Bing Makes Site Confirmation Simpler by Importing Sites from Google Search Console
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Bing continues to add value to their Web Master platform by automating the import of sites confirmed in your Google Search Console.
There are many services you might use to monitor, audit and many other tasks related to the health and operation of your website. Most of these sites require some form of validation to ensure you own the site and have proper access to monitor, alter and collect sensitive data related to the property.
If you are like me and own or are responsible for multiple sites this can be tedious.
Traditionally you have needed to upload an empty file to the site using some sort of hash value as its name. More recently you have also been able to add a DNS record, which requires a little more technical know-how.
Either way it is nice when you can verify ownership using one service and scale that same verification automatically to other services.
This is what Bing is now doing by leveraging or accepting sites already confirmed using Google Search Console.
The new feature most likely uses the Google Search Console API, which offers an endpoint to get a list of your verified sites. This does require you give the Bing Webmaster site permission to access your account's site list.
The actual process is very simple. Once you login to your Bing Webmaster account you see a list of your confirmed sites.
At the top of the list you will now see an option to import your sites from the Google Search Console.
After you select this option you will be greeted with a modal dialog to help walk you through the process.
When you click the 'Continue to Search Console' button you will pass through the normal OAuth experience. This is where you see another window open where you need to select your Google account and then confirm you want to give the Bing Webmaster site access to your Google Search Console data.
The modal dialog will now change to display a list of sites available to import. I only had one site I had not added to Bing, but if you have more they will all be listed here.
Make sure to check each site you want to import.
Select 'Import' to trigger the process, which happens very quickly.
Now you will see a list of all the sites you were able to import. So just click the 'Done' button and you are, well all done.
I love when things are easy and the Bing team has made utilizing your confirmed sites to automate importing simple. This feature will save you lots of time and open up access to information Microsoft has about your site regarding your SEO health.
So, if you have not confirmed your sites in the Bing Webmaster tools you now have no excuse.
