Setting Up Bing Webmaster Tools From Scratch: A Complete Guide for Law Firms

Most law firms focus entirely on Google and forget that Bing powers search for Microsoft Edge, Windows, and — increasingly — Microsoft Copilot. Setting up Bing Webmaster Tools is free, takes about 10 to 15 minutes, and opens your firm to millions of additional potential clients who are searching for legal help through Microsoft's ecosystem every single day.

Why Bing matters more than you think

When someone mentions "search engines," your mind probably jumps straight to Google. That's understandable — Google dominates the market. But dismissing Bing is a mistake, and here's why:

• Bing holds roughly 10% of the desktop search market. That sounds small until you realize it translates to billions of searches every month. For a law firm that only needs a handful of new clients each month, even a tiny slice of that traffic can make a real difference.
• Bing is the default search engine in Microsoft Edge — the web browser that comes pre-installed on every Windows computer. Most everyday users never change their default browser or search engine. They just open the browser that's already there and start typing.
• Microsoft Copilot pulls from Bing's index. Copilot is the AI assistant now built into Windows, Edge, and Microsoft Office. When users ask Copilot a question — like "find a personal injury lawyer near me" — it draws its answers from Bing. If your firm isn't in Bing's index, Copilot doesn't know you exist.
• Corporate and government users are often locked into Microsoft ecosystems. Many large companies and government agencies use Microsoft 365, Edge, and Windows as their standard tools. Employees in these organizations default to Bing whether they realize it or not. These are often high-value clients — corporate counsel, HR managers researching employment law, procurement officers needing contract attorneys.
• There's far less competition on Bing. Because most law firms ignore Bing entirely, the firms that do show up there face fewer competitors. Ranking on the first page of Bing is significantly easier than ranking on the first page of Google for the same keywords.

The bottom line: by not being visible on Bing, your firm is invisible to a meaningful segment of searchers — many of whom are exactly the kind of clients you want.

What you'll need

• A Microsoft account. This could be an Outlook.com address, a Hotmail address, a work Microsoft 365 account, or any other Microsoft login. If you don't have one, it's free to create and takes about two minutes.
• Access to your website — or your web developer's contact information. You may need to add a small verification file or code snippet to your site, but there's also a shortcut if you've already set up Google Search Console.
• About 10 to 15 minutes of uninterrupted time.

Step 1: Create a Microsoft account (if you don't have one)

If you already have an Outlook.com email, a Hotmail address, or a work Microsoft 365 account, you can skip this step entirely — you already have what you need.

If you need to create one:

1. Open your web browser and go to account.microsoft.com.
2. Click "Create one" (or "Sign up" — the wording varies slightly).
3. You have two choices: create a brand-new Outlook email address, or use your existing email address (like your firm's Gmail or your personal email) to create a Microsoft account. Either works perfectly.
4. Follow the on-screen prompts to set a password and complete the short verification process.
5. Once finished, you have a Microsoft account. That's all you need to proceed.

Step 2: Go to Bing Webmaster Tools

1. Open your browser and navigate to bing.com/webmasters.
2. Click "Sign In" and log in with your Microsoft account.
3. You'll land on the Bing Webmaster Tools dashboard. If this is your first time, the dashboard will be mostly empty — that's perfectly normal. You're about to add your site.

Step 3: Add your website

Bing gives you two options for adding your website. The one you choose depends on whether you've already set up Google Search Console.

Option A: Import from Google Search Console (recommended)

If your firm already has Google Search Console set up — or if your web developer set it up for you — this is by far the fastest path.

1. On the Bing Webmaster Tools dashboard, you'll see an "Import" button or a section labeled "Import your sites from GSC." Click it.
2. Sign in with the Google account that has access to your Google Search Console property.
3. Grant Bing permission to read your Search Console data.
4. Bing will automatically pull your site information and verify ownership — no additional steps required.
5. The entire process takes about 30 seconds. Your site is now added and verified.

This is the recommended method because it skips the manual verification step entirely. If this option is available to you, use it.

Option B: Add your site manually

If you don't have Google Search Console set up, or if you prefer to add the site manually:

1. On the dashboard, look for the "Add your site manually" option, or simply type your website's full URL into the URL field (for example, https://www.yourfirm.com).
2. Click "Add."
3. Bing will now ask you to verify that you actually own this website. That's covered in the next step.

Step 4: Verify ownership (manual add only)

If you imported from Google Search Console in Step 3, you're already verified — skip ahead to Step 5. For manual additions, Bing needs proof that the website belongs to you. There are three verification methods to choose from. Pick whichever one feels most comfortable, or ask your web developer to handle it.

XML file verification

1. Bing will provide a small XML file for you to download. Click the download link.
2. Send that file to your web developer and ask them to upload it to your website's root directory (the top-level folder where your site's files live).
3. Once the file is uploaded, come back to Bing Webmaster Tools and click "Verify."
4. If the file is in the right place, verification is instant.

Meta tag verification

1. Bing will show you a short line of code called a meta tag. Copy it.
2. Send the tag to your web developer and ask them to add it inside the <head> section of your website's homepage.
3. Once it's in place, come back to Bing Webmaster Tools and click "Verify."
4. This method is simple and widely used.

CNAME record verification

1. Bing will provide a CNAME record — a type of DNS entry. You (or your web developer, or whoever manages your domain name) will add this record through your domain registrar (companies like GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google Domains, or Cloudflare).
2. This method is more technical than the other two, but it's permanent — once added, you never have to worry about re-verification.
3. DNS changes can take up to 48 hours to propagate across the internet, so don't be alarmed if verification doesn't succeed immediately. Check back the next day.

Whichever method you choose, once Bing confirms ownership you're all set. The verification badge will appear on your dashboard, and you'll have full access to all the tools.

Step 5: Submit your sitemap

A sitemap is a file on your website that lists every page you want search engines to know about. Submitting it to Bing helps their crawler discover all of your pages faster — especially newer pages that haven't been indexed yet.

1. In the Bing Webmaster Tools dashboard, look for "Sitemaps" in the left sidebar and click it.
2. In the text field, enter your sitemap URL. For most websites, this is https://www.yourfirm.com/sitemap.xml. If you're not sure of your sitemap URL, ask your web developer — most modern websites generate one automatically.
3. Click "Submit."
4. Bing will confirm receipt and begin processing the sitemap. Over the next few days, you'll see your pages start appearing in Bing's index.

Step 6: Explore the dashboard

Now that your site is verified and your sitemap is submitted, take a few minutes to explore the Bing Webmaster Tools dashboard. Here are the sections you'll find most useful:

• Search Performance: This is similar to Google Search Console's performance report. It shows you how many times your site appeared in Bing search results (impressions), how many clicks you received, your average position for various keywords, and your click-through rate. This is the section you'll check most often.
• URL Inspection: Paste any page URL from your site to check whether Bing has indexed it. If a page isn't showing up in Bing search results, this tool tells you why and what to fix.
• SEO Reports: Bing provides built-in SEO recommendations for your site. It scans your pages and flags issues like missing meta descriptions, broken links, or pages that load too slowly. Think of it as a free mini-audit of your site's health.
• Site Scan: This runs an automated crawl of your entire site and produces a detailed report of technical issues. It checks for things like duplicate content, redirect chains, and missing alt text on images. The recommendations are straightforward and prioritized by severity.

You don't need to act on everything at once. Just browse through the dashboard to get a feel for what's available. Over time, the data will become more valuable as Bing collects more information about how your site performs in search.

Step 7: Generate your API key for LexGrow

If you're using LexGrow to manage your firm's SEO, you'll want to connect your Bing Webmaster Tools account so all your search data flows into one dashboard.

1. In Bing Webmaster Tools, click the gear icon (Settings) — usually found in the top-right or left sidebar.
2. Look for "API access" or "API key" in the settings menu.
3. Click "Generate" to create a new API key.
4. A long string of characters will appear. Copy this key and store it somewhere safe — you'll need it in a moment.
5. You'll paste this API key into LexGrow when connecting your Bing account.

Connecting Bing to LexGrow

For the full step-by-step instructions on pasting your API key into LexGrow and configuring the connection, see our companion guide: Connecting Bing Webmaster Tools to Your LexGrow Dashboard.

Once connected, LexGrow pulls your Bing data alongside Google Analytics and Google Search Console — giving you a complete view of your firm's search visibility across all major search engines and AI assistants. No more logging into three different dashboards to understand your online presence.

You're done

You just opened your law firm to millions of additional searchers that most of your competitors are completely ignoring. Bing Webmaster Tools is free, the setup was painless, and the data you'll get will help you understand a part of your audience that was previously invisible. Corporate employees searching on Edge, government workers using their default browser, and anyone asking Microsoft Copilot for a lawyer recommendation — all of those people can now find you.

Keep an eye on your Bing Webmaster Tools dashboard over the coming weeks. As data accumulates, you'll see which keywords bring Bing users to your site, which pages perform best, and where there are opportunities to improve. Combined with your Google data, you'll have the most complete picture possible of how people find your firm online.