A Practical Guide to IndexNow and Bing Webmaster Tools
Bing Webmaster Tools is Microsoft's reporting and submission service for Bing, and IndexNow is an open protocol a site uses to notify participating search engines that a URL has been added, changed or removed.
Samir Haddad
What is at stake
Bing's results reach people beyond bing.com, including through Yahoo, so a site that only monitors Google can miss indexing problems in a second major index.
The playbook
- Verify the site in Bing Webmaster Tools, importing from Search Console to save time
- Submit the same XML sitemap you give Google
- Send IndexNow notifications when pages are added, updated or deleted
- Review Bing's crawl and index reports next to Google's
- Check that robots rules do not block Bingbot by accident
Where it goes wrong
Avoid:
- Resubmitting unchanged URLs over and over
- Assuming a page indexed by Google is indexed by Bing
- Losing the IndexNow key file during a redesign or migration
The numbers behind it
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| IndexNow participants | Bing, Yandex and other engines; Google does not use the protocol |
| Proof of ownership | a key file hosted on the site |
| Setting up Bing Webmaster Tools | sites can be imported from Google Search Console |
| Sitemaps | still supported alongside IndexNow |
Getting outside help
When to hand it over: Bring in help when pages are indexed in Google but missing from Bing, or when a custom CMS needs to send IndexNow notifications automatically.
Where this comes from
- Bing Webmaster Tools — Bing Webmaster Guidelines
- Bing Webmaster Tools — IndexNow documentation
The figures and practices above come from the sources listed.
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