How to submit a website to Bing Webmaster Tools

Here's how to submit a website to Bing Webmaster Tools: sign in, choose Add a site, and import the property from Google Search Console or verify it manually. Then submit your XML sitemap and enable IndexNow so Bing hears about new and changed URLs.

Every step below traces to Bing's own help pages and Microsoft Learn, linked in the section where it applies.

Table of Contents

• How to submit a website to Bing Webmaster Tools in four steps
• Import your site from Google Search Console
• Verify the site manually when there is nothing to import
• Submit your XML sitemap so Bing knows where your content lives
• Submit to IndexNow for future updates
• Bing submission routes compared
• What to expect after you submit a website to Bing Webmaster Tools
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Your next step

How to submit a website to Bing Webmaster Tools in four steps

Bing Webmaster Tools is Microsoft's free platform for managing how your site appears in Bing search. It covers crawling, indexing, sitemap monitoring, URL inspection and performance reporting, according to the Bing Webmaster Tools help documentation.

To submit a site to Bing Webmaster Tools for $0: (1) add the site, (2) import or verify it, (3) submit the sitemap, (4) enable IndexNow.

That's the whole job. Here's the full sequence:

1. Open Bing Webmaster Tools and sign in.
2. Choose Add a site.
3. If the site is already verified in Google Search Console, pick the import option and authorize access.
4. If it isn't, add the site manually and complete Bing's ownership verification.
5. Submit your XML sitemap in the Sitemaps section.
6. Use URL Inspection or URL Submission for a few important pages.
7. Enable IndexNow so future additions, updates and deletions get reported automatically.
8. Watch the crawl, indexing, sitemap and performance reports.

Plenty of guides promise this takes five minutes. Bing doesn't publish a setup time. How long it takes depends on your account access and how your site is configured. If the right Google account already owns your Search Console property, it's quick. If you're chasing a former developer for DNS access, it isn't.

Five mechanisms matter here: Google Search Console import, manual verification, sitemap submission, manual URL Submission and IndexNow. Each one has a different job, and the comparison table further down puts them side by side.

ADpilot measures your Google, Bing and AI answer visibility in one place through ADpilot's SEO OS. It doesn't replace this setup. The property has to exist and be verified in Bing first, and no tool, ours included, can make Bing crawl or index a URL.

Import your site from Google Search Console

If your site is already verified in Google Search Console, import it. Bing's documentation states that imported properties don't need separate Bing site verification. That means no verification file, no meta tag and no DNS record to add.

Microsoft Learn describes the import as an optional shortcut when you add a site. You can still go the manual route if you prefer.

The import works by granting Bing access to the relevant Search Console property. In practice, that gives you three checks before you click:

• The right Google account. The import can only see properties that the account you sign in with can access. If Search Console lives under a colleague's or a past contractor's login, sort out access in Google first.
• The right property. Pick the property that matches the site you want in Bing. If you've got several properties for one domain, decide which one you'll treat as the source of truth.
• What you're authorizing. Read the permission screen. You're letting Bing read data from Search Console, so make sure whoever owns that account is fine with it.

When the import finishes, the site shows up in your Bing dashboard as a verified property. From there, the remaining steps are the same as for a manually verified site.

The import doesn't carry over every setting you've built in Google. You still submit the sitemap in Bing's own Sitemaps section, and you still decide how Bing should hear about updates. Treat the import as the step that skips verification, not as a full migration.

Verify the site manually when there is nothing to import

Manual verification is required whenever you don't import from Google Search Console. That covers more situations than you'd think:

• A brand new site that was never added to Search Console.
• A site whose Search Console property sits in an account you can't access.
• A business that doesn't use Google Search Console at all.
• An agency that wants Bing access without touching the client's Google account.

The flow starts the same way. Sign in, choose Add a site, enter your site's URL, then complete Bing's ownership verification. Bing presents its verification options on screen. Pick the one your setup actually lets you complete. If you can edit your site's HTML but not DNS, choose accordingly. If your host only gives you DNS control, use that.

Two things save time here. First, know who controls each layer before you start: the CMS, the hosting account and the domain registrar are often three different logins. Second, finish verification in one sitting. A half-finished verification leaves you with a property you can see but can't use.

Once Bing confirms ownership, you get the same tools and reports as an imported property. Verification proves you own the site. It doesn't tell Bing anything about your pages yet, which is what the sitemap is for.

Submit your XML sitemap so Bing knows where your content lives

XML sitemap: a file on your site that lists the URLs you want search engines to discover, giving crawlers the full set of pages instead of leaving them to find each one through links.

After verification, open the Sitemaps section and submit your sitemap's URL. Bing's Sitemaps report then shows the sitemaps it knows about, along with crawl and processing information for each one, according to the Bing Webmaster Tools help documentation.

Before you submit, run a quick check on the file itself. A sitemap full of broken or blocked URLs sends Bing on a tour of pages it can't use. Confirm that the URLs listed:

• Return a valid response, not an error or a redirect chain.
• Aren't blocked by your robots rules.
• Are the canonical version of each page, not duplicates with tracking parameters.
• Point to pages with useful content you actually want found.

A sitemap supplies discovery information. It doesn't guarantee that Bing will crawl, index or rank every URL in it. That's the most common misunderstanding about this step. Bing uses the sitemap to learn what exists. Whether a page gets indexed still depends on crawl access, valid responses, canonicalization, robots rules and the content itself.

If you run a CMS, your sitemap URL is usually generated for you. Find it, open it in a browser, and make sure it loads before you paste it into Bing. Submitting a sitemap that returns an error is a wasted step that shows up later as confusing report data.

Submit to IndexNow for future updates

IndexNow: a protocol that lets your site notify Bing and other participating search engines when a URL is added, updated or deleted, so those URLs can receive prioritized crawling.

The sitemap tells Bing what your site contains. IndexNow tells Bing what just changed. Bing describes the two as complementary, so you want both running.

Many guides call this "instant crawling." Bing's documentation says prioritized crawling. That's a meaningful difference. A notification moves your URL up the queue. It doesn't guarantee a crawl, an index entry or a ranking.

IndexNow requires a key hosted on your website. That key is how the protocol associates your site with the URLs you submit. The exact key format and hosting rules live in the current IndexNow documentation, so follow that directly rather than copying a format from a third-party guide. Before you build anything, check whether your CMS or host already sends IndexNow notifications. If it does, you only need to confirm it's switched on.

Manual URL Submission still exists for one-off cases. The workflow, per Bing's URL Submission documentation: select your verified site, open Submit URLs, enter one URL per line, and submit.

Bing's URL Submission tool accepts up to 10,000 URLs per domain per day (Bing Webmaster Tools URL Submission documentation, 2026).

Do NOT make manual URL Submission your default for every new or changed page. Bing recommends IndexNow for automated submission, and its documentation says URL Submission and Content Submission may be deprecated as IndexNow adoption grows. A workflow built on pasting URLs into a form is a workflow Bing has already signalled it may retire.

Bing submission routes compared

Each route solves a different problem. This table maps what each one does, with the requirement or limit Bing documents for it.

Read the table as a sequence, not a menu. The first two rows are alternatives: you pick one to get a verified property. The last three stack on top of whichever you chose.

Most small sites end up with this setup: import or verify once, submit the sitemap once, and let IndexNow handle every change after that. URL Submission becomes the exception you reach for when one page matters today, such as a corrected pricing page or a launch announcement.

None of these routes guarantees indexing. Bing describes URL Submission as being for potential crawling and indexation. The same logic applies across the table. You're giving Bing better information. Bing still decides what to crawl, what to index and where it ranks.

What to expect after you submit a website to Bing Webmaster Tools

Adding and verifying a property gives you access to tools and reports. It doesn't give you rankings. Adding a site to Bing Webmaster Tools isn't a ranking signal, and it doesn't replace the technical basics.

You'll see guides promise that performance and crawl data fills in within two weeks. Bing doesn't publish a fixed timeline for when reports populate, so treat any specific number as a guess. What you can do is check the right reports in the right order:

1. Sitemaps report. Confirm Bing has picked up your sitemap and shows processing information for it.
2. URL Inspection. Check a handful of your most important pages to see how Bing sees them.
3. Crawl and indexing reports. Look for errors, blocked URLs and redirects you didn't expect.
4. Performance report. Once data appears, see which queries and pages earn impressions and clicks.

If pages stay out of the index, go back to the sitemap checks: valid responses, robots rules, canonical versions and useful content. Those are the levers that actually move the outcome.

Bing Webmaster Tools also covers AI answers now. Bing introduced AI Performance reporting in public preview in February 2026. In June 2026, the Bing Search Blog announced AI Visibility Insights with four additions: Intents, Topics, Citation Share and Compare. So the property you just verified is also where you'll see how your site shows up in Bing's AI-generated search experiences.

If AI answers matter as much to you as classic results, read how AI search visibility works next. For step-by-step routines you can repeat each week, our search playbooks pick up where this setup ends.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need Bing Webmaster Tools if my site already shows up on Google?

Yes, if you want to see and influence how Bing handles your site. Google Search Console only reports on Google, so it can't tell you about Bing's crawl, index or AI answer data. Learning how to submit a website to Bing Webmaster Tools is a one-time job that opens a second set of reports on a separate search engine.

Can an agency submit a client's website to Bing Webmaster Tools?

It can, through either route. The client grants access to their Google Search Console property so the agency can import it, or whoever controls the client's site or domain completes Bing's manual verification. The steps for how to submit a website to Bing Webmaster Tools don't change for agencies, but deciding up front who owns which login saves days. If you run several client brands, keep a record of which account holds each property.

Does IndexNow notify Google as well?

IndexNow notifies Bing and the other search engines that participate in the protocol. Check the current IndexNow documentation for the list of participating engines rather than assuming any specific one is included. Handle Google through its own tools, such as your sitemap in Google Search Console.

What should I do if Bing shows a problem with my sitemap?

Open the Sitemaps report and read the processing information for that sitemap. Fix the underlying file, such as broken URLs, blocked pages or a sitemap URL that returns an error. Bing's documentation supports resubmitting a sitemap it already knows, so resubmit once the file is clean.

Your next step

If you've been wondering how to submit a website to Bing Webmaster Tools, the order is simple: import from Google Search Console or verify manually, submit your sitemap, and let IndexNow report every change after that. Keep manual URL Submission for the rare page that can't wait. Then watch the Sitemaps, crawl and performance reports, including the AI Performance data Bing added in 2026. Submission gives Bing better information, and the indexing decision still rests on your site's technical health and content.

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