You set up your Google Business Profile, got it verified and filled it in properly. Then a customer with an iPhone tells you they could not find you, or that the map sent them to the wrong street. They were not using Google. They asked Siri, or opened the Maps app that came with their phone.
Google is where most local searching happens, but it is not the only map. Apple Maps and Bing each keep their own business listings, and if you have never touched them they may be empty, out of date or simply wrong. Claiming them takes an afternoon and costs nothing. This guide explains why they matter, what each one is, and how to keep them in line with everything else.
Why maps other than Google matter
iPhone users and Siri
Apple Maps is the default maps app on iPhones, iPads and Macs. When someone taps an address in a message, asks Siri for “a pharmacy near me” or searches on their iPhone, the answer often comes from Apple’s own business data, not Google’s. Plenty of iPhone owners install Google Maps as well, but many do not, and the built-in app is the one that opens when they tap a link or ask by voice.
If your business is missing from Apple Maps, or shows an old phone number or the wrong opening hours, those customers get wrong information with no hint that anything is off. Voice answers are especially unforgiving because there is no list to scroll; Siri reads out one result. Our post on voice search for local businesses covers that side in more detail.
Bing and Microsoft products
Bing is Microsoft’s search engine. It is the default in the Edge browser and on many Windows computers, and Microsoft uses Bing’s data in its own products. Business listings shown in Bing search results and Bing Maps come from Bing Places. Office workers, older customers and anyone who never changed their computer’s default browser may well find you through Bing without ever thinking about it.
Wrong data spreads
Map services gather business details from many sources, including directories, data suppliers and user reports. If you do not claim your listing, something will still appear there, built from whatever those sources say. That may be an old address, a closed branch or a number you stopped using years ago. Claiming the listing is how you get the final say.
Apple Business Connect
Apple Business Connect is Apple’s free tool for businesses to claim and manage how they appear in Apple Maps and other Apple services. In general terms, you:
- Sign in with an Apple Account. It is sensible to use a business account rather than a personal one, so the listing does not depend on one person’s phone.
- Search for your business. If a listing already exists, you claim it. If not, you add a new one.
- Confirm that you are connected to the business. Apple has its own verification process, which may involve a phone call to the business number or documents.
- Fill in the details: name, address or service area, phone number, website, opening hours, category and photos.
Once you manage the listing, you can update hours, add photos and correct details when they change. Use the same real photos you use elsewhere, and check the pin position on the map carefully, especially if your entrance is on a different side from the street address.
Apple’s help pages for Business Connect explain the current steps and what information it supports. Search for “Apple Business Connect” to find them, and follow Apple’s instructions rather than any third-party guide that may be out of date.
Bing Places for Business
Bing Places for Business is Microsoft’s free tool for managing business listings on Bing. The process follows the same pattern:
- Sign in with a Microsoft account, ideally one for the business.
- Search for your business, then claim the existing listing or create a new one.
- Verify that you are the owner, using whichever method Bing offers for your listing.
- Check and complete the details: name, address, phone, website, hours, category, photos.
Bing Places offers an option to import your details from your Google Business Profile. If your Google profile is already accurate, this can save time. Check every imported field afterwards, because any mistake on Google will now be copied to Bing as well, and the import is no substitute for reading the listing yourself.
Keep the details identical
This is the part that makes the extra listings worthwhile. Your business name, address, phone number, website and hours should match across Google, Apple, Bing, your website and your social pages, written the same way each time.
- Name: your real business name, with no added keywords or locations. Adding “best” or “near [area]” to the name breaks the rules on Google and makes listings look untidy everywhere else.
- Address: the same format everywhere, including the unit, floor or landmark if you use one.
- Phone: the same main number. If you use a separate number for tracking, keep it out of the map listings.
- Website: the same address, ideally the same page.
- Hours: including holidays and seasonal changes, updated on every listing at the same time.
If you do not already have one, write a master record of these details and work from it whenever you update anything. Our guide to name, address and phone consistency walks through how to set that up and audit what is already out there.
Service-area businesses
If you work at customers’ premises and do not want your home address shown, take the same care on Apple and Bing as on Google. Look for the option to hide the address or show a service area, and do not enter a fake address to get a pin. Our post on service-area businesses on Google Maps covers the thinking behind this, and it applies just as well to the other maps.
After you claim them
- Write down who has access. Note which Apple and Microsoft accounts manage each listing, and keep the logins with the rest of your business records.
- Check them when things change. A move, a new number, new hours or a new website all mean updating Google, Apple and Bing together.
- Look at your listing as a customer would. Every few months, search for your business on an iPhone and on Bing, and check the pin, hours and phone number.
- Report wrong information if you spot a duplicate listing or an old branch that is still showing.
Apple and Bing will probably never bring you as many enquiries as Google. That is not the point. The point is that a customer who uses them should get the same correct details as everyone else. For how these listings fit with your website, reviews and Google profile, see our hub on getting local customers online.
A sensible afternoon’s work
Claim the Apple and Bing listings, copy in your master details, add a few real photos and check the pin. Then put a reminder in your calendar to check them again when anything changes.
If you would rather hand this over, setting up and aligning listings across Google, Apple and Bing is part of our local SEO service. We work from your master record and tell you plainly if any listing needs something only you can provide, such as a verification call.
Next in this series: Business Directories: Which Listings Are Worth Having
