Everyone knows that when it comes to searching the Internet that Google is king, right? Well, 70% of the world’s Internet consuming population would agree with you. However, Google isn’t the only player in the search engine game. Believe it or not, there are times when using another search engine, like Bing, is the only solution for customers. This means that for you as a business owner, it would be foolhardy to spend all your time, effort and resources maximizing local SEO for Google but to ignore Bing. Here’s why:
While Google may control 70% of all of the Internet’s search traffic, when it comes to the 45 and above demographic, Bing seemed to be the search engine of choice. One study that was conducted demonstrated that the average representative of this demographic in the study pool used Internet Explorer to browse the Internet. And, the default search engine provided by Internet Explorer is Bing. Few people rarely change the default search engine that is presented by their browsers which therefore means that for this demographic, Bing is the preferred search engine, making it imperative for businesses that target audiences 45 and older to make an effort to maximize their Bing visibility.
One of the ways to do this is to simply claim and complete your Bing Maps business profile. Bing Maps is Bing’s answer to Google Maps and Google Places. Bing offers you the ability to create a business profile on their map completely free of charge. All you have to do is to create a profile, add your business and watch your Internet traffic increase.
Here is what you need to know about completing your Bing Maps profile:
First, make sure that you complete the pertinent information section completely. List your company’s name, address, telephone number, website address, email address and more. You need to make sure that you list this information in exactly the same manner across every page of your profile and that it matches your website. Otherwise Bing won’t be able to connect your website to your profile. You also need to add hours of operation and other pertinent information so that people know when they can patronize your business.
Next, start adding multimedia content such as pictures, videos, and other media that makes your profile more interesting. Not only does this help people locate your business, but gives you preference in the Bing local rankings, which puts you higher up on the results page. Lastly, embed a Bing Map of your business in your contact page. This will help you boost your visibility in Bing’s local search engine results.
And that’s it. You don’t have to do any additional maintenance unless something changes with your business.
Bing Maps is a central part of any successful local SEO campaign and should not be overlooked by anyone who is interested in creating a local SEO strategy that works for all of your potential customers, not just the ones that use Google.
Taking the time to complete these profiles will have a significant impact on your overall online success.
