GMB Verses Bing Places - Can I use the same content for both & can inconsistancy between the two harm rankings?

[PeteC122]

Hello All,
We have a number of GMB listings for each of our branches and they rank okay.

We also have bing places but , these struggle to get into the snack pack etc. I don't know much about Bing seo but I am wondering, should my content (descriptions etc)
be the same on GMB and Bing or does bing need unique content ?.. Also do you know if Bing maps would look at google maps etc to make sure , everything is in the correct place ? I am wondering if I need to make sure, there is absolute consistency between the two or one would be harming the other or both could be getting harmed in rankings etc?
what are people thoughts ?

 

[Cherie Dickey]

Hi @PeteC122

Bing is Microsoft's competing product for search market share. Therefore, rankings for the places listings probably aren't going to be related to each other in a significant way. At most, I would think the Bing places listing would be a citation source as far as Google is concerned.

I cannot answer for sure whether or not Microsoft is looking at Google's Map to determine map placement for their places listings, but my hunch is no. The two map platforms are derived from different data sets, and have their own ways of collecting information.

That said, I do think it's important to claim and optimize your Bing places listing the same way you would your Google Business Listing. There are people who do use Bing to search, and you want your information to be accurate. Your NAP information should be the same as you have it on your website, GMB listing, and other directories. The description can be the same as well, but the character limits might be different, so that is something to keep in mind. It's ok to have the same photos there as well. The main idea is to have the listing accurate, and compelling.

That said, I do think that it's a good idea to add some variation to the optimization if possible. It shows something a little different (and possibly more compelling) to folks who are looking at multiple listings/directories trying to make a decision on whether or not to choose your business for services, rather than the same thing over and over again.

I'm not very well versed on ranking factors for Bing, but the standard best practices should apply. A well optimized website with good user experience linked to the listing, Up to date NAP, earn reviews in the listing, and make sure you have good reputation signals on other sites such as Yelp, YP, Facebook, BBB, etc as well.

I hope this helps!

Cherie

 

[Dan Foland]

@Cherie Dickey This is great. To add to this I think it allows for a bit more A/B testing too that won't impact your Google listing.

That being said, in my experience spam is WAY more rampant and ranks better than Google spam.

 

[Broland]

Good info above already. Also, Bing has /local on their robots.txt so listings don't index with Google and most likely aren't used at all as any source of data.

Using some unique descriptions, updates and optimizations is great for local SEO, but best on sites with more value like Yellowpages and Yelp (Bing pulls data from Yelp too.)
Typically, just focus on ranking well with Google and after a bit Bing catches up.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

As mentioned previously by Broland, Google does not index Bing. Do they look at them still? Possibly but I would say it's unlikely.

Does Bing use Google? Much more possible than Google using Bing. However, I doubt they would use them for ranking purposes (ie factoring in Google's rankings for their own rankings). It's much more likely they use them just to check NAP consistency, reviews, etc.

But I think even if they do use one another, it's probably almost insignificant.

I would recommend using unique content just in case though. It takes maybe 60 seconds to write a new, unique description. So I would do it.