Most people open Bing Webmaster Tools once, submit a sitemap, and never return. That is a waste of a free source.
Four reports change a decision. Read them in this order.
1. Sitemaps, first
The report that says whether the file was read. If Bing reports errors here, nothing below it can be trusted.
Decision it drives: fix or resubmit the sitemap.
2. Site explorer, second
How Bing sees the structure, and whether pages are discovered but not indexed. This is where a site that Google likes and Bing ignores shows up.
Decision it drives: if a section is not indexed, check the internal links to it before writing anything new.
3. Search performance, third
Queries, impressions and clicks, with its own date range. Read it the same way as Search Console, 28 days against 28 days.
brightwater.example
period: 2026-09-01 to 2026-09-28, 28 days
compared to: 2026-08-04 to 2026-08-31, 28 days
measure this previous change
impressions 412 318 +29.6%
clicks 9 7 +28.6%
click rate 2.18% 2.20% -0.02 points
there is no query table in this worked block, because the export
was not read while writing. Read yours, and write the rows in.
Decision it drives: one page to rewrite, chosen from the queries with impressions and no clicks.
4. IndexNow, last
Whether submitted changes were received. It reports acceptance, not a crawl.
Decision it drives: if nothing is received, check the key file before changing the script.
What these reports do not tell you
- They do not describe Google. Bing and Google index differently, and the same sitemap can be read by one and ignored by the other.
- They do not measure behaviour after the click. That needs analytics.
- They do not combine into a market share. Two counters are not one share.
Acceptance: the review is complete when
- the sitemap report shows no errors, or an open fix
- each section of the site appears in site explorer, or a reason is recorded
- one page is chosen from the performance report, with its query
- IndexNow shows receipt for the URLs you sent, or the key file is fixed
- the reading is dated, with both ranges written out
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Sitemap report shows nothing | The file was never submitted, or the property is wrong | Submit it, then re-read |
| Pages discovered, not indexed | Thin pages or no internal links | Link the section from the hub, then wait |
| IndexNow returns an error | Key file missing or mismatched | Fetch the key file path directly |
| Numbers differ from Search Console | Different engine, different data | Report them separately, never averaged |
| No data at all on a new site | The property is new | Read it in a month, and read the pages now |
Limits
This page describes the report names and the reading order. The exports themselves were not read while writing this, because the environment had no network access. No number above is presented as Bing’s own output.
The one hard rule: never add Bing and Google counts together and call the total traffic.