Link your Google listing to Bing, and Bing may fill your Bing listing with whatever Google has, mistakes and all. Where the two listings match, Microsoft says, “Bing will use Google data to overwrite the Bing Places for Business listing information.” A linked listing can’t currently be edited in the Bing Places dashboard. You fix it in Google and let the next sync carry it across.
Bing Places for Business is Microsoft’s free tool for the listing a shop in Farmington or Unionville gets in Bing search and Bing Maps. Microsoft announced its move from bingplaces.com to bing.com/forbusiness in October 2025, and www.bingplaces.com now forwards there. You may have a listing already. Bing fills listings from many sources besides the owner, and when you claim one, most of the details come pre-filled.
Two ways in
The quick way runs through Google. In your Bing Places account, select Import from your Google Business Profile (Google’s name for your listing), choose how often to sync (Microsoft offers weekly, biweekly or monthly) and sign in to Google. If Google has already verified the business, Microsoft says, Bing verifies the imported listing automatically, and it typically publishes in 7 to 12 days. Microsoft also says imported listings may need verifying before you can fully manage them. Syncing may create a duplicate, especially when Bing already has a listing for you, and categories may not carry over exactly. Turning the sync off stops future updates but doesn’t unlink Google.
The other way is to claim the listing yourself at bing.com/forbusiness. Sign in with a Microsoft, work, Google or Facebook account. The listings you claim are associated with that sign-in’s email, so use an address the business will keep. Search for the business. If it’s listed, claim it; if not, select Create a new business. On Bing Maps, select the three-dot menu next to a listing’s name, then Manage business.
Nothing you change goes live until Bing verifies you with a six-digit PIN, sent by phone, mail, email or text. Not every business gets every option. The phone call, for one, comes only if the listing Bing already has shows your business number and nobody has edited it. A postcard typically takes 5 to 6 business days in the United States. After verification, publishing typically takes another 7 to 12 days in North America, and an edit made while a change is pending resets the expected date.
Keeping it right
Bing checks what you submit. Your name, address, phone, website, hours, category and open-or-closed status change only when the update lines up with trusted outside data; if it doesn’t, Microsoft says, the change may not publish or may be overwritten. Microsoft recommends keeping those details the same across all your online channels.
Use the name customers know, with no “best,” “cheap” or “closed” unless it’s part of the legal name, and don’t list a social media page as your main website. Microsoft says breaking its data guidelines could lead to suspension. If you move or rename the business, don’t update the old listing: create a new one, then mark the old one Closed.
The Standard: Get your Google listing right before you link it to Bing Places at bing.com/forbusiness.
Source: Bing Places for Business help, “Introduction,” “Get started,” “Create your listing,” “Edit your listing,” “Manage your listing,” “Data quality guidelines,” “Sync your Google Business Profile with Bing Places” and “Frequently asked questions,” rechecked Oct. 12, 2026; Bing Blog, “Introducing the New Bing Places for Business: Built for Business Owners, Powered by Research,” Oct. 3, 2025.
This coverage is supported by Farmington Storage, 155 Scott Swamp Road, the only storage facility in Connecticut with Museum air. Bing wants a new listing when a business moves and the old one marked Closed; the old sign can wait at Farmington Storage. 860.777.4001 📦
Jack Beckett has covered Farmington long enough to remember when a listing meant a line in the phone book, and he is not sure the phone book was worse. He is on his second coffee, which is about when the Mercury gets going. ☕
The Farmington Mercury covers the town: Town Council and the land use boards, the police log, the schools, elections, and the businesses in Farmington and Unionville. Our motto is “Always last to breaking news,” and nobody has ever accused us of breaking it. Find us at farmingtonmercury.com and tell a neighbor. 📰