How to Check Crawl Errors in Bing Webmaster Tools

Last updated: October 13, 2026

Key Takeaways

• Bing’s crawl-error paths are split across reporting, inspection, and site exploration.
• Bing’s help docs point to Reports & Data and crawl-related reports; menu labels can change.
• Bing’s reports work best when read like an incident log.
• Different URL statuses need different fixes, so check the error type first.

Some links here are partner links. It costs you nothing and may pay us a commission.

Quick answer: In Bing Webmaster Tools, crawl problems usually show up in Reports & Data, Site Explorer, and URL Inspection. For one URL, the first pass takes about 2 minutes: check the error type, the affected URLs, and the last crawl date before changing anything. I’d start with the page-level errors, then widen out to sitewide patterns; that tells you whether you have one broken page or a deeper technical mess.

How to Check Crawl Errors in Bing Webmaster Tools starts with this: “crawl errors” are not a cosmetic issue. They are the places where Bingbot hit a wall, and that can stop discovery, indexing, or recrawling. We read Bing’s own help material, the Webmaster Guidelines, and the reporting screens that Bing documents for site owners.

First published 13 October 2026.

How we compared

We compared Bing’s crawl-error reporting paths, the way its error types are grouped, and the steps Bing says to take after you find a problem. This page is based on Bing’s published help docs, the Webmaster Guidelines, and the report names and menu paths Bing shows for site owners; no product count applies here because this is a how-to, not a shortlist.

What matters most is not the red badge. It is the exact URL, the exact crawl status, and the exact reason Bing could not fetch the page. That is the difference between fixing a bad redirect in 10 minutes and losing a week to guesswork.

How do I check crawl errors in Bing Webmaster Tools?

Open your verified site in Bing Webmaster Tools, then head to the crawl and URL inspection areas Bing uses for reporting: crawl-type reports, Site Explorer, URL Inspection, and the error summaries attached to those screens. Bing’s help docs describe the relevant paths under Reports & Data and the crawl-related reports, and the exact menu labels can shift as the interface changes.

Start with the report that shows the error class, not the page you think is broken. Bing separates problems such as 4xx responses, 5xx responses, DNS failures, robots blocking, and URL discovery issues. That separation matters because the fix is different for each one. A 404 on a retired product page is not the same problem as a robots.txt block on your category template.

Need one page? Use URL Inspection first. It tells you how Bing sees the URL now, whether it can crawl the page, and whether indexing is blocked by robots directives, noindex tags, or a server response. Checking the whole site? Go to the report that groups crawl issues by type so you can spot patterns across many URLs.

A practical order helps: inspect the URL, note the status, confirm the HTTP response with a server log or browser header check, then decide whether the fix belongs in content, redirects, robots rules, or server configuration. Bing documents the crawl reports, but the real work is often outside Bing, on your own server or CMS. See Bing’s own guidance on URL Inspection and crawl reporting in Bing Webmaster Tools, plus the Bing Webmaster Guidelines for crawlability and indexing basics. Bing Webmaster Tools help, URL Inspection, crawl reports.

Where in Bing Webmaster Tools do crawl errors live?

Not in one single “crawl errors” button. That’s the catch, and it throws people off the first time they look. Bing’s interface usually splits the job across reporting, inspection, and site exploration.

The main places to check are:

• Reports & Data for crawl-level summaries and trend-style reporting.
• Site Explorer for URL-by-URL status and discovery patterns.
• URL Inspection for one page at a time.
• Sitemaps if you suspect Bing is finding broken or stale URLs from your submitted feeds.

That split is useful once you know it, but it slows down anyone who expects one master error screen. I’d treat it as a clue, not a nuisance: Bing is asking you to move from symptom to cause. If the pattern is unclear, Microsoft’s support guidance and Bing’s help pages are safer than guessing; if the issue affects rankings, traffic, or a large section of the site, consult a technical SEO or web professional. Bing Webmaster Help, Microsoft Support.

If a page appears in Site Explorer but not in the crawl report, that does not mean the issue is imaginary. Often, Bing discovered the page but never crawled it successfully; sometimes it crawled it and filed it under a different bucket. Watch the status text attached to the URL and the date of the last crawl attempt.

What should I look at first in a crawl error report?

Start with the error type, the affected URL count, and the last crawl date. Those three fields tell you whether the problem is urgent and where to begin. Bing’s reports are most useful when you read them like an incident log.

A 404 on one URL is usually a cleanup task. A 5xx error across a template or section points to server trouble. A robots block across large parts of a site usually means a deployment changed a rule you did not mean to ship.

The last crawl date matters because a recent crawl failure can still be a temporary server hiccup, while an old one can point to a stale URL that Bing keeps revisiting. If the same URL fails repeatedly, the problem is rarely Bing. It is usually your response code, redirect chain, DNS setup, or robots configuration.

One detail people miss: Bing may report a URL as crawlable even when the page is effectively useless to the index because it loads thin content after scripts run. That is not a crawl error in the narrow sense, but it can still create an indexing problem. If the page depends on client-side rendering, check whether the HTML Bing receives contains enough content on its own.

How do I tell a real crawl error from a harmless one?

Ask two questions: can Bing fetch the page, and should the page exist at all? Some crawl errors are normal housekeeping; others mean your site is bleeding discovery.

A stale 404 for a deleted page can be harmless if the URL was intentionally removed and no internal links still point to it. A 404 on a live page is not harmless. A 301 redirect from an old URL to a new equivalent is usually fine; Google and Bing both document that permanent redirects are standard practice, though chains should still be kept short to avoid extra hops. Google Search Central, Bing Webmaster Guidelines.

The same logic applies to blocked resources. If you blocked a staging folder in robots.txt, that is expected. If you blocked your CSS or JavaScript directories, Bing may not render the page correctly, and what looks like a content issue may actually be a crawl-and-render issue.

For many sites, the fastest triage is this:

1. Is the URL meant to exist?
2. Does it return the right HTTP status?
3. Is Bing blocked by robots, auth, DNS, or a timeout?
4. Is the issue one page or many?

That sequence cuts through a lot of busywork. It also keeps you from “fixing” the wrong layer. I see that mistake often in sites that chase content edits while the server is throwing 500s.

What fixes usually solve Bing crawl errors?

Most fixes are boring infrastructure fixes, and that is good news. Bing crawl errors usually clear once the URL, redirect, server, or robots rule is corrected at the source.

The common fixes are:

• 404 or 410 issues: restore the page if it should exist, or point old internal links to the best replacement if it should not.
• 5xx issues: check hosting, app errors, timeouts, and overloaded origin servers.
• DNS or connection failures: confirm the domain resolves correctly, the nameservers are right, and there is no certificate or firewall problem.
• Robots blocks: remove the accidental disallow rule or noindex header that is stopping Bingbot.
• Redirect chains: shorten the path so old URLs land on the final page in one hop.

Bing’s crawl reports help you spot the symptom, but your server logs usually confirm the cause faster than clicking around the interface. If Bing says a page timed out, look at origin response times around the crawl window. If Bing says a page was blocked, compare the live robots.txt and the page headers to the report. For response-code handling, Bing’s documentation and RFC 9110 are useful references. Bing Webmaster Tools help, RFC 9110.

Honestly, Bing Webmaster Tools may not always point to the root cause by itself. It gives you a clue. You still need the HTTP response, the robots file, and sometimes the CMS or CDN layer to finish the job.

Can I use Site Explorer to find crawl errors?

Yes. Site Explorer is one of the best places to find crawl problems because it shows how Bing has discovered and categorized URLs inside your site. It is especially good for spotting clusters of broken URLs, old parameter pages, and paths that should no longer be in circulation.

Use it when you suspect the problem is structural. If dozens of URLs under one folder show the same bad status, you may be looking at a template issue, an internal linking problem, or a section that was migrated without proper redirects. If one folder looks fine and another is full of errors, the pattern tells you where to search first.

Site Explorer is less helpful when you need a one-page answer for a recent release. In that case, URL Inspection is faster. I would not treat Site Explorer as a replacement for error triage; I would treat it as the map that shows whether the fire is local or spread across the building.

What would make me choose differently?

I’d change the workflow if I had one broken page and no sign of a wider pattern. In that case, URL Inspection beats the broader reports because it gets me to the specific URL faster.

I would also switch methods if the site is large and log-heavy. For a few million URLs or a heavily templated catalog, Bing’s reports are useful, but server logs and crawl pattern analysis can explain more than the dashboard does. If the site has a CDN, a firewall, or geo rules, those layers can hide the real cause from Bing’s summary screens.

Bing Webmaster Tools is the right place to start, not the only place to look. That is the trade-off. It is excellent for discovery and triage, weaker for deep diagnosis when the failure sits in infrastructure. See also our guides to redirect audits, robots.txt checks, and server log analysis.

Migration note

Moving in from Google Search Console is easy enough because the mental model is similar: inspect URLs, read coverage-style problems, and look for sitewide patterns. The difference is that Bing tends to spread the job across more screens, so the first few sessions can feel less linear.

Moving out of Bing is harder if your process depends on its Site Explorer and crawl summaries. Those reports are useful shorthand, but they do not replace raw server logs, redirects auditing, or a proper crawl tool. If you leave Bing alone for months, you can also lose the habit of checking whether the same broken URL keeps returning in new reports.

FAQ

How often should I check crawl errors in Bing Webmaster Tools?

Check them after launches, migrations, template changes, robots edits, and whenever traffic or indexation drops for no obvious reason. For a stable site, a weekly or biweekly review is usually enough to catch problems before they spread.

Does Bing Webmaster Tools show every crawl error?

No, it shows the errors Bingbot encounters and reports, which is useful but not complete. A server-side issue, CDN rule, or blocked resource can still affect crawlability even if the report looks quiet.

Can I fix crawl errors without touching Bing Webmaster Tools again?

Yes, many fixes happen on the site itself: redirects, robots.txt, headers, DNS, and server responses. You should still return to Bing afterward to confirm that the error clears on the next crawl cycle.

Does Bing crawl error data work with the tools I already use?

Usually yes, because the same URL problems appear in server logs, CMS reports, redirect maps, and external crawl tools. Bing adds the search-engine view, but it works best alongside log files and a technical crawler, not in isolation.

Why do some URLs stay in the report after I fix them?

Because Bing has to recrawl the URL before it updates the status, and that takes time. Old reports can linger until the next crawl confirms the new response.

Bottom line

Bing Webmaster Tools is the fastest place to find crawl problems, but only if you read the report type, the URL list, and the crawl date in that order. Start with URL Inspection for one page, Site Explorer for patterns, and crawl reports for the broader health check. If the issue is still unclear after that, the server logs usually tell the rest of the story.

Drafted with AI; not yet reviewed by a person.