New Jersey study ยท November 2026
Bing already has a listing for your business. You probably didn't write it.
We checked 958 New Jersey small businesses in all 21 counties. Bing had listed 92% of them, but only 1 in 4 owners had claimed the listing. ChatGPT is one of the tools that searches Bing.
92%
already have a Bing listing
1 in 4
owners have claimed it
63%
of businesses set up on Google never claimed Bing
958
independent businesses checked
Finding 1
You are on Bing whether you set it up or not
Bing builds business listings on its own, from data suppliers and other websites. That is why nearly every business we checked was already there, including small shops with no Google reviews. The real question is whether anyone is managing what that listing says.
Share of 958 independent businesses
- Claimed by the owner 25%
- Listed, not claimed 67%
- Not found on Bing 8%
Finding 2
Doing the work on Google does not carry over to Bing
We looked closest at businesses that are set up on Google: a claimed Google Business Profile, at least one review and posted hours. Of those 570 businesses, 360 (63%) had never claimed their Bing listing.
It is not just newer businesses. Among those with 100 or more Google reviews, 66 of 164 (40%) still had not claimed Bing.
41%
are not fully set up on Google either
38%
are set up on Google but have not claimed Bing
22%
have done the basics on both
Share of all 958 businesses. Only about 1 in 5 has the basics done on both Google and Bing.
Finding 3
Salons, gyms and auto shops have the widest gap
Restaurants are the exception: most have claimed Bing, possibly because reservation, ordering and review platforms manage listings for them (our data does not show why).
Share of businesses in each type that are set up on Google
Trades are HVAC, plumbing, electrical, landscaping and roofing: 121 of 193 contractors set up on Google have not claimed Bing.
Finding 4
Every county has the gap
In 20 of 21 counties, at least half of the businesses set up on Google had not claimed Bing. Even in Mercer, the lowest, it was 14 of 30. Each county rests on 20 to 37 businesses, so treat small differences between counties as noise. The clearest contrast is between the three highest counties and the three lowest.
| County | Not claimed | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Warren highest | 19 of 23 | 83% |
| Union highest | 26 of 33 | 79% |
| Monmouth highest | 19 of 25 | 76% |
| Essex | 18 of 26 | 69% |
| Morris | 18 of 26 | 69% |
| Hudson | 21 of 31 | 68% |
| Hunterdon | 16 of 24 | 67% |
| Middlesex | 21 of 32 | 66% |
| Ocean | 18 of 28 | 64% |
| Cumberland | 16 of 25 | 64% |
| Burlington | 16 of 26 | 62% |
| Passaic | 16 of 26 | 62% |
| Cape May | 14 of 23 | 61% |
| Bergen | 18 of 30 | 60% |
| Somerset | 22 of 37 | 60% |
| Sussex | 16 of 27 | 59% |
| Camden | 15 of 26 | 58% |
| Salem | 15 of 28 | 54% |
| Atlantic lowest | 10 of 20 | 50% |
| Gloucester lowest | 12 of 24 | 50% |
| Mercer lowest | 14 of 30 | 47% |
Finding 5
Claiming is not the finish line
We compared each Bing listing with the business's Google profile: name, phone, address, website and hours. Most matched. 55 of 886 listings (6%) disagreed with Google on at least one of them, and 32 of 689 businesses that post hours on both showed different hours on Bing.
Claimed listings were more likely to disagree with Google (10%) than unclaimed ones (5%). A claimed listing that nobody updates can drift as the Google profile changes. After you claim, check it again whenever your hours, phone or address change.
Bing also shows reviews from other sites. About 1 in 4 Bing listings displayed Yelp reviews, so what customers see on Bing is not only what you post on Google.
Keeping those details consistent across Google, Bing and the review sites that feed them is ongoing work. It is the core of our local SEO services.
Why it matters now
Customers are asking AI, and ChatGPT searches Bing
Half of U.S. adults now use AI chatbots, up from a third in 2024, and 44% have used ChatGPT, according to the Pew Research Center. In a survey by BrightLocal, a local marketing software company, 45% of consumers said they had used AI to find local business recommendations in the past year.
OpenAI says ChatGPT search shares search queries with Bing, and Microsoft says registering with Bing Places helps Bing show accurate business information.
An unclaimed Bing listing does not make a business invisible to AI. AI tools draw on many sources. It means the owner is not controlling one of them, and is leaving visibility and accuracy on the table.
What to do
How to check and claim your Bing listing
- 01
Find your listing
Search your business name and town on Bing Maps. There is a good chance it is already there.
- 02
Claim it in Bing Places
Sign in at Bing Places for Business (free) and claim the listing. Bing Places can also import your Google Business Profile. Bing will ask you to verify that the business is yours.
- 03
Check every field
Compare the name, phone, address, website, hours and categories with your Google profile, and fix anything that differs.
- 04
Keep it current
When your hours, phone or address change on Google, update Bing too, including holiday hours.
Free check
See what ChatGPT actually says about your business
Bing is one of the places ChatGPT looks. Our free scanner asks ChatGPT the questions your customers ask and shows whether your business comes up, and who shows up instead.
Methodology
How we ran the study
- Sample
- 1,003 businesses drawn from Google Business Profile listings in all 21 New Jersey counties and 16 business types, three per county and type, in an order unrelated to rating or popularity. Each business was placed in its county with the U.S. Census Bureau geocoder. 45 chain and franchise listings were removed, leaving 958 independent small businesses. Permanently closed businesses were excluded.
- Set up on Google
- A claimed Google Business Profile with at least one review and posted business hours. 570 businesses (60%) met this bar.
- On Bing
- Each business was looked up in Bing's public listing data by name and address, then by phone, then by name and town. A match required the same phone number, or the same distinctive name in the same ZIP code or town.
- Claimed on Bing
- Bing's public verified badge ("claimed by the business owner or a representative"). Because Bing does not show the badge on every page load, each listing that first read as unclaimed was read up to five times, on two passes hours apart.
- Precision
- The statewide figure of 63% has a 90% confidence interval of 60% to 66%. County and business-type figures rest on smaller samples and are less precise.
- Dates and sources
- Data collected October 31 to November 1, 2026. Google data via DataForSEO; Bing data from Bing Maps' public listing results. No AI tool was queried for this study. Listings change, so results describe these dates.
- Limits
- The study measures Bing listings, not what any AI tool says about a business. Business types reflect common Main Street businesses, not every business in New Jersey.
Common questions
Does an unclaimed Bing listing make my business invisible to ChatGPT?
No. ChatGPT and other AI tools draw on many sources, and Bing is one of them. An unclaimed listing means you are not controlling what Bing says about your business, so you are leaving visibility and accuracy to chance.
Why does Bing have a listing for my business if I never made one?
Bing builds listings automatically from business data suppliers and other websites. In our study, Bing had a listing for 92% of New Jersey small businesses, most of which had never been claimed by the owner.
Does it cost anything to claim a Bing Places listing?
No. Bing Places for Business is free. Bing asks you to verify that you own or manage the business before you can edit the listing.
How was "claimed" measured?
Bing shows a public verified badge on listings claimed by the owner or a representative. We read each listing up to five times, on two separate passes hours apart, because Bing does not show the badge on every page load. A listing counted as claimed if any read showed the badge.
For reporters and editors
County-by-county numbers, business-type breakdowns, the full methodology and an interview with Mike Forgie, founder of Next Step Connect, are available on request. Call (732) 784-8847 or email info@nextstepconnect.com. You are welcome to cite these findings with a link to this page.
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