Why bother if you focus on Google
Bing powers search across Microsoft's ecosystem, from the Edge browser to Windows, as well as Copilot, whose responses are listed among the data sources in the search performance report. The cost of entry is tiny: since 2019 the tool can import sites already verified in Google Search Console, with no new verification. You get a second view of indexing plus data Google does not provide.
Key features
- Search Performance: clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position, filterable by page, country, device and date.
- URL Inspection: crawl and index status, live testing and structured data checks.
- Sitemaps: XML, RSS and Atom formats, with error reports.
- Site Explorer: your site structure with clicks, impressions and backlinks per folder.
- Backlinks: your own link profile and those of competing sites.
- Keyword Research and SEO Reports with steps to fix each issue.
- IndexNow: instant notification of added, updated or deleted URLs.
Importing from Search Console
On the My Sites page, choose Import, connect your Search Console account and allow access. Up to 100 sites can be imported at once, within the limit of 1,000 sites per account. Sites are verified automatically, their sitemaps come along, and sitemaps added later in Search Console are synced. Allow up to 48 hours for the first traffic data. If you revoke Search Console access, you will need to re-verify with a meta tag or DNS record.
Good habits after setup
Start by comparing how many pages Bing has indexed with Google's count: a large gap often points to pages blocked for Bingbot, duplicates or a sitemap Bing cannot read. Then turn on IndexNow so new pages are reported the moment they go live, review the SEO reports once a month and filter performance data on Copilot responses to track your visibility in Microsoft's assistant.