The new Bing Site Explorer feels like a remarkable combination of a technical and a performance audit that is custom-made for serving information into digestible bits, in order for site owners to quickly decipher what the issues are, and infer how they’re faring in Bing search.
With incredible smart choices, the tool delivers on technical & performance details — each governed by a primary filter (screenshots to follow) — with the main purpose of informing site owners on how Bing sees their website.
The beauty in all of this is that data is provided in a file/folder explorer architecture format. (Think how the Windows OS File Explorer is).
How the New Bing Site Explorer Displays the Data
First things first, and I touched super-briefly on this above, but as mentioned, the data is governed by a primary filter. This filter helps you break down information by specific classifications such as:
- Indexed URLs
- URLs redirecting
- URLs with guideline issues
- URLs with malware
- etc. (There are many options)
All of the information you see inside the file explorer is based on your choice of the so-called primary filter.
How the Bing Site Explorer Functions
Now that we know what the governing force is, let’s take a look at how it functions.
The Arrangement and the Sorting
The whole tool is primarily divided into two panels/panes/windows (whatever you want to call it). They are:
- The explorer panel.
- And the informational as I like to call it. This is further divided into top, and bottom.
The Explorer Panel lets you browse all of your sub-directories/sub-folders. The informational panel then displays first, the aggregate info of that sub-directory (on top), followed by the info on the list of actual URLs under that sub-directory — including the root (at the bottom).
Additionally, you can sort both the panels by:
- Name
- Clicks
- Impressions
See the screenshot below for reference.
One incredibly cool feature that I love about it is that you can collapse the explorer panel to reveal more specifics about the individual URLs. View the 10-second video below to see how you can do that.
Moreover, you can either inspect, request indexing, or test a URL via robots.txt tester, right from the tool.
You May Also Want to Check Out:
- How to Add Users and Owners in Google Search Console
- 3 Easy Steps to Implementing JSON Breadcrumb Schema Code
- Google Analytics Glossary: A Guide to Understanding Various Google Analytics Terms, Definitions, Metrics, and More
- How to Track Button Clicks With Google Tag Manager
- What Is an SEO Slug?
- What Are Reciprocal Links? Are They Harmful to Your SEO?
- How to Anonymize IP Addresses With GTM (and Then Verifying the Same)
- 5 Methods for Permanently Removing URLs From Google Search
- All Other Topics and Posts
Wrapping Up
Personally, I think the new Bing Site Explorer is precisely what the SEOs were looking for.
Something simple, something familiar, something useful. Even on Twitter, I’ve seen a lot of respected professionals sing praises about it as well. If you haven’t given it a shot, I’d urge you to check this new functionality out as soon as it’s convenient for you.