If you don’t know already it is very important to setup your local business listing on local and mainstream search engines. Well since Bing came out I thought I would go there and get StepForth’s listing. So I visited the Bing Local Listing Center and tried to add my company’s local listing but I ran into an annoying wall a little ways into the process that was a real let down; they didn’t bother to tell me that only the USA is supported at the moment.
If you are in the USA the process to get your local listing is straight forward – at least as far as I got. Just go to the Bing Local Listing Center and log in with your Microsoft Passport (or create one) and if the system does not find a current listing it will allow you to create one. Well StepForth does not have one yet according to their system so I was directed to the listing local listing creation page. When I got to the creation page and began to fill out the submission form I was rebuffed by a big pet peeve of mine… the system knew I was Canadian (it is noted in the header of the page) and yet the only way to add a listing was to enter a State and Zip (see screenshot).
I realize this is a nitpicky post but I am fed up with oversights in this regard. I mean how hard can it be to say “I am sorry but Bing Local Listings is not supporting Canada right now – click here to be notified when it becomes available” instead of finding out later on that it only supports the States? Thankfully the form is not long, so I don’t discover this fact after entering a ton of information, which I have experienced all too often. Come on Microsoft! Get with it!
Mini-rant complete. Thank you for listening.
Nice piece of information, realy useful……
Thanks buddy!
Please Help I cant Understand. how I Serch a perticular state for listing
Please Help
Thanks
Hi Ranjan, if you are in the USA you will have no problem setting up your local listing – at least in context to my article. If you are looking to add your business to a particular state the physical location of your company needs to be in that state. Just go to https://ssl.bing.com/listings/BusinessSearch.aspx and search for your listing. After that Bing does a decent job of walking you through the process. – Cheers, Ross
Hi Ross
I’m with you all the way. I just spent an intensely frustrating 15 minutes trying to list our business on Yahoo local listings, then a happy few minutes updating our listing on Google, and now an annoying minute-and-a-half on Bing (at least Yahoo taught me what to expect!) It’s really not that hard for them to support other countries! And if they can’t do that, yes, they could have some kind of statement at the top: “US only, rest of world don’t bother to try.”
Linda
Amen, Linda!! I can’t stand shortsightedness like that – especially from massive companies like Microsoft who should know better. Ug
Thanks for commenting on the site, I hope to hear more from you! Cheers. Ross
Hey Ross,
Good post – thanks, I’ve just been trying to add our Canadian business to Bing and Yahoo – very frustrating!
Google was so easy – it can’t be that hard for Bing/Yahoo to do the same can it?
Yahoo’s site tool me through so many dead ends and loops, that I’ve given up! And for Bing to only support the US is very short sighted!
Cheers,
Nick
I know, it’s strange because there are some Canadian companies listed if you search for web design, victoria, bc but it’s impossible to create a listing if you’re in Canada. They must have autogenerated those…*sigh*
Actually if you dig really deep (i mean i spent an hour on this), you can find information that the Bing local results shown in Canada, are actually pulled from the Yellow Pages. So to get a Bing local listing, you have to have a yellow pages ad!
I have had same issues with Yahoo maps and Bing, but i see local Canadian listings , so i don’t understand am i missing something???
Hi Mike,
What we are talking about is the submission process of adding Canadian businesses. Perhaps the landscape has changed though… are you seeing Canadian fields now? (I hope they did make the change but I haven’t been there to look)
Pretty lame huh? Yeah I came across that as well but it is obviously an oversight or… well I guess this is Microsoft… blatant collusion
Anyway, here’s to hoping they get their act together in this regard. Thanks for your post John, much appreciated!!!
What I want to know is why, if the “canada” option is not available, do I see all my competitors in the results?!?! How did they get on?
Ive just messed around for an hour trying to see how to submit my business to Bing Canada. Then i found this blog, thanks guys for all the info. They should make the business listings free like Google does. What have they got to loose?
It’s so stupid you have to have a yellow pages ad, whats the big deal with bing not allowing us to ad ourselves. I also know a MS insider who said BING is going to change a lot for Canadians and become a lot more like the american site. Whatever that means.
Hi Julia,
I would imagine your competitors got onto Bing by having a YellowPages listing and perhaps other Internet Yellow Page (IYP) listings.
It is pretty frustrating, however, that we have to take a back-route to getting into Bing. Very lazy of Microsoft if you ask me.
Cheers
Ross
I have a 411.ca listing, and still can not get intoi Bing, but my competeors are all there. I’ve been sending help requests to Bing about it, several times a day, still no response
Even for US businesses, BING IS A FAILURE.
It’s so hard just to find the page to set up a listing. I couldn’t find it within Bing, so I GOOGLED IT!
Wait a second…I have had a yellow pages listing; both on paper and online for ove 4 years and still don’t show up on bing’s local business center…
Retarded.
So any solution yet? After a less then 2 minutes process of posting my business listing on Google (for 3 business non-the-less), I’m beyond frustrated with yahoo and Bing.
I thought I was completely retarded. Apparently not completely. Thanks very much for the info.
Hi Arie, you know, I haven’t revisited this but I did get a request for that very same information the other day. I guess the universe is telling me to go and try try again. Thanks for the poke. I will be sure to post the info when I know. Just keep your eye on the blog and thanks for reading!