Microsoft offers Bing Webmaster Tools to help webmasters index their site in the Bing search engine, solve site problems, create sitemaps and view incoming and outgoing links, among many other features. It’s key for success because Bing gets millions of searches every day, creating potential web traffic to your site.

In the Bing vs. Google debate, Bing often takes the second position. Google gets about 65% of all searches on the web, while Bing gets about 33%. However, Bing’s percentage has grown over the years.

No matter which search engine you focus on, quality content still rules above all else. That  became clear with the death of page rank, when Google pulled the focus off quantity and put it more on quality. That same focus on quality is necessary to succeed with Bing.

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What Bing Webmaster Tools Offer

Bing caters more to SEO professionals than Google, according to Search Engine Land.  For example, Bing came out first with a “disavow links” tool that allows you to report any untrustworthy links pointing to your site. If you hire a professional internet marketing company, you want them to have people with skills in using tools for both search engines.

Webmasters can take advantage of many different tools with Bing. They include the following.

Adding Site To Bing Index

Webmasters can set up with Bing Webmaster Tools for free. At that point, it’s a simple matter of putting the site’s URL into a bar and clicking on “add” to begin the process of getting pages indexed. Bing then verifies the site. After verification, it takes a day or two before Bing crawls the site and starts adding pages to its search index.

The advantage is obvious. Bing gets about 500 million searches a day in the U.S. alone. You don’t want to miss out on any customers in that huge amount of web traffic.

Create Sitemaps

When you use Bing Webmaster Tools to create a sitemap, it makes it easier for the Bing search engine to crawl your site and index pages for searches. A sitemap sets up the structure of a site. You don’t have to submit one through the Bing Webmaster Tool, but it is the easiest method. It also allows you to see important site information like the number of URLs indexed and the last date Bing crawled the site.

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Solving Issues

The Bing site also allows webmasters to solve issues with the site that prevent it from ranking better in search results. Common problems include 404 File Not Found errors and pages blocked by robots exclusion protocol (REP). Bing Webmaster Tools allows you to quickly find and solve issues on your site, allowing you to rank better on searches made through Bing.

Checking Links

Bing Webmaster Tool also makes it easy to see “backlinks,” referral links to your site made by other sites. You also can control which areas of the site don’t appear as a Deep Link. Bing created Deep Links to show searchers more options to click on for a site. Usually they are sections of the site dedicated to different topics. For example, deep links under iFame Media include “sustainable marketing practices” and “social media marketing.” Deep Links gives searchers more specific areas of a website to access.

These Bing Webmaster Tools features can help you better structure and market your website. For businesses looking for internet marketing, it’s key to hire a company that understands how to position your website on both Google and Bing. That way, you can appear in more search results and have more chances to attract business.

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