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Category: BING

BING Business Portal – It Is Time To Claim Your Listing


Wednesday April 27, 2011

Reading Time: 4 minutes
It has been a while since we talked about BING.  Lately clients have been asking more questions about BING. Sometimes they think it is an entirely new search engine and then they realize that prior to two years ago they knew BING as Live Search, Windows Live Search or MSN Search. In July 2009, Keith Hansen wrote a post about Microsoft & Yahoo agreeing to a search partnership. In the last few months a few clients called to verify why their Pay Per Click charges referenced BING, instead of YAHOO.  On April 11, 2011, BING launched their Business Portal beta, which is:

“a new service from Bing to help business owners create and control their online listing, making it easier for their customers to find them on Bing. With it, owners can even create deals and promote the offers on both the Bing desktop and mobile experience – for free. The BBP will replace the Bing Local Listing Center (LLC), and all existing listing on LLC have been seamlessly migrated to the Bing Business Portal.”

So now it is time for you to claim your listing(s). Don’t worry, it is free; but it will take a few minutes. And BING wants you to know that by claiming your listing your business will have a better chance of being found on BING and you will be able to highlight your strengths and create campaigns that you can even publish to your FACEBOOK account.

OK, like I said: You need to claim your listing…so start by going here and See How the Bing Business Portal Can Help Your Business Grow.  Follow the step by step instructions and if you have more involved questions you can visit BING’s Business Portal Frequently Asked Questions.

bing listing

Let me know how you do or feel free to contact me if you have more questions.

Reading Time: 5 minutes

News Flash: I follow Chris Brogan on Twitter. A few months ago I attended Blog World Expo in Las Vegas. I wrote about it. I promised that I would try to apply what I learned. One of the first things I did was to begin following Chris Brogan. Don’t get excited. I am one of 124,385 followers. (To put this in perspective I have 41 followers.) You are probably shaking your head and asking “is Judy nuts?” But to that, I say: “Does me being one of 3,400,000 TIME Magazine weekly subscribers or one of 6,685,684 National Geographic monthly subscribers shock you or make you question why I would even think of “following” these honored publications?” I hope not. I subscribe to these publications, local newspapers, SEO/SMO on-line newsletters for the same reason that I follow Chris Brogan – each opens avenues to useful and timely information that can impact my business, Webconsuls’ clients, and my personal life.

This past week Chris mentored: Don’t Forget the Little Side Streets. Exploring side streets with Chris Brogan is quite a ride. I hope you will take the time to read his post, he offers really good insights and, unlike a few, Chris is optimistic and looks for ways to extend the expiration date for some of these “streets”. For example, when was the last time you:

  • examined your “YELP” reviews
  • verified your Google Local Business Center Map
  • updated your Bing Local Listing Center
  • checked out Yahoo Answers
  • refreshed your Facebook Fan page
  • responded to a Trip Advisor review (negatively or positively)
  • tweeted something of positive value, as opposed to a rant

Navigating and maintaining these “streets” takes time. But the beauty of the Internet in general and social media in particular is the fluidity and vitality that you can manage to. Every time you think you don’t have time I want you to find a business person who can recall the angst of designing and ordering a brochure. Trust me. Before the ink was dry the area code had been split in two, your AAA rating had changed for the better or the beautiful maple tree that graced your front lawn had fallen. Yes, maintaining your “streets” and exploring side streets takes time, but you can do it on your time and make your journey as interesting as you want. There really is nothing like a road trip.

Here is my favorite photo of a real “side” street.

no name street
No Name Street 2000

This post is dedicated to Chris Brogan, thanking him for inspiration.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

LeapFish.com is a search engine portal that allows you to search through Google, Yahoo, and MSN (Now known as Bing). Some say that LeapFish might even be competing with Google but I don’t believe it can since its main search results are based off of Google’s engine.

LeapFish does have some nice features though; it displays the Market Summary, top News, and Latest Videos from Youtube. The interesting thing about the videos is you don’t have to hit play, simply place your mouse over the thumbnail and it will begin playing.

The search is nice because you have the ability to compare results from the top three engines and see where your site ranks based on the keywords you enter.

As for advertising on LeapFish you pay for the keywords as would with any other PPC Campaign except you keep the spot until you are willing to sell it. For Example, if you purchase “California Drug Rehab” you hold that spot for every time someone searches that until you want to sell it. It’s interesting but not sure if it will last.

LeapFish has also been known for taking their client’s money and it’s possible those rumors began because of their advertisement slots.

Have you used it? What are your thoughts on this website?

Reading Time: 7 minutes

Is Bing a decision engine, a surname, a candy bar, a slag heap? Over the past couple of months I have been reading a lot about Microsoft’s new search engine BING.com. We are all familiar with Microsoft, right? We know about Live Search, Windows Live Search, and MSN Search. And now we have Microsoft’s latest reincarnation, BING, and more importantly BING is being referred to as a decision engine as opposed to a search engine. I suppose MS is for all intents and purposes now a matchmaker! Not only is MS finding you mates to choose from they are determined to help you make the decision.

A few of observations about BING:
  • On the serious side: I want our clients to know that the Webconsuls’ Team will be following and studying the impact of BING from an SEO standpoint. That is what we are tasked to do. There are a number of questions to be asked and answered, but we must do this responsibly. And on that front, Webconsuls will keep our clients informed.
  • BING is quite lovely to look at. Everyday the home page photo changes and these photos are dramatic. Google’s basic home page is pretty blank, but works. Yahoo, which by the way is still my default home page has a lot of information and I have grown accustom to reading the news’ headlines, clicking on finance, travel, etc, I have never had a Yahoo account or email account.
  • There are a number of sites that you can visit that will allow you to compare search results for BING to GOOGLE. And there is another site that lets you compare search results from GOOGLE, BING, and YAHOO. This site’s search results are returned in a “blind” state and the fun feature about this site is that you can vote for which search results best suits your search query. You might be surprised which search engine’s results you really like.

My final thought today has to do with the choice of the name “BING”. I will say that writing this blog always gives me an opportunity to learn new things and today is no exception. Why “BING”? I understand that originally Microsoft was going to call their new search (decision) engine KUMO. They actually registered both trademarks with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. KUMO is a Japanese word that means spider or cloud. Hmmmm, well I guess we can all get the “spider” connection to the world wide web and in the IT world “cloud” is a metaphor for the internet, so I guess it could have cleverly worked. So I come back to question: why “BING”? I am going to assume, although I know that can be a mistake, that someone at Microsoft looked up the meaning(s) of the word “BING”.

BING Toy Company founded in 1863, famous for the manufacturing of toy trains
Bing is apparently a fairly common surname, and let’s not forget Chandler Bing of Friends
BING Candy Bar, made in Iowa
BING cherries, all with pits
Bing is another name for a slag heap which is a collection of the tailings or by-products of mining (DATA Mining comes to mind?)
Bing is the name of a soft drink produced in England
Bing is the name of Chinese flat bread
Bing is also a phrase used by prison inmates to describe solitary confinement

Ok, maybe they didn’t do a lot of name research, maybe they just liked the sound of “BING”. Maybe they like saying “Bing and Decide“. Whatever….I invite you to go to their Discover Bing informational site and learn all about it.

Webconsuls will continue to study BING and keep you informed. Let me know what you think.