Why Law Firms Need Apple Business Connect and Bing Places

Over the last few years, Google has been putting a lot of effort into Google Business Profile which allows customers all over the World to learn more about your business, read and leave reviews, and understand general contact information about your business. For law firms, Google Business Profile is a huge benefit because, if optimized correctly, potential clients looking for a law firm near me will find your law firm at the top of local searches and at the top of the Map Pack. We have written a few articles explaining the benefits of GBP and how to optimize your profile, which you can read here and here. 

Apple has recently launched its own version of Google Business Profile, called Apple Business Connect. Bing launched Bing Places a few years ago, but it is now growing traction - especially with the February release of its built-in AI chatbot. It is beneficial for your law firm to set up your business profile on both Apple Connect and Bing - especially for Apple Business Connect and be one of the first law firms to do so. Even though Google Business Profile currently has the lead in the market, Bing and Apple are growing market share and it's essential that your law firm is listed and displayed in as many places as possible. For example, if someone is looking for a law firm in Apple Maps, you will want your law firm to pop up immediately on the map. 

What Is Apple Business Connect?

Apple Business Connect is a free tool that allows businesses of all sizes to claim their location place cards and customize how critical information appears to more than a billion Apple users across Apple Maps, Messages, Wallet, Siri, and others apps. 

According to Brightlocal.com: 

100 million adults in the United States use Apple Maps, so it's essential that your law firm needs to be present.

How To Set Up and Claim Your Apple Business Connect 

If you are familiar with how Google Business Profile works, then claiming your listing on Apple Business Connect essentially works the same way. 

Here are the steps to claim your Apple Business Connect listing;

Step 1: If you don't already have an Apple ID, then you can set up one by using this link; https://appleid.apple.com 

Step 2: Go to https://businessconnect.apple.com/ and sign in using the button in the top right-hand corner.

Step 3: Search for your business name

Step 4: If you don't have a local listing, Apple will ask you to create one.

Step 5: Enter your address and add coordinates by dragging the pin to the correct location. 

Step 6: Add all your business details

Step 7: Add your law firm hours

Step 8: Verify your business location by uploading the official document (such as the lease or the utility bill) that shows your location's name and address. 

Step 9: Once the business is verified, you can access the entire dashboard, where additional features will become unlocked. For example, you can add things like attributes and images. 

The Benefits of Apple Business Connect

Like Google Business Profile, claiming and optimizing your Apple Business Connect place card can help improve your small business's local search and visibility. Having an optimized location allows Apple users to quickly find, learn about and engage with your law firm. Additionally, your company will benefit from increased visibility on third-party platforms that source location data from Apple Maps products.

Here are some additional benefits to setting up Apple Bussiness Connect for your law firm. 

• Customer engagement: 
  Apple Business connect allows potential clients to engage with your law firm easily. They can look at services, hours, photos, reviews, etc. 

• Share information about your law firm: 
  This includes special offers or promotions or share news, updated blog articles and more.

• Understand your law firm with insights: 
  Similar to GBP, you to monitor the number of clicks on your listing, measure incoming traffic and analyze how users have found your listing.

What is Bing Places?

Bing Places, similar to Google My Business, is a free local business directory that allows business owners with or without a physical location to create free business listings on Bing's search engine.

#DYK As of March 2023, online search engine Bing accounted for 8.85% of the global search market and gets more than 3 billion visits each month - up from 1 billion in January 2023 due to the launch of Bing Chat.

However, if you currently don't have your Google Business Profile set up, you should absolutely do that first. 

How to set up and claim your Bing Places account

Step 1: Go to bingplaces.com and sign in with your Microsoft account email. If you don't have a Microsoft email, you must set that up first. 

Step 2: Search for your business. If you find your location, you can claim and edit; if you don't have one, you will have to option to create one. 

Step 3: Add all your business information and details

Step 4: Move the map pin to the correct location.

Step 5: Add all your business categories, and add your phone number, email, hours, and photos.

Step 6: Add your email and social profiles.

Step 7: Verify your business location using one of the five options you might be given.

The Benefits of Bing Places For Your Law Firm

Again similar to Google Business Profile, Bing Places allows potential clients within a 50-mile radius to connect with your law firm instantly. However, unlike GBP, Bing Places emphasizes imagery within the layout, which is far more visually appealing.

Additional benefits to Bing Places include;

• Compiling reviews from multiple sources, including Foursquare, Yelp, YellowPages, Birdeye and more.

• Bing Place's local ranking is primarily based on relevance, distance and popularity.

• Bing focuses on matching your potential client with exactly what they are looking for instead of SEO search ranking. 

• Bing uses data from reviews on other sites and other sources on SERP to rank you in their maps. 

Why Your Law Firm Needs To Be Listed On Google Business Profile, Apple Business Connect and Bing Places

The bottom line is that each platform is beneficial to getting more potential clients to see your law firm on local search results. Although Google Business Profile is currently the most significant focus, why not get ahead of the game and set up profiles on all three platforms? Not only does it help you improve your local search and ranking, leading to more leads and potential clients. It also gives your law firm a better opportunity to learn more about your clients and their origins. 

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