Website owners often focus on Google and miss out on the massive traffic from Bing searches. The Bing Webmaster tool gives you access to indexing data, crawling diagnostics, and search performance data. So whether you are new to SEO or looking to bring in more traffic to your site, Bing Webmaster Tools allows you to improve your site’s visibility and traffic.
Bing is the second-largest search engine and handles over 12 billion searches globally. That is a lot of traffic you can’t ignore. The platform has evolved significantly with updates that improve access to data and provide more optimization tools.
At Npointseo, we created this guide to help you learn everything about Bing Webmaster Tools. We will show you how to set up verification and advanced optimization techniques to rank your site higher.
What are Bing Webmaster Tools?
Bing Webmaster Tools is a free platform by Microsoft used to monitor and optimize your web presence in Bing Search results. Think of this as Bing’s Search version of the Google search console. Like Google Console, it gives you insight into the performance of your pages. You can submit sitemaps, inspect individual URLs, run SEO audits, analyze backlinks, and more.
So if you are serious about SEO, you will need Bing Webmaster. This is because it shows you exactly what Bing sees when it crawls your pages and highlights any issues affecting your ranking. It also offers similar features to GSC. So if you are already familiar with Google Search Console, then you will find Bing Webmaster easier to use.
Why Bing Webmaster Tool Deserves Your Attention
While Bing Search isn’t Google, dismissing it can be a mistake, as it commands over 1.3 billion monthly visitors. Search experts have also argued that visitors from Bing often convert at a higher rate compared to Google traffic. Even having 10% of your traffic from Bing searches is a big deal.
Bing also offers many tools that are not available on other search engine tools. For example, the Site Explorer feature allows you to view your entire site structure as Bingbot sees it. The Crawl Control allows you to control when and how aggressively the crawler accesses your server.
More to these, the optimizations you make to your site based on the insight from Bing Webmaster tool reflect on your performance on other search engines, including Google.
How to Set up Bing Webmaster Tools
Getting started with Bing Webmaster Tools is straightforward. The entire process takes less than 20 minutes.
Here’s how to go about it step by step:
Step 1: Create Your Account
Visit the Bing Webmaster Tool Website: https://www.bing.com/webmasters/about.
Click the Get started button. You will be required to sign in with either your Microsoft (Outlook/ Hotmail) account, Google account (Gmail), or Facebook account.
Step 2: Verify Your Website
Once you sign in, there are two options to get started. You can add your site manually. However, since most webmasters begin with Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster allows you to import your settings from GSC to Bing. You will be able to import your settings and configure your site, skipping the manual verification setup.
But if you are just starting, it is best to add manually to maintain full control of the setup. We will cover both options:
Option 1: Adding your Site Manually
To add your site manually, input your URL into the URL field, then click ‘Add’. For example, if your URL is “example.com,” type in ‘example.com’, not www.example.com.
Once you click ‘Add’, you will need to verify your ownership of the website. Bing offers three options to verify your website:
1. XML File
For this option, download the BingSiteAuth.xml file Bing provides and upload it to the root directory of your website. Connect to your website using FTP and upload the file to your root directory (the same folder where you have the index.html file).
Once uploaded, go back to Bing and click Verify to authenticate your ownership to Bing.
2. HTML Meta Tag
Copy the meta tag Bing provides and paste it into the ‘<head>’ section of your homepage HTML. If you use WordPress with an SEO plugin like Yoast or RankMath, you can add the tag directly into the SEO plugin’s Bing Webmaster tool section.
After placing the meta tag, go back to the Bing Webmaster page and click Verify. Bing will check and verify your ownership.
3. Add CNAME record to DNS
With this option, you will need to provide the CNAME to your domain’s DNS record through your domain registrar or hosting provider’s cPanel. Verifying via CNAME is a little technical, but it is reliable. Just copy the name, go to your hosting or domain platform, create the CNAME, then click verify on BingWebmaster.
Option 2: Importing Your Site From Google Search Console
To verify using GSC, click Import, then Continue on the next prompt. You will be required to sign in to your Google Account.
Grant Bing the various permissions as they come. Bing will find the websites and your Google Console account and list them out. Select the sites you want to import and click Import.
Once you’ve verified your ownership, Bing will begin crawling your site and collecting data. It may take about 24 to 48 hours before meaningful metrics appear on your dashboard. With this data, you will be able to further improve your site ranking and draw more traffic.
Bing Webmaster Tools Features & Benefits of Their Use
Dashboard and Performance Overview
After verifying your website, you will be taken to the Bing Webmaster dashboard. The home tab provides a snapshot of your website’s health. You will find recent performance trends, notifications about performance or any issues, and quick links to various tools.
It also displays the important metrics you need to improve your SERP. You can find the clicks, impressions, crawl errors, and indexed page count. This gives you the big picture before you dive into the detailed reports.
Search Performance Reports
The Search Performance tab shows how your page is performing in Bing Search Results. It shows you the various metrics you would normally track. They include:
- Clicks: This tells you how many users clicked through to your site from Bing search.
- Impressions: This shows the number of times your page appears in Bing search results.
- Average CTR: Your average click-through-rate, showing how effective your meta title and meta description are.
- Average Position: Where your page ranks on average.
- Crawl requests: How many times the Bingbot tried to access your web pages.
- Crawl errors: Pages that the Bing crawler couldn’t access.
- Indexed pages: pages that were crawled successfully and added to Bing.
The performance report allows you to access search performance data from up to 16 months ago. This is vital to track the effectiveness of your SEO efforts over time. You can see the keywords and pages driving traffic, and the type of content that performs.
URL Inspection Tool
The URL inspection tool, as the name suggests, allows you to debug specific pages. For example, if you want to know if a page is indexed, you can copy the URL, paste it into the URL inspection tool field, and click inspect. Bing Webmaster will check the indexing status and tell you whether it is indexed.
Here are some of the insights you can get from the URL inspection tool:
- Whether the page is indexed or not.
- When the Bingbot last crawled the site.
- Any crawling or indexing issues found.
- SEO problems like missing alt attributes, duplicate tags, etc.
- HTTP response codes.
- Structured data is implemented on the page.
Site Explorer
Site Explorer displays your entire site’s structure exactly as Bingbot sees it. It tells you how many pages are indexed, have errors, or are excluded. You can also find URLs with .redirect, URLs with NOINDEX tag, and lots more.
All of this data is valuable for understanding the issues with your website and for knowing where and how to optimize.
Sitemaps
The Sitemaps tab shows all the sitemaps you’ve submitted to Bing and allows you to submit new sitemaps. Submitting sitemaps is essential for Bingbot to be able to crawl your site.
URL Submission
This tool allows you to submit your page’s URL to Bing for indexing. This is useful if you create or update a page and need it indexed quickly. Bing will then analyze and index the page. And if there are any errors, you will be notified.
To submit a URL, click on the URL submission form on the homepage. Then click on the submit URL button to start submitting.
List out the URLs you want to submit line by line and paste them into the text box. Then click Submit to submit the URLs.
Site Scan
Site scan is a comprehensive EEO audit tool that crawls your site or specific sections of your site for SEO issues. This way, you are able to identify and fix issues that may likely affect your ranking position.
Keyword Research
This allows you to perform keyword research right in the BingWebmaster tool. You can find related keywords, question-based keywords, and trending keywords.
IndexNow
This is another unique tool from Bing that allows you to request indexing for your pages instead of waiting for crawlers. If you use WordPress, Shopify, and other content management platforms, you can easily set up IndexNow via a plugin. You can also connect via API to ensure your webpages are indexed, and you update them.
Backlinks
Backlinks are one of the most important aspects of SEO. Bing Webmaster Tools allows you to track backlinks to your website. You can also analyze the backlinks of competitors and compare your backlinks with theirs. This is a goldmine for finding backlinking opportunities.
Block URLs
If you have staging content, duplicate products, or archive pages you don’t want to index, you can use the Block URLs tool to prevent those pages from being indexed. This is a quicker fix than a robots.txt.
SEO for Bing Webmaster Tools
Bing ranking differs slightly from Google’s, and understanding these differences can help you rank higher in Bing Searches. Fortunately, Bing Webmaster Tools provides all the data you need to optimize your website.
Here are the SEO strategies for Bing Webmaster Tools:
Keyword for Bing
Bing weighs exact match keywords more heavily than Google does. So if your target keyword is “Best SEO Tools,” place the exact phrase in your title tag, H1, and early on in the content. Bing algorithm interprets keywords literally, while Google can reward near-matches or synonyms.
Use the Keyword Research Tool
The Bing Webmaster research tool can help you find keywords that work specifically for Bing audiences. This way, you get to use keywords that are ranking and optimize your site using related keywords.
SEO Audit
The site scan tool ensures you find and fix issues before they affect performance. Scan your site monthly to find issues. The site scan report shows exactly which page has the issues, making it easy to fix.
Prioritize fixing issues that block indexing (these hurt your ranking). Also, implement any optimization suggestions.
Crawl Control
Bing Webmaster Tools allows you to control when your website is crawled. For example, if you run an eCommerce site and your server experiences high traffic during the day, tell Bingbot to crawl overnight instead. This will prevent the crawlers from slowing down your website while customers are shopping.
Link Building
Bing heavily favors backlinks from authoritative domains. It prioritizes link age and domain authority more than Google does. So use the Webmaster backlink tool to monitor your link profile and identify high-quality referring sites. You can also reach out to top websites with a long history and a strong reputation for backlinks.
How To Submit a Sitemap to Bing Webmaster Tools
Bingbot needs your sitemap to understand the structure and pages of your website. Without a proper sitemap, your site won’t get crawled. Here’s how to submit your sitemap.
Step 1. Generate Sitemap
If you are using WordPress, you can generate a sitemap with a plugin. SEO plugins like RankMath and Yoast SEO have features to generate sitemaps.
Your sitemap will typically be “yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml” or “yourwebsite.com/sitemap_index.html” for larger websites.
Step 2. Submit Sitemap on Bing Webmaster Tool
Navigate to the Bing Webmaster tool and click on the “Sitemaps” tab.
To submit a new sitemap, click the Submit Sitemap button, enter your sitemap URL, and click Submit.
Bing Webmaster Tool accepts multiple sitemap formats, including XML, RSS 2.0, mRSS (Media RSS), Atom 0.3 & 1.0, and text files. This is another area where Bing offers more flexibility than Google, since GSConly allows XML.
Once submitted, the submitted sitemap will be added to the list, and you can see its crawl status and discovered URLs.
Best Practices for Submitting Your Sitemap
- Always keep your sitemap clean and accurate.
- Include only the pages you want indexed.
- Exclude staging pages, duplicate content, and low-thin pages.
- Break up your sitemap if your site is large (over 1000 pages).
- Resubmit your sitemap after every major site update or structural change.
- Check to ensure your sitemap is successfully submitted.
How To Inspect URL with Bing Webmaster Tools
The URL Inspection tool deserves special attention because it’s where you diagnose and fix individual page issues.
Step 1: On the dashboard, click on the URL inspection tab.
Step 2: Enter a URL into the URL field and click Inspect.
Bing will analyze the URL. If the page is not indexed, Bing will give you the option to request indexing.
Check live URL: You can also click on the live URL to see if the URL can be indexed without issues.
Step 3: Fix Issues. Analyzing a URL with the Inspect URL tool will identify any issues that may hinder indexing or ranking. From the image below, you can see that the page has 2 SEO issues.
Click on each issue found to see more details and work to fix it. Once done, check again to ensure the issue is actually resolved.
Site Scan and Index Feature with Bing Webmaster Tools
The site scan allows you to scan your entire website or specific sections for issues. It offers the functionality of a professional SEO audit with the convenience of being built into your webmaster dashboard. Here are the steps to use the Site Scan functionality:
Step 1: Click on the Site Scan tab.
Step 2: Click on Start a New Scan.
Step 3: This will open the site scan panel on the side. Enter a name for the scan. This will make it easier to identify the report for future reference.
Step 4: Choose the scope: whether you want to scan the whole website, scan with a sitemap, or scan specific URLs. You can also click to crawl subdomains if you want.
Step 5: Limit the scan. Enter the number of pages to be scanned. Bing gives a crawl quota of about 1000 pages. So limiting the scan can ensure you optimize your quota.
Step 6: Click Start Scan. The scan will be queued, and the pages will be crawled in time. After completion, you will see any issues with the crawled pages.
Bing Webmaster Tools Current Updates and Developments
Bing continuously releases updates to improve the Bing Webmaster tool. Here are some of the recent updates:
Extended Data Range
Webmaster search data now covers 16 months instead of 6. This means you can analyze your trend for the whole year and track long-term growth. This update brings Bing’s timeframe in line with Google Search Console.
Improved Recommendation
Bing updates the generic recommendations to be more specific. It now lists the issue, like “Your meta description is too long” or “your meta title is too short”, making it more specific.
Expanded Search Performance
The search performance feature now includes crawl requests, crawl errors, and indexed page counts within the main Search Performance report. They now provide a clearer picture of the website’s performance.
Co-Pilot Integration
Bing comes with an AI assistant, Co-Pilot, in the webmaster tool. The assistant can help webmasters manage their SEO efforts better. With its chat interface, you get real-time answers to questions and data insights.
Advanced SEO Best Practices Using Bing Webmaster Tools
Combining a platform’s features with proven SEO principles is the best way to create a powerful optimization workflow. Here’s how to leverage Bing Webmaster Tools like a pro:
Step 1: Submit a sitemap once your site is verified.
Step 2: Run a site scan and review warnings and errors. Create a task list prioritizing the major issues that affect ranking.
Step 3: Fix identified issues: Take the time to fix all the issues and recommendations. Test changes and then push to production. Test the pages with the Bing Webmaster URL inspection tool to confirm they are working.
Step 4: Submit or resubmit your sitemap: Always resubmit your sitemap after any major changes to get Bing crawlers to visit your site.
Step 5: Analyze keyword performance using the keyword research tool. Find low-hanging keywords and add them to your pages. Update title tags, add missing meta descriptions, etc.
Step 6: Focus on backlinks: Analyze your backlink profile using the backlink feature. Identify link sources you are missing. Reach out to websites linking to your competitors about backlinks to similar content. As a tip, always prioritize getting backlinks from websites with higher domain authority and pages with high page authority.
Step 7: Always scan and check for recommendations. Bingbot alerts you to any issues it finds on your site so you can fix them right away.
Final Thoughts on Bing Webmaster Tools
Bing provides access to a real monetizable traffic source. Mastering its tools helps you gain a competitive edge and insights to improve all aspects of your website.
Your optimization efforts based on the insights from the webmaster tool will improve your site’s health, content relevance, and authority. This will result in improved ranking on Google and other search engines.
At NPointseo, we offer expert services that are tailored to your specific needs and challenges. We provide professional help with Bing Optimization, technical SEO audits, ongoing monitoring, and more.
FAQs About Bing Webmaster Tools
How do Bing Webmaster Tools and SEO Insights Differ From Other Search Platforms?
Bing Webmaster Tools offers deeper technical SEO insights than most competitors. The site scan, keyword, and backlink tools are not available on Google Search Console and most search platforms.
What Bing Webmaster Tools Updates Should Webmasters Monitor for Long-term SEO?
Watch recommendations features closely. It evolves as the algorithm changes and identifies real issues with your website. So turn on notifications for Security issues and Crawl Errors.
How Does Bing Webmaster URL Inspection Tool Improve Indexing Results?
It identifies pages that are not indexed and provides insights into the issue affecting the pages. This way, you are able to fix the problem and request immediate reindexing rather than waiting for days for Bingbot to crawl naturally.
What is the Best Way to Submit a Sitemap to Bing Webmaster Tools for Large Websites?
For a site with thousands of pages, use a sitemap index file that references the multiple sitemaps. Arrange the sitemaps by types: products, blog posts, and pages. Once you are set, click on the sitemap tab to submit your sitemap.
How can Beginners use the Bing Webmaster Tools Dashboard to Improve Overall SEO Performance?
Start with site verification and initial sitemap submission. Then run a site scan to identify pages with issues. Fix any errors and continue to monitor for recommendations. Use the keyword tool to find better keywords and backlink tools to get more backlinks.
