Bing Content Submission API is available to All
Microsoft, in the pursuit of evangelizing the new wave of empowering webmasters to have more control over the content which they want search engines and searchers to adopt, launched its Bing Content Submission API in Beta mode in May 2021.
This content submission API differs from the Bing URL submission API. The former allows users to submit not just URLs but also content such as blog posts and news articles, images, HTML, and more directly to Bing’s index.
According to Microsoft, “the API provides the availability for webmasters to notify Bing directly about the changes in their site in real-time.” Thus, SEO professionals can keep themselves informed about the changes in their site in real-time.
The API can be adopted by website owners who want to implement and start sending their content changes to Bing. The API is now open to all and allows anyone using it to implement and start sending their content changes to Bing. This not only allows the SEO professionals to reach more relevant users and also reduces the BingBot crawl load on their sites.
Along with the URL submission API launched earlier, this API will now allow the website owners much more flexibility in sending the updated content and URLs to Bing. This will happen as soon as the changes are made so that the searchers can see the updated content soon after the changes have been made by the website owners.
The feedback on the API is continuously monitored by Bing and they are quite fixated to learn from the public feedback and improve at a larger scale to adjust the crawl rates for sites implementing the API. The continuous improvement will allow users to reap the maximum benefit in terms of indentation and will allow them to better manage their crawl load as well as will ensure that the content served is contextual and fresh for the searchers.
How to Easily Set Up Bing’s Content Submission API
A unique feature of Bing is that the content creators now need not wait to get their content crawled and indexed on Bing. Bing allows them to let it be known to the search engine how they wish to go about the latest changes in their sites or site content. This may include activities such as providing the latest added, updated, or deleted content and URLs.
Bing also offers content strategists the ability to notify Bing about URL changes via its Bing URL submission application programming interface. The following are the critical steps for setting up the application programming interface for content submission:
Step 1: Generating an API Key
To access and use their Bing Webmaster APIs, webmasters need an API key. This API key can, in turn, be generated from the Bing Webmaster Tools, following the steps below:
- The user needs to Sign in to his account on Bing Webmaster Tools. Those who don’t have a Bing Webmaster account can sign up using their Microsoft, Google, or Facebook IDs as well.
- Next up, the users need to add & verify the site that they want to submit the URL for through the API if it’s not already done.
- Then one needs to click on the Settings button in the top right corner and then go to the API Access section. If the key is being generated for the first time, one needs to click Generate to create an API Key. If this isn’t done the user will see a previously generated key.It must be noticed that the API key is user-specific and isn’t for a user or a site and hence a user can use the same API key for all their verified sites on Bing Webmaster’s tool. The API key can also be changed anytime and the change is incorporated by the system within 30 minutes.
Step 2: Integrating the application programming interface with Your Website for Content Submission
Various protocols can be used to easily integrate the Webmaster API Submit Content method into your system. One can go for an XML request sample or a JSON request sample. The following is the screenshots of the JSON request sample:
If the URL submission is successful marketers can receive an HTTP 200 response. This ensures that their pages will be discovered for indexing and if Bing webmaster guidelines are met then the pages are crawled and indexed in real-time.
By using any of the above methods, marketers should be able to directly and automatically let Bing know whenever there are content changes in their website. Marketers can integrate such a solution in their Web Content Management System to allow Bing to auto-discover the new content at the time of publication.
This solution not only helps expedite indexing for your new or updated URLs like the Content Submission application programming interface offered, but it also bypasses the crawling of that content and allows searchers to submit content directly to the search engine. The solution can be tested by the webmasters on their sites or client sites and this way the marketers can figure out whether it makes a big difference on indexing and your server resources.
Wrap Up
The Content Submission API by Bing has been released by Microsoft after two and a half years of private testing. This technique is a boon for webmasters as it allows websites to transmit content directly to Microsoft Bing anytime their content is changed or produced. The webmasters can not only transmit the URL but also their HTML, content pictures, and other files to Bing for indexing, thus skipping the crawling process. This feature can be an important competitive differentiator for Bing especially when we compare it to other search engines, especially Google.
After rolling out the Beta version of the application programming interface in May Microsoft said, “with an overwhelming response and great feedback from website owners who had adopted the API, we are pleased to announce that Bing Content Submission API is now open for all to implement and to start sending their content changes to Bing, not only to reach more relevant users on Bing but also to reduce bingbot crawl load on their sites.”
The application programming interface allows instant indexing and is open to anyone who wants to use it including site proprietors, publishers, and webmasters.
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