While most places you submit website addresses to try and save you from yourself by ensuring that the URL for a business you submit is actually valid and reachable, Bing Places for Business seems to either not have checks in place or they are having code errors on their back end.
The invalid URLs, which is obvious from the display URL, are linked to httphttp://www.thewoodmark.com/
It also shows incorrectly when it appears as the expanded local listing in the top of the search results.
The URL in the regular organic search results is correct.
It happened to be a result I had taken a screenshot of on May 9th, and the URL appeared correctly, so the change was made by either the business or Bing within the last few weeks.
Here is how the listing was displayed then.
This is actually a common mistake – whether you submit a URL with or without the http:// on the front, although now most forms specify whether you need to include it or not.
It is curious that there seems to be no backend check on Bing’s end that either checks for invalid URLs when it is submitted, or that checks for broken links and flags them.
While it is not exactly sure who made the mistake, it is definitely unusual since it had the correct URL originally. So it is probably worth the few extra seconds to ensure your Bing Places for Business are using the correct URLs, and make any fixes needed.
Jennifer Slegg
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