Verify all versions of site in Bing Webmaster Tools

[whiteonlySEO]

Hello,

We recently migrated our site to a new shopping cart, https, and from www to non-www, and it's been a rough transition. We've lost a lost of traffic particularly in Bing. All the versions of our site  are verified Google WMT, sitemaps are submitted correctly, etc. Unfortunately, this was not done for Bing. Currently only the new version of our site (https, non-www) is verified in Bing WMT. Do we have to verify all versions of our site in Bing, the way they are in Google WMT? Also, now that it's been a few months since the switch, should we still submit a site move to Bing WMT or is it too late?

Thanks in advance!

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there

I would submit the site move in Bing and make sure your sitemap has been submitted. I would all make sure the following is taken care of:

• Make sure all non www URLs 301 redirect to www URLs
• Make sure all http:// 301 redirect to https://

I would also check your internal links and sitemap to make sure that URLs are listed correctly there. Remember, traffic takes a little while to come back sometimes, so don't be completely discouraged. Make sure you covered all of your bases.

Another thing I would do - check your backlinks and make sure you update the valuable ones to the new URL structure and remove any spammy or irrelevant ones. This can help build back the equity.

Hope this helps a bit! Good luck!

[EcommerceSite]

When I was moving to https I ran into a similar problem and this was the response I got back from Bing

"I understand that you've switched your non SSL website example.com to a secured website https://www.example.com and you want to verify that version in order to use the Site Move feature.The reason you are being redirected to the dashboard is because Bing Webmaster Tools will identify your site thru the domain therefore the SSL and non-SSL version of the site is basically the same in Bing Webmaster Tool. If you already have 301 redirects set to your pages then there's no need to use the site move feature. The permanent redirect that you've placed should already be sufficient for Bing to change your site to http to https."

This explains https but not the www to non www. I just went to one of my sites in Bing Webmaster Tools that I currently have verified as www and tried to verify a version without www and it wouldn't let me, it exhibited the same behavior as when I tried to verify https.

As long as your current Bing Webmaster Tools is working I wouldn't worry about verifying all of your versions.

[whiteonlySEO]

Thank you for your response!

All of the redirects are working and I am on top of the backlinks, but when I try to add the other versions of the site (www and http) to Bing nothing happens. It just loads, and takes me back to the version of the site that is already verified. Would you know why it's not allowing me to add more versions of the site?

[whiteonlySEO]

Thank you! I wish there was a way to verify them all and do the site move, because the traffic has really declined and I can only think that it's because Bing hasn't recognized the full site move...

[EcommerceSite]

Bing has dropped but Google has been ok?

[whiteonlySEO]

We had a drop in Google as well, but the more drastic drop was in Bing and Yahoo. I know that part of the issue is that there are errors with our redirects, and we are working on fixing them, but I am trying to make sure we have all our bases covered and that everything else is done correctly.

[EcommerceSite]

I had the same thing happen once, we had developers put in 302s instead of 301s it took awhile to get corrected.

[whiteonlySEO]

We had the exact same issue! I had the developer fix the 302 redirect that I found, but I am sure there are more errors in the redirects, so we are in the process of getting a full technical audit done so that we can fix any other errors. After you fixed the 302 redirects, how long did it take for the search engines to correctly index your site? Was there anything that you did that helped speed up the process?