Your website can look perfect in a browser and still have pages Bing hasn’t found, indexed, or understood. For a small business, that can mean missed searches from people who are ready to call, visit, or buy.
Bing Webmaster Tools gives you a clear view of how Bing sees your website. We use it to check search performance, find crawl problems, review indexed pages, and submit important updates. The best part is that you don’t need a large SEO budget to start using it.
Why Bing Webmaster Tools matters for small businesses
Google usually gets most of the attention, but Bing still sends valuable search traffic. Its search results also connect with Microsoft products and services that many people use at work and at home.
Small businesses often have limited time. You may not have someone checking technical SEO every day. Bing Webmaster Tools helps you focus on problems that can affect visibility, such as blocked pages, broken URLs, missing sitemap files, and pages that receive impressions without clicks.
The platform includes several useful areas:
- Search performance reports show queries, clicks, impressions, click-through rate, and average position.
- Site Explorer shows how Bing organizes and classifies your URLs.
- URL submission lets you request a crawl for new or updated pages.
- Keyword and backlink information can help you spot content opportunities and authority signals.
- Site diagnostics can reveal technical problems that need attention.
The information isn’t a replacement for good content or a useful website. It gives you a better starting point. Instead of guessing why a service page isn’t getting traffic, you can check whether Bing has indexed it and whether people see it in search.
For another practical overview of the platform, see this Bing Webmaster Tools guide from Neil Patel. We recommend using guides for context, then checking the current data inside your own account.
Set up Bing Webmaster Tools and verify your website
Getting started is straightforward. Sign in with a Microsoft account, open Bing Webmaster Tools, and add your website as a property.
You can usually verify ownership with one of these methods:
- Add a verification meta tag to your website’s home page.
- Upload an XML verification file to your website’s root folder.
- Add a CNAME record through your domain provider.
- Import an existing property from Google Search Console when that option is available.
The DNS method is useful when you can access your domain settings but don’t want to edit website files. The meta tag is often easier for WordPress users who have an SEO plugin or a website builder with a dedicated verification field.
After verification, add your XML sitemap. A sitemap usually includes the important pages you want search engines to discover, such as service pages, location pages, product pages, and helpful blog posts. It shouldn’t include pages that are private, duplicated, unfinished, or blocked from search.
Check the site version carefully. These versions can be treated as separate properties:
https://example.comhttps://www.example.comhttp://example.com
Use the secure version that customers visit. If your site redirects another version to HTTPS, review that redirect after setup. A clean setup gives Bing a consistent path through your website.
Use search performance data to find SEO opportunities
Once Bing has collected enough information, open the search performance report. Start with a date range that gives you enough data to see patterns. Thirty days is useful for a quick check, while three months can show stronger trends.
Look at pages with impressions but few clicks. These pages are appearing in search, but the title or description may not give people a strong reason to visit. Compare the query with the page content. If the query is about emergency furnace repair but the page title only says “Heating Services,” the wording may be too broad.
Next, review pages that get clicks but rank below the first few results. These pages may need clearer content, better internal links, stronger local details, or a more direct answer to the searcher’s question.
For a local business, pay attention to searches that include:
- Your city, county, or nearby neighborhoods
- Specific services or products
- “Near me” searches
- Questions about cost, timing, availability, or qualifications
- Brand searches and misspellings
Search performance data can also show whether your content matches the way customers speak. You may call a service “residential exterior cleaning,” while customers search for “house washing near me.” Both phrases may belong on the site, but they should appear naturally and in useful context.
Don’t change a page because of one unusual query. Look for repeated patterns across several weeks. Search data is more useful when it guides decisions instead of causing constant rewrites.
Diagnose indexing problems with Site Explorer
Site Explorer is one of the most helpful parts of Bing Webmaster Tools for small business owners. It presents your website in a folder and page structure, similar to browsing files on a computer.
You can see how Bing has classified URLs, including pages that are indexed, excluded, blocked, or showing errors. The report can also include clicks, impressions, backlinks, crawl dates, HTTP status codes, and HTTPS information.
Start with the pages that matter most to your business. Check your main service page, contact page, location pages, and high-value product pages. If one of them is missing from the indexed section, inspect the reason before making changes.
Common issues include:
- A page returns a 404 error after its URL changed.
- Robots.txt blocks a page that should appear in search.
- A page has a temporary crawl problem.
- A redirect points to the wrong destination.
- Several URLs show similar or duplicate content.
- A page is excluded because Bing doesn’t see enough value in it.
- Important pages are buried under a confusing site structure.
An excluded URL isn’t always a problem. Search engines should exclude login pages, cart steps, internal search results, duplicate filters, and other low-value URLs. The concern is an important business page that has been excluded without a good reason.
Check the page itself before changing technical settings. Does it load correctly? Does it provide original information? Is it linked from another relevant page? Does the page have a clear title, useful headings, and a specific purpose?
A submission request can’t fix a page that returns an error, lacks useful content, or is blocked by your site’s settings.
Site Explorer also helps you find weak sections of a website. If an entire folder has no impressions or clicks, review the pages inside it. The issue may be poor content, weak internal linking, or a structure that makes the pages difficult to find.
For more detail on the tool’s layout and reports, review the Search Engine Journal guide to Bing Webmaster Tools.
Submit new and updated pages carefully
Bing Webmaster Tools includes a URL submission feature. Use it when you publish an important page, make a major update, or need Bing to revisit a changed URL.
You can submit URLs through the portal, usually one per line. A small business might use this after publishing a new service page, updating holiday hours, adding a new location, or replacing outdated pricing information.
Submission is a request for crawling and indexing. It isn’t a guarantee that Bing will index the page or rank it. The page still needs to be accessible, useful, and allowed to be crawled.
Microsoft recommends IndexNow as the primary way to notify Bing and participating search engines about real-time URL changes. If your website platform supports IndexNow, it can reduce the need to submit every update manually.
Use submissions for meaningful changes. Sending the same URL repeatedly won’t make a weak page rank higher. It can also distract you from the work that matters, such as improving the page’s content and fixing technical problems.
If a page must be removed from Bing, first remove or restrict it on your website. For urgent removal requests, use Bing’s content removal form. Removing a result from search doesn’t replace deleting sensitive information from the website itself.
Build a simple monthly SEO routine
You don’t need to open the platform every day. A monthly review is enough for many small businesses, with an extra check after a site redesign or major content update.
Use this routine:
- Review clicks and impressions for your top pages.
- Compare new search queries with the services and locations you want to promote.
- Check Site Explorer for errors, blocked URLs, and unexpected exclusions.
- Confirm that your sitemap is current and accessible.
- Submit important new or updated pages.
- Record changes so you can compare results next month.
Keep a short spreadsheet with the date, page URL, issue, action taken, and follow-up result. This prevents repeated work and helps you see whether a change improved visibility.
A monthly review also keeps technical SEO connected to business goals. If your priority is more calls for plumbing repairs, focus on plumbing pages and the searches that lead to them. Don’t spend the whole session reviewing low-value pages that don’t support your services.
Use the data to make practical improvements
Bing Webmaster Tools works best when you connect its reports to real website decisions. A crawl error should lead to a page fix. A high-impression, low-click query should lead to a better title or clearer page content. An excluded service page should lead to an indexing review.
We also compare Bing data with other sources, such as website analytics and Google Search Console. The numbers won’t match perfectly, and they don’t need to. Differences can reveal new search terms, pages, or technical issues worth checking.
The goal isn’t to chase every report. The goal is to protect the pages that bring in customers and improve the pages that have room to grow.
Conclusion
Bing Webmaster Tools gives small businesses a practical way to check how Bing discovers, indexes, and ranks their websites. Set up the property, verify the correct site version, add your sitemap, review search performance, and use Site Explorer to investigate important problems.
Use URL submission and IndexNow for meaningful updates, not repeated requests. With a short monthly routine, Bing Webmaster Tools becomes a useful part of ongoing SEO work, helping you replace guesswork with clear next steps.
