Bing is on the rise because ChatGPT uses the search engine’s index and platform. And Bing’s advertising program is reportedly growing. I’ve corresponded with companies that state Bing’s ads (i.e., Microsoft Advertising) perform much better than Google’s.
It’s time to pay attention to Bing.
Start by verifying your site at Bing’s Webmaster Tools.
Webmaster Tools
Verification
Verify your site by (i) placing an XML file in the root directory, (ii) adding a meta tag to the home page, or (iii) creating a CNAME record to your domain name server, such as GoDaddy or similar.
From there, allow Bing about 24 hours to collect the data. Then access Webmaster Tools, which are similar to Google’s Search Console.
Bing Webmaster Tools provides three ways to verify a site.
Performance
This section displays queries on Bing that drive impressions and clicks for your domain. The report shows the number of impressions and clicks per query, the click-through rate, and your site’s average ranking for each query.
You can filter and export the data by date range, country, and device type.
Site Explorer
Site Explorer shows a site’s structure as experienced by Bing’s crawlers. Users can block or request indexing for any folder, see when each was last indexed, and obtain performance stats.
Site Explorer shows the structure of a site as experienced by Bing’s crawlers.
URL Inspection
This tool can inspect any URL on your site to ensure Bing can crawl and index it. Unlike Search Console, Webmaster Tools offers a quick analysis of any page to improve its search performance.
Sitemaps
Like Search Console, Webmaster Tools allow the submission of XML sitemaps for faster discovery and crawling.
IndexNow
This section facilitates quick indexation requests of any URL. It claims to work faster than sitemaps. Bing supports third-party indexing integrations such as Cloudflare and the All in One SEO (AIOSEO) WordPress plugin.
Backlinks
This report lists links to your site, showing the linking page, the anchor text, and the URL on your site with the inbound link.
Free Ranking Tools
Bing also offers a few free tools to optimize search rankings:
- “Robots.txt tester” won’t help you understand or translate your robots.txt file, but it will report errors.
- “Keyword research” is handy for finding new (but limited) keyword ideas. It also includes your high-ranking URLs and titles for any keyword, helpful for perceived search intent.
AI Optimized
Overall, Bing Webmaster Tools is basic but free and therefore worth a look. The indexation features (sitemaps and IndexNow) can increase the likelihood of being cited by ChatGPT and Copilot (Microsoft’s AI assistant). It’s another step to being AI optimized.