Bing Webmaster Tools reporting
Organic performance on Bing, finally in the report
Clicks, impressions and position beside crawl health, pages indexed, sitemaps and the top queries and pages, scoped to one client. Create a workspace to open the report, or preview what is inside.
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Bing Webmaster Tools reporting
The Bing Webmaster Tools reporting dashboard for agencies
Bing Webmaster Tools is the first-party record of how a site performs on the Microsoft index: its own crawler, its own counts of what was indexed and its own query and page reports. This dashboard lays that record out around the questions an organic conversation asks: how the site performed, which queries and pages earned it, and how crawling, indexing and sitemaps are doing.
Inside the Bing Webmaster report
A second index, a second opinion
Bing keeps its own record of queries, crawling and indexing. The report lays it out beside your other organic reporting.
Visibility
Clicks, position, queries and pages
How many clicks Bing sent, how often the site was shown and where it ranked trend day by day, with the top queries and top pages Bing publishes each week beside them.Health
Crawl, index and sitemaps
Pages crawled, crawl errors and pages indexed sit beside each submitted sitemap's status, with a warning if Bing flags malware.
Bing beside the organic report
See how Bing queries, crawl health and sitemaps read together for one client.
Plans start at $99/month.
On this page
Bing organic performance, reported like a channel
Clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position, trended day by day
Bing Webmaster Tools keeps its own record of how a site performs on the Microsoft index, and it is the record most monthly packs never open. This dashboard puts it in the shape of a channel report: clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position, trended day by day, with a date range and a comparison against the previous period in the toolbar.
The figures cover all Bing search surfaces together, as Bing reports them, and each day is a Pacific-time day, so a Bing day may close hours before or after a day in a tool set to another time zone. Say so once in the report and nobody compares the two to the minute.
Query and page reporting from the Microsoft index
The terms this engine ranks a site for are rarely the terms the other one does
Ranking is index-specific, so the query list here is its own dataset rather than a smaller copy of another engine's. Each query carries its clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position, which makes it easy to see where Bing sends real visitors and which terms sit just off the first page, often one content pass away from meaningful traffic.
The page table answers the companion question: which URLs actually collect those clicks. Both tables come from Bing's weekly reports, so they trace larger patterns rather than single days. A page that performs here but not elsewhere, or the reverse, is often a crawling, canonical or freshness problem, and the crawl counts in the next section show whether a site-wide crawl problem sits behind it.
Crawl health and pages indexed for the Bing crawler
Pages crawled, crawl errors, pages indexed and crawl results by response type
Rankings are academic for URLs that never made it into the index, so the report puts the crawler's own counts beside performance: how many pages Bing crawled, how many crawls failed, how many pages are in the index and how many inbound links Bing has found. Each is a daily figure, so a drop after a site launch or a migration shows up on the day it started.
Crawl results are also grouped by the kind of response the server returned, which makes a spike in missing pages or server errors read differently from a general rise in errors. When Bing flags a site for malware the report says so, because that is the one warning that outranks everything else in a review.
Submitted sitemaps, with their status and URL counts
Whether what was declared is what Bing took in
A sitemap is a promise about which URLs matter, and Bing Webmaster Tools says whether it kept its side of the bargain. The report lists each submitted sitemap with its status and its URL counts, so the question of whether Bing took the file you sent has an answer without opening Bing's own interface.
Sitemap status is one of the first things to check when queries and pages look thin, and one of the quickest fixes to hand to a developer. Read it beside the pages-indexed figure: a healthy sitemap with few pages indexed points at content or crawling, while a sitemap Bing has not accepted points at the file itself.
Bing history that outlasts Bing's six months
Each sync adds to the record
Bing Webmaster Tools holds about six months of daily history for a site, so a year-on-year conversation is only possible if somebody saved the data. Each sync reads whatever Bing still holds and adds it to what the dashboard has stored. Days older than Bing's window stay in the record, so the history can reach past six months, provided the site is synced again before Bing's window moves on.
Only days that have been synced are stored, so the history starts the day a site is first synced and reaches back as far as Bing allows at that moment. Syncing a client early, and again within six months, is the cheap way to have a year of Bing data on the day the client asks for one.
A client-ready Bing organic report, and what it leaves out
Under your agency's branding, one client at a time
Every view is scoped to a single client and presented with your agency branding, beside the paid Microsoft reporting and the other organic reporting in the same workspace, so a cross-channel discussion stays in one workspace. The report offers a date range, a comparison against the previous period and a CSV export.
An admin connects Bing once with an API key from Bing Webmaster Tools, stored encrypted and shown afterwards only by its last four characters, and links one verified site to each client. Countries, devices, SEO recommendations and the backlink list are not part of what the report syncs, so those stay in Bing Webmaster Tools.
What Bing Webmaster Tools reporting covers
Bing Webmaster Tools is the free tool Microsoft provides for seeing a site as Bing sees it: what people searched, what the crawler found and what was indexed.
What Bing Webmaster Tools is
A search engine's webmaster tools exist so site owners can see a site the way the engine does. Bing's version describes the Microsoft index, which has its own crawler, its own rules for what to keep and its own link graph. A report built on it lets an agency show a client that second picture beside the Google one, instead of assuming the two agree. "Webmaster tools" is the generic name for this kind of service, and Google's version carried it too until it was renamed Search Console, so the phrase can mean either engine's tool.
What the report shows
| Part of the report | The question it answers | What sits beside it |
|---|---|---|
| Performance | How much did the site earn on Bing? | Clicks, impressions, CTR and average position by day, with a comparison against the previous period |
| Top queries | What do people search to find the site on Bing? | Clicks, impressions, CTR and position, from Bing's weekly report |
| Top pages | Which URLs collect the clicks? | The same measures for each page |
| Crawl health | How often does the crawler visit, and what goes wrong? | Pages crawled, crawl errors and results by response type |
| Pages indexed | How much of the site is in Bing's index? | Pages indexed and inbound links, as daily counts |
| Sitemaps | Did Bing take the files we submitted? | Each sitemap's status and URL counts |
| Malware warning | Has Bing flagged the site? | A warning on the report when it has |
Figures and the date range
Figures for clicks, impressions, CTR and average position head the report, with the crawl and index counts beside them. Bing reports all of its search surfaces together, so there is no filter by search type. Choose the dates in the toolbar and set them beside the previous period when the review needs a before and after.
Bing Webmaster Tools terms, defined for clients
Webmaster vocabulary is easy to nod along to and hard to explain. These are the terms a Bing section leans on.
- Index
- Bing's store of pages it has decided to keep and can show. A page outside the index cannot appear in results, whatever its content.
- Crawl
- A visit by Bing's crawler to fetch a page. How often it visits, and how quickly the server answers, shapes how fast new content is found.
- Crawl error
- A fetch that failed: a missing page, a server error, a robots block, a timeout, a redirect loop or a DNS failure.
- Sitemap
- A file listing the addresses a site wants discovered. The report lists each submitted file with its status and URL counts.
- Inbound links
- Links to the site from other sites. The report shows the count Bing has found as a daily figure, not a list of who links.
- Average position
- Where the site ranked on average when it appeared in Bing results. A lower number is a higher rank.
- Pacific time
- Bing cuts its days in Pacific time, so a day in this report can end at a different hour than a day in another tool.
- API key
- A secret string generated in Bing Webmaster Tools that lets the dashboard read a site's figures. It is stored encrypted, and only its last four characters are shown afterwards.
Connecting Bing Webmaster Tools: the key, the site and the history
Bing Webmaster Tools connects with an API key, not a sign-in. An admin pastes the key once, links a verified site to each client and syncs.
The API key
In Bing Webmaster Tools, open Settings, then API access, and generate a key in an account that can see the client's verified site. Paste it into the report and the dashboard checks it by listing the sites it can see. The key is stored encrypted, only its last four characters are shown afterwards, and an admin manages it.
One verified site per client
Each client links to one site, and only a site that is verified in Bing Webmaster Tools can be linked. Because a client reads one site at a time, two sites' figures are never added together.
Syncing and history
A sync reads the history Bing keeps for the site, about six months of daily figures plus its weekly query and page reports, and stores it. Days older than Bing's window stay once they are stored, so the history grows past six months. Nothing is requested from Bing when a page opens.
What the Bing Webmaster connection fills, and what it leaves out
The connection reads a set of the statistics Bing's API publishes for a site. Several tabs you may expect from Bing Webmaster Tools are not part of it.
| Bing Webmaster Tools data | In the linked report | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Clicks, impressions, CTR and average position | Synced | All Bing search surfaces together, by day in Pacific time. |
| Pages crawled, crawl errors and pages indexed | Synced | Daily counts from Bing's crawl statistics. |
| Inbound links | Synced | The count Bing has found, not the list of links. |
| Crawl results by response type | Synced | How many crawls ended in each kind of response. |
| Top queries and top pages | Synced | From Bing's weekly reports, so they show patterns rather than single days. |
| Submitted sitemaps | Synced | Each sitemap's status and URL counts. |
| Malware warning | Synced | Shown when Bing flags the site. |
| Bing Webmaster Tools data | In the linked report | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Countries | Not synced | Traffic by country is not read. |
| Devices | Not synced | Traffic by device is not read. |
| SEO recommendations | Not synced | Read the site scan in Bing Webmaster Tools. |
| A backlink list | Not synced | Only the count of inbound links is read, not who links or the anchor text. |
| Crawl-issue details | Not synced | Crawl errors are counted by response type, not listed by address. |
| Keyword research | Not synced | Run it in Bing Webmaster Tools. |
| URL submission | Not synced | Submit addresses in Bing Webmaster Tools. |
How to run a Bing organic review for a client
Six stops, in the order a Bing organic review runs. Take the figures from the client's linked site, and use Bing's own interface for anything the report leaves out.
Confirm the site is verified in Bing
Bing shows data only for sites whose ownership has been verified. Ask for access early, because verification sits with whoever manages the site.
Read the figures before the tables
Set Bing's clicks and impressions beside the Google figures. A gap is normal. The question is whether it is the size you expected for this audience.
Open the top queries and pages
Note the terms that earn clicks on Bing and not elsewhere, and the pages that behave differently here. Both come from weekly reports, so read them over a span of weeks.
Read crawl health and sitemaps
Look at crawl errors by response type beside pages indexed and each sitemap's status. A slow or failing server limits how much of a site gets crawled.
Check for a malware warning
If Bing has flagged the site, the report says so. Put it first on the agenda, before any ranking discussion.
Finish in Bing Webmaster Tools
The report leaves out countries, SEO recommendations and the backlink list. Open them in Bing Webmaster Tools, and say in the review where those figures came from.
Reading Bing results next to Google's
Two indexes will disagree. The skill is telling a real fault from an expected difference.
| What you see | Likely meaning | Next step |
|---|---|---|
| Clicks strong on Google, thin on Bing | The audience may favor another engine, or Bing keeps fewer of the pages. | Compare pages indexed with the Google property before drawing a conclusion about demand. |
| Pages indexed far below the size of the site | Bing is skipping pages: a canonical tag, a redirect, a thin page or a crawl problem. | Check crawl errors and sitemap status, then inspect the page in Bing Webmaster Tools. |
| Crawl errors that appear only on Bing | The server answers Bing's crawler differently, perhaps by blocking it or timing out. | Check robots rules and server response time for that crawler. |
| More inbound links in one tool than the other | Each index discovers links on its own, so counts differ by design. | Compare the trend in each tool, not the absolute counts. |
| Queries on Bing that never show on Google | Different ranking signals surface different terms. | Review them for content ideas and for terms worth adding to your lists. |
| A sitemap Bing has not accepted | The file has errors, or it lists addresses Bing cannot reach. | Fix the file, resubmit it in Bing Webmaster Tools and check its status after the next sync. |
Who gains from reporting Bing organic
Three groups read a Bing section differently, and each gets something the Google section does not give them.
Agency owners
Know where Bing deserves effort
A second engine is a question of where to spend time. The headline figures put visibility and traffic first, so a fix can be weighed against Bing's own numbers before anyone commits to it.
- Use the same figures for every client
- Quote scoped fixes from crawl and sitemap findings
Your team
Fix what the crawler reports
In the report, crawl errors by response type and each sitemap's status point to the kind of fault, a shape that reaches a developer without translation.
- Crawl errors by response type
- Sitemap status and URL counts
Your clients
See the other half of search
Most clients know Google and little else. A short Bing section in the monthly report can show whether a second engine sends visitors, and for which queries and pages, using Bing's own figures.
- Clicks and positions in plain terms
- The queries and pages behind them
How the Bing Webmaster report fits a monthly client review
The report opens one client at a time and sits under your agency's logo, company name, colors and fonts. Agree with the client what the Bing section of a monthly report should contain, then keep that structure from one month to the next so a change is the only thing that looks different. Because Bing keeps only about six months, syncing a client early is what makes a year of history possible later.
Note
Reports stay with your team
Reports are not part of the client portal. A client sees the Bing section in a review call or in the summary you write afterwards.
For Google's side of organic search, Search Console reporting reads a linked property on the Agency plan and up. On the paid side, Microsoft Advertising reporting covers each client's campaigns, keywords and devices, and the SEO site audit tests the pages themselves. When the review turns into a plan, build the term list in keyword lists. The reporting hub shows every report type.
Frequently asked questions
What is Bing Webmaster Tools and what does it report?
It is Microsoft's counterpart to Search Console for its own index: clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position for the queries and pages Bing ranks, plus crawl statistics, pages indexed, inbound links and sitemaps. The report lays the synced figures out for one client at a time, so a Bing organic figure can be quoted in the same conversation as the Google one.
How is Bing Webmaster Tools different from Google Search Console?
They describe different indexes, so they disagree by design. Bing publishes its own crawl statistics, such as pages crawled, crawl errors and pages indexed, and its own query and page reports, none of them derived from anything Search Console reports. Reading both is how you tell a site-wide technical fault from one engine's ranking preference.
Why do Bing rankings differ from Google rankings for the same site?
Different crawlers, a different index and different ranking signals. A page Google keeps may be excluded by Bing, and the terms a site ranks for on one engine are rarely the same set as the other. The queries and pages tables are worth reading precisely because they surface phrases the Google side of the report never shows.
Can Bing Webmaster Tools report backlinks?
Bing Webmaster Tools itself reports inbound links, and the connected report carries the count of inbound links Bing has found as a crawl-health figure. It does not sync Bing's backlink list, so referring domains and anchor text stay in Bing Webmaster Tools. Use the count to watch the trend, and the tool itself when a link-building review needs the detail.
Is Bing organic traffic worth reporting to a client at all?
It is worth reporting when the client's audience is actually there, and the report makes that visible rather than assumed: clicks, impressions and average position, with the queries and pages behind them, for one client at a time. Set beside what the same site does on the other engine, a small but steady Bing channel is easy to justify and a missing one is easy to spot.
What is Bing Webmaster Tools used for?
Bing Webmaster Tools lets a site owner see how Bing treats a site: which queries and pages earn clicks, how many pages are indexed, how the crawler is coping and which sitemaps were taken in. Ownership has to be verified first. It is Bing's counterpart to the data Google gives through Search Console.
Is Bing Webmaster Tools free to use?
Yes. Microsoft offers Bing Webmaster Tools at no charge to verified site owners, so seeing queries and crawl details needs no paid tier. What costs money is the work the tool points to, such as fixing crawl errors, repairing sitemaps or rewriting thin pages.
Do I need Bing Webmaster Tools if I already use Google Search Console?
They describe different indexes, so neither can stand in for the other. Search Console shows what Google does with a site and Bing Webmaster Tools shows what Bing does. If a client's audience or paid Microsoft spend reaches Bing at all, the second set of facts is cheap to read and often exposes a crawl or sitemap fault the first one hides.
How often should an agency review Bing Webmaster Tools for a client?
Monthly suits most clients, because queries and pages move slowly enough for a month to give a stable read. Look at crawl errors and pages indexed sooner after a site launch, a migration or a template change, since those are the moments a crawler meets new faults. Bing's query and page reports are weekly, so there is little to gain from checking them daily.
What is the difference between Bing Webmaster Tools and Microsoft Advertising?
Bing Webmaster Tools reports organic performance: unpaid queries, crawling, indexing and links. Microsoft Advertising is the paid platform where campaigns, bids and spend are managed. The two use separate logins and measure different things, so keep them in separate sections of a client report and compare them only where it helps.
Can I white-label a webmaster tools report for clients?
Every report in the workspace is shown under your logo, company name, colors and fonts, for one client at a time. A report is a tool for your team in the room, because the client portal does not list reports. Walk the client through the Bing section in a review call, then send your own summary.
What are crawl errors in Bing Webmaster Tools?
A crawl error is a fetch the crawler could not complete: a missing page, a server error, a robots block, a timeout, a redirect loop or a DNS failure. Pages that cannot be fetched cannot be indexed, so crawl errors come before rankings in any review. The report counts them and groups crawl results by response type.
How do I verify a site in Bing Webmaster Tools?
Verification proves you control the site. Bing accepts a small file placed on the site, a meta tag in the home page or a DNS record, and it can also bring in a site already verified in Google Search Console. Pick the method the client's team can apply without a developer, then confirm it in the tool.
Where do I find the Bing Webmaster Tools API key?
In Bing Webmaster Tools, open Settings, then API access, and generate a key in an account that can see the client's verified site. Paste it into the report once. The key is stored encrypted, only its last four characters are shown afterwards, and a new key replaces the old one.
Does the report keep more than six months of Bing data?
Bing itself holds about six months of daily history. Each sync adds what Bing still holds to what the dashboard has already stored, and stored days are kept, so the history grows past six months from the day a site is first synced. Days that Bing no longer holds cannot be recovered, which is why syncing a client early matters.