Google Maps vs Bing Maps vs Apple Maps for Local Leads
· 4 min read
If you look for local businesses to contact, Google Maps is the obvious place to start. It is not the only map, and the other two, Bing Maps and Apple Maps, show you businesses Google's search did not. This is a practical comparison of what each is like, and how to use them together.
What each is good at
| Google Maps | Bing Maps | Apple Maps | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How much a search shows | The most per search: a long list that goes on as you scroll | A short list per search, roughly a few dozen businesses | A page of about 25 places, nearest first on a sorted view |
| Phone and website on the listing | Usually both | Phone and website for most listed | Phone for most, website for many |
| Ratings | Google's own, with large review counts | Come from another review site and are fewer | Come from another review site and are fewer |
| Opening hours | Weekly hours, usually | Often only a summary | Weekly hours for most |
| Best for | The first pass | Wording variants and ZIP codes | Filling the gaps in a city |
These are general descriptions. Coverage changes by country, and what each service shows changes over time.
The ratings are not comparable
This is the point people miss. On Bing and Apple Maps the ratings you see are often taken from a different review site, with fewer reviews than the same business has on Google. A plumber with 4.8 stars from several hundred Google reviews may show 4 stars from a few reviews elsewhere. That does not mean the business got worse. Compare like with like, and treat a cross-source rating gap as a difference in the source, not in the business.
One test, one city, one day
To see how much the services overlap, we searched "plumbers" in one mid-sized US city on one day:
- Google Maps returned 36 businesses.
- Apple Maps returned 44.
- Bing Maps returned 13.
- Together they made 67 distinct businesses: Apple added 29 that Google had not shown, and Bing one or two.
One city, one search, one day: your numbers will differ. The lesson is not the figures. It is that a second and third source can reveal businesses the first one missed, particularly small ones.
How to combine them
- Start with Google Maps for the trade and the city.
- Add Apple Maps and Bing Maps to find the ones Google did not show.
- Merge duplicates. The same business in two services should become one lead, keyed on the phone number and the name and place.
- Take the best detail from each. Keep the phone from the service that has it, the hours from the one that lists them.
- Record the source of every field. When a value is wrong, you know which source to doubt.
Check the rules of each service
Each map service has terms of use, and they differ. Automated reading of results can be limited or forbidden, and some officially supported routes exist: Google offers the Places API, Microsoft the Azure Maps Search service, and Apple a Maps Server API, each with its own limits, pricing and rules about how long you may keep what you collect. Read the terms of any service you use, decide for yourself how to use it, and do not copy listings wholesale to resell.
Open data is a fourth source
Open map data, such as Overture Maps and OpenStreetMap, finds small businesses that have no map listing of their own, usually without ratings and with patchy phone numbers. It is a useful complement, and free to use under its licence.
Where AyePin fits
AyePin searches Google Maps, Bing Maps and Apple Maps, and can add Overture Maps and OpenStreetMap, per campaign. A business found by two sources becomes one lead with the best details of both, each field records where it came from, and Bing and Apple ratings are shown but not counted in the score because they are not comparable. It never invents a business: if a search fails, it says so.
Next: how to qualify a local business lead before you contact it.