Category: Bing

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Have You Looked at Bing Local?

So many business owners are focused on Google+ Local, (previously called Google Places) that they forget that Bing has a great local program too. In fact, in this recent study consumers chose Bing Local over Google Maps for local searches.

“Bing tied for the top spot with both Superpages and Yellowbook, both of which belong to the Yellow Pages collection of directories. Google Maps wasn’t far behind at fourth and Yellowpages rounded out the top five.” Read the full article. 

Bing has a very nice local portal and like Google has created a page for your business already, you just have to claim it and update it. Just this past month Bing teamed up with Yelp to create even more relevant results for it’s local search engine which will simply improve its future results.

For now, I recommend claiming your Bing Local listing by going to the free Bing Business Portal. The service is free and allows you to add pertinent business information, special promotions and even create a free mobile website. It offers more options and features than the stripped down Google+ Local page now offers.

Bing is also focusing on localized searches in their search engine just like Google. With a small effort on your part, you can grab your Bing Local page and potentially reap some very nice top local placement exposure that can drive desktop and mobile traffic your way.

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Microsoft adCenter Name to Be Updated?

I follow adCenter on Twitter and noticed that this past week they had announced the new name for their service is Bing Search Advertising. Interesting… as a Microsoft Advertising Accredited Professional, I wonder when adCenter will be changing their name and the adCenter program will be updating their professionals badge.

Here are a few of the  names I might recommend to them:

Bing Accredited Professional

Bing Advertising Certified Professional

Bing Advertising Accredited Professional

It will be very interesting to see what happens to the program in the months to come. Personally, I feel that adCenter is a good program. I like the interface and they have picked up many of the tools that AdWords has that make account management easy and serve ads better like inline editing, broad match modifiers, and radius targeting.

In the weeks to come, we’ll be updating our own adCenter services to offer a bundled program with AdWords. In the meantime, you can review more information about adCenter advertising and our account management programs.

 

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Bing’s New Local Business Portal is a Winner

The Bing Local Business Portal may not have gotten your attention, but I am here to say that you really need to check out this very smart and innovative new tool.

Here’s why:

  • Create your local listing on Bing.com. You create a business page just like you do in Google Places. The listing will be shown in Bing local searches on Bing.com typically above the organic searches.
  • Create your own unique mobile site right in the portal. Mine is http://bbp.ms/vawigk. Make sure you grab your own link when you create yours as it is hard to find in the control panel after it has been made.
  • Create deals, events, and promotions and even unique QR codes for your deals online.
  • When you create a deal, Bing will post the deal right on to your Facebook page when you select to do so.

You can set up your own page here: http://www.bingbusinessportal.com to find out all that this new Bing Business Portal can do visit their FAQ page. It all starts with claiming your listing and then updating your business information as appropriate. You will need to verify yourself as the business owner once by phone PIN or regular mail, but once set up you have full access to all the tools.

With localized searches and a mobile presence an important tool to being found online today, this application is free to use and really worth a careful look. Bing has done a very nice job making this local site a valid business tool, not just a placeholder page.

 

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Microsoft Updates Name to Bing

This was announced recently: “…Our small and medium business brand is changing from “Microsoft Advertising” to “Bing.”” Although it appears that the advertising product will still be called adCenter, it appears that Microsoft is working to brand itself more consistently with the Bing brand. There may be additional strategies at play such as differentiating Microsoft’s online presence from its software presence. As to that, only time will tell.

In the meantime understand that Bing is much more than advertising on the Bing.com search engine. Bing results and Bing advertising is shown on the Yahoo, Bing, and even the Facebook platform. Of additional importance just this past week was Bing’s announcement that throughout the summer they will be rolling out a very tight search integration with Facebook.

From the images released, it appears that when you will search on Bing in the future, Facebook friends faces and comments about a product or place will appear on the left sidebar of your Bing search results page.

All in all, both statements are big news and let us know that in the bigger schemes of search there is some serious consolidation happening behind the scenes between the key social players like Facebook and Microsoft now known as Bing.