How does Bing index websites?
Bing indexes websites via Bingbot, its automated crawler. Submit your sitemap.xml through Bing Webmaster Tools to accelerate indexation; new pages typically appear within days. Key signals Bing weighs: crawlability (robots.txt, sitemap coverage), HTTPS, and inbound links. Bing's IndexNow protocol lets you ping new or updated URLs immediately, without waiting for the next crawl cycle.
How long does Bing indexation take?
Without a sitemap or IndexNow submission, Bingbot discovers pages through links from already-indexed sites. That passive crawl can take weeks or never happen at all for new domains with few inbound links. Submit your sitemap.xml through Bing Webmaster Tools and new pages typically appear within a few days. Use IndexNow to push a URL the moment it publishes and indexation typically follows within hours. The actual speed varies with your site's authority and how frequently Bingbot already visits.
What does Bing's robots.txt checker actually look for?
Bingbot reads your robots.txt before crawling any page on your domain. A Disallow: / rule or a rule targeting Bingbot specifically will block the crawler completely. Bing also respects crawl-delay directives; a crawl-delay above 10 seconds can significantly slow indexation. Beyond robots.txt, Bing checks that each page returns a 200 status, that it is not blocked by a noindex meta tag or X-Robots-Tag header, and that canonical tags point to the intended URL rather than away from it. You can test your robots.txt behavior directly inside Bing Webmaster Tools.
Why is my site in Google but not Bing?
Google and Bing run separate crawlers with separate indexing queues. Being in Google does not automatically get you into Bing. The most common reasons a site appears in Google but not Bing: the sitemap was submitted only to Google Search Console; robots.txt blocks Bingbot by name while allowing Googlebot; or the domain is new and Bingbot has not yet visited it through natural link discovery. Check Bing Webmaster Tools for crawl errors, verify your sitemap is submitted there, and use IndexNow to push any pages that should already be indexed. AuditLamp's free audit checks robots.txt rule coverage and sitemap health for both crawlers.