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The Bing URL inspection tool is the most detailed view Bing gives of a single page: whether it is indexed, when it was crawled, and what stopped it if it was not. It is also built around one address at a time, on sites you have verified. This guide covers what the tool reports, how to act on each part of the result, and the situations where a list-level check does the job better.

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What the tool reports

Open Bing Webmaster Tools, choose a verified site, go to URL Inspection and paste the full address. The result covers:
  • Index status. Whether the URL is in Bing’s index, with a view of the Bing indexed version of the page.
  • Discovery and crawl. When Bing first discovered the URL and when it last crawled it.
  • Permissions. Whether crawling and indexing were allowed, so a robots.txt block or a noindex shows up here.
  • Fetch result. Whether the last fetch succeeded.
  • Canonical. The canonical URL Bing uses for the page.
  • SEO and markup. Issues such as missing language meta tags or image alt text, plus markup and enhancement notes.
Two actions sit next to the report: Live URL runs a fresh test after a change, and Request indexing asks Bing to crawl the page again.

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Reading the result

Indexed, canonical matches the URL. Nothing to fix for indexing. If the page still gets no traffic, the issue is ranking, not the index. Indexed, but the canonical is a different URL. Bing stores the other version. Decide which address should win, then align redirects, rel="canonical" and internal links so they all point to it. Not indexed, crawling not allowed. Check robots.txt. If the file has a User-agent: bingbot section, Bingbot follows only that section and ignores the default one, so a rule there can block Bing while other crawlers get through. Not indexed, fetch failed. Look at server responses for Bingbot: timeouts, 5xx errors, a firewall or bot-protection challenge. Not indexed, crawled recently, no errors. Bing fetched the page and chose not to keep it. Look at duplication with other URLs, thin content and how well the page is linked internally. After improving it, run the Live URL test and request indexing.

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Where one URL at a time stops working

URL Inspection answers “why” for a page on your own site. It does not fit three common jobs:
  • Pages on other domains. Guest posts, backlinks, PR placements and partner pages live on sites you cannot verify, so URL Inspection cannot see them. Bing’s url: operator, which “checks whether the listed domain or web address is in the Bing index,” works for any address but is still one query per URL.
  • Large lists. After a migration or a sitemap rebuild, checking a few thousand URLs one by one is not realistic. Site Explorer and Sitemap Index Coverage give counts and samples, but not a status for every address you care about; Sitemap Index Coverage is only available for sites with more than 10,000 URLs indexed.
  • Repeat checks. A client report or a weekly monitor needs the same list checked again and again, ideally with an export.
For these jobs, the practical setup is to check Bing index status for a whole URL list and use URL Inspection only on the pages that come back as not indexed. For quick single-page checks without Webmaster Tools, see other ways to check a page in Bing.

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A combined workflow

  1. Collect the list. Export URLs from the sitemap, the CMS or a backlink report.
  2. Run a bulk check. Get a status for every URL.
  3. Group the missing URLs. Sort by template, folder or donor domain.
  4. Inspect samples. For your own site, open two or three URLs per group in URL Inspection and read the permissions, fetch result and canonical.
  5. Fix and notify. Fix the cause, then use Request indexing or IndexNow. An IndexNow 200 or 202 response confirms receipt, not indexing.
  6. Recheck the same list after Bing has had time to crawl.

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FAQ

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Can the Bing URL inspection tool check a page on someone else’s site?

No. It works on sites added and verified in your Bing Webmaster Tools account. For other domains, use the url: operator or a bulk check.

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Does Request indexing make Bing index the page?

It asks Bing to crawl the URL. Whether the page is indexed still depends on what Bing finds when it fetches it.

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Is URL Inspection the same as IndexNow?

No. URL Inspection reports on a single URL and offers a recrawl request; IndexNow is a protocol for notifying Bing and other participating engines that URLs were added, updated or removed.

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Sources

  • searchengineland.com/bings-new-url-inspection-tool-what-it-does-and-why-to-use-it-338454
  • blogs.bing.com/webmaster/May-2012/To-crawl-or-not-to-crawl,-that-is-BingBot-s-questi/
  • support.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/advanced-search-keywords
  • blogs.bing.com/webmaster/september-2023/How-to-Use-the-new-Sitemap-Index-Coverage-to-Improve-Your-Site-s-Index-Coverage
  • www.indexnow.org/documentation