Bing Webmaster Tools
Bing Webmaster Tools is Microsoft's free service for website owners that shows how a site performs in Bing search, which of its pages Bing has indexed, and what issues Bing has found.
It is Bing's equivalent of Google Search Console, and the two overlap heavily: search performance, index coverage, sitemaps and crawl errors. The difference is whose index you are looking at. Bing's index matters beyond Bing itself, because Microsoft's own products, such as Copilot, draw on it, and other search services have licensed Bing results.
Many small sites never add it because Bing sends less traffic than Google in most markets. Setup takes minutes, though, and the reports sometimes surface problems that Google's tools do not flag.
How it works
You add a site and verify ownership, either with a DNS record, a file or a tag, or by importing properties directly from Google Search Console, which also brings in your sitemaps. Once verified, the Search Performance report shows clicks, impressions and average position, and the URL Inspection tool shows how Bing sees a single page.
Bing also supports IndexNow, an open protocol that lets a site notify participating search engines the moment a page is added, changed or removed, instead of waiting for the next crawl. Many content management systems and plugins can send these notifications automatically.
Beyond the core reports, the tool includes a site scan that crawls your pages and lists technical problems such as missing titles, duplicate descriptions and broken links, along with a keyword research tool and a backlinks report built on Bing's own data. Because Bing usually sends fewer searches than Google, the numbers for a small site are small and noisy, so trends are easier to read over months than over days. Comparing the pages Bing has indexed with those Google has indexed is a quick way to spot pages one engine has missed.
Example
A landscaping firm imports its site from Search Console in a couple of clicks. Bing's site scan flags that all the gallery pages share one title tag, an issue nobody had noticed. Fixing the titles makes each project page distinct in both Bing and Google, and the same report later confirms Bing has indexed the new pages.
The firm also notices that Bing shows impressions for searches its Google data barely mentions, such as hedge trimming in a nearby town. The numbers are too small to prove anything on their own, but they match calls the office has been getting, so the firm adds hedge trimming to its main services page with photos of recent jobs. Both search engines begin to show the page for that service, and the office no longer has to explain on the phone that it does the work.
Why it matters for your business
Bing traffic is usually a minority share, so for many owners this tool is a quarterly check rather than a weekly habit. Its value is coverage: if your pages are missing from Bing's index, they are also missing from the services that rely on it, and you would not otherwise find out. It costs nothing beyond the time to read the reports. For a business whose customers often search from work computers, where Microsoft software is common, Bing's share can be higher than average, and the tool's own data will show whether that is the case.
Common mistakes
- Assuming that being indexed in Google means a site is also indexed in Bing.
- Skipping setup because Bing traffic looks small, without considering the other services that use Bing's index.
- Sending IndexNow notifications for pages that have not changed, which adds noise rather than speed.
- Blocking Bingbot in robots.txt by accident while restricting other crawlers.
Questions people ask
Do I need Bing Webmaster Tools if I already use Google Search Console?
It is optional but worth the few minutes it takes. Bing keeps its own index, and Google Search Console tells you nothing about it. You can import your sites from Search Console, so setup is quick and the two tools then run side by side.
Is Bing Webmaster Tools free?
Yes. Bing Webmaster Tools is free for any site owner, and there is no paid version. You sign in with an existing account and prove you own the site, which the import from Google Search Console can handle for you.
What is IndexNow?
IndexNow is an open protocol that lets a website tell participating search engines immediately when a URL is added, updated or deleted. Bing supports it, as do several other engines. Not every search engine takes part, so it complements an XML sitemap rather than replacing it.
