How to get found in Microsoft Copilot: the role of Bing

Microsoft Copilot has quietly become one of the most widely available AI assistants in the world. Not because consumers flock to it, but because it is built into Windows, Edge, Microsoft 365 and Teams. Hundreds of millions of workers have Copilot at hand every day, often without choosing it.

The bigger picture across all platforms is called AI visibility.

For businesses that want to be found in AI search engines, that matters. Copilot gets its web answers from Bing. And Bing optimization works differently from Google SEO on some important points.

This article explains how Copilot selects sources, how it relates to Bing, and which concrete steps you can take to become visible. For the wider context, read getting found in AI search engines.

Why Microsoft Copilot matters

The reach of the Microsoft ecosystem

Microsoft has a unique position in the AI market. While ChatGPT and Perplexity depend on users actively going to their platform, Copilot is built into software that already runs on more than a billion devices: Windows, Edge, Microsoft 365 and Teams.

Every time a user asks a question in Edge, requests a summary in Word or searches from the Windows taskbar, Copilot can step in. And for web information, Copilot draws on Bing.

Consumer Copilot vs. Microsoft 365 Copilot

There are two variants of Copilot, and the difference matters for your visibility strategy.

Consumer Copilot (free and paid) works as an AI search assistant. It searches the open web through Bing and gives answers with sources. This is the variant you reach with classic Bing SEO.

Microsoft 365 Copilot combines web results with internal company data from SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams and Outlook. When an employee asks “Which suppliers do we use for X?”, Copilot searches internal sources first, and can fall back on the web.

So B2B businesses have two ways in: direct visibility on the web, and indirect visibility through content their customers store in their own Microsoft environment.

How Copilot selects sources: the Bing foundation

Bing as the source

For web information, Copilot uses Bing search. When a user asks a question, roughly this happens:

1. Copilot analyzes the question and formulates one or more searches
2. Those queries go to Bing
3. Bing returns results, including snippets and metadata
4. Copilot combines the results into a coherent answer
5. Sources are added as references

This resembles how ChatGPT selects sources, and not by coincidence: ChatGPT also relies partly on Bing. So if you are easy to find in Bing, you increase your visibility in both Copilot and ChatGPT.

What Bing does differently from Google

Bing and Google both index the web, but with different priorities:

Factor	Google	Bing
Backlinks	Weighed heavily, complex link analysis	Less dominant
Social signals	Officially not counted	Bing has said it pays attention to them
Exact keywords	Focus on search intent	Puts more value on exact matches
Multimedia	Indexes broadly	Strong image and video search
Fresh content	Counted through freshness signals	Strong preference for recent publications

These differences have direct consequences. A page that does well in Google but never uses the exact phrase can underperform in Bing. And a page with strong social engagement can do better in Bing than in Google.

Practical steps for Bing optimization

Step 1: Verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools

The first and most underestimated step is verification in Bing Webmaster Tools. Many businesses focus only on Google Search Console and forget Bing entirely.

Bing Webmaster Tools offers:

• Indexing status: which pages Bing knows and which it does not
• Crawl statistics: how often Bingbot visits your site
• SEO reports: specific recommendations for Bing
• URL submission: offer pages for indexing manually
• Keyword research: search volume and competition in Bing

Tip: you can import your sites from Google Search Console into Bing Webmaster Tools. That saves setup time.

Step 2: Implement IndexNow

IndexNow is a protocol from Microsoft and Yandex that tells search engines directly about new or changed content. Instead of waiting for a crawler to visit, you send a signal: “This URL has changed.”

It works like this:

1. You generate an API key
2. With every publication or change, you send a request to the IndexNow API
3. Bing (and other participating search engines) index the page faster

The benefit for AI visibility is direct: the faster Bing indexes your content, the faster Copilot can use it. For time-sensitive content, such as product launches, news or policy changes, that can make the difference.

Many CMSs, including WordPress through plugins, support IndexNow out of the box.

Step 3: Optimize for exact keywords

Google has become very good at understanding intent, while Bing still puts relatively more value on literal matches.

Concrete guidelines:

• Use your primary keyword in the H1, the meta description and the first paragraph
• Do not only use synonyms; use the exact term too
• Make sure image alt texts contain the keyword where it fits
• Use the keyword in the URL

This does not mean keyword stuffing. Bing penalizes manipulation too. But a natural, explicit mention of your target phrase matters more in Bing than in Google.

Step 4: Invest in social signals

Bing has said it pays attention to social signals. Pages that are shared a lot on LinkedIn, Facebook and X can do better.

That is especially relevant for B2B businesses. LinkedIn activity, shared articles, comments and reposts can contribute to better Bing positions and so to Copilot visibility.

• Share every new publication on relevant social media
• Encourage employees to share content
• Add Open Graph metadata so shares look good
• Track which content gets shared most and make more of it

Step 5: Use structured data

Schema.org markup helps Bing understand your content. Relevant types:

• FAQPage: for frequently asked questions
• Organization: for business information
• Product: for product pages
• Article: for blog posts and articles

Bing supports the same schema types as Google. Validate your markup in Bing Webmaster Tools too.

Step 6: Add visual content

Bing has a tradition of strong image search, and Copilot increasingly includes images and charts in its answers.

• Use unique, informative images (not generic stock photos)
• Add descriptive alt texts
• Create diagrams that summarize your key points visually
• Optimize image formats for fast loading

The shared Bing foundation: Copilot and ChatGPT

An important insight for your strategy: both Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT draw on Bing. So investing in Bing optimization pays off twice.

The overlap is not complete. ChatGPT also uses its own index and other sources, and can filter and rank results differently. But the foundation matters: if Bing does not know your content, you miss Copilot entirely and part of ChatGPT.

That makes Bing SEO one of the most efficient investments in AI visibility.

Copilot across the Microsoft ecosystem

Edge and Windows

Copilot in Edge appears as a side panel when users visit a website or search. It summarizes pages, answers follow-up questions and suggests related actions. So your content can be summarized when someone visits your site in Edge. Give your pages a clear structure with headings and key points, so Copilot can summarize them well.

Microsoft 365 Copilot

In Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, Copilot can fetch web information to enrich documents. A consultant writing a market analysis in Word can ask Copilot about the main trends in a sector, and the answer includes web sources.

Teams

In Teams, Copilot can bring up relevant information during meetings. When a team discusses which software to choose, Copilot can present comparisons and reviews.

Monitoring and measurement

How do you know whether Copilot cites your content?

Microsoft offers no direct analytics for Copilot citations. What you can do:

• Bing Webmaster Tools: monitor Bing traffic and positions as a proxy
• Referrer analysis: traffic from Copilot shows up as copilot.microsoft.com or Bing referrals
• Manual testing: ask Copilot questions relevant to your business and check whether you are cited
• Look for patterns: when your Bing positions improve, Copilot visibility usually follows

Crawl log analysis

Check in your server logs whether Bingbot regularly visits your important pages. If Bingbot does not crawl a page, Copilot does not know it.

Summary: your Copilot strategy in 6 steps

1. Verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools
2. Implement IndexNow for fast indexing
3. Optimize for exact keywords in Bing
4. Strengthen social signals through LinkedIn and other platforms
5. Add structured data (Schema.org)
6. Invest in visual content with descriptive alt texts

The core is simple: if you do well in Bing, Copilot finds you. And because ChatGPT shares part of that foundation, this is one of the most efficient investments in AI visibility you can make.

Want to be visible in ChatGPT too? Read getting found in ChatGPT for extra steps aimed at OpenAI’s platform.

Read also

• What is GEO?