SEO

Bing URL Coverage

Also known as: Bing indexation coverage, URL coverage report, Bing GetUrlInfo, Bing coverage

Bing URL Coverage answers the question: how many of my URLs does Bing know, and in what status? The Bing Webmaster Tools interface shows this information only for a single URL at a time in the ”URL Inspection” tab. Rankmio automates the view: for every address from the most recent sitemap crawl a GetUrlInfo call is made to Bing, the result is cached for seven days and sorted into four states. Rankmio queries at most twelve addresses per run, because Bing refuses further calls after that. The outcome is a table from which content owners can tell in seconds which new pages still have no Bing signal — precisely the candidates that should be submitted via IndexNow.

The four coverage states

Indexed — Bing has crawled the page and holds it in the index (signals: DocumentSize > 0 and LastCrawledDate set). No action required.
Known, not indexed — Bing is aware of the URL through the sitemap or a backlink (AnchorCount > 0 or LastCrawledDate) but has not yet added it to the index. Action: strengthen internal linking, refresh content signals or submit it again via IndexNow.
Unknown to Bing — No signal at all (neither crawled nor linked). Action: submit the URL via IndexNow — the fastest way to enter Bing's field of view in the first place.
Query pending — No answer from Bing exists for this address. Either Rankmio has not asked yet, or Bing refused the call because of throttling. The state says nothing about indexing; it says the question is still open.

Why coverage is stronger than the bare indexation figure

Bing's health report shows the number of indexed pages as an aggregate (”In index: 34”). What is missing: which 34, and which of the remainder are known-but-not-indexed (and could make it in with content optimisation) versus entirely unknown (and need a push). That is exactly the distinction the coverage view provides. For content teams the difference is decisive: a ”known, not indexed” URL is a content problem, an ”unknown to Bing” URL is a distribution problem.

Limits and caching strategy

The limit is set by Bing, not by Rankmio. GetUrlInfo answers one address per call, and after roughly ten calls Bing refuses further ones — with ThrottleUser for the account or ThrottleHost for the whole server. The window refills within two to three minutes. It is therefore a rate limit and not a daily quota: four consecutive runs on 12 September 2026 got 10, 12, 9 and 10 calls through.

Each refresh queries at most twelve addresses and stops at the first refusal. A refused call is not stored, so the address stays queued for the next run.
The cron job bing_url_index_sync runs hourly and takes on the project that has gone longest without an answer from Bing. With a fixed order, the same project consumed the entire window every time.
An answer is valid for seven days. Anything shorter would be pointless: with several hundred addresses and around ten calls per window, re-checking alone would consume more calls than ever get through.
Only addresses that returned HTTP 200 in the last sitemap crawl enter the analysis.

Example from practice

Example: A content team publishes 12 new insights articles in one week. In the Bing coverage view on Friday, 8 of them appear as ”unknown to Bing”, 3 as ”known, not indexed” (Bing has them from the sitemap but has not indexed them yet) and 1 already as ”indexed”. The team marks the 8 unknown ones via bulk select and sends them to IndexNow with a single click. By the following Tuesday, 10 of the 12 URLs show as ”indexed” and the remaining 2 as ”known, not indexed” — a documented acceleration of at least 4-5 days compared with passive waiting.

Frequently asked questions

Why is my ”Bing query pending” figure so high?

”Pending” means that no answer from Bing exists for this address. Usually that is down to Bing: it refuses calls after roughly ten of them, so with a sitemap of several hundred addresses it takes days until all of them have an answer. A click on ”Refresh Bing status” checks the next twelve addresses immediately, and the hourly cron job works through the rest.

Can I refresh all URLs at once?

No, and more clicks will not help either: Bing refuses calls after about ten of them, no matter who makes them. Twelve addresses are allotted per click, and usually nine to twelve get through. The hourly cron job handles the rest on its own and spreads the calls across the day.

What is the difference to Bing's own ”URL Inspection” report?

Bing's report is a single-URL tool: you enter a URL and see its status. Rankmio coverage aggregates this across the entire sitemap in a table with filters, bulk actions and historical comparisons. For content teams the aggregated view is considerably more efficient.

How often are the figures updated?

An answer from Bing is valid for seven days, after which the address is checked again. The cron job bing_url_index_sync runs hourly and takes up to twelve addresses from the project that has waited longest. The ”Refresh Bing status” click runs immediately. An IndexNow submission does not reset the cache: the status only changes once Bing has actually visited the page, and that takes longer than the next check.

Used in Rankmio for

Open Bing coverage report

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Last updated: 2026-09-12 · Browse all glossary entries