Last updated: October 2026
To show up in Microsoft Copilot answers, get your pages indexed and ranking in Bing, because Microsoft says Copilot grounds web answers in the Bing search service. Then check the AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools, claim your Bing Places listing if you serve local customers, add schema, and write pages in short, self-contained sections.
Key takeaways🔗
- Microsoft's own documentation says Copilot turns your prompt into a short search query and sends it to the Bing search service. If Bing has not indexed a page, Copilot cannot ground an answer in it.
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Bing Webmaster Tools has an AI Performance report (public preview since February 10, 2026) that shows how often your pages are cited in Microsoft Copilot and Bing AI summaries.
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Microsoft's Bing team recommends clear headings, tables, FAQ sections, schema markup and fresh content. It warns against hiding key details in tabs, images or PDFs.
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Local businesses should claim a free Bing Places listing. Microsoft has said it plans deeper integration between Bing Places and Copilot.
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TrendlyAI does not track Copilot. Use Bing Webmaster Tools and manual checks for it.
How does Microsoft Copilot find the sources it cites?🔗
Microsoft Copilot finds web sources by sending a short search query to the Bing search service and building its answer from what Bing returns. Microsoft describes this in plain terms in its Copilot documentation.
When web search is on, Copilot "parse[s] the user's prompt and identifies terms where information from the web would improve the quality of the response," then "generates a search query that it sends to the Bing search service." That generated query "is different from the user's original prompt," and "consists of a few words informed by the user's prompt" (Microsoft Learn). Microsoft's own example: a prompt asking about a company's finances and strategy became two short searches, "Fabrikam strategy" and "Fabrikam financials."
This tells you two useful things:
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Bing is the source. This is not a guess from a study. Microsoft states it in its own docs. If your page is not in Bing's index, Copilot's web grounding cannot use it.
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Rank for the short version of the question. A buyer may type a long, chatty prompt, but Copilot searches for a few words. You want to rank in Bing for those short phrases, such as "payroll software restaurants" rather than the full sentence.
That documentation page covers Microsoft Copilot and Copilot Chat for work accounts. On the consumer side, Copilot Search in Bing launched to all users on April 4, 2025, and Microsoft says it "cites its sources prominently," with sentences linked inline to their sources (Microsoft Bing). Both routes run through Bing.
What should you fix first to appear in Copilot?🔗
Fix Bing indexing first, because nothing else matters if Copilot's search provider cannot find your pages. Here is the order we recommend, with what each step affects.
| Step | What it does | Where to do it | Who needs it most |
|---|---|---|---|
| Verify the site and submit a sitemap | Gets your pages into Bing's index | Bing Webmaster Tools | Every site |
| Set up IndexNow | Tells Bing about new and changed pages quickly | Your CMS or a plugin | Sites with changing prices or inventory |
| Check robots.txt and meta tags | Removes blocks on Bingbot and on Copilot use | Your site | Every site |
| Review the AI Performance report | Shows which pages Copilot already cites | Bing Webmaster Tools | Sites with some Bing traffic |
| Claim Bing Places | Gives Bing your name, address, hours and phone | bing.com/forbusiness | Local businesses |
| Add schema and restructure pages | Makes pages easier for AI systems to parse | Your site | Every site |
If you have never opened Bing Webmaster Tools, our Bing SEO for ChatGPT guide walks through verification, sitemaps, IndexNow and robots.txt step by step. The same setup serves Copilot.
Can meta tags keep you out of Copilot answers?🔗
Yes, two common meta tags can limit or block Copilot from using your content. Bing's updated webmaster guidelines, reported by Search Engine Journal on February 27, 2026, say NOARCHIVE "prevents content from being used in Copilot responses and grounding results," and NOCACHE "limits Copilot to using only the URL, title, and snippet" (Search Engine Journal).
Some CMS themes and SEO plugins add NOARCHIVE by default. Search your page source for noarchive and nocache, and remove them from any page you want Copilot to quote. The same guidelines update also formally defined Generative Engine Optimization as "focused on content eligibility for grounding and reference in AI responses," and added rules against "prompt injection and AI manipulation." Hidden text written to steer an AI is now spelled out as abuse.
How do you use the AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools?🔗
The AI Performance report shows how often your pages are cited as sources in AI answers across Microsoft Copilot, AI-generated summaries in Bing and "select partner integrations." Microsoft launched it in public preview on February 10, 2026 (Microsoft Bing).
It reports five things:
- Total citations: how many times your site was cited in AI answers.
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Average cited pages: the number of unique pages shown as sources per day.
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Grounding queries: the key phrases the AI used to retrieve your content.
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Page-level citation activity: citation counts for specific URLs.
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Visibility trends: how citations change over time.
On June 16, 2026, Microsoft added four preview features: Intents (grounding queries grouped into types such as informational, commercial and local), Topics (related queries grouped into themes), Citation Share (your share of all citations for a query) and Compare (overlay a past period on the current one). Microsoft calls Citation Share "an observational metric" and says it is "not a ranking system or a competitive scoreboard" (Microsoft Bing).
How to use it. Start with grounding queries. They are the closest thing you get to seeing the short searches Copilot runs. Sort them, find the commercial ones, and check whether the page Copilot cites is the page you want cited. If Copilot keeps citing an old blog post instead of your pricing page, update the blog post so it links clearly to pricing, and make the pricing page answer the same question directly.
One limit: the report counts citations, not brand mentions. Copilot can name your brand in an answer without linking to your site, and that will not show up here. It also does not show competitors' numbers.
Does Bing Places help you show up in Copilot?🔗
Bing Places is the free listing that controls how your business appears in Bing search results and Bing Maps, so it matters for any "near me" or local question. Microsoft relaunched it on October 3, 2025, moved it to bing.com/forbusiness, and said the new Google import is "faster, more reliable, and better at preserving key attributes like business name, hours, and contact details." In the same post, Microsoft said it plans "deeper integrations with Bing Maps and Copilot" (Microsoft Bing).
Be careful with claims online that Copilot reads Bing Places data directly for every local answer. Microsoft's announcement describes Copilot integration as planned, not finished. What is certain is that Copilot grounds answers in Bing, and Bing's local results use Bing Places. So a complete, accurate listing is the low-cost bet:
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Sign in at bing.com/forbusiness with a Microsoft account.
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Import from Google Business Profile if you have one, then check the imported details.
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Follow the new recommendation tool, which suggests photos, hours, website and category-specific items such as menus.
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Keep hours and phone numbers identical to your website and Google profile.
Our guide to AI visibility for local businesses covers the rest of the local picture.
How should you structure pages so Copilot can quote them?🔗
Structure pages in short, labeled sections that each answer one question, because that is what Microsoft's Bing team says AI systems look for. Krishna Madhavan, principal product manager at Microsoft Bing, wrote in October 2025 that "AI systems don't read a page top to bottom like a person would. They break content into smaller, usable pieces" (Microsoft Advertising).
His guidance, in short:
- Use real headings. H2 and H3 tags "act like chapter titles that define clear content slices."
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Add schema. He describes schema as "turning plain text into structured data that machines can interpret with confidence." For most businesses that means Organization, Product, LocalBusiness and FAQPage markup.
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Align title, H1 and meta description so they say the same thing about the page.
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Avoid long walls of text, key content hidden in tabs or accordions, important details only in PDFs or images, decorative symbols, and vague claims like "innovative" with no specifics.
The AI Performance announcement adds three more: "keep content fresh and accurate," use "clear headings, tables, and FAQ sections," and "support claims with evidence." It also says IndexNow "helps ensure that AI systems reference the most current version of a page when generating answers" (Microsoft Bing).
Bing's updated guidelines also recommend stating facts directly, using consistent entity names and keeping each URL focused on one topic (Search Engine Journal). In practice: call your product the same thing everywhere, and do not cram three services onto one page. For schema specifics, see our guide on schema markup for AI citations.
Is showing up in Copilot different from showing up in ChatGPT?🔗
Copilot is the more predictable of the two, because Microsoft names Bing as its search source and gives you a report of your citations. ChatGPT is harder to pin down.
| Microsoft Copilot | ChatGPT search | |
|---|---|---|
| Named search source | Bing search service (Microsoft docs) | "Third-party search providers," not all named |
| Official citation report | AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools | None |
| Crawler to allow | Bingbot | OAI-SearchBot |
| Meta tags that limit use | NOARCHIVE, NOCACHE | OpenAI documents robots.txt rules for its bots |
| Local data | Bing Places, with Copilot integration planned | Not documented by OpenAI |
Bing work helps both. Our post on whether ChatGPT uses Bing lays out the public evidence on the ChatGPT side.
How do you check whether Copilot mentions your brand?🔗
Check Copilot in two ways: the AI Performance report for citations of your pages, and manual prompts for brand mentions. Neither alone gives the full picture.
For the manual side, write down 10 to 15 questions a buyer would ask, such as "best accounting software for a small law firm," and ask them in Copilot each month. Record whether your brand is named, which competitors are named and which sites are cited. Use the same wording every time so the results are comparable.
We build TrendlyAI, so weigh this accordingly: TrendlyAI does not track Copilot. It tracks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews, with weekly scans. If Copilot is your main channel, Bing Webmaster Tools and manual checks are the right tools. If you also care about the other engines, our guide to tracking brand mentions in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google covers those, and the GEO hub covers each engine.
For a quick baseline on the engines TrendlyAI does cover, the free TrendlyAI check runs 5 prompts on ChatGPT and Perplexity in about 30 seconds with no signup.
Frequently asked questions🔗
Does Microsoft Copilot use Bing?🔗
Yes. Microsoft's documentation says that when web search is on, Copilot generates a short search query from your prompt and sends it to the Bing search service, then uses the results to write its answer. Copilot Search in Bing also cites its sources inline.
How can I see if Copilot cites my website?🔗
Open the AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools. It shows total citations, cited pages, grounding queries and trends for Microsoft Copilot, Bing AI summaries and some partner integrations. It counts citations of your pages, not brand mentions without a link.
Does the NOARCHIVE tag affect Copilot?🔗
Yes. According to Bing's updated webmaster guidelines, NOARCHIVE prevents content from being used in Copilot responses and grounding, and NOCACHE limits Copilot to the URL, title and snippet. Remove both from pages you want cited.
Do I need Bing Places to show up in Copilot?🔗
Not for most queries, but local businesses should have it. Bing Places controls your listing in Bing search and Bing Maps, and Microsoft has said it plans deeper integration with Copilot. It is free.
Does TrendlyAI track Microsoft Copilot?🔗
No. TrendlyAI tracks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews. For Copilot, use the AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools plus manual checks.