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Adding A Business to MSN/Live Local Search

By Matt McGee on Apr 3, 2008 in Bing Search, Local Search

MSN’s Local Search property, Live Search Maps, used to rely on Localeze for all its business listings. If you wanted to add or edit a listing in MSN Local, that’s where you went to take care of it.

Cari McGee on MSN LocalThat’s since been replaced by MSN’s own Local Business Listings Center, which operates quite similarly to Google’s version of the same tool. I went through the process a couple weeks ago for my wife, a local real estate agent here in the Tri-Cities, and here she is, already being found in the Top 10 on a local search for [real estate richland, wa]. Not too shabby.

It was a simple process: Submit the business data, upload a couple photos, and wait for the confirmation code via snail mail. A couple weeks later, the code arrived, I confirmed the listing, and BAM! … we have a nice, clean Cari McGee, Realtor listing on MSN Local Search:

Cari McGee, REALTOR, on MSN Local Search
(you can click for a larger version on Flickr)

Those of us in the local search industry tend to talk a lot about Google Maps and Yahoo Local, and spend almost no time on MSN Local/Live Local Search. That’s understandable, I suppose, given the current search landscape that has MSN with about a 10% search share. But did you know that the query [MSN local] is the No. 4 source of referral traffic to Small Business SEM? True story. And there are three other MSN Local keywords in the top 25. A lot of small businesses are looking for information about how the MSN local business listings work.

So, with that in mind, and prompted by both this recent experience getting Cari added into MSN/Live Local Search as well as an email from reader Todd K. that SBS was outdated a bit, I’ve finally gotten around to updating the Guide to MSN Local Search here on SBS.

Thanks, Todd, for giving me the heads up on that.

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  1. 23 Comment(s)

  2. By Vinith on Sep 30, 2008 | Reply

    Would appreciate if you could list out hotel on your site as the current listings that come up are not rellevent.

    Thanks,
    Vinith.

  3. By Matt McGee on Sep 30, 2008 | Reply

    Hi Vinith – You’ll need to go to MSN Live Search to do that. I’m just a blogger writing about local search and have no control over MSN’s listings.

  4. By Irfan on Nov 18, 2008 | Reply

    What is the method to list my business on MSN Local Business Listing in India please send the Link on my Email address it is (irfan200517@hotmail.com)

  5. By Matt McGee on Nov 18, 2008 | Reply

    Sorry Irfan, but I don’t know the process for MSN India….wish I could help.

  6. By Nick van man on Nov 20, 2008 | Reply

    Can anyone tell me how to get my business added to live search Maps? The ‘Add a listing’ page is only relevant for those in the US. As I am from the UK, I am unable to add myself, yet my rivals are listedi have an account with msn but there is no option for this very frustrating

  7. By Ben on Nov 24, 2008 | Reply

    One of my businesses is already listed in Google and Yahoo maps, added to Mapquest, just need to get into MSN maps. Thanks for the tips.

  8. By Anshu on Dec 3, 2008 | Reply

    Currently, Business listing on MSN is available for US only.

  9. By Rahul on Dec 19, 2008 | Reply

    Thanks for sharing valuable information, We have nationwide franchises, I get the option on google Local to upload an CVS file to include all the franchises at once, But for MSN and Yahoo, I did not find any option. Please let me know if there is any option for that also. thanks in advance!

  10. By Glenn Paul on Jan 5, 2009 | Reply

    Apart from MSN local listings, there are other popular ones like superpages, touch local, google local, yahoo local and many more out there

  11. By Glenn Paul on Jan 5, 2009 | Reply

    Glad to help you Mr. Nick van man. MSN shares local UK business data from Thompson local. You have to add your business to Thompson local to get listed in MSN. The link to add business to Thompson local is:
    http://www.thomsonlocal.com/free-listing.aspx

    There are 25 more local business listing websites available for UK.

  12. By Anthony on Mar 1, 2009 | Reply

    this is a great help thank you

  13. By Daniel Dutton on Mar 13, 2009 | Reply

    Just a quick note of thanks. Always wondered where MSN got it’s listings from!

    Cheers,

    Daniel

  14. By HLM on Apr 12, 2009 | Reply

    With Regards to Listing a UK Business in Live MSN Maps, I already have a listing on Thomson Local for years but i am not listed on Live maps, tho my competitors are listed, any other help on how to add a uk business to MSN Live Maps???

    Your Previous Comments
    “MSN shares local UK business data from Thompson local. You have to add your business to Thompson local to get listed in MSN. The link to add business to Thompson local is”:
    http://www.thomsonlocal.com/free-listing.aspx

    I tried this link and i am already listed but not on Live Maps,
    The online form for Live Maps is still for USA only..
    Help Help

  15. By Adam on Apr 22, 2009 | Reply

    Why do they make it so dufficult. thanks for the help

  16. By william on May 9, 2009 | Reply

    i agree with HLM. I’m also listed on thompson local and have been for the last 2yrs. My listing is still not showing on msn local maps.

    Also Glenn, you said there are 25 more local listing sites for the uk. Could you kindly tell us which ones these are?

    thanks

  17. By Jason Brooks on May 12, 2009 | Reply

    I would love an answer to the UK question. It is very difficult to list if it is even at all possible!

  18. By leon on Jun 5, 2009 | Reply

    can we do this for other countries as well ?

  19. By Matt McGee on Jun 8, 2009 | Reply

    Jason, Leon — I don’t know what the process is for listing a business on MSN/Live/Bing Uk. Sorry about that.

  20. By Jag on Jun 15, 2009 | Reply

    But I see some local listings for UK and India How come?

    Thanks in advance for your help

  21. By Ken on Jul 28, 2009 | Reply

    Hello from Canada. I’m trying to find the MSN page to list my business?? Do you have a link?

    Thanks

  22. By Matt McGee on Jul 28, 2009 | Reply

    Ken – the new URL for Bing Local is below, but I don’t know if it works for Canada. Sorry.

    https://ssl.bing.com/listings/ListingCenter.aspx

  23. By Daniel on Sep 8, 2009 | Reply

    As many people have commented, getting listed in Bing/Live Local/MSN for businesses outside of the US can be problematic.

    I just wrote a blog post that will be useful for those that are asking how to get listed in the UK:

    http://uk-local-search-marketing.blogspot.com/2009/09/get-listed-in-microsoft-uks-bingmsnlive.html

    For those elsewhere, I’d recommend scouring the geo-targeted multimap.com for their particular country.

    Hope this helps :)

    Daniel

  24. By Martha on Oct 1, 2009 | Reply

    Nope, it doesn’t work for Canada :(

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