IndexNow Tool
SETUP GUIDE

Verify Your Site in Bing Webmaster Tools

Site verification in Bing Webmaster Tools proves you own or manage the domain. Without verification, you cannot access crawl reports, submit sitemaps, or link your IndexNow key to the BWT dashboard.

XML File Verification

Easy
  1. 1Log in to Bing Webmaster Tools at bing.com/webmasters
  2. 2Click "Add a site" and enter your domain
  3. 3Choose "XML file" verification method
  4. 4Download the provided XML verification file (e.g., BingSiteAuth.xml)
  5. 5Upload the file to your website root: https://yourdomain.com/BingSiteAuth.xml
  6. 6Click "Verify" in BWT Bing fetches the file to confirm ownership
Note: Keep the file on your server permanently. Removing it may cause reverification failures.

Meta Tag Verification

Medium
  1. 1In BWT, select "Meta tag" verification method
  2. 2Copy the provided meta tag: <meta name="msvalidate.01" content="YOUR_CODE" />
  3. 3Add the tag to the <head> section of your homepage (and ideally all pages)
  4. 4For WordPress: use a plugin like Rank Math or Yoast to add it site-wide
  5. 5For Next.js: add it to app/layout.tsx in the metadata object
  6. 6Click "Verify" in BWT
Note: Next.js metadata example: verification: { other: { "msvalidate.01": "YOUR_CODE" } }

CNAME Record Verification

Advanced
  1. 1In BWT, select "CNAME record" verification method
  2. 2BWT provides a unique CNAME value (e.g., 1234abcd.yourdomain.com → verify.bing.com)
  3. 3Log in to your domain registrar or DNS provider
  4. 4Add a new CNAME record with the provided subdomain and target
  5. 5Allow DNS propagation: 5 minutes to 48 hours depending on your TTL
  6. 6Return to BWT and click "Verify"
Note: Best for sites where you cannot modify files or HTML (e.g., external CDN-hosted content).
Connect IndexNow to BWT