A well crafted local SEO strategy helps dealers drive more visibility in low-funnel search situations. It creates more website traffic and more phone calls without the need to increase advertising budgets. Bing is an essential part of that effort.

For those who don’t know, Bing Places is the Bing equivalent of Google My Business (GMB) for Google. A claimed, verified and well-optimized Bing Places listing is crucial to a quality Local SEO strategy.  Search Engine Journal lists claiming and verifying your Bing Places profile as #4 in it’s top 25 local search ranking factors.

Bing also holds an impressive, 36.7% of desktop searches in the United States and its search network has 124 million unique searchers. This means that not only is their audience large, it also provides local search opportunities you can’t find on other search engines.

Let’s dive into the process to claim, set up and verify your Bing Places listing.

How to claim your Bing Places listing

Start the Bing Places set-up process by creating an account or logging in with your existing Microsoft account (Microsoft owns Bing, so the accounts are connected).

After logging in, two methods of claiming will become available:

1. Importing your business from GMB
2. Claiming/Adding your business manually

With either option, you should be prompted to search for your business before proceeding. DO NOT create a duplicate listing if your business is already listed on Bing. Follow the process to claim your existing listing first. Then fix any outdated information after.

If you select the import from GMB option, be sure to review the business information and update any incorrect details. If something is incorrect, make sure you fix it on your GMB listing as well, because it’s likely wrong there too. You can sync with your GMB listing in the future, too, as your business information changes.

In the next section, we will go over the manual claim process for Bing Places, so you can see which information will be included in your Bing Places listing.

How to set up your Bing Places listing

There are seven windows you’ll be walked through in the standard set-up process:

1. Enter Basic Info
2. Enter Category Information
3. Additional Business Details
4. Enter Contact Details
5. Add Photos of your Business
6. Enter Working Hours
7. Resolve Data Conflicts

Hit “Submit” after completing these steps.

Dealer Teamwork’s Bing Places listing set-up is depicted next for visual reference for each step. You will need to adjust the details for your dealership and business type.

Enter Basic Info

In the Enter Basic Info step, you’ll be asked to provide the following information.  Note: you should consistently list your Name, Address and Phone number across your online business listings and directories.  This is called your “NAP” record.  A consistent NAP record has a positive impact on your dealership’s local SEO ranking.  Learn more about NAP records here.

• Business / Professional Name: enter your legal business name.
• Main Phone: enter your legal business phone number.
• Address: enter your physical address and adjust the map pin if necessary. Don’t list a PO Box—the address you list is how shoppers will be able to find your dealership for in-store shopping, purchases and service.
• Website: list your homepage here. Learn more about creating a UTM tracking link for this field to better measure performance in our Bing Places optimization tips blog.

Enter Category Information

• Segment of Business: for dealers select “Professionals & Services”
• Categories (your business type): you can choose up to 10. Choose them from the “Automotive & Vehicles” section.

A sample minimum recommendation is below for a new and used car dealer with a service center onsite.

• Auto Maintenance & Repair
• New Car & Truck Dealers (choose your brand or brands as well: i.e. if you sell Ford vehicles, also choose “Ford Dealer”)
• Used Car & Truck Dealers

Some categories have subcategories, so use your discretion for any additional categories you choose. At a minimum, include the relevant primary categories recommended above.

• Primary Category: choose one of the aforementioned categories to be your primary category. We recommend your most descriptive yet holistically representative category (i.e. Ford Dealer for the example above). It needs to be specific enough for you to stand out but not so specific that it limits the whole of your business. For example, don’t choose “Brake Service & Repair” as your primary for a car dealer. However, also don’t just choose “Car Dealer” if you are able to be more specific and include your brand as well as a new car dealer.
• Describe your business: write a brief and compelling description of your business. Think of this like your company bio. It should be more than “Car dealer in [CITY, STATE]”. This is your opportunity to briefly tell your story and what sets you apart from the competition. A few compelling sentences should suffice.

Additional Business Details

• Are customers expected to visit your address?  As a dealer, you will want your full address listed in search results so customers can find you. Select “Yes.”
• Store Code: this is a unique code you define for your locations. This isn’t necessary to define unless you have multiple listings (i.e. multiple stores in your auto group) and/or you plan to bulk manage them.
• Is this a business or a professional? Dealers should select “business” (professional would be for something like consultants).

Enter Contact Details

• Email: list a primary contact email for customers (i.e. general contact email or sales email).
• Additional contact details: list the links to your dealership’s associated profiles. The options are Facebook page, Twitter account, Yelp account and TripAdvisor. If you don’t have something, i.e. TripAdvisor, leave it blank.

Add Photos of your Business

Bing has some great guidelines and tips for selecting photos.

• Up to 100 photos (Dealer Teamwork recommends a minimum of 10)
• Supply 2 exterior shots so customers can recognize your business when they come to visit.
• Supply interior photos so customers can see what they will encounter in your lobby, sales, service and amenity areas.
• Add photos of your goods and services. Showcase your inventory and service areas.
• Add photos of awards or events.

Additionally, be sure the photos are high-quality. This is an advertisement for your business—make a good first impression. Most modern smartphones have a great camera, so the rest comes down to taking a quality photo.

• Is the area clean and presentable?
• Are you framing up the subject of your photo in an appealing way (i.e. don’t haphazardly snap quick photos, take some time to ensure things are lined up and in frame)?
• Are you focusing on the subject of your photo and keeping a steady hand to ensure it’s not blurry?
• Is there quality lighting (not too bright or too dark)?

Lastly, be sure to abide by the image size and dimension requirements from Bing.

• 10 MB maximum file size (if your image is too large, resizing it smaller should help keep the file size down)
• 480×360 pixels for the minimum dimensions (tip: take horizontal photos when you can, or you’ll need to do a lot of cropping)
• Maintain the 4:3 width:height ratio if your image is larger than the minimum (crop if you need to)

Enter Working Hours

• Working Hours: list your dealership’s hours and make sure they match your website (make sure “Show business hours” is selected in the dropdown).
• Special Hours: you can load your special hours for holidays in the initial set up or you can add these later as it comes up.

Resolve Data Conflicts

In the Resolve Data Conflicts step, Bing will flag any data that seems to contradict your website. For example, if you have a DNI phone number, it may flag this as incorrect. At this time, we’ve found it’s best to list your actual business phone number here and have it be consistent across your online directories and listings. You can leave the DNI number as is on your website.

Fix any conflicts that you think are true mismatches, then hit “Submit” to finish building out your profile.

How to Verify Your Bing Places Listing

There are 4 ways to verify your Bing Places listing: phone, SMS/text, email or by mail. Choose the method that works best for you. We chose the email verification method, and it was done in a matter of minutes.

You’ll receive a pin that you need to enter while logged into your Bing Places dashboard.

There may be an initial period that Bing then reviews your listing and confirms your verification. If that happens, you shouldn’t need to do anything else to verify, unless, Bing alerts you to an issue needing correction.

When it comes to local SEO, there are lots of elements to maintain, and it can be extremely tedious and time-consuming. Many dealers find working with a partner helpful when it comes to managing their local SEO strategy.

If you’re considering a partnership, check out our local SEO service page for more information on how we help dealers manage their local SEO strategy. You can also reach our sales team for a live demonstration below.