It was only two months ago that Bing had redesigned its Webmaster tools. It had then brought in new reports, graphs, and other tools. A month later it added a new tool that allowed users to disavow links. Keeping up this tradition Bing has announced, this week, that it has changed the way it calculates percent change for assorted metrics in the Webmasters Tools.
The new development allows you to now select a date range and compare results to previous results for the same date range. Earlier this was not possible as you could only do comparison of the current range. So if you select a range of 45 days e.g. 1st August to 15th September 2012 then now you will be able to see the current range as well as the prior range of 15th June to July 30th.
The metrics for which these change will apply are
- Appeared in search
- Clicks from search
- Pages crawled
- Crawl errors
This has made life a lot easier for webmasters. You can easily visualize trends and make appropriate corrections. Site data for the last six months is stored and can be accessed from the Webmaster Tools.
It is advisable that you get started with Bing Webmasters Tools and make full use of this new development. This will keep you informed of all that is happening on your site. The best part is Duane Forrester now heads the Webmaster Tools section and as a former SEO is well aware of the kind of reports that are crucial for website owners. He is accessible and eager for feedback. And not only that, he also acts on the feedback he receives.