Microsoft Live Search, now known as Bing, offers a number of tools that webmasters can use to help promote and test their website. In order to access most of these tools, the webmaster will need to sign in with a free Microsoft Live ID on the Bing website. Alongside webmaster tools, Bing also offers an interactive webmaster forum for discussion and feedback and a webmaster blog. Webmasters can use these tools to help establish a listing in the Bing search engine.
Add-a-Site Tool
The "Add a Site" tool allows webmasters to submit their website URL to be considered for indexing in the Bing search engine. This tool does not ensure indexing, but it can help to bring new website URLs to Bing’s attention. To use this tool, you do not need to log in with the Microsoft Live ID. You only need to go to Bing’s "Add a Site" web page and enter your web page’s URL. You can also supply Bing with your site’s site map, if you have one, and your email address, in case Bing should run into trouble indexing your web page for any reason.
Robots.txt Validation Tool
The "robots.txt" file is a text file that resides in the root of the directories of your web page. This file dictates what search-index crawlers and other bots are allowed to access and index into search engines. However, if the "robots.txt" file is not set up correctly, it may turn away valid search-engine crawlers such as Bing. The "robots.txt validation tool" will scan the text in your "robots.txt" file to see if it has incompatibilities with Bing’s MSNBot crawler that might prevent indexing of your website. To use this tool, you will need to log in with your Microsoft Live ID and paste the text of your "robots.txt" file into the text box provided on Bing’s "robots.txt validation tool" web page.
HTTP Compression and HTTP Conditional GET Test Tool
If you have a large website, and your website host can support it, you may wish to use HTTP compression and conditional GET to help reduce the amount of bandwidth your site uses when other people visit. The Bing tool can test to see if your website is using HTTP compression and conditional GET, which may also help Bing to index a large website faster. You will need to log into Bing using your Microsoft Live ID and go to the test-tool page. There you can enter the URL of the website you want to check for compression.
Tags: Microsoft Live, robots file, will need, your website, Bing search