The playbook · en español
The short answer: all three listings are free, and the whole job fits in about a day. Google: set up your Business Profile at google.com/business. Bing: go to bing.com/forbusiness and click "Import from Google Business Profile". For us, one click copied everything over and kept it synced weekly. Yelp: claim your page at biz.yelp.com. We did exactly this for our own business on July 26–27, 2026, skipped every paid offer on the way, and paid $0. This article is the exact play, in order, including the traps. When you're done, check what Google and AI tools can read on your website. Free, 60 seconds.
Here's the problem: a customer searches Google, Bing, or Yelp for what you do, and you're not there. Not because you're bad. Because you never listed. These three listings are free, and each one is a verified description of your business on a platform customers already use.
| Listing | Where it shows up, and the AI link | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Google Business Profile | Google Search and Google Maps. My take: it's also part of what Google's AI features know about you. | Free |
| Bing Places | Bing search and Bing Maps. My take: it likely reaches Microsoft Copilot too. And Bing matters for ChatGPT: Seer Interactive found more than 87% of ChatGPT search citations matched Bing's top 20 organic results (Feb 2025, a directional study of web results, not listings). | Free |
| Yelp | Yelp search and the Yelp app. Amazon says Alexa+ will search Yelp's database for business reviews and local home services (announced as coming in 2026). | Free |
One afternoon of setup, three free listings where customers already look. That's the trade. Now the play, platform by platform, in the order we did it.
Start here, because Bing will copy from it (step 2). Get Google right and you get Bing nearly free.
Go to google.com/business signed into the Google account you want running your business, and create (or claim) your profile. Three decisions matter more than all the rest:
Early in setup, Google asks what kind of business you are, and this is where we nearly went wrong. "Online retail" is for selling products online. If you go to your customers (like a plumber), you want the service-business path: define a service area instead of a storefront, and if you work from home, hide your address. We run The AO Audit from home; our profile shows our service area, and our home address appears nowhere. One catch: Google's rules say a business "must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours," and online-only businesses aren't eligible. Pick the wrong type here and your profile is the wrong shape for everything that follows.
My take: a lot of owners fill in name, phone, and hours, then stop. Google says complete and detailed business info helps it match you to the right searches. So fill in the services list (add every real service, one by one, in the words customers use) and the business description (say plainly what you do, for whom, and where; if your business name uses initials, spell out what they stand for).
After setup, Google picks your verification method (it can be a video), and you don't get to choose it. Google says verification reviews take up to 5 business days, and in some cases it verifies a profile instantly. Ours verified instantly, no video and no postcard, and the trust signals we believe earned that are their own story: how to get verified on Google Business Profile, and why ours verified instantly. Read it before you apply. My take: what's already in place before you ask seems to matter most.
Once verified, your profile gives you a short review link to share with customers. Asking for Google reviews is allowed and worth doing with every customer, not just the happy ones (Google's rules ban asking only for positive reviews). Here's how to ask the right way. Hold that thought, though, because the same habit is prohibited on Yelp (step 3).
First, the address, because the internet is full of the dead one: Bing Places for Business lives at bing.com/forbusiness. The old bingplaces.com is dead. If a guide sends you to bingplaces.com, the rest of that guide is old too.
Now the part that makes this the easiest listing you'll ever create. On the Bing Places setup, there is a button: "Import from Google Business Profile." We clicked it. One click imported our entire Google listing (name, service area, services, description, the lot), verified it on the spot, and turned on a weekly auto-sync from Google. Total time: one click. One listing, and it covers Bing search and Bing Maps both.
Why the import is the whole strategy: it makes your Google Business Profile the single source of truth. From then on, "how do I update my Bing business listing?" answers itself: you update Google, and the weekly sync carries it to Bing. You never maintain two listings, and they're much less likely to drift apart. My take: listings that disagree with each other make you look less trustworthy, to people and to machines. You can edit the Bing listing directly at bing.com/forbusiness, but if sync is on, do your editing in Google and let Bing follow.
And the payoff for one minute of work: you show up on Bing search and Bing Maps. Bing matters for AI too. Seer Interactive found more than 87% of ChatGPT search citations matched Bing's top 20 organic results (February 2025; they call it directional, and it's about web results, not listings). My take: it's the easiest listing to forget, and it shouldn't be.
Go to biz.yelp.com and search for your business. Yelp may already have a page for you that you've never controlled. Claim it (or add your business if it's not there). Three things from our own setup:
1. The 6-service-area cap. When we set ours up, Yelp let us list at most 6 service areas. That cap forced us to actually prioritize: we picked the 6 places our customers really are, instead of the everywhere-blur we'd have typed into an unlimited field. Treat the cap as a feature: choose the 6 that matter.
2. Hide your address. If you work from home, Yelp has a toggle to hide your street address while keeping your service areas public. Use it, same as on Google.
3. Never ask for reviews on Yelp. This is the one that catches honest owners. Yelp's own guidelines say "Businesses should never ask customers to write reviews." That means even politely, even from genuinely happy customers. The review-ask habit that's correct on Google is a violation on Yelp. Ask on Google; on Yelp, just be excellent and let reviews happen.
Why bother at all? Customers search Yelp directly, and Amazon says Alexa+ will search Yelp's database for business reviews and local home services (announced as coming in 2026).
My take on "free" listings: the listing is genuinely free, but the setup flow on every one of these platforms is also a sales funnel, and it's tuned to catch you at the exact moment you're in let's-finish-this mode. Everything below appeared during our own three setups. None of it is a scam (ads are a real product), but none of it is a setup step either, and each one is dressed as one:
| The prompt | What it actually is | What we did |
|---|---|---|
| "$500 in free ad credit!" | An ad credit that requires matching spend and a credit card on file. It's an ads subscription with a coupon on top | Skipped |
| "Offer expires in 2 hours!" | A countdown timer to rush you. My take: a real setup step never needs a clock | Skipped |
| "Add these categories too?" | Category-dilution prompts nudging you to claim things you don't really do, which blurs what your business actually is | Skipped; kept categories to what we actually do |
| Upgrade screens mid-setup | Paid products placed between you and the finish line, styled like required steps | Skipped. We always found a "skip," "not now," or quiet link past them |
The rule that got us through all three platforms unscathed: during setup, skip every paid prompt. The listings themselves are free, and getting verified is free. If ads ever make sense for you, decide that later, on purpose, with real numbers, never mid-setup with a clock running.
Listed everywhere? Check what machines can read on your website, free →
Honest limits: these three listings make your business readable and verifiable to the engines. They don't make AI recommend you, and nobody can guarantee an AI mention; anyone promising one is selling weather. My take: a listed, consistent, verified business gives people and machines more to check than one that isn't listed anywhere. Our one-day timeline is one true story from one business. Yours may hit a video verification or a slow claim and take longer. Results vary.
Go to google.com/business signed into your business's Google account, enter name, category, and location or service area, then fill in your services and description. Verification comes last. Here's our full guide, including how ours verified instantly.
First check you qualify: Google's rules say a business must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours, so online-only businesses aren't eligible. If you go to your customers at their location, set up as a service-area business: hide your address, define your service area, and your home address never shows publicly. The 'Online retail' type is for businesses selling products online. Picking it when you actually sell services routes you into the wrong profile shape. We work from home and set up as a service-area business with a hidden address.
Go to bing.com/forbusiness. That is where Bing Places for Business lives now (the old bingplaces.com address is dead). If you already have a Google Business Profile, use 'Import from Google Business Profile'. When we did it in July 2026, one click copied our whole listing over, verified it, and turned on a weekly auto-sync from Google. That one listing covers Bing search and Bing Maps, and it is free.
If you set up with the import from Google Business Profile, you barely have to: edit your Google profile and the weekly auto-sync carries the changes to Bing. That is the point of the import: one source of truth. You can also sign in at bing.com/forbusiness and edit the Bing listing directly, but if sync is on, make Google the place you edit so the two never disagree.
Go to biz.yelp.com and claim (or add) your business. If you work from home, use the option to hide your address. When we set ours up, Yelp allowed at most 6 service areas, so pick the 6 places where your customers actually are. One warning that trips up honest owners: never ask customers for reviews on Yelp. Yelp's own guidelines say businesses should never ask customers to write reviews. Asking for Google reviews is fine; asking for Yelp reviews is not.
Once verified, share your profile's review link with every customer, not just the happy ones. Google's rules ban asking only for positive reviews. Here's how to ask for reviews the right way. Don't do the same on Yelp.
Yes. The listings themselves are free on all three platforms. What is not free are the offers each platform shows you during setup: ad credits that require matching spend and a credit card, and upgrade prompts dressed as setup steps. Skip every paid prompt during setup; you can always evaluate ads later, separately, with a clear head. Nothing about being listed and verified requires payment.