Published on 2025-08-07T06:18:08Z

bingbot

Bingbot is the official web crawler for Microsoft's Bing search engine. Its primary function is to discover, read, and index public web content to build the database that powers Bing's search results. For website owners, having content crawled and indexed by bingbot is essential for gaining organic visibility and traffic from users of Bing and its partner services.

What is bingbot?

Bingbot is the official web crawler for the Microsoft Bing search engine. This bot systematically visits websites to discover, read, and index their content. The data it gathers is used to build and maintain Bing's search index, making the web content discoverable to users of Bing and its partner services. Bingbot identifies itself in server logs with a user-agent string such as Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; bingbot/2.0; +http://www.bing.com/bingbot.htm). It is designed to be an efficient and respectful crawler, adjusting its crawl frequency based on a site's popularity, update schedule, and server capacity.

Why is bingbot crawling my site?

Bingbot is crawling your website to discover and index your pages for Bing's search results. This is a beneficial activity that allows your content to be found by users on the Bing search engine. The frequency of its visits is determined by several factors, including your site's authority, how often you publish new content, and your server's performance. For example, news websites with frequent updates may be crawled multiple times a day, while static sites might be visited weekly. Publishing fresh, high-quality content is a common trigger for more frequent crawls.

What is the purpose of bingbot?

The main purpose of bingbot is to collect the information that powers the Microsoft Bing search engine. By crawling websites, it helps Bing maintain a fresh and comprehensive index of the internet. For website owners, this is crucial as it makes your content discoverable to Bing users, helps reflect content updates in search results, and allows Bing to analyze your site's structure and quality for ranking purposes. The data it collects is processed by Bing's algorithms to determine how pages should rank for hundreds of different factors.

How do I block bingbot?

If you wish to prevent bingbot from crawling your website, you can add a rule to your robots.txt file. This is the standard method for communicating with legitimate search engine crawlers. Blocking bingbot will prevent your pages from appearing in Bing search results.

To block bingbot, add the following lines to your robots.txt file:

User-agent: bingbot
Disallow: /

How to verify the authenticity of the user-agent operated by Bing?

Reverse IP lookup technique

To verify user-agent authenticity, you can use host linux command two times with the IP address of the requester.

```
> host IPAddressOfRequest
```
This command returns the reverse lookup hostname (e.g., 4.4.8.8.in-addr.arpa.).

> host ReverseDNSFromTheOutputOfFirstRequest

If the output matches the original IP address and the domain is associated with a trusted operator (e.g., Bing), the user-agent can be considered legitimate.

IP list lookup technique

Some operators provide a public list of IP addresses used by their crawlers. This list can be cross-referenced to verify a user-agent's authenticity. However, both operators and website owners may find it challenging to maintain an up-to-date list, so use this method with caution and in conjunction with other verification techniques.