Bing is in the early stages of launching a new version of Bing Webmaster Tools. Though releasing initially for a specific set of users this week, these new tools will be available to users by the early part of March 2020. In its announcement, Bing states that that refresh of Bing Webmaster Tools is a response to the criticism of its existing interface as ‘’slow and outdated’’.
“Over the last few months, we have heard from the webmaster ecosystem that Bing Webmaster Tools user interface is slow and outdated. We’ve taken your inputs into consideration and are working on modernizing the tools. Today, we are delighted to announce the first iteration of the refreshed Bing Webmaster Tools portal.”
The new tools have a redesigned user experience which is compatible with mobiles as well as desktops. To enhance the speed of data extraction, the backend datastore has been updated as well.
The new version of Bing Webmaster Tools will have the following features-
- Backlinks Report:The existing inbound links report is being combined with the disavow tool for creation of the new backlinks report.
- Search Performance: The existing page traffic and search keywords report are merged for creating a new search performance report.
- Sitemaps:An updated version of the existing sitemaps portal.
In the months to come, all functionalities of Bing Webmaster Tools will be moved to the new version. Users can view both versions during this transition period.
Users need to be familiar with the new Bing Webmaster Tools since the features will be removed from the existing version once they are moved to the new one. You can access the new version of Bing Webmaster Tools by either opening Sitemaps, Page Traffic, Inbound Links or Search Keywords reports and clicking on the link for opening the new portal. For instance, here is how the links look like when you visit the sitemaps report in the existing interface:
