What Is Bing Webmaster Tools?
Bing Webmaster Tools is a free Microsoft service that allows bloggers to monitor and optimize their sites for the Bing search result pages. It allows bloggers to track their performance on Bing and identify and fix issues that may prevent their sites from ranking.
Bing Webmaster Tools is owned by Microsoft’s Bing search engine. It is to Bing what the Consola de búsqueda de Google is to Google. It provides you with a series of tools and options to:
- Monitorea el rendimiento de tus búsquedas
- Review your search traffic data
- Review your indexing status
- Perform investigación de palabras clave
- Test your robots.txt file
- Diagnosticar problemas de SEO
- Inspeccione sus URL
- Monitorea tus URL
- Review your vínculos de retroceso
- Identificar problemas con el mapa del sitio
- Controle su velocidad de rastreo
- Disavow harmful backlinks
- Submit your XML sitemap to Bing
- Verify if the crawler crawling your site is Bingbot
Importance of Bing Webmaster Tools
Bing Webmaster Tools is crucial for bloggers, SEOs, webmasters, and marketers who want to improve their visibility on Bing. Bing is the second-largest search engine after Google. It also powers third-party browsers like Yahoo, which entirely relies on Bing, and DuckDuckGo, which partly relies on it.
Bing has a unique user base and is quite common among certain demographics and regions. It is also closely integrated with multiple Microsoft products and services, making it a great source of organic traffic and search visibility for bloggers who seek such an audience.
The Bing Webmaster Tools also benefits bloggers who want to rank on other search engines, including Google, since it allows them to identify ranking opportunities and issues that can impact their rankings, irrespective of the search engine.
Bing also offers additional features that are not present in Google Search Console., For instance, it allows bloggers to perform keyword research. It can also scan your site for technical SEO issues and make recommendations on improving your SEO. Bing Webmaster Tools is also integrated with Copilot.
11 Bing Webmaster Tools and Reports That Will Improve Your SEO
The Bing Webmaster Tools contains multiple tools and reports to monitor your content and site, analyze trends, detect issues, and improve your SEO. We will discuss some of them below, including how to access them and what you can do with them.
1 Copilot
Copilot is Microsoft’s AI-powered assistant that helps you gain insights into your site’s performance. You can ask questions about your site and receive data-driven answers unique to you.
To get started, click the Copilot icon.
Then, enter a relevant prompt into Copilot. The prompt can be related to your site, SEO report, or even Bing Webmaster Tools itself.
Copilot will return with an appropriate response, as shown below.
2 URL Inspection
The URL Inspection tool lets you view a URL exactly as Bing sees it. It allows you to check its indexing status and provides additional details about it, including the markup and SEO issues Bing has detected.
To get started, click URL Inspection from your Bing Webmaster Tools dashboard.
Now, enter the URL you want to inspect into the available field and click Inspect.
The URL Inspection tool will show you the URL’s status (whether it has been crawled and indexed by Bing), along with the structured data markups and SEO issues on the URL.
You can click on any of the reports to further inspect them. For example, when we click on the SEO issues report, it expands to show us the details of the SEO issues that Bing detected on the site.
You may also want Bing to inspect the live URL. This is usually helpful when you have just updated or published the page. In that case, click Live URL, Como se muestra abajo.
You can also click Request indexing to request Bing to index or re-index the updated page.
3 Mapas del sitio
The Sitemaps tool lets bloggers submit a new XML sitemap or view the details of the existing ones on their site. To get started, click Mapas del sitio, Como se muestra abajo.
Bing will provide you with the details of the sitemaps that have already been detected on your site. If you want to submit a sitemap to Bing, click Submit sitemap.
Once done, enter the sitemap’s URL and click Enviar.
4 Vínculos de retroceso
The Backlinks report shows you a detailed report of your backlink profile. It shows you the sites that link to you and the URLs from which those links originate. The report also includes the anchor text of those links.
To get started, click Vínculos de retroceso.
The report is split into two sections: Backlinks for your site and Backlinks to any site.
- The Backlinks for your site report shows you the backlinks pointing to your site
- The Backlinks to any site report lets you compare your backlinks against those of other sites
To compare your backlinks against a competitor, click Backlinks to any site.
Now, click Add a site to compare to add a site to compare against yours. You can add up to two sites, one after another.
Once done, the Bing Webmaster Tools will return multiple reports, including:
- Overview: Provides a summary of each site’s backlink profile
- Top referring domains: Lists the external domains that link to each site
- Top anchor texts: Shows the most commonly used anchor text in the backlinks that point to each site
You can click View detailed reports for more detailed insights into the referring domains and anchor texts.
5 Investigación de palabras clave
The Keyword Research tool lets bloggers discover popular keywords along with their impressions and trends. To get started, click Investigación de palabras clave.
Next, enter the keywords you want to research into the available field. Then, adjust these available options if applicable.
- Country: Allows you to filter keyword data based on the searcher’s country
- Language: Lets you select the language in which users entered their search terms into Bing
- Device: Allows you to filter the keyword based on the visitor’s device
- Duration: Lets you choose a time range over which visitors searched for the keyword
Once done, click Get details.
Bing will return with the details of the keyword along with its impressions and impressions by country. You can place your mouse pointer over the impressions graph to view the search trend over time.
The keyword research tool will also show you some additional relevant keywords. These keywords are structured into:
- Related keywords: Displays keywords that are semantically or topically related to the keyword you are analyzing
- Question keywords: Shows keyword phrases that are framed as questions
- Newly discovered: Shows keywords that have recently gained search traction, allowing you to identify emerging trends and content opportunities
You can click on any keyword to view additional details about it.
At the bottom of the page, Bing will show you the top URLs and topics that rank for the keyword you researched.
6 Recommendations
The Recommendations report provides SEO suggestions to help improve your site’s performance on Bing páginas de resultados de búsqueda. The recommendations are automated and based on your site’s current performance on Bing.
For example, it can identify potential issues like missing meta tags, broken links, slow-loading pages, and mobile usability issues. It will also report any additional issues that Bing may have detected and will provide you with actionable tips on how to resolve them.
To get started, click Recommendations. Bing will then show you the issues it detected and some tips on fixing them.
7 Site Scan
The Site Scan option audits your site and returns with any technical SEO issues it identifies. To get started, click Site Scan.
Next, click Start new scan.
Now, enter the details of the scan into the relevant fields.
- Scan name: Give the scan a name so you can distinguish it from other scans you have performed or may perform in the future
- Scope: This allows you to specify the limits of the scan
- Limit scan to: This allows you to determine the maximum number of pages to be scanned
- Communication: Enable this if you want the Bing Webmaster Tools to send you an email once the scan is complete (Make sure to select this option)
Once done, click Start Scan.
Bing will begin scanning your site. The result is usually not instant and can take several hours or days before it is completed. If you selected the Communication option, Bing will send you an email notification once your scan is completed.
The scan result will show you the issues detected across the URLs or sitemap.
8 Crawl Control
The Crawl Control tool allows bloggers to manage how often Bingbot can crawl their site. This is useful for controlling server load, especially during peak hours when your site receives the most visitors.
To get started, head to Configuration → Crawl Control.
You will be presented with tools to control how Bing crawls your site. Select the time your site receives the most visitors. Bing will then reduce the rate at which it crawls your site during this period.
You can further adjust the crawl rate in the Crawl rate field. Once done, click Guardar cambios.
9 Block URLs
The Block URLs tool allows users to prevent pages and directories from appearing in Bing search results. This option is useful for hiding outdated or sensitive content from appearing on Bing results pages for up to 90 days.
To get started, click Configuration → Block URLs.
Once done, click Add URL to block.
Next, enter the URL into the relevant field. Once done, select other appropriate settings.
- URL type: A page refers to a regular webpage, while a directory is a folder that contains one or more pages
- Block type: Blocking the cache alone prevents the cache from appearing on Bing, while blocking the URL and cache prevents the live and cache pages from appearing on Bing
Once done, click Enviar.
10 Verificar Bingbot
The Verify Bingbot tool allows you to confirm whether a bot visiting your site is really Bingbot or an unknown crawler pretending to be Bingbot. It works by comparing the bot’s IP address with that used by Bingbot.
To get started, click Tools & Enhancements → Verificar Bingbot.
Now, enter the IP address of the bot claiming to be Bingbot and click Verificar.
Bing will return a relevant message. For example, if it is Bingbot, it will return the message below.
If the IP address does not belong to Bingbot, it will return a message, as shown below.
11 User Management
The User Management tool allows bloggers and webmasters to add or remove users from the Bing Webmaster Tools account. This controls access and helps to determine who can access the site and what privileges they will have.
To get started, click User Management.
The page will show you the details of your Bing Webmaster Tools users and their roles. You can add new users by clicking Add User.
Once done, enter the email address of the new user and select an appropriate role and access scope. The relevant roles include:
- Administrator: Has full access to all features in Bing Webmaster Tools, including the ability to add, remove, and manage users
- Read-Write: Has access to most features and can make changes to the site’s settings and data, but cannot manage user permissions
- Read-Only: Can view all reports and data, but cannot make any changes or manage users
In the access scope, enter the URLs of the sites you want to grant the user access to. This is useful if you manage multiple verified sites in your Bing Webmaster Tools account and want to assign access to specific ones.
Once done, click Add.
