Bing has up to date its sitemap steerage with a renewed concentrate on the lastmod tag, highlighting its function in AI-powered search to find out which pages should be recrawled.
Whereas real-time instruments like IndexNow supply quicker updates, Bing says correct lastmod values assist maintain content material discoverable, particularly on continuously up to date or large-scale websites.
Bing Prioritizes lastmod For Recrawling
Bing says the lastmod area in your sitemap is a high sign for AI-driven indexing. It helps decide whether or not a web page must be recrawled or will be skipped.
To make it work successfully, use ISO 8601 format with each date and time (e.g. 2004-10-01T18:23:17+00:00). That degree of precision helps Bing prioritize crawl exercise based mostly on precise content material modifications.
Keep away from setting lastmod to the time your sitemap was generated, except the web page was really up to date.
Bing additionally confirmed that changefreq and precedence tags are ignored and not have an effect on crawling or rating.
Submission & Verification Suggestions
Bing recommends submitting your sitemap in one among two methods:
- Reference it in your robots.txt file
- Submit it by way of Bing Webmaster Instruments
As soon as submitted, Bing fetches the sitemap instantly and rechecks it day by day.
You possibly can confirm whether or not it’s working by checking the submission standing, final learn date, and any processing errors in Bing Webmaster Instruments.
Mix With IndexNow For Higher Protection
To extend the possibilities of well timed indexing, Bing suggests combining sitemaps with IndexNow.
Whereas sitemaps give Bing a full image of your web site, IndexNow permits real-time URL-level updates—helpful when content material modifications continuously.
The Bing staff states:
“By combining sitemaps for complete web site protection with IndexNow for quick, URL-level submission, you present the strongest basis for protecting your content material contemporary, discoverable, and visual.”
Sitemaps at Large Scale
In case you handle a big web site, Bing’s sitemap capability limits are value your consideration:
- As much as 50,000 URLs per sitemap
- 50,000 sitemaps per index file
- 2.5 billion URLs per index
- A number of index recordsdata help indexing as much as 2.5 trillion URLs
That makes the usual sitemap protocol scalable sufficient even for enterprise-level ecommerce or publishing platforms.
Fabrice Canel and Krishna Madhavan of Microsoft AI, Bing, famous that utilizing these limits to their full extent helps guarantee content material stays discoverable in AI search.
Why This Issues
As search turns into extra AI-driven, correct crawl alerts matter extra.
Bing’s reliance on sitemaps, particularly the lastmod area, reveals that fundamental technical web optimization practices nonetheless matter, whilst AI reshapes how content material is surfaced.
For giant websites, Bing’s help for trillions of URLs affords scalability. For everybody else, the message is less complicated: maintain your sitemaps clear, correct, and up to date in real-time. This offers your content material the most effective shot at visibility in AI search.
Featured Picture: PJ McDonnell/Shutterstock
