Microsoft rolled out updates to Bing Webmaster Tools’ latest update in mid-October. The Bing Webmaster Tools account now has 16 months of historical data, “Insights” is now “Recommendations” with more features, and the Copilot AI assistant is in limited testing.
The new updates help you analyze crawl errors and view indexed pages, which is important for larger sites to improve the crawlability and indexability of content and, hence, site performance.
Microsoft has announced a few changes to the Bing Webmaster Tools account, including more data, a new recommendations system, and an AI assistant in limited testing. These will help you monitor and optimize your site.
Get started with a Bing Webmaster tools account.
To get started with Bing Webmaster Tools, you need to create an account. You can sign up using your any existing MS, Google, or Facebook account or create a new Microsoft account.
Once you set up your account, the next step is adding your site. Verifying your site ownership is essential, and Bing offers several ways. You can use MetaTag verification by adding the meta tag provided by Bing to your website’s HTML. Other options are adding a CNAME record to your DNS settings, uploading an XML file to your site, or using Domain Connect if your domain provider supports it.
Once you verify your site, you can access the Bing Webmaster Tools dashboard. This dashboard will give you an overall view of your site’s performance on search engines, and you can monitor and optimize your site.
Bing Webmaster Tools and SEO Reports Update
16 Months of Historical Data
Bing Webmaster Tools has increased the ‘Search Performance’ data from 6 to 16 months. This change was based on user feedback that needed more analysis than the previous timeframe.
The extended data will apply to all Google Search Console performance filter options while crawling and indexing history will accumulate over time.
This will give you more insights into seasonal trends and long-term performance patterns. Bing Webmaster Tools has longer historical data compared to Google Search Console, which is good for analyzing long periods and optimizing your website.
Website Configuration and Crawl Control
The Website Configuration section of Bing Webmaster Tools is a powerful feature that controls how Bing bot crawls your site. Within this section, the Crawl Control tab allows you to specify when you want Bingbot to crawl your site and manage your server load and performance.
You can adjust the crawl rate to slow down or speed up the process based on your site’s needs. The Block URLs feature is also available to prevent unwanted URL parameters from being indexed. You can add a NOINDEX robots meta tag to specific pages to prevent them from being crawled or indexed by Bing.
These features will give webmasters more control over how Bing crawls and indexes their site so that only the most critical pages are shown in the search results.
Sitemaps and URL Submission
Sitemaps and URL submission are important features in Bing Webmaster Tools to manage and optimize your website’s presence on the Bing search engine. A sitemap is a file that contains all your website’s URLs so Bing can crawl and index your site’s content. Bing Webmaster Tools supports multiple sitemap formats, XML, HTML, and text files.
To submit a sitemap to Bing:
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- Create a sitemap that contains all the URLs of your website.
- Ensure the sitemap is in a supported format (XML, HTML, or text file).
- Log in to your Bing Webmaster Tools account.
- Go to the Sitemaps section.
- Click on the “Submit sitemap” button.
- Enter the URL of your sitemap.
- Press “Submit” to submit the sitemap.
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Besides sitemap submission, Bing Webmaster Tools also allows you to submit URLs for faster indexing. This feature will prompt Bing to crawl and index new or updated content sooner. To submit URLs for speedier indexing:
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- Log in to your Bing Webmaster Tools account.
- Go to the URL Submission section.
- Enter the URL(s) you want to submit for faster indexing.
- Click “Submit” to submit the URLs to Bing.
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These will help you get your content indexed faster and more efficiently, making your site visible on the Bing search engine.
Search Performance and SEO Reports
The Search tab in Bing Webmaster Tools shows a graph of your site’s recent performance with a default timeframe of 3 months. You can change the timetable by using the dropdown menu at the top right of the page to view data for different periods. The purple line shows the clicks, which counts the users who clicked through from Bing’s organic search. The blue line shows the impressions, which are the number of users who saw your site in those search results.
In the SEO section, you can see issues with your on-page optimization. The errors are classified into low, moderate, and high severity so you know what to fix. The keyword research tool will also help you find keywords that drive organic traffic to your site. This tool shows trend data and impressions by country, and you can segment by language and device (desktop/mobile). You can also change the timeframe at the top right of the page.
By looking at SEO and search performance data, you can optimize your site to be more visible and relevant on the Bing search engine and drive more organic traffic to it.
“Recommendations” Replaces “Insights”
The “Insights” tool is being rebranded and expanded into a new feature called “Recommendations.”
According to the announcement, the new tool will have the following:
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- More detailed performance metrics
- Site-specific optimization suggestions
- Real-time data updates
- SEO recommendations for different aspects of website management
- Benefits of URL submission for faster indexing of new or updated content
- Referring to pages for better link profile analysis
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AI “Copilot” Goes into Limited Testing for Bing’s Search Engine
Bing Webmaster Tools is rolling out the AI-powered assistant “Copilot” to a select group of testers.
Copilot will include:
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- Chat interface for real-time questions and answers
- Integration with other Microsoft services
- Automation of routine tasks
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As this feature is still in the testing phase, we don’t know its full capabilities or impact on SEO workflows yet. Also, Copilot can submit sitemaps in text files.
Troubleshooting and Support
Troubleshooting and support are part of Bing Webmaster Tools. If you encounter issues with your Bing Webmaster Tools account or site, here are some resources to help you fix them.
Here are some troubleshooting steps:
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- Clear your browser’s cache and cookies.
- Turn off any browser extensions that might be blocking Bing Webmaster Tools.
- Try accessing Bing Webmaster Tools in incognito or private mode.
- Turn off any VPN or proxy server.
- Try accessing Bing Webmaster Tools from a different internet connection.
- You can contact the Bing Webmaster Support Team if you need help with the above steps. The link is in the Bing Webmaster Tools dashboard.
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These resources will help webmasters to fix issues quickly and keep their sites running smoothly.
SEO Tips
Optimize your site for the Bing search engine:
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- Keyword research: Do keyword research to find relevant keywords for your site.
- On-page optimization: Optimize your site’s on-page elements like title tags, meta descriptions, and header tags.
- Create good content: Create engaging and informative content that adds value to your site visitors.
- Use meta tags: Use meta tags like the one provided by Bing Webmaster Tools to give search engines more information about your site.
- Submit sitemaps: Submit sitemaps to Bing Webmaster Tools to help Bing crawl and index your site’s content.
- Crawl errors: Monitor crawl errors and fix any issues blocking Bing from crawling and indexing your site’s content.
- SEO reports: Analyze the SEO reports provided by Bing Webmaster Tools to find areas to improve and optimize your site.
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By following these SEO tips, you can make your site more visible and relevant on the Bing search engine and drive more organic traffic to it.
What is Next
Bing Webmaster Tools is becoming a more robust website optimization and SEO management tool.
Also, optimize for the Bing engine to make your site more visible. Submitting a sitemap to Bing will help with crawling and indexing, and monitoring performance metrics and using URL submissions will allow new or updated content to be indexed faster.
These changes also show that the company is committed to updating the tools based on user feedback.
Bing’s team asks users to provide feedback on these new features through their support channels.
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