A list of articles and resources about Bing Search blacklisting or de-indexing seemingly legitimate non-commercial blogs and websites.
- Introduction
- Bing Resources
- First-Hand Accounts
- Downstream Effects of Bing Bans
- Other Resources
- Independent Search Engines
Bing Search is the second most-used search engine in the world behind Google Search. While Google is the dominant search engine in almost every country in the world, Bing has added significance because a significant number of alternative search tools rely on Bing for indexing. Notable Bing-dependent search tools include DuckDuckGo, Qwant, Yahoo (and by extension MetaGer), and many more. For this reason, being a site blocked by Bing from appearing in its search results or otherwise completely de-indexed may affect traffic beyond the direct loss of Bing referrals.
I am the webmaster of an online writing website called The New Leaf Journal. I use no ads, third-party scripts, or link-building schemes, and I publish original content. After having been Bing indexed continuously since 2020, we were blocked from appearing in Bing’s web search results on January 14, 2023, and completely de-indexed in March. The big loss for my project was DuckDuckGo traffic since DuckDuckGo was our second biggest search referrer behind Google (Bing was third).
Update: I finally got in touch with a human being at Bing in June 2023 after posting this GitHub repository on Hacker News (note it received almost no attention on Hacker News, so I am not sure if the events were directly related). Bing ultimately removed the block from my site in the latter half of July, and I began to see meaningful Bing/DuckDuckGo referrals in the second third of August. As of November, we have recovered in terms of Bing and DuckDuckGo referrals to the point where we are close to where we were immediately before the ban in January 2023. Unsurprisingly, while Bing confirmed that my site was re-indexed several weeks after I noticed referrals, it provided no explanation for the initial ban or what changed to cause my site to be re-indexed. Despite the fact that my site is now in good standing again, this GitHub issue remains open for new contributions.
I decided to create this repository to collect well-written accounts from around the web about Bing's sometimes-perplexing behavior. Before we move on to the links, I preface my list with a few notes:
- I am focusing on small, independent websites with original content that have had issues with Bing. I also prioritized sites that are light on (if not entirely absent of) ads, scripts, and tracking. I purposefully excluded sites that engaged in black hat SEO techniques, contain excessive advertising, or have other obvious issues which could cause problems with Bing or any other search engine.
- While I think that I have collected examples of Bing acting arbitrarily, I cannot say with certainty that any or all of the affected sites were free of serious issues. This is even true of my own site. I think that Bing is in the wrong for several reasons, including the fact that I had no issue with Bing for three years and that I have no issue with Google, Brave, Yandex, or Mojeek (Bing is the only problem). However, for all I know, there is some issue that I and everyone except Bing is missing.
- I put this list together as a resource for me and others.
If you have a good account or resource to share, please consult my contributing guidelines and then make a pull request.
- Bing Webmaster Tools
- Bing Webmaster Guidelines
Bing refers webmasters to the guidelines whenever there is an issue. - Bing Webmaster Support
The official place to go to send support requests into the void. - Bing Blog
- Google Search Console
- Yandex Webmaster
Both Google and Yandex offer English webmaster tools. If you are having issues with Bing, you can check to see if Google and Yandex identify problems. In my case, I have no indexing issues with Google and Yandex, which led me to conclude that my problems are specific to Bing.
I give myself first billing...
- The Story of Our Bing Blacklisting (April 25, 2023)
I discussed the circumstances behind our January 2023 Bing blacklisting and my initial efforts to diagnose and resolve the problem. The issue remains ongoing. I was inspired to write this post after seeing Mr. Dariusz Wieckiewicz's "Bing Jail" article on Hacker News (see below). The article has been updated to reflect my site's re-indexing.
- Bing Jail (April 23, 2023)
- Escape from Bing Jail (Last updated May 1, 2023)
The author's ad-free tech blog with original content was removed from Bing in January 2023 around the same time as The New Leaf Journal. He worked hard to diagnose the problem. He appears to have been re-indexed (see second post) after he made page 1 of Hacker News.
- Hacker News discussion
According to the author, he saw movement toward a Bing revival within 48 hours of his first Bing Jail article making Hacker News page 1.
- Shadow Banned by DuckDuckGo and Bing (January 14, 2023)
- Updates on my Bing Ban (January 18, 2023)
- My Bing Webmaster Guidelines Compliance Report (January 19, 2023)
- Solved the Case of the Bing Ban Theory (February 2, 2023) [Note: Great title]
These four articles go into great detail about the circumstances of his brief Bing ban and his efforts to resolve it. He also linked to several other independent ad-free tech writing blogs which suddenly had problems with Bing in January 2023. The author was advised by Bing that "[t]housands of small blogs were mistakenly marked as spam splogs," meaning that it sounds like Bing acknowledged that it had erred in this case. The author is more charitable to Bing than most of the accounts (including my own).
- Microsoft Bing - site gone from SERP overnight!
An excellent, detailed post working through a peculiar Bing de-indexing saga from 2022. The author was active in investigating the problem and connecting with other webmasters who had similar issues. His site was removed from Bing search shortly after it was restored, but he appears to be in good standing based on his most recent update. - Comment on prod.uhrs.playmsn.com (June 8, 2022)
The comments section of the Bike Gremlin post is worth reading. One reader suggested that the blocks are triggered by employees working at Microsoft's click farm. I can confirm that I received referrals from prod.uhrs.playmsn.com after a couple of my support requests to Microsoft.
- Microsoft De-indexed My Website from Bing but says It will re-index It Soon (November 18, 2021)
This post inspired my first article on the subject of Bing de-indexing (see "Downstream Effect of Bing Bans" section). The Cheapskate's Guide is a minimalist site with original content. The post speculated that several articles not favorable to Microsoft caused the issue. It appears that the site was re-indexed but the issue was never identified.
- Bing and DuckDuckGo removed my business web site (June 16, 2022)
- Bing and DuckDuckGo removed my business web site AGAIN (January 15, 2023)
Note that the site on which the author wrote about the Bing ban is not the site which had the issue. You can see the site that was affected here (note that the business site, which showcases the author's App Store apps, is very clean). It is not clear what caused the first or second de-indexing, but the issue appears to have resolved itself. Note that the second de-indexing occurred in January 2023.
- My website disappeared from Bing and DuckDuckGo (March 25, 2022)
- Part 2 (July 25, 2022)
This blog was removed from Bing in March 2022. This prompted him to make a Bing webmaster account. Bing returned the site to the index after several months. The reason for the de-indexing and subsequent reversal will forever be a mystery.
- Bing De-Indexed My Website! How I Got It Reindexed Again (August 9, 2022)
This site was de-indexed for about three months before suddenly being returned to the index. Mr. Dan speculated that his site was de-indexed because of several Amazon affiliate links on one of his pages.
- Banned by Bing (Last updated May 16, 2021)
This site, which has original content, and no ads, tracking, or third-party scripts, was blacklisted by Bing in 2021. It appears some of its pages returned to Bing's index after several months. The author initially speculated the issue was related to content critical of Microsoft. In the final update, he speculated that Bing may have been missing the last updated date on some of his posts.
- Ctrl blog was unavailable in Bing Search for a month (October 26, 2019)
A well-written piece detailing a 2019 incident. The author had an additional problem because he was using Qwant for his site's search (Qwant relies heavily on Bing). The issue was resolved and the author speculated that removing some specific HTML attributes from his site's header fixed the issue.
- Something is rotten in the state of Bing search (October 28, 2022)
The de-indexing story is not resolved in the post. Mr. Magand discussed some of the stories I linked to above and complained about Bing's lack of communication.
- Bing (and DuckDuckGo) shadow banned my website (last updated April 26, 2023)
This is a developer's blog and portfolio site. It was de-indexed in June 2022. Made contact with Bing support within one month. The author speculated that the issue could have been re-uploaded content or minor coding issues, but it is all speculation. Fortunately, the site was re-indexed in early 2023 but Bing did not explain why it was removed in the first place.
(Note: Techdirt is a bigger and more highly-trafficked site than those I have listed thus far. While it is not the sort of site that I am most interested in focusing on, its being blocked from appearing in Bing results has generated a good amount of discussion, so I will include the story here.)
- Techdirt Has Been Deleted From Bing And DuckDuckGo (July 27, 2023)
Mr. Mike Masnick at Techdirt reported that Techdirt is no longer appearing in Bing and DuckDuckGo search results. The article is a bit vague and does not offer insight into whether Bing is blocking Techdirt links from appearing in its results or whether Techdirt has been de-indexed. - Hacker News Discussion (July 27, 2023)
See Hacker News discussion on the Techdirt blacklisting/de-indexing. The thread includes comments from the CEO of DuckDuckGo which generally obfuscate DuckDuckGo's traditional search results (Bing-dependent) with its module results (variety of sources).
- Importance of Bing Indexing For Alt Search (August 7, 2022) [written by me]
Prompted by the excellent post by Cheapskate's guide, I wrote about how being de-indexed by Bing means losing referrals from Bing-derivatives such as DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, Qwant, Yahoo, and MetaGer. - The Downstream Effects of Bing's Tiananmen Square Censorship (June 6, 2021) [written by me]
I discussed how Bing's decision to briefly block image results for certain queries pertaining to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre filtered down to Bing-dependent search front-ends. I specifically looked at DuckDuckGo, Qwant, and Swisscows. I also showed that Google-dependent search front-ends, notably Startpage, were unaffected.
- Comments from Gabriel Weinberg of DuckDuckGo on support requests
Mr. Gabriel Weinberg, the CEO of DuckDuckGo, suggested that webmasters blocked by Bing submit feedback through "Share Feedback" on a DuckDuckGo query where their site or articles are not being returned. However, I have not seen any examples of DuckDuckGo causing Bing to change a de-indexing decision. - Gabriel Weinberg on Techdirt blocking
Shortly after news that Bing blocked (or de-indexed) Techdirt on July 27, 2023, the CEO of DuckDuckGo chimed into a Hacker News thread with news that DuckDuckGo had placed a link to Techdirt's homepage above DuckDuckGo results for certain techdirt queries. You can see the archived version here. However, DuckDuckGo has not restored Techdirt results, which suggests that it is limited in what it can do with respect to Bing taking action against a domain. The lesson here appears to be that DuckDuckGo may undertake limited actions on behalf of highly-trafficked sites with Bing problems.
- Now Confirmed Bing Algorithm Update On Wednesday, January 18th (January 23, 2023) [Glenn Gabe for Search Engine Roundtable]
It is interesting that this update occurred around the time many small blogs were de-indexed, but nothing in the article points to a specific nexus. - Bing Exploit Allows Website Owners to Deindex Competitors (July 3, 2021) [Chase Watts, Affiliate Manager at GoDady]
A post explaining how competitors can use spam backlings to cause Bing to de-index sites. None of the accounts I linked to appear to have been affected by this issue. - Forum post suggesting alternative email for Bing Support (May 9, 2023) [Note I have not tested it myself]
Bing is important in large part because many alternatives to the Google-Bing duopoly rely on Bing's index. For example, my site was hurt more by the loss of DuckDuckGo referrals than by the loss of Bing referrals (several webmasters in the above accounts noted the same issue). Many people who use alternatives such as DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, Qwant, and the like are most likely not fully aware of their Bing dependence. While I hope that legitimate sites are fully indexed by both Google and Bing, we should also encourage smaller, genuinely independent search engine projects. Webmasters can play a key part in this by ensuring that their interesting articles and media are available to independent search engines. Below, I list some resources about independent search engines.
- A look at search engines with their own indexes (Last updated May 27, 2023) [Rohan Kumar]
A terrific list about genuinely independent search engines with their own indexes and algorithms. The author includes notes about these search engines. - On whitelisting independent search crawlers (April 6, 2023) [Me]
I wrote this article encouraging webmasters to ensure that they are not blocking well-behaved bots from independent search crawlers. It was inspired by the next link - Seznam SEO: An Interview with Seznam’s Search Division Director (April 17, 2019) [SEJ]
An interview with the Search division director of Seznam, an impressive and independent Czech search engine (it has solid English results). The Seznam CTO explained that many webmasters blocked SeznamBot. - Search Experiment Conclusion (Jamiaru 7, 2024) [Yukinu]
Notes on going a week without using a generalist search engine.
- Wutsearch [Jeff Starr]
A search engine launchpad. It includes several niche independent search engines.
- Brave Search
- Mojeek
- Stract (see also source code)
- Right Dao
- Infotiger
- Marginalia Search (small web search engine with a terrific index)