Quick answer: Use Google Search Console to diagnose Google Search and Bing Webmaster Tools to diagnose Bing. Keep each engine’s performance and indexing evidence separate. Start with the same important URL in both tools, resolve a real access or content problem, and record what changed. Do not add their impressions together or assume a successful sitemap means a page is indexed.
For: a small service website with a few important service and contact pages. This is an owner review process, not a ranking promise or an instruction to submit every URL repeatedly. The example is hypothetical, and no account-level test was performed.
- Looking for Google Webmaster Tools?
- Why check both?
- Choose the question before the report
- Read a sitemap result narrowly
- A hypothetical service-page review
- A sustainable review routine
- Your review record
- Useful detail: Do not fill one engine’s hidden queries with another engine’s data
- Sources and editorial basis
Looking for Google Webmaster Tools?
Google Webmaster Tools is now called Google Search Console. Start there when you need to check your own site’s Google Search visibility, indexing or reported issues. For backlinks, its Links report provides a sample of links Google has found, rather than a complete inventory. A missing link in that report is therefore not enough to conclude that the link does not exist. Choose the report for your question before comparing tools or paying for another service.
For a particular service page, open the correct property and go to Links > External links > Top linked pages. Select that page, then a linking site to see its source pages. Export a review sheet if you need one; keep the sample and row limits in mind. To turn a few exported rows into verified next steps, use our Search Console backlink export worksheet. If you need to know whether your page is indexed, use URL Inspection instead.
Why check both?
Google Search Console describes how Google crawls, indexes and serves your pages, and its Performance report describes appearances and clicks in Google Search. Google’s Search Console overview; Google Performance report guide. Bing Webmaster Tools provides Bing search performance and URL inspection, including index and crawl information for a selected site. Bing Search Performance; Bing URL Inspection.
These are reports from different search systems with different counting and coverage. Review them as two sets of evidence. A difference between their totals is a question about source and definition, not automatically a website defect. Google also warns that its own property and page totals can be aggregated differently. Google’s counting explanation.
Choose the question before the report
On a small screen, swipe the table sideways to see all columns.
| Question | Where to look | Next useful action |
|---|---|---|
| Is a service page public? | Open the exact live URL in a normal browser. | Fix a login, error or unintended redirect first. |
| What does Google report? | Inspect that URL in the correct Search Console property. | Record indexed status, canonical and live-test distinction. |
| What does Bing report? | Inspect the same URL in the matching Bing property. | Record Bing’s index, crawl and live-URL evidence. |
| Are visitors seeing the page? | Filter each engine’s performance report to the page and comparable dates. | Review queries and the page’s relevance; keep totals separate. |
Google’s URL Inspection tool distinguishes its indexed version from a live test; a live test is not evidence that a page is in the index. Bing’s URL Inspection documentation likewise describes indexed information and a Live URL tab. Read the reported reason before taking action. Google URL Inspection; Bing URL Inspection.
Read a sitemap result narrowly
A sitemap is a discovery aid. Check that it lists the canonical public URLs you want the engine to know about, and note any processing issue. Bing’s sitemap help describes submission, discovery and processing status. Bing sitemap guide. Google’s crawling guidance describes sitemaps as a way to help discover many URLs, while explaining that a crawl request cannot guarantee inclusion in search results. Google recrawl guidance.
Keep three counts apart: pages your site publishes, URLs listed in a sitemap and URLs an engine reports as indexed. They describe different things and may refer to different moments. Investigate a specific missing business page instead of treating every difference between totals as an error.
A hypothetical service-page review
Suppose a consultancy publishes a new “Website maintenance” page. It opens publicly, and both tools can read its sitemap. Two weeks later, the owner cannot find it for a broad phrase. First record the exact page URL and inspect it in each tool. If Google reports a different canonical, compare the page with the selected URL and check whether the site already has a near-duplicate. If Bing reports a crawl block, give the maintainer the URL, response and reported restriction. Do not change both issues blindly as though the engines share one diagnosis.
Now suppose both tools show the page indexed but little performance. That changes the question: does the page answer a distinct customer need, use a clear title and receive useful internal links? The owner can improve the page’s service detail and link to it from a relevant existing page. There is no guaranteed visibility gain from this invented scenario. Use our indexing checklist for a fuller Google diagnosis and the internal linking guide for navigation.
A sustainable review routine
Once a month, choose a small set of important URLs: a main service page, the contact route and one recently changed article. In each tool, record property, exact URL, date range, index status, material issues and performance question. Use the same comparison window for a later review within that tool. Do not treat today’s preliminary numbers or a single low-volume day as a trend; Google notes that newest Performance data can still change. Google data freshness note.
If a technical issue is corrected, request an appropriate recheck once and set an internal follow-up date. Google says repeated recrawl requests for the same URL will not accelerate crawling. For many changed URLs, use a sitemap rather than a manual click campaign. A site move needs a broader URL map and cutover plan; see our migration guide.
Your review record
For each important page, save: public URL; Google property and indexed status; Bing property and indexed status; sitemap status; issue and evidence; owner; one change to make; and the next review date. If there is no diagnosed problem and the page serves its reader, leave it alone. If the report is ambiguous, record the uncertainty and ask the site maintainer for a specific check instead of promising an indexing date.
Useful detail: Do not fill one engine’s hidden queries with another engine’s data
Google Search Console’s visible query table can omit anonymized and other truncated query detail.
A Bing query with similar wording does not reveal what Google withheld. Keep a separate missing-detail line for each engine, even when you export both reports to the same sheet.
Try this:
- Put the engine name beside every imported row.
- Compare the visible-query subtotal with that engine’s own total.
- Use shared wording to suggest an editorial question, not to reconstruct an unavailable query count.
Source: Google Search Console: data discrepancies. Checked October 3, 2026. The practical check is a PSL suggestion.
Sources and editorial basis
Official Google Search Central, Search Console Help and Bing Webmaster Tools documentation linked beside the relevant claims, reviewed October 2, 2026. The monthly routine, decision table and fictional page are Practical SaaS Lab editorial recommendations. No engine account was accessed for this article and no ranking result was measured.
