How to Submit a Sitemap to Bing Webmaster Tools

Bing powers its own search engine and also supplies results to other services. Submitting your sitemap to Bing Webmaster Tools helps it discover your pages faster and gives you data about how Bing sees your site.

Step 1: Add your site

Sign in to Bing Webmaster Tools. You have two options:

• Import from Google Search Console — the quickest way. Bing imports your verified sites and their sitemaps.
• Add manually — enter your site URL and verify it with an XML file, a meta tag or a DNS record.

Step 2: Check which sitemap was imported

If you imported from Search Console, Bing copies the sitemaps you submitted there. Open Sitemaps and confirm the address is your correct, current sitemap — on the same host your site uses (with or without www) and listing canonical URLs.

Step 3: Submit your sitemap

1. Open Sitemaps in the left menu.
2. Click Submit sitemap.
3. Enter the full URL, for example https://example.com/sitemap.xml, and submit.

Also add a Sitemap: line to your robots.txt so every search engine can find it.

Step 4: Read the status

• Success / Processed — Bing read the file; the URL count shows how many pages it found.
• Pending — not processed yet; give it a day or two.
• Error — open it to see the problem.

Common sitemap errors

• Could not fetch — the URL is wrong, redirects, or a firewall blocks Bingbot.
• Invalid format — broken XML, often from an empty field or special character.
• URLs on a different host — for example, www URLs in a sitemap for a non-www site.
• Redirecting or noindexed URLs inside the sitemap.

Generate a valid file with the XML sitemap generator and read what an XML sitemap is.

Go further than the sitemap

• Use URL Submission to request indexing of important pages.
• Set up IndexNow for instant updates — see what IndexNow is.
• Run Site Scan for a free technical check.

A worked example

A small Irish consultancy imported its site from Search Console. Bing showed the sitemap as "Error: could not fetch". The sitemap URL was correct, but the host's firewall was challenging Bingbot. After the host allowed verified Bingbot traffic, the sitemap processed the next day and pages began appearing in Bing within a week.

After your sitemap is accepted

• Check Search Performance after a few weeks to see which queries bring Bing visitors.
• Use URL Inspection on important pages to confirm Bing has indexed them.
• Review the Recommendations section, which lists issues Bing found across the site.
• Resubmit the sitemap after large changes such as a redesign or migration.

Treat Bing as a second view of your site's health. Problems it reports — missing titles, broken links, slow pages — usually affect every search engine.

Related guides

• What Is Crawl Budget in SEO? (And When It Actually Matters)
• How to Create an XML Sitemap for Your Website for Free
• What Is a Sitemap Index File? When and How to Use One

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Frequently asked questions