- Owner
- Listings lead
- Cadence
- Quarterly, plus any fact sheet change
- Time box
- One hour per location
- Output
- Match sheet and change log
Why Bing gets its own procedure
Bing Places for Business is Microsoft's business listing service. Its data feeds Bing search and Bing Maps, and Microsoft Copilot draws heavily on Bing's index and Bing Places data when it answers a local question. Assistants that search the web through Bing see the same record. A business that has spent a year polishing its Google profile can still be described from a stale Bing listing that nobody has opened since it was created automatically.
Bing listings are often created without the owner's knowledge, from public data. That makes the first job finding out what already exists.
Find what exists
Search Bing Maps for the business name and city, then for the phone number on its own, then for the street address. Record every listing that comes up, including old addresses and former names. A business that moved in the last few years often has two Bing listings, one at each address, and an assistant reading both may give a customer the wrong one.
Choose the claim route
Bing Places offers two ways in. The import route connects to the Google Business Profile and copies its details, which is fast and keeps the two records aligned when the Google profile is already correct. The manual route claims the listing directly and verifies by phone, email or mail. Use the import only after the Google SOP has closed; importing an uncorrected Google profile copies its errors.
| Field on Bing | Copy from the fact sheet | Watch for | Match? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business name | Exactly as on the fact sheet | Old names from before a rebrand | ☐ |
| Address | Current address with the suite in the fact sheet format | A second listing at a previous address | ☐ |
| Phone | The fact sheet number | Old numbers carried over from directory data | ☐ |
| Category | The closest Bing category to the Google primary category | A generic category chosen by the import | ☐ |
| Hours | Regular and holiday hours | Hours that did not import | ☐ |
| Website | The canonical URL | An old domain or a page that redirects | ☐ |
| Photos and description | The same description used on Google, adjusted to fit | Blank fields | ☐ |
Procedure
- Record every listing found
List each Bing result for the name, phone and address searches, with screenshots.
- Claim the right one
Use the import from Google if that profile matches the fact sheet; otherwise claim manually and verify.
- Close the duplicates
For each duplicate or old-address listing, use Bing's reporting tools to mark it closed or moved, and log the request.
- Work the match sheet
Correct each field until every row is ticked.
- Recheck in a week
Search again logged out. Note which fixes are live and which duplicates remain.
- Test in Copilot
Ask Copilot two panel questions and record whether the business appears and which details it uses.
CHANGE LOG ENTRY
Write one line per edit, in this order: date, platform, field, old value, new value, who made the change, and the fact sheet version it follows. Example: 2026-11-10 · Bing · Duplicate listing at former address · open · reported as moved · listings lead · fact sheet v3
Handling duplicates that will not close
Some duplicates come back because they are rebuilt from data that other sites still publish. When a closed listing reappears, search the old address and phone number on the open web and note which directories still show them. Correcting those sources is the lasting fix; the directories SOP gives the order. Keep a running list of reappearing duplicates on the fact sheet so the next quarterly check looks for them first.
What to look for in Copilot
When Copilot names the business, read the details it gives. Hours, neighborhood and the services it mentions should all trace to the corrected listing. If Copilot repeats a detail that appears nowhere on the Bing listing, follow its cited sources; one of them is carrying the old value. Record each source on the audit capture sheet so the monthly re-test watches it.
Done when
Several locations
Bing Places supports bulk management for businesses with many locations, using a spreadsheet upload. Build that spreadsheet from the location fact sheets, never from an export of another platform, so each row inherits the signed values. Upload, then spot-check three locations by searching them on Bing Maps the following week.
Bing and the website
Bing's index also feeds Copilot's reading of the business's own pages. Add the site to Bing Webmaster Tools, submit the sitemap and check that the service pages are indexed. A business whose pages are missing from Bing's index can only be described from its listing and from what other sites say about it, which narrows what Copilot can repeat. Webmaster Tools also shows which queries bring Bing users to the site, a useful cross-check on the prompt panel's wording.
Repeat the Copilot check at each quarterly review and keep the answers beside the first test, so the listings lead can see whether the corrected details have reached the answers.