Apple Maps (Apple Business) and Bing Places

Module 6: Getting found locally · Reading time: 9 minutes

Learning objective: After this lesson you can put your business on Apple Maps through Apple Business (formerly Apple Business Connect), explain the difference between verifying your organisation and verifying a location, and put your business on Bing Places, including through an import from Google.

Key concepts: Apple Maps, Apple Business, Apple Business Connect, place card, verifying your organisation, claiming a location, phone verification, Showcases, Actions, brand, Bing Places for Business, importing from Google Business Profile, syncing, duplicate listings

Not everyone searches with Google

Anyone who taps an address on an iPhone or asks Siri "where is a florist nearby" ends up in Apple Maps. Anyone using Windows or the Bing search engine sees local results from Bing Places. Your Google Business Profile (lessons 6.1 and 6.2) isn't visible there: each map service has its own data. If your business is on Apple Maps with an old address, or not at all, you won't notice, but your customers will.

The good news: if your Google profile is in good shape, most of the work is already done. You use the same name, the same address, the same opening hours and the same photos. This lesson shows you where to enter them.

Apple: from Business Connect to Apple Business

Since January 2023, Apple offered the free Apple Business Connect for managing your business details in Apple Maps. On 14 April 2026 it became part of Apple Business, a free service that combines Business Connect, Business Essentials and Business Manager. According to Apple, anyone who already had a Business Connect account was moved over automatically, with their claimed locations, place cards and photos. So you'll still often read "Business Connect" in older articles; the screens for place cards and locations now have different names, but the work is the same.

What you manage is your place card: the card that appears when someone taps your business. According to Apple, a place card is linked to a physical location and appears not only in Maps but also in other Apple apps such as Siri, Calendar, Messages and Spotlight. Among other things, you can set:

name, category, address, phone number, website and opening hours;
a logo, a cover photo and other photos;
Actions: buttons for booking, making an appointment or ordering;
Showcases: a block on your place card for something new, an offer or an event, with a button;
the exact position of your entrance;
insights: how often people viewed your place card and what they did.

Putting your business on Apple Maps

You need an Apple Account. Go to business.apple.com, sign in, and follow roughly these steps (the names on screen may change):

Register your organisation and have it verified. Apple checks that your business really exists. You enter your organisation's details and Apple reviews them; make sure email from Apple doesn't end up in your spam folder.
Add a location. Search for your business. If it's already on the map, you claim that place; otherwise you create a new location. Enter the name, address, phone number (with country code) and category.
Verify the location. If your business is already on Apple Maps, this can sometimes be done with a phone call: Apple calls the number it already has for that location, and you type in the four-digit code. If you don't recognise that number, contact Apple Support. If someone else already manages the location, you can request a transfer after adding it.
Fill in the rest. Photos, opening hours, Actions and a first Showcase.

Just as with Google: only real locations where your business is based or works from, and the name as it is used in the real world. Apple also publishes its own guidelines for photos and text; read them if a photo is rejected.

Bing Places for Business

Bing Places for Business is Microsoft's counterpart. Your listing appears in Bing Maps and in Bing's local results. You manage it through bingplaces.com (you are redirected to Bing's environment for businesses).

The quickest route: import from your Google Business Profile. Bing Places offers an import; you sign in with the Google account that manages your profile, give permission, and Bing copies your details and then keeps them in sync with Google. Watch out for a few things (according to moderator answers on Microsoft's help forum, November 2026):

Duplicate listings. If your business was already on Bing, the import can create a second listing. After the import, check that only one remains.
Not everything comes across. Categories don't always match one to one; check them.
Reviews don't come across. Bing doesn't copy your Google reviews; Bing shows reviews from its own selection of other platforms.
Change things at the source. If your listing is linked to Google, you change your details in Google and then sync them again.

If you'd rather not import, you add your business by hand and verify it with the method Bing offers. A new or changed listing isn't visible straight away; give it a few days before you check again.

One source of truth

With three map services, your website and perhaps a few directories (lesson 6.4), there's a real risk that something stays out of date somewhere. Agree with yourself on one source of truth: a short document with your official name, address, phone number, website, opening hours, category and a short description. Every change starts there, and then you work through the list: website, Google, Apple, Bing, directories.

Detail	Source of truth (Bloemenatelier Lotte)
Name	Bloemenatelier Lotte
Address	Voorbeeldstraat 12, 3811 AA Amersfoort
Phone	033 000 0000
Website	https://www.example.com
Opening hours	Tue to Sat 9:00 to 17:30
Category	Florist

In practice

Always start with your website: that's where you have full control. In WebOké's AI Builder you enter your business details once and they appear on your contact page and in your structured data; in WordPress you add them in your theme or an SEO plugin. Other website builders work in a similar way. Then Google, then Apple and Bing. Store the login details for all three in your password manager, with at least two administrators per service.

Summary

Apple Maps and Bing have their own business data; your Google profile isn't visible there.
Since 14 April 2026, Apple Business Connect has been part of the free Apple Business; existing locations were moved over.
With Apple, you first verify your organisation and then your location, sometimes with a phone call to the number Apple already has.
Bing Places can import your details from Google; afterwards, check for duplicate listings and categories.
Keep one source of truth and update every change everywhere at the same time.

Quiz

Exercise

Exercise D6.3: Your business in Apple Maps and Bing. Look up your business in Apple Maps (on an iPhone, iPad or Mac, or through the web version of Apple Maps) and in Bing Maps. For each service, note: is it listed, are the name, address, phone number and opening hours correct, and who manages the listing. Create your source of truth and put your business on at least one of the two services, or correct whatever is wrong.

Exercise D6.3: Your business in Apple Maps and Bing

No website or business of your own? Work it out on paper or skip this exercise; only the exam counts towards the certificate.

Looked up the business in Apple Maps
Looked up the business in Bing Maps
Created a source of truth (name, address, phone, website, opening hours, category)
Added, claimed or reported an error for the business in at least one service

Per service: was it listed, and what was incorrect?

Your source of truth

For Bing: did you import from Google, and did that create a duplicate listing?

Your ticks and notes only stay in this browser; we don't send them anywhere. If you're signed in, we only save in My courses that you've done the exercise.

Cookies at WebOké

Cookie settings

Necessary

Marketing