To get cited by Microsoft Copilot, start with Bing. Microsoft says Bing and Copilot rely on the same crawling, indexing, and ranking foundation as traditional search, so let Bingbot crawl your site, verify it in Bing Webmaster Tools, and use IndexNow to report changes. Then publish clear, self-contained pages, check your meta robots tags, and track your citations in Bing’s AI Performance report.

Copilot is Microsoft’s AI assistant, available in Bing, Edge, Windows, and its own apps, and people use it to research vendors and compare options. This guide covers how Copilot chooses sources, the settings that can quietly keep you out, and how to measure your citations. It is part of Sentic’s series on answer engine optimization (AEO).

How does Copilot choose sources?

Copilot grounds its answers in Bing. Microsoft’s Bing Webmaster Guidelines cover Bing search, Copilot, and grounding API results in one document, and say that SEO best practices for discovery, indexing, and content clarity also support eligibility for AI-generated answers and citations. Microsoft defines grounding as the source material and web evidence a system uses to support and cite its response.

So Copilot visibility is mostly Bing visibility. A page that Bing can’t find, render, or index isn’t a candidate for a Copilot citation.

Which settings can keep you out of Copilot?

Bing’s guidelines spell out how several common directives affect Copilot. Check your templates and SEO plugin settings for each one:

Setting What Bing’s guidelines say it does
Blocking Bingbot in robots.txt Listed as something to avoid; content Bing can’t crawl or render may not be indexed or selected for grounding
noindex Keeps the URL out of Bing search, Copilot experiences, and grounding API results
noarchive Prevents the content from being used in Copilot responses and grounding results
nocache Limits Copilot to the URL, title, and snippet, reducing citation depth
nosnippet or data-nosnippet Stops Bing showing captions and may limit Copilot citation quality

Use noindex on pages you don’t want in Copilot. On pages you do want cited, make sure noarchive and nocache aren’t set by default.

How to get cited by Copilot: 6 steps

Step 1: Let Bingbot crawl and render your pages

Confirm robots.txt and your CDN or firewall allow Bingbot. Bing’s guidelines also warn against hiding critical content behind client-side rendering, so key text should be in the HTML.

Step 2: Verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools

Submit an XML sitemap with accurate lastmod dates. Bing says sitemaps don’t guarantee visibility, but they improve the accuracy and freshness of its index.

Step 3: Report changes with IndexNow

Microsoft recommends IndexNow to tell Bing when URLs are added, updated, or removed, and says timely notifications reduce outdated URL references in Copilot responses. We use IndexNow on sentic.io, so Bing hears about new and updated posts when they’re published.

Step 4: Write pages that stand on their own

Bing says pages are more likely to be selected for citations when facts and definitions are explicit and important information is visible on the page. Keep each URL focused on one topic, with a clear title, meta description, and heading structure.

Step 5: Name your brand and entities consistently

Use the same names for your company, people, products, and locations everywhere. Bing says clear entity definitions improve citation accuracy. Structured data can help, as long as it matches the visible content, though Bing notes it doesn’t guarantee visibility.

Step 6: Track citations every month

Review the AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools, and run a fixed set of buyer questions through Copilot to see how it describes you next to competitors.

What does Bing’s AI Performance report show?

Microsoft launched the AI Performance report in public preview in February 2026. It shows total citations across Microsoft Copilot and AI summaries in Bing, the average number of cited pages, page-level citation counts, and sample grounding queries.

On June 16, 2026, Microsoft added four preview features: Intents, which classifies grounding queries by type; Topics, which groups related queries into themes; Citation Share; and Compare, for changes over time. In our own report, the grounding queries that cite sentic.io most are about video marketing and our State of AI Visibility study, which is a good reminder that original data earns citations.

How do you track Copilot traffic in GA4?

Since May 13, 2026, GA4 has placed visits from recognized AI assistants in an AI Assistant channel, with ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude among Google’s named examples. Check whether visits from copilot.microsoft.com land there or in Referral, and add Copilot to a custom channel group so it’s counted with your other AI traffic. We build these custom channels for clients so AI traffic is attributed properly.

What doesn’t work?

  • Thin or ad-heavy pages. Bing says thin, ad-heavy, or affiliate-only URLs may lose ranking eligibility and grounding visibility.
  • Duplicate URLs. Bing says duplicates dilute signals and reduce its confidence in choosing a URL to cite. Use canonical URLs and consistent URL structures.
  • Manufactured authority. Networks of look-alike sites and fake reviews put the brand at risk and tend to fail once systems catch up.

For other assistants, read our guides to getting cited by ChatGPT, Claude SEO, Perplexity SEO, and Gemini SEO.

Frequently asked questions

Does Microsoft Copilot use Bing?

Yes. Microsoft’s Bing Webmaster Guidelines say Bing and Copilot search experiences rely on the same core crawling, indexing, and ranking foundation as traditional search. If Bing can’t crawl and index a page, Copilot is unlikely to cite it.

Do I need IndexNow for Copilot?

It isn’t required, but Microsoft recommends it. Bing’s guidelines say timely IndexNow notifications help Bing refresh its index and reduce outdated or incorrect URL references in Copilot responses.

Can meta robots tags keep my pages out of Copilot?

Yes. Bing’s guidelines say noindex keeps a URL out of Bing search and Copilot, noarchive prevents content from being used in Copilot responses, and nocache limits Copilot to the URL, title, and snippet. Nosnippet may limit citation quality.

How do I see whether Copilot cites my site?

Verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools and open the AI Performance report. It shows citations across Microsoft Copilot and AI summaries in Bing, which pages were cited, and sample grounding queries.

See what Copilot says about your brand

We track how ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity, and DeepSeek describe your brand, then fix what keeps you out of the answers. Request a free growth audit, or learn about our AEO services.