The Six Listings Checklist

This is the printable companion to manual page 3.1. Work top to bottom — the order matters, because Bing imports from Google and everything else goes faster once the fact block exists. Budget one afternoon. Verification waits don’t count against you; start the next listing while you wait.

Before you start

• Write your exact business name, with the punctuation and suffix you’ll use everywhere
• Write your address — or your service area, if you work from home
• Pick the one phone number that goes on everything
• Write your hours, including the asterisks (“closed first Monday of the month”)
• Write one sentence: what you do, for whom, where
• Put two real photos on your phone or desktop where you can find them

1. Google Business Profile (google.com/business)

• Claim or create the profile and start verification
• Paste the fact block exactly — name, address, phone, hours, sentence
• Set your primary category to the specific one, not the broad one
• Upload photos that are evidence: storefront, van, the work
• If home-based: set a service area and hide the address — do not invent an office

2. Apple Business Connect (businessconnect.apple.com)

• Claim the listing and complete verification (usually same-day)
• Paste the fact block unchanged
• Set the category to match what you chose on Google
• Add two photos

3. Bing Places (bingplaces.com)

• Create the account and use the import-from-Google option
• Confirm the imported facts match the fact block — fix anything that didn’t carry over
• Verify the listing

4. Yelp (biz.yelp.com)

• Claim the page (verification is usually a phone call)
• Fix the facts to match the fact block — especially the phone number
• Set the category
• Decline the ad sales pitch politely; it will come

5. Facebook (facebook.com/pages)

• Claim or create the page
• Fill in hours, phone, address, and the one-sentence description
• Add one real photo as the cover
• Confirm the page is published and visible when logged out

6. Your vertical directory

• Identify the one directory your industry actually uses (the table on page 3.1 has the usual suspects — or ask one good customer where they’d look)
• Claim the listing
• Paste the fact block unchanged
• Add a photo if the directory allows it

When you’re done

• Read all six listings back-to-back and confirm every fact matches, character for character
• Note any verification still pending and set a reminder to check it this week
• Put the quarterly surface check on your calendar — listings drift, and the next pass takes 40 minutes instead of an afternoon