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Beyond Google: Apple Maps, Bing, Yelp and Nextdoor
Google handles most local searches, but not all of them, and the free listings on Apple, Bing, Yelp and Nextdoor reach customers who never open Google Maps, at a cost of a few hours of setup and a few minutes a month to keep them accurate.
At a glance
- The listings beyond Google are the free business pages on Apple Business (formerly Apple Business Connect), Bing Places, Yelp and Nextdoor, each of which shows a business to a different slice of searchers.
- Google held 85.19% of U.S. search across all platforms in September 2026, which leaves about 15% of searches on other engines, and on desktop Bing alone held 18.8%, according to StatCounter.
- Apple described its place cards at launch as reaching "more than a billion Apple users" across Maps, Messages, Wallet and Siri, and Yelp reported more than 300 million ratings and reviews on its platform in its 2025 annual report.
- For an illustrative business that wins 60 new customers a year from search, the share of searches outside Google represents about nine customers, or about $3,550 in first-year revenue, for an afternoon of setup.
- The work is the same on every platform: claim the listing, match the name, address, phone and hours exactly to Google, and check each one on a monthly schedule.
Part 1 | The 15% that Google doesn't see
Most owners set up a Google profile and stop there, and the thought behind that is reasonable: Everyone uses Google anyway. For most searches that is close to true, but a business that only exists on Google is invisible to the iPhone owner who asks Siri for a plumber, the office worker searching from a company laptop where Bing may be the default, and the neighbor who asks for a recommendation on Nextdoor before searching at all.
The desktop figure matters most for businesses that sell to other businesses or to people searching from work, such as bookkeepers, commercial cleaners and law offices, since nationally about one desktop search in five runs on Bing. Search share is only part of the picture, because Apple Maps place cards appear inside Apple's own apps rather than in a search engine, and Yelp and Nextdoor are places people go to read about local businesses directly.
Part 2 | What each platform offers, and what it costs
All four listings are free to claim, and each offers something slightly different. Apple introduced Business Connect in 2023 as "a new, free tool" that lets businesses claim their place cards, update photos and logos, add action buttons such as booking, and post Showcases with offers; Apple has since folded Business Connect into a broader product called Apple Business, and its page invites owners to "claim your location on Maps so millions of customers can connect with your business."
Microsoft relaunched Bing Places for Business in October 2025 and describes it as "a free online platform where businesses can create and manage their listings to appear in Bing search results and Bing Maps." Its announcement says the new import from Google is "faster, more reliable, and better at preserving key attributes like business name, hours, and contact details," which turns setup into a matter of minutes for an owner whose Google profile is already accurate.
| Platform | Cost to claim | Where the listing appears | Setup shortcut |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Business (formerly Business Connect) | Free | Apple Maps place cards, Siri, Messages, Wallet | None; Apple verifies the business |
| Bing Places for Business | Free | Bing search results and Bing Maps | Import from Google |
| Yelp | Free business account | Yelp search and business pages | Claim the existing page |
| Nextdoor | Free Business Page and posts | Neighborhood search and newsfeed | Claim or create a page |
Yelp's annual report says businesses can "create a free business account and claim a Yelp business page for each of their business locations," and that its recommendation software "applies the same objective standards to each review, regardless of whether the business being reviewed advertises on Yelp." Nextdoor offers a free Business Page and free Business Posts, which appear in the neighborhood newsfeed; Pew Research Center found in 2021 that 13% of U.S. adults used Nextdoor, a smaller audience than the large social networks but one organized entirely around neighborhoods.
Part 3 | One set of facts, copied exactly
The listings help only if they agree with each other, because a customer who sees different hours on Apple Maps and Google has no way to know which is right and may pick the next business instead. The habit that prevents this is a single source of truth: one short document with the exact business name, address, phone number, hours, website and categories, copied word for word into every listing and updated in all of them on the same day.
| New customers a year who find the business through search (Assumption) | 60 |
|---|---|
| Share of U.S. searches outside Google (Calculated (100% − 85.19%, StatCounter, September 2026)) | 14.81% |
| New customers reached through searches outside Google (Calculated (60 × 14.81%)) | 8.9 |
| Average first-year value of a new customer (Assumption) | $400 |
| First-year revenue from those customers (Calculated (60 × 14.81% × $400)) | $3,554 |
| Setup time for four listings (Assumption) | About 4 hours |
Illustrative example; it assumes customers on other search engines would find you through those listings and not through Google. Replace every assumption with your own numbers.
The example ignores Apple Maps, Yelp and Nextdoor traffic that does not pass through a search engine at all, so for many businesses it understates what the listings reach. It also counts only the first year, and a customer who returns for years is worth several times that figure.
How you compare
- Search share: if your customers often search from work, assume about one in five desktop searches runs through Bing, and check that your Bing listing exists.
- Consistency: in osNOVA's 2026 pilot Front Door Audit of 18 Philadelphia hair salons, only 3 listed website hours that matched their Google profile; every additional listing is another place for that mismatch to appear unless one person owns the master copy.
- Your own baseline: search your business name on Apple Maps, Bing, Yelp and Nextdoor today and note which listings exist, who claimed them and whether the hours match.
Questions to ask this week
Which of the four listings already exist, and who controls them? A page may already exist that nobody at the business has claimed.
Do the name, phone and hours match Google exactly? Small differences, such as "St." against "Street," are harmless, while different hours are not.
Where do our own customers search from? A business serving offices weighs Bing more heavily, while one serving young families on phones weighs Apple Maps more.
Who updates every listing when the hours change? Name one person and one day of the month.
Start with Bing's import from Google and Apple's free place card claim this week, since both are free and quick once your Google profile is accurate, and add Yelp and Nextdoor next.
About this research: This article draws on StatCounter's U.S. search engine market share data, Apple's and Microsoft's official announcements, Yelp's 2025 Form 10-K filed with the SEC, Nextdoor's business page and a Pew Research Center survey of 1,502 U.S. adults. Platform features change often, so check each platform's own help pages before setup. The worked example is illustrative, and the Front Door Audit figure comes from an 18-business pilot.
Sources
- StatCounter Global Stats. Search engine market share, United States, all platforms and desktop. September 2026.
- Apple. Introducing Apple Business Connect. Apple Newsroom, January 2023.
- Apple. Apple Business. 2026.
- Microsoft Bing. Introducing the New Bing Places for Business. Bing Blogs, October 2025.
- Yelp Inc. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 2026.
- Nextdoor. Nextdoor for small business.
- Auxier, B. and Anderson, M. Social Media Use in 2021. Pew Research Center, April 2021. 1,502 U.S. adults.
- osNOVA. Front Door Audit pilot, Philadelphia hair salons, 2026. 18 businesses scored on public information.
Related reading: How Often Business Hours Online Don't Match, and What It Costs · How to Check Your Own Front Door in 15 Minutes (Free Checklist) · Where Small Service Businesses Actually Get Their Customers · Local Search Basics: How Google Decides Which Businesses to Show · Fixing Wrong Information and Suggested Edits on Your Google Listing
Work with osNOVA on your listings beyond Google
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