Most funeral home owners have never thought about Bing. Google dominates search, so Bing gets ignored. But Bing still processes roughly 900 million searches per day in the United States, and its users skew older — exactly the demographic most likely to be researching funeral pre-planning. Setting up and optimizing your Bing Places listing takes under 30 minutes and captures traffic your competitors are almost certainly ignoring.
Why Bing Matters for Funeral Homes Specifically
Bing's user base is disproportionately composed of people over 55, Windows desktop users, and Microsoft 365 subscribers. These are the same demographics that represent the core pre-need planning audience. A 62-year-old planning their own arrangements is statistically more likely to be using Bing than a 35-year-old. The competition for funeral home keywords on Bing is also dramatically lower than on Google — in many markets, a basic Bing Places listing will rank in the top 3 with zero additional optimization effort.
Of US searches happen on Bing — representing roughly 900M searches per day
With a user base that skews older than Google's, matching the pre-need demographic
The 30-Minute Bing Places Setup
Step 1: Go to bingplaces.com and sign in with a Microsoft account. Step 2: Search for your business — it may already exist as an auto-generated listing. If so, claim it. If not, create a new listing. Step 3: Fill in every field: business name, address, phone, website URL (point this to your satellite property, not your vendor site), hours, categories, and description. Step 4: Upload photos — at minimum, your exterior, interior, and staff photos. Step 5: Verify your listing via phone or postcard. Step 6: Import your Google Business Profile data to save time — Bing Places has a direct import feature.
Ongoing Optimization
After setup, treat your Bing Places listing the same way you treat your Google Business Profile. Update your hours for holidays. Add new photos periodically. Respond to any reviews. Post updates when relevant. Bing's local algorithm rewards the same signals as Google's — completeness, consistency, and activity. A well-maintained Bing Places listing will also appear in Microsoft Edge, Cortana, and the Bing Maps results that are embedded in many Windows applications.
Key Takeaway