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Bing shuts down public URL submission tool

This decision may help Bing reduce spam shown in the search results and focus on more trustworthy content.

Barry Schwartz on September 18, 2018 at 10:44 am

Bing announced it is shutting down its anonymous submit URL tool, where anyone can submit any URL on the web for submission into the Bing search index. Google shut down their public URL tool just a few months ago.

Bing said you can still use Bing Webmaster Tools to submit your own URLs.

Why is it going away? Bing said the URLs received through the public URL submission tool were too low-quality to be trustable. “Webmasters prefer having more ownership of the URLs for their site,” Bing said, and the shuttering of the public tool removes access from third parties submitting their URLs to Bing’s search index.

How am I impacted? Well, you simply won’t be able to submit any URL you want to the Bing index. In addition, to submit URLs, you first need to create a Bing Webmaster Tools account, verify your website, and then use the tool within that console to submit URLs.

In order to use the tool, webmasters just need to log in, add and verify their site, then navigate to the Submit URL tool within the Configure My Site menu options.

How does it impact search? This decision may help Bing reduce spam shown in the search results and help it focus on more trustworthy content. The overall search experience for users may improve, though Bing was able to handle most of the serious spam before this change.

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on SEM topics.