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Copilot SEO: Showing Up in Microsoft Copilot Answers
by the AEO GEO Labs team5 min read
Copilot SEO is the work of getting your pages cited in Microsoft Copilot's answers. Copilot grounds its answers in Bing, so the path runs through Bing: get crawled and indexed by Bingbot, keep Bing current with IndexNow, and structure pages so a single passage answers a single question. Microsoft has published more practical guidance on this than any other AI search provider.
This guide sits under our LLM SEO guide. Because Copilot depends on Bing, it pairs with our piece on why Bing rankings matter again.
How Microsoft Copilot picks its sources
Microsoft Copilot picks sources by running searches against Bing's index and citing the pages it uses to build the answer. Microsoft's AI Performance report, launched in public preview in February 2026, makes this visible. It reports the "grounding queries" the AI used to retrieve your content and which of your URLs were cited across Microsoft Copilot, AI-generated summaries in Bing, and select partner integrations.
The consequence is simple: a page Bing hasn't indexed can't be cited in Copilot. Many sites check Google Search Console weekly and haven't opened Bing Webmaster Tools in years. For Copilot SEO, that's the first thing to fix.
Microsoft also explained its selection logic in an October 2025 post on AI search answers by Krishna Madhavan of Microsoft Bing. The gist: ranking still happens, but it's less about ordering whole pages and more about which pieces of content earn a place in the final answer.
Copilot SEO, step by step
The steps below come from Microsoft's published guidance, ordered from access to content.
- Verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools. You can import a verified site from Google Search Console. Check for crawl errors and indexing gaps.
- Allow Bingbot. Check robots.txt and any CDN bot rules. Our robots.txt tester shows whether a given URL is allowed for a given user agent.
- Turn on IndexNow. IndexNow pings participating search engines when you add, update or delete a URL. Microsoft's February 2026 post recommends it to keep information fresh "across search and AI experiences."
- Align title, H1 and meta description. Microsoft's October 2025 guidance asks for the three to agree and to describe the page in plain language.
- Answer in one or two sentences, then expand. Microsoft recommends concise answers under clear headings, written so each answer still makes sense when lifted out.
- Use lists, tables and Q&A blocks. Microsoft calls these snippable formats and recommends them for steps and comparisons.
- Keep answers visible in HTML. Microsoft warns that AI systems may not render content hidden in tabs, accordions, images or PDFs.
- Add JSON-LD schema that matches the visible content. Unlike Google, Microsoft recommends schema to help its systems label a page as a product, review, FAQ or event.
- Claim Bing Places for Business if you serve local customers, so your address, hours and contact details are accurate.
Our view: step 7 is the most common silent failure. Pricing hidden in tabs and specs in PDFs read fine to people and are easy for machines to miss.
What Microsoft says to avoid
Microsoft's October 2025 guidance lists specific mistakes that make content harder to use in AI answers:
| Mistake | Why it hurts in Copilot |
|---|---|
| Long walls of text | Blurs separate ideas into one passage |
| Answers inside tabs or expandable menus | AI systems may not render them |
| Core facts only in PDFs or images | No HTML text to quote |
| Decorative symbols and overloaded sentences | Harder to parse cleanly |
| Unanchored claims like "next-gen" | Nothing specific to cite |
You can test a page against several of these with our Answer-Ready Checker.
Controlling how Copilot uses your content
Bing gives publishers three controls, as of October 2026:
- NOARCHIVE: Bing's 2023 announcement says content tagged NOARCHIVE is not included in chat answers or linked from them, and isn't used for training Microsoft's generative AI models.
- NOCACHE: content may appear in answers, but only the URL, title and snippet are shown.
- data-nosnippet: since October 2025, Bing honors this attribute to keep specific sections out of snippets and AI-generated answers while the page stays indexed.
Pages with NOCACHE or NOARCHIVE still appear in regular Bing results. Use these carefully: a stray NOARCHIVE on a template removes a whole section of your site from Copilot answers.
How to measure Copilot visibility
Bing Webmaster Tools' AI Performance report is the first-party source for Copilot citations. As of October 2026, it shows total citations, average cited pages, grounding queries and page-level citation activity. The grounding queries are especially useful: they show the phrases Copilot searched when it pulled your content.
Pair it with a monthly manual check of 20 to 50 buyer questions in Copilot. For cross-engine context, Ahrefs' 2025 study found 14% of Copilot's cited links appeared in Bing's top 10 for the same prompt, so ranking in Bing helps but doesn't settle it. The same habits help with ChatGPT too; see how to rank in ChatGPT.
Frequently asked questions
Does Microsoft Copilot use Bing search results?
Yes. Copilot grounds its web answers in Bing's index. Microsoft's AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools shows the grounding queries Copilot used to retrieve publisher content and which URLs it cited. A page Bing hasn't indexed can't be cited, so Bing indexing is the starting point for Copilot SEO.
Is IndexNow required for Copilot SEO?
Not required, but recommended. Bingbot will still crawl your site without it. IndexNow notifies Bing as soon as a URL is added, changed or removed, which shortens the time before Copilot can use the new version. Microsoft's February 2026 post recommends it for keeping information fresh across search and AI experiences.
Does schema markup help with Microsoft Copilot?
Microsoft says it does. Its October 2025 guidance recommends JSON-LD schema to label content types such as products, reviews, FAQs and events. That differs from Google, which says structured data isn't required for its AI features. Keep schema accurate and matched to visible content, because mismatched markup helps no one.
How do I see if Copilot cites my site?
Open the AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools. As of October 2026, it shows total citations, average cited pages, grounding queries and page-level citation activity across Microsoft Copilot and AI summaries in Bing. For the exact answer text, ask Copilot your buyer questions directly and check the sources it lists.
If you want this done for your site, AEO GEO Labs runs GEO, AEO and SEO programs for B2B and SaaS teams. See our services.