In short. Start a new scan in Bing Webmaster Tools, set its name, URL scope and page limit, then configure crawl depth, speed and other advanced settings.
Definition: Bing Site Scan is an on-demand website audit in Bing Webmaster Tools that crawls pages and checks for common technical search engine optimization (SEO) issues. A scan is configured with a URL scope, a page limit and optional crawl settings.
Key facts
- As of October 2026, Bing's site verification documentation requires proof of website ownership to complete the addition of a site to a Webmaster Tools account.
- Bing's Site Scan documentation lists Website, Sitemap and URL List as the available scopes.
- Bing's Webmaster Tools overview names broken links, duplicate tags and missing metadata among the problems Site Scan checks.
How is a new scan created?
Bing's configuration instructions start in the Site Scan feature with Start new scan. The form requires a unique, logical Scan Name, a scope and a Limit scan to value, which sets the maximum number of pages scanned. Crawling stops when that limit is reached. The form also displays the remaining monthly quota.
The Communication option sends scan updates to the registered email address. Only users with Administrator or Read-Modify permissions can start, stop and delete scans.
Which URLs does the scope include?
The scope documentation defines Website as a scan starting from a homepage, subdomain or directory URL. It scans the starting page and follows outgoing links within the selected scope. A subdomain is a named subdivision of a domain; Bing gives support.contoso.com as an example. A directory is a child folder within a domain, such as www.contoso.com/help/.
For a whole-website scan, the instructions specify the homepage URL with Crawl all subdomains selected. Bing warns that a large site can consume the monthly quota.
Sitemap accepts the address of a sitemap, a file listing page URLs. This scope crawls URLs found in that sitemap without following outgoing links from those pages. The documentation also lists URL List, but its description repeats the sitemap instructions.
Which settings control the crawl?
Bing's advanced settings documentation describes these controls:
- Max Scan Depth limits the number of clicks from the starting page. Crawling stops at the specified depth.
- Crawling speed (urls per second) sets the maximum number of pages crawled per second. Bing warns that higher speed can slow the website for visitors.
- URL parameters to be ignored accepts query parameters that can safely be ignored. URL parameters appear after the question mark in a page address. Ignoring suitable parameters avoids crawling repeated versions of the same page and saves quota. Suggested parameters can be added by clicking them.
- Ignore Robots.txt bypasses the crawl directives in robots.txt, the file used to give crawlers access instructions.
The configuration screenshot shows Start Scan at the bottom of the form to submit the audit. The same documentation provides this user-agent string, the identification sent with crawler requests:
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; bingbot/2.0; +http://www.bing.com/bingbot.htm)
How are settings and completion checked?
The scan management instructions place past scans and their summaries on the Site Scan home page. Each scan's menu provides access to its configuration and can stop an ongoing scan.
After completion, opening the scan displays Scan Details, including scan status, pages scanned, error and warning counts, and issues with their severity and affected-page counts.
Related terms
FAQ
Can you increase the monthly scan quota?
Bing's quota note says the allocation is calculated automatically from signals available to Bing. It does not support requests to increase that allocation.
What happens if you already have five saved scans?
The same documentation limits storage to five scans. You must delete at least one before starting another; the scan menu contains Delete scan.
Can you audit only a directory?
Yes. Under Website scope, you can enter a directory URL as the starting point. The scan follows outgoing links within that scope.
Sources
- Bing Webmaster Tools, "Site Scan", undated, official article content
- Bing Webmaster Tools, "Adding a site", undated, official article content
- Bing Webmaster Blog, "Start Using Bing Webmaster Tools to Improve Your Site Visibility", 17 June 2025
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