Bing is in the initial stages of rolling out a modernized version of Bing Webmaster Tools.
Releasing first to a select set of users this week, the new Bing Webmaster Tools will be available to all users by the first week of March.
In an announcement, the company says the refresh of Bing Webmaster Tools comes as a response to criticism about the current interface being “slow and outdated.”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the last few months, we have heard from the webmaster ecosystem that Bing Webmaster Tools user interface is slow and outdated.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 Bing Webmaster Tools has a redesigned user experience which is compatible with both mobile and desktop devices. The backend datastore has also been updated to improve the speed of data extraction.
“The refreshed portal is being built with key principles of – keeping the design Cleaner and Responsive with Faster and more Actionable tools.”
The first version of the new Bing Webmaster Tools comes with the following 3 key features:
- Backlinks Report: The current inbound links report is being integrated with the disavow tool to create the new backlinks report.
- Search Performance: The current page traffic and search keywords report are being integrated to create the new search performance report.
- Sitemaps: A refreshed version of the current sitemaps portal.
In the coming months, all functionalities of Bing Webmaster Tools will be moved over to the new version. Users will be able to use both versions during the transition period.
Users should become familiar with the refreshed Bing Webmaster Tools sooner than later, as features will be removed from the current version immediately as they’re moved to the new version.
The new version of Bing Webmaster Tools can be accessed by opening either the Sitemaps, Inbound Links, Page Traffic or Search Keywords reports and clicking on the link to open the new portal.
For example, here’s what the link looks like when visiting the sitemaps report in the current interface:
Source: Bing
