Google Search Console Vs. Bing Webmaster Tools

by | Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing

Google Search Console Versus Bing Webmaster Tools

When it comes to Search Engine Optimization (also referred to as SEO), there are two main players in the game: Google and Bing.

Now yes, comparing these two tools can be like comparing apples to oranges.

And yes, it doesn’t matter which one you use if your company website has no SEO at all, incorrect SEO, or if you have a “free” DIY template that doesn’t permit SEO to even be programmed into the website, or if you (like many struggling small business owners out there) don’t even have a website at all.

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But for those out there interested, perhaps struggling, these are two helpful tools that help define and boost SEO relevance.

Both Google and Bing search engines offer webmaster tools that help site owners optimize their sites for search. In this blog post, we’ll compare Google Search Console to Bing Webmaster Tools, showing pros and cons of each and comparing each of the two.

Google Search Console

Formerly known as Google Webmaster Tools, Google Search Console is a free tool provided by Google to help website owners monitor and improve their site’s performance in Google search results. It provides insights into how Google crawls and indexes your site, shows you search queries that lead to your site, and highlights any errors or issues that Google encounters when crawling your site.

Pros

  1. Easy to use: Google Search Console is known for its user-friendly interface and easy-to-understand reports.
  2. Comprehensive data: Google Search Console provides a wealth of data about your site’s performance in Google search, including search queries, click-through rates, impressions, and more.
  3. Integration with other Google tools: Google Search Console integrates with other Google tools, such as Google Analytics, making it easier to get a complete picture of your site’s performance.
  4. Market dominance: Since Google is the main search engine used across planet earth, it indexes more sites, across more countries, and certainly hold more sway than Bing. However….

Cons

  1. Limited to Google search: As you might expect, Google Search Console only provides data about your site’s performance in Google search results. If you want to track your site’s performance on other search engines, you’ll need to use a different tool.
  2. Limited keyword data: In an effort to protect user privacy, Google Search Console no longer provides exact keyword data. Instead, it groups keywords together into broader categories.
  3. Can be difficult at time: If you’re new to SEO, don’t have (at least) several days to study tutorials, are not familiar at least on a rudimentary level with programming and website development and programming, this can be a steep hill to climb until you gain a foothold.

Bing Webmaster Tools

Bing Webmaster Tools is a free tool provided by Bing that helps website owners improve their site’s performance in Bing search results.

It provides insights into how Bing crawls and indexes your site, shows you search queries that lead to your site, and highlights any errors or issues that Bing encounters when crawling your site.

Pros

  1. Easy to use: Like Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools is known for its user-friendly interface and easy-to-understand reports.
  2. Comprehensive data: Bing Webmaster Tools provides a wealth of data about your site’s performance in Bing search, including search queries, click-through rates, impressions, and more.
  3. Keyword data: Unlike Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools provides exact keyword data, which can be useful for optimizing your site’s content.

Cons

  1. Limited to Bing search: As with Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools only provides data about your site’s performance in Bing search results.
  2. Limited integration with other tools: Bing Webmaster Tools doesn’t integrate as well with other tools as Google Search Console does, which can make it harder to get a complete picture of your site’s performance.

Comparing the Two

So, which tool is better? It really depends on what you’re looking for, how much time you have on your hands, the depth of your SEO knowledge, how many websites you have, how much content you have, how realiable your hosting provider is, dead links (website links that are in active), and how much time you really want to spend tinkering with code and SEO terms.

If you’re primarily interested in optimizing your site for Google search, then Google Search Console is the way to go.

It provides more comprehensive data and integrates better with other Google tools. However, if you’re interested in optimizing your site for Bing search or want exact keyword data, then Bing Webmaster Tools might be a better choice.

And of course there’s nothing to say that you couldn’t list your website with both search tools. Certainly, I’d recommend it when outsourcing SEO to an agency or freelancer.

In the end, it’s worth noting that both tools are free and provide valuable insights into how search engines view your site. So, it’s worth using both to get a complete picture of your site’s performance in search results.

 

Sources

  1. “Google Search Console: The Definitive Guide” by Brian Dean, Backlinko, https://backlinko.com/google-search-console-guide
  2. “Bing Webmaster Tools: The Ultimate Guide” by Brian Dean, Backlinko, https://backlinko.com/bing-webmaster-tools
  3. “Google Search Console, About:” https://search.google.com/search-console/about
  4. “Overview of Microsoft Search in Bing:” https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftsearch/overview-microsoft-search-bing