Google and Bing business profiles, set up and looked after.
Your Google Business Profile and your Bing Places listing are what put you on the map when somebody nearby searches for what you do. Both are free. We fill yours in properly and keep them current. Both are built and linked on every plan from £99 a month, and looked after every month from Growth.
Your Google profile may have been set up years ago and not opened since. You may never have seen the Bing one at all. Neither costs anything to have. Leaving them alone is what costs you.
What is a Google Business Profile, and what is Bing Places?
A Google Business Profile and a Bing Places listing are the entries that put your business on a map, with your hours, your phone number, your photographs and your reviews. Both are free.
Google's used to be called Google My Business, which is why half the people who have one cannot find it. Keeping both current is also half of being the business an assistant names.
You already own both, or you can. We set them up in your name with us as manager, exactly like your Google Analytics and your Search Console. If you ever leave, you keep them and everything they have built up, and there is nothing to move. The plans that include this are on the price page.
Can Google change your profile without asking you?
Yes, and it says so itself. Your hours, your category, even whether you are open at all can be changed from somewhere that is not you, and you may never have been told. These are Google's words, not ours.
- "If sources report that your profile info is incorrect or outdated, Google may update your profile."Your hours, your category, even whether you are open at all, changed from somewhere that is not you.
- "You can't manage all Google updates through your Business Profile."So it is not simply a case of pressing undo. Some of it you cannot reach.
- "If your profile has Google updates, you'll find a notification at the top of the page."Which only helps somebody who logs in and looks. That is the whole argument for this being a monthly job rather than a one-off.
- "Blue: Shows info changed by Google."There is a colour for it in the editor, because it happens often enough to need one.
Do not take our word for any of it: read Google's own page on updates to your Business Profile.
This is the honest reason a profile is worked on every month rather than set up once. Not because posting keeps some score topped up. Because the record is live, other people and other systems feed into it, and the only person who notices a wrong opening time is somebody who looks.
Of the three things Google ranks the map on, the profile moves one of them quickly.
How well you match the search. That is what a profile is for, and it is the fastest thing to fix on this whole list. Google's own words are that "businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local search results", which is the entire job in one sentence.
How well known you are moves slowly, over months, on reviews and on other sites mentioning you. How close you are cannot be moved by anybody, including us. So the profile is the one of the three you can move this month, and it is set up in your name on every plan.
Is Bing actually worth bothering with?
Bing Places is free and it takes one sitting. So there is no reason not to have one. We set it up alongside your Google one so the two say the same thing about you.
Why is your position on Google different for every customer?
Google ranks the map on three things, and it says so itself: how well you match the search, how far you are from the person searching, and how well known you are.
How well you match
A complete profile, the right category, every service listed, and pages on your site that genuinely match what people type. We move this first.
How well known you are
Reviews, and other sites linking to and mentioning you. Google names both. Slower, and it keeps building.
How close you are
Fixed, for everybody in your trade equally, so every hour goes into the two you can move. Your pin stays exactly where your business is, which is what keeps the profile safe.
We measure it from points right across the area you cover, not from your own front door. Checking from your own address is the flattering way to do it and it tells you nothing.
This is why you can be top of the map in your own street and nowhere three miles away, at the same moment, for the same search. What we do is widen the patch where you show up on the map, and show you it before and after so you can watch it spread.
So what do you actually do to it?
Set it up properly once, then look at it every month. It is in the plan, not an extra line on the bill, and it is on Starter as well as on Full.
And if you do not want a website yet. The Business Profile set up and optimised on its own is £295 as a one-off. It is real work rather than a form: verification, categories, services, the description, the photographs and the posts.
It is on the price page with everything else, and it is already included on all four plans, which is worth knowing before you buy it separately.
What do people ask about their listings?
Straight answers about your listings, with Google’s and Microsoft’s own words quoted beside anything checkable.
I set mine up years ago and never touched it. Is that a problem?
Yes, and it is worth putting right. Not because there is a timer running, but because the facts on it stop being true.
- Your own details move. Hours change. Services change. You stop doing one thing and start doing another.
- And Google edits it without asking. It says plainly that it "may update your profile" from other sources, so what is on there today is not necessarily what you left.
The first thing we do on any build is read the whole profile against what is actually true and fix the difference.
Do I need a Google Business Profile if I already have a website?
Yes, and they do different jobs. The profile is what puts you in the map results when somebody searches for what you do near where they are. The website is where they decide whether to ring you.
- A website with no profile misses the map entirely.
- A profile with no website sends people who are nearly ready to buy to a page that cannot answer their questions.
Is Bing Places worth the time when everyone uses Google?
It is free and it takes one sitting, so the bar is low. Microsoft publishes 140 million daily Bing users and 3 million business owners listed, which are their figures and not ours. Those users are the reason to be on it.
It is on every plan, set up alongside your Google one so the two say the same thing about you.
How do you widen where I show up on the map?
By fixing the two things that can be moved. You get the before and after on a map, so you can watch the patch spread.
Google ranks the local map partly on how far you are from the person searching. So you do not have one position, you have a different one depending on where somebody is standing.
What does posting on my profile actually do?
Posting puts your work in front of customers. Google’s own best-practice material for business owners says to post at least once a week. It also says posts help a business stand out in Search and Maps.
So we post because customers read them. The ranking work goes into the three things Google’s own ranking page names, which are the three further up this page.
What happens to it if I stop working with you?
Nothing, because it was never ours. Both listings are created in your name with us added as a manager. You remove our access and everything stays exactly where it is, with all the reviews, photographs and history on it.
That is the same rule as the domain, the website and every Google account we touch, and it is deliberate. You stay because it is working.
Not sure what state yours is in?
Tell us the business name and where you are. We will look at both listings and tell you exactly what to fix first, whether you hire us or not. It takes us a few minutes and it is the fastest answer you will get about why you are or are not showing up.