Getting Started with Bing’s Webmaster Tools

Create Your New Account

The first thing you need to do is create your free Bing account, and because Bing is operated by Microsoft, you can even use an existing Windows Live ID to make and log into your webmaster account.

Submit and Verify Your Website

After you sign up and set up the account, it is time to submit and verify your website. This, too, is really easy, as all you have to do is type in the URL of your website and click “Add.” Once you do this, you’ll move on to a screen where you will be able to submit some more basic information, as well as a sitemapA site map is a list of pages on your site and their relative importance. Use sitemaps to make it easier for visitors to find what they're looking for, and to ensure that search engines can find all the information they need. URL. If you have not yet made a sitemap, you can easily do so by utilising the Google XML sitemap plugin.

Set Up Your Search Optimisation Plan

Once your Bing account has been completely set up, and once your site has been added and verified, along with your sitemap, you will be ready to begin making a search optimisation plan really easily.

Start by navigating into your Webmaster Tools, where you should be able to find a couple of areas titled Reports & Data and Diagnostics & Tools. Both of these areas have helpful tools that will assist you in creating your SEO plan.

Under Reports & Data, you will find a tool named SEO Reports. This will actually work automatically on your domain as long as you have verified it in your account. It will run roughly every other week, or twice a month, and you will begin seeing new reports that include suggestions for the items that you need to address in order to improve SEO. The drawback to this tool is the fact that you might need to wait days before you see the reports if you recently verified your site.

Under Diagnostics & Tools, you will find SEO Analyzer. This tool is on-demand, which means you can scan one page immediately whenever and as often as you want, and it will prepare the SEO report in just a few seconds.

Using Bing’s convenient and helpful Webmaster Tools is a great way to get your site optimised for more than just Google. After all, even though Google is the most popular search engine, not everyone uses it all the time, and you do not want your site to be left behind in search engine results if someone decides to use Bing instead.