If you’ve spent any time in the SEO world, you already know the drill. Set up Google Search Console, check it obsessively, panic slightly when clicks dip, repeat forever. But here’s a question most bloggers and site owners never bother asking: what about Bing?
It sounds like a joke to a lot of people. “Who even uses Bing?” Turns out, more people than you’d think. Bing powers search for Microsoft Edge, Windows devices, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo (partially), and a growing chunk of AI-driven search experiences. If you’re only optimizing for Google, you’re leaving a real, measurable slice of traffic on the table.
So let’s actually compare Bing Webmaster Tools and Google Search Console side by side — not as rivals, but as two tools that, together, give you a much fuller picture of how your site performs in search.
What Google Search Console Does Well
Google Search Console (GSC) is the industry standard for a reason. It’s where most SEOs live day to day, and it’s usually the first tool anyone sets up when launching a new site.
Its biggest strengths:
- Performance reports that break down clicks, impressions, CTR, and average position by query, page, country, and device.
- URL Inspection tool, which tells you exactly how Google sees a specific page — whether it’s indexed, crawled, and if there are issues stopping it from ranking.
- Core Web Vitals reporting, tied directly to Google’s ranking signals around page experience.
- Sitemap submission and indexing status, so you know what’s actually being crawled versus what’s stuck.
- Manual action and security issue alerts, which can save your site from a full-blown ranking disaster.
For most site owners, GSC data is treated as gospel. And honestly, since Google handles roughly 90% of global search traffic, that instinct isn’t wrong. But “most of the traffic” isn’t “all of the traffic,” and that gap is exactly where Bing Webmaster Tools becomes relevant.
What Bing Webmaster Tools Brings to the Table
Bing Webmaster Tools (BWT) often gets dismissed as the “lesser” version of GSC. In some ways, that’s fair — Bing’s market share is smaller. But in other ways, BWT has quietly become more useful than people give it credit for, especially with a few features Google doesn’t offer at all.
Here’s what stands out:
- Keyword Research tool built right in — a genuinely useful feature that shows search volume and related keywords without needing a separate paid tool.
- SEO Reports and Site Scan, which flag on-page issues like missing meta descriptions, thin content, or broken links in a much more beginner-friendly format than GSC.
- Backlink data that’s more generous and easier to explore than what Google gives you.
- IndexNow integration, which lets your site notify Bing (and other participating engines) instantly when content is added or updated, instead of waiting for a crawl cycle.
- Content that also feeds Bing Chat and Microsoft Copilot, since Bing’s index powers a lot of the AI-generated answers people are now getting instead of clicking through to websites.
That last point matters more every month. As AI search overviews and chat-based answers grow, being indexed and understood properly by Bing isn’t just about Bing.com traffic anymore — it’s about visibility inside Microsoft’s AI ecosystem entirely.
The Real Difference: Data Depth vs Data Access
Here’s the honest, human version of the comparison, without the marketing fluff.
Google Search Console gives you deeper, more granular performance data, but access to some of that data (especially anything beyond basic search analytics) is limited unless you also connect Google Analytics or use the API.
Bing Webmaster Tools gives you more actionable tools out of the box — keyword research, on-page audits, and backlink exploration — without needing a separate subscription. It’s less polished, sure, but it hands you more usable insight for free.
If Google Search Console is a highly detailed report card, Bing Webmaster Tools is more like a report card plus a tutor sitting next to you explaining what to fix.
Traffic Volume Isn’t the Only Metric That Matters
A common argument against bothering with Bing is simple: “Bing sends less traffic, so why care?”
Fair point on the surface. But a few things get missed in that logic:
- Bing users, especially those on Windows and Edge by default, tend to skew slightly older and have higher average purchasing power — which matters a lot for ecommerce and B2B sites.
- Bing’s search results often have less competition, meaning it can be genuinely easier to rank for competitive keywords there than on Google.
- Submitting your sitemap to Bing takes about five minutes and costs nothing. The ROI math is almost impossible to argue against.
Ignoring Bing isn’t really a strategic decision — it’s usually just a habit nobody questioned.
So, Which One Should You Actually Use?
Honestly? Both. This isn’t an either-or situation, and treating it that way is where most site owners go wrong.
- Use Google Search Console as your primary performance dashboard, since it reflects the majority of your organic traffic and ties directly into Google’s ranking systems.
- Use Bing Webmaster Tools as your secondary check-in, especially for its keyword research and on-page audit features, and to make sure you’re not invisible to Microsoft’s search and AI ecosystem.
Setting both up takes maybe fifteen minutes combined. Verifying your site, submitting your sitemap, and letting the data collect over a few weeks costs you nothing but a little time.
Final Thoughts
SEO isn’t just a Google game anymore, even if it still feels that way most days. Bing Webmaster Tools isn’t going to replace Google Search Console, and it was never meant to. But dismissing it outright means missing out on free keyword data, easier audits, and visibility inside an AI search ecosystem that’s only getting bigger.
If you’re serious about long-term organic growth, the smartest move isn’t picking one tool over the other. It’s using both, understanding what each one is actually good at, and stopping the habit of treating Google as the only search engine that exists.