How to add your store to Bing
Bing is a great source of traffic and is often ignored by website owners, which gives you a better opportunity to get rankings.
The Bing search engine is used by OpenAI which gives you an extra source of traffic via ChatGPT conversations.
Your FreshStore account connects to Bing Webmaster Tools for you, in the same place it connects to Google.
Connect Bing to your store
- In your account, go to Stores and open the store you want to connect.
- Open the Traffic tab, then the Bing tab, then Setup.
1. Connect Bing
Click Connect. You will be sent to Bing to sign in and give FreshStore permission. When you come back, the step shows Connected.
Bing may then ask for a verification code before it will let us finish. If it does, you will see a box asking for a 32 character code. To get it, open Bing Webmaster Tools, choose Add a site, pick the meta tag method, and copy the value inside content="...". Paste it in and click Save & verify. You only need to do this once for your whole account.
2. Verify ownership
Click Verify. FreshStore adds your store to Bing and pushes the verification tag to your storefront for you.
Verification usually takes two to five minutes. Bing has to fetch the tag from your store before it will confirm ownership, so the page shows Verifying, this updates automatically... while it waits. You can leave the page. It carries on in the background.
When it is done the step shows Verified, and the Performance, Indexing and Sitemap tabs start filling with your Bing data.
Your store already submits pages automatically
Your store sends new and changed pages to Bing and Yandex through IndexNow, with no setup and no account needed. You can see the recent submissions at the bottom of the Setup tab, along with how many pages were submitted in the last 30 days.
Choose which content types are submitted under Manage > Settings > SEO & Traffic.
Submit your XML sitemap
Go to Traffic > Bing > Sitemap and click Submit sitemap. Your store generates the sitemap automatically at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml.
Troubleshooting
Bing is not available for my store
Bing Webmaster Tools does not accept stores on a free FreshStore address. It treats the shared domain as shared hosting, and caps how many sites can be registered under it. If your store is on a free address, the Setup tab tells you this instead of showing the steps.
Connect your own domain to the store and Bing becomes available. Google Search Console works either way.
🔗 How to add a custom domain
🔗 Why your own domain matters
I cannot open Bing Webmaster Tools
The Connect button opens Bing Webmaster Tools. If that site does not load in your browser, FreshStore cannot complete the connection from that browser.
Try a private window or another browser. If it still fails, switch to mobile data. This separates a browser or local network block from a Bing outage. Do not add a meta tag to your store to fix this. Once Bing opens and you connect your account, FreshStore adds the site and verification tag for you.
If the Setup tab asks for a 32 character verification code, copy only the value from Bing into the box in FreshStore. Do not paste the full meta tag into Store Settings.
Verification is taking a long time
Two to five minutes is normal. If it takes longer, Bing has usually not fetched the tag from your store yet. Click Re-check connection, and wait a few more minutes before trying again. Clicking Verify repeatedly does not make it faster.
My connection stopped working
The Setup tab tells you what happened and what to do: reconnect Bing, add your store again, or re-verify.
Bing is asking me to upload a BingSiteAuth.xml file
Skip that option. FreshStore does not allow uploading files to your store's root, so it will always fail. If you are setting Bing up by hand, use the meta tag or XML sitemap verification method instead.
Setting Bing up by hand
This is a separate route if you choose not to use the FreshStore connection. It does not fix a Connect error or a browser that cannot open Bing. You do not need it if you used the steps above. If you prefer to manage the site in Bing Webmaster Tools yourself, copy the meta tag Bing gives you and add it to your store under Store > Settings > Store, in the Header Scripts and Meta Tags box. Save, clear your store cache, then click Verify in Bing.