, Bing Places and the main directories in your sector side by side. Pick one name, one address format, one phone number and one description, and use them everywhere. Old addresses and tracking phone numbers are the usual culprits.