How to Build Bing Maps in WordPress?

Looking for an alternative to Google Maps for your business? With around 27,000 live websites, Bing Maps is a good choice. Owned and managed by Microsoft, Bing Maps is a great way to show directions, locations, traffic flow, and navigations.

Here is an introduction to Bing Maps – and why you should consider embedding Bing Maps to your WordPress site.

What is Bing Maps – and why should you consider it?

Around the globe, Google Maps is the dominant player when it comes to online navigation. Bing Maps is Microsoft’s alternative to Google Maps. Like Google Maps, Bing Maps offers a range of functionalities including the following:

• Adding multiple locations
• Providing directions by driving, walking, and in transit
• Viewing live and real-time traffic conditions
• Planning trips
• Viewing street-side imagery

Here are some reasons why you should consider Bing Maps over Google Maps for your business:

• Bing Maps offers higher image resolution and better image quality as compared to Google Maps.
• Bing APIs are user-friendly and easier to customize for specific requirements, as compared to Google Maps.

Next, let us discuss how to go about embedding Bing Maps into a website without using any plugin.

How to add Bing Maps to WordPress site (without plugin)?

First, let us see how to add Bing Maps to your WordPress site without investing in any plugin.

Here are the steps you need to perform:

1. Sign in to the Bing Maps site and search for the location that you want to embed into your WordPress site.
   
2. After finding the exact location, click the “More” option, then click “Embed a map.”
   
3. Next, you can customize how the map should appear on your webpage by using “Customize Options.” This includes the following:
   • Map Size (small, large, or customized)
   • Map types that include Static map (suitable for slower Internet connections) and Draggable map (with pan and zoom features)
   • Map style (with road view or aerial view)
   • Map links

   

4. After setting the map configuration, click “Generate Code” to generate the code snippet.
   
5. Copy the entire code snippet.
   
6. From your WordPress hosting account, create (or open) the webpage where you want to add the map.
7. From the “Page Edit” page, click the “Add New Block” icon, followed by the Custom HTML option.
8. Here, you can paste the copied snippet for the Bing Map embedded code.

Once you publish (or refresh) this webpage, you can view the Bing Map at the right location on the page. Besides being fast, this method is recommended if you only want to embed a single Bing Map on your WordPress site.

If you want to manage your WordPress site with Bing cards, then it is highly recommended that you use a Bing Maps WordPress plugin. Let’s see how in the following section.

Adding Bing Cards using the WordPress plugin

To run a WordPress website where you need to regularly add map locations, then it is easier to do so by installing the WP Leaflet WordPress plugin for Bing Maps. This free open-source map plugin allows you to easily add and customize Bing Maps on your WordPress site.

First, you need to install the WP Leaflet plugin on your WordPress website. Here are the required steps:

1. Download the WP Leaflet plugin (leaflet-map.zip file) to your local computer.
2. Log into your WordPress admin dashboard account. For example, https://mywebsite.com/wp-admin
3. From the Plugins panel (on the left-side menu), click “Add New,” then click “Upload plugin.”
4. Browse to the folder containing the leaflet-map.zip file, then click “Install Now.” This action will start installing the WP Leaflet plugin on your site.
5. On successful installation, activate the plugin to start using it.

Once you have installed and activated this plugin, you can see the “WP Leaflet Map” folder on the left-side menu of your WordPress dashboard.

Next, you can use this installed plugin to add a Bing map (with location marker) to your WordPress site.

1. For the installed WordPress Leaflet plugin, open the “WP Leaflet Map” page in your WordPress admin dashboard, then click “Add map.”
2. From the “Map information” panel, you need to perform the following actions:
   • Select “Bing” as the mapdata provider.
   • Enter the map title URL, which will display the map skin title. You can leave it blank to use the default title.
   • Enter the map title that will appear in your webpage or blog.
   • Set the map width and height.
   • Select the various map zoom levels. Default zoom value is 5.
3. Save the changes.

The final step is to add map locations using the “Add locations” link. Once you have added all the locations, you can select those that you want to add to your new map. After making the changes, you can save the map.

Conclusion

Supported by Microsoft, Bing Maps is a good alternative to Google Maps – and offers most of the navigational features that are available in Google Maps. We hope this article has been useful for using Bing Maps in WordPress.

As a WordPress development company, Flipper Code specializes in providing plugin functionality for any business domain. Here is a list of our most popular plugins for WordPress and WooCommerce websites. Besides plugin development, we offer a range of services including website development, WooCommerce development, and bug fixes.

Learn how we can help you build your WordPress site? Drop us a message today.