Contents
Why Bing matters for AI visibility.
Bing isn't just a search engine. Its index also powers Copilot, Bing's AI summaries, DuckDuckGo and Yahoo. A page Bing doesn't know about has little chance of showing up in any of them. Bing Webmaster Tools is how you check that Bing knows your page, and how you tell it when the page changes.
Bing Webmaster Tools vs Google Search Console? Same job, for Bing. Free, with a Microsoft, Google or Facebook account.
- Adding and verifying your site
- Sitemaps, URL inspection, IndexNow
- Clicks and impressions in Bing
Since February 2026, a report counts your citations in AI-generated answers.
- Citations in Copilot and Bing's AI summaries
- Cited pages and the searches behind them
- Day-by-day trends
DuckDuckGo says it “largely” sources its traditional links from Bing. Yahoo tells site owners to submit their site through Bing Webmaster Tools.
OpenAI says it also relies on third-party search providers, without naming them all. Bing's report mentions “select partner integrations”, without naming them either.
Sources: Bing Webmaster Blog (February 2026), DuckDuckGo Help and Yahoo Help (accessed November 3, 2026).
How to set up Bing Webmaster Tools, without starting over.
It's the first step to get found on Bing. Sign in with a Microsoft, Google or Facebook account, then add your site to Bing. If your site is already verified in Google Search Console, import it: that's the fastest way.
- Open Bing Webmaster ToolsSign up at bing.com/webmasters with the account of your choice.
- Choose ImportGive Bing access to Google Search Console: it reads the list of your verified sites and their sitemaps.
- Pick your sitesUp to 100 sites per import. They are verified automatically, sitemaps included.
- Give it a little timeThe first traffic data can take up to 48 hours to show up.
Bing site verification without Search Console: four other methods
| Method | What you do | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| DNS auto verification | You sign in to your domain provider and the record is added for you (Domain Connect standard). | If your domain provider supports it |
| XML File | You upload the BingSiteAuth.xml file to the root of your site. | If you can access your site's files |
| HTML Meta Tag | You paste the msvalidate.01 tag into your home page's <head>, and leave it there. | If your CMS lets you add a tag |
| CNAME record | You manually add a CNAME record with the code Bing gives you. | If you manage your DNS |
Bing checks site ownership again from time to time. If you revoke its access to Search Console, or remove the meta tag, you will need to verify the site another way.
An administrator can add users with read-only access, read/write access, or as administrators.
Your sitemap first, then the status of your pages.
Submit your sitemap to Bing in Bing Webmaster Tools (Sitemaps menu), or list it in robots.txt so Bing finds it on its own. Bing reads it right away, then comes back regularly, typically at least once a day.
The only date field that counts: Bing uses it to decide what to crawl again. Use the real date each page was last changed.
URLs max per sitemap file. Beyond that, use a sitemap index.
yoursite.com/sitemap.xml<url> <loc>https://yoursite.com/blog/my-article</loc> <lastmod>2026-11-03T09:30:00-05:00</lastmod> </url> <!-- changefreq and priority: ignored by Bing -->
A page isn't showing up? Three tools to find out why
The report sorts the URLs in your sitemaps: indexed, crawled but not indexed, discovered but not indexed, blocked by robots.txt or by noindex.
Your Bing index checker for a single page: Bing tells you whether it's indexed. You can also request indexing from there.
To submit several URLs to Bing at once, in the tool or through the Bing Webmaster Tools API, within a daily quota shown in the tool.
Bing lists six reasons: the site is too new, crawling issues, a robots.txt block, a noindex tag, a URL blocked in the tool, or a page below its quality bar.
A submitted page isn't necessarily indexed. Bing decides which pages to keep, based on their quality and popularity signals.
Sources: Bing Webmaster Blog (July 2025), Bing Webmaster Tools interface and help (accessed November 3, 2026).
IndexNow: tell search engines right away.
IndexNow is an open protocol created by Microsoft Bing and Yandex in 2021. When a page is added, updated or deleted, your site sends its URL to one participating search engine, which shares it with all the others. Your sitemap stays the foundation; IndexNow flags changes the moment they happen.
Turning it on, with or without a developer
Turn on IndexNow in your SEO plugin, or install the IndexNow plugin published by Microsoft. The IndexNow page in Bing Webmaster Tools has its own card for WordPress and another for Cloudflare.
Turn on Crawler Hints (Caching › Configuration), on every plan, including Free. Cloudflare then notifies IndexNow when a page changes.
Shopify, Wix, Drupal, Joomla!, PrestaShop and others support it, natively or through an extension.
For a custom site: a key, a file, and one request for each change. See below.
# 1. A key of 8 to 128 characters, in a file at the root of your site yoursite.com/your-key.txtyour-key # 2. A page has changed: one request is enough GET https://www.bing.com/indexnow?url=https://yoursite.com/blog/my-article&key=your-key # Several pages: one JSON POST request, up to 10,000 URLs
Only send pages that have actually changed, never in a loop. Wait at least 5 minutes before sending the same URL again. Bing Webmaster Tools' IndexNow Insights report then shows the pages submitted, crawled and indexed.
Google isn't one of the participating engines. For Google, your sitemap and Search Console remain the normal route. And for every engine: submitting a URL doesn't guarantee it gets indexed.
Sources: IndexNow documentation and FAQ, Bing Webmaster Blog (October 2021), Cloudflare docs (accessed November 3, 2026).
Bingbot, robots.txt and the new AI preferences.
Bingbot is Bing's crawler. On October 30, 2026, Microsoft announced two separate preferences for how AI uses your content: model training, and grounding, meaning the use of your pages as a source in a Copilot or Bing answer.
Bing's crawler. A page it can't read can't be a source for Copilot. The Verify Bingbot tool tells you whether an IP address really belongs to it.
Use of your content to train models. Set in robots.txt or page by page. Opting out changes nothing about where you rank in Bing search.
Use of your pages as a source in answers from Bing, Copilot and Microsoft 365. Opting out means giving up on being cited there.
Bingbot and robots.txt
yoursite.com/robots.txt# Bing, Copilot, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo: allow User-agent: bingbot Allow: / # AI training: your call (read by Microsoft starting February 1, 2027) User-agent: __usage_ai-training Disallow: / Sitemap: https://yoursite.com/sitemap.xml
Starting February 1, 2027, Microsoft applies the new preferences as it crawls. With no preference set, everything is allowed.
After March 1, 2027, the noarchive and nocache tags no longer count for AI. Using them? Replace them with the new preferences. A transition setting opens in Bing Webmaster Tools on December 15, 2026.
Sources: Bing blog (October 30, 2026), Bing Webmaster Tools help (accessed November 3, 2026).
What makes a page easy to cite.
Bing gives its own advice for getting cited: in-depth content, clearly structured (headings, tables, FAQs), backed by evidence and kept up to date. These six practices point the same way, for Copilot and for Google alike. Hover over or tap them to see them on the page.
Writing rules, applied to every article.
The Generator starts from real search data.
- Direct answer
- Structured headings
- Real FAQ
- Matches search intent
How to use Bing Webmaster Tools.
Seven steps to optimize for AI Overviews, from essential to optional. Check them off as you go.
Add and verify your site
Fastest: Import from Google Search Console. Otherwise, pick a Bing Webmaster Tools verification method: DNS, XML file or meta tag.
Let Bingbot crawl your pages
Check robots.txt with the Robots.txt Tester, but also your firewall and your CDN: they can block Bingbot without you noticing.
Submit your sitemap, with real dates
Sitemaps menu, or a Sitemap line in robots.txt. One accurate lastmod date per page, not the date the file was generated.
Turn on IndexNow
Through your WordPress plugin, Cloudflare or your CMS. Every page you publish or update is reported right away to Bing and the other participating engines.
Inspect your key pages
Run your most important pages through Bing Webmaster Tools URL Inspection: indexed or not, and why.
Run a Site Scan
The tool crawls your site and lists common technical issues, sorted into errors and warnings. Fix the errors first.
Write the answer before the details
When optimizing for AI Overviews, the step that makes the biggest difference isn't technical: start every page and every section with a clear answer.
Your article is ready. Polish it together.
Your team and your clients work on the same article at the same time. The AI assistant does what you ask, and the article goes to your site in one click.
Measuring your visibility in Bing and Copilot.
Two reports work together. Search Performance gives your clicks and impressions in Bing search. AI Performance, launched in February 2026, counts how often your pages are cited as a source in AI answers.
- Open AI PerformanceIn the Bing Webmaster Tools menu, for the site you pick.
- Read the citationsTotal Citations: how many times your pages show up as a source, in Copilot, Bing's AI summaries and select partner integrations.
- Spot your cited pagesYour most cited pages, and the average number of pages cited per day.
- Check the Grounding QueriesThe searches the AI ran when it found your pages: your real topics, as the AI sees them.
In preview since June: searches grouped by intent and by topic, your share of citations for a given search (Citation Share), and comparison with a previous period. In beta since October: Topics Portfolio, which also shows the searches where other sites are cited and yours isn't.
The report shows that your pages are cited, not that people click on them. Its numbers are a sample, not a complete log. For visits, look at Search Performance and your analytics tool.
Sources: Bing Webmaster Blog (February 10 and October 13, 2026) and Bing blog (June 16, 2026).
Common myths.
Six claims you hear a lot about Bing Webmaster Tools and IndexNow, and what's actually true.
No. Bing's index also feeds Copilot and Bing's AI summaries, and supplies most of the links on DuckDuckGo and Yahoo.
No. A site already verified in Google Search Console can be imported in a few clicks, verification and sitemaps included.
No. IndexNow and Bing both say so: keep your sitemap for full coverage, and use IndexNow for changes.
No. A 200 response only means the URL was received. The search engine then decides whether to index it.
No. Google isn't one of the participating engines. For Google, go through your sitemap and Search Console.
No. According to Microsoft, the AI Training and AI Grounding preferences change nothing about your presence in classic Bing search.
Frequently asked questions.
What is Bing Webmaster Tools?
It's Microsoft's free tool for site owners: you use it to add a site to Bing, track how it's crawled and indexed, submit sitemaps and pages, and measure clicks in Bing and citations in Copilot.
Bing Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools: are they the same thing?
Yes. “Bing Search Console” isn't an official name: it's what many people call Bing Webmaster Tools, by analogy with Google Search Console.
How do I get my site indexed on Bing?
Add the site to Bing Webmaster Tools, submit your sitemap and turn on IndexNow. Also make sure Bingbot can crawl your pages. Bing indexing is never guaranteed: Bing keeps the pages that clear its quality bar.
How do I submit a URL to Bing?
For a single page, use URL Inspection and request indexing. For several, use URL Submission, within a daily quota shown in the tool. For every new or updated page, IndexNow does it automatically.
What is IndexNow?
An open protocol that lets a site tell search engines that a page was added, updated or deleted. One notification is enough: it is shared between Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam, Yep and Amazon.
Using Bing Webmaster Tools with WordPress: how do I turn on IndexNow?
Turn it on in your SEO plugin if it offers IndexNow, or install the IndexNow plugin published by Microsoft. If your site runs behind Cloudflare, just turn on Crawler Hints.
Why isn't my site showing up on Bing?
Bing lists six causes: the site is too new, crawling issues, a robots.txt rule blocking Bingbot, a noindex tag, a URL blocked in Bing Webmaster Tools, or content below its quality bar. The Sitemap index coverage report and URL Inspection help you find which one.
How can I tell if a crawler is really Bingbot?
Use the Verify Bingbot tool, in Bing Webmaster Tools or freely available at bing.com/toolbox/verify-bingbot: enter the IP address you found in your server logs.
How can I see my citations in Copilot?
Open the AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools. It counts your citations in Copilot, in Bing's AI summaries and in select partner integrations, page by page, with the searches that triggered them.
Can I stop Copilot from using my pages?
Yes. The <meta name="Bingbot" content="ai-grounding:disallow"> tag removes a page from answers in Bing, Copilot and Microsoft 365, and from the grounding services Microsoft provides to other companies, starting February 1, 2027. The ai-grounding:disallowextended variant only removes it from those third-party services. Until then, the noarchive tag does that job. In every case, the page stays in classic Bing search.
What topic do you want to be visible for?
Seocreo writes structured articles built to be picked up by ChatGPT and other AI tools, without sacrificing your Google rankings.
Get started for freeNo credit card
Built for Google and for AI
- Add and Verify siteBing Webmaster Tools Help · accessed November 3, 2026
- Easily Verify Your Site in Bing Webmaster Tools by Importing from Search ConsoleMicrosoft Bing · September 13, 2019, updated June 2025
- Keeping Content Discoverable with Sitemaps in AI Powered SearchMicrosoft Bing · July 31, 2025
- IndexNow, documentationIndexNow.org · accessed November 3, 2026
- IndexNow, FAQIndexNow.org · accessed November 3, 2026
- IndexNow: Instantly Index your web content in Search EnginesMicrosoft Bing · October 18, 2021
- Crawler HintsCloudflare · accessed November 3, 2026
- Introducing AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools Public PreviewMicrosoft Bing · February 10, 2026
- New AI Visibility Insights in Bing Webmaster ToolsMicrosoft Bing · June 16, 2026
- Your content, your choice: clearer preferences for training and groundingMicrosoft Bing · October 30, 2026
- Where do DuckDuckGo search results come from?DuckDuckGo Help · accessed November 3, 2026
- Submit your website to Yahoo SearchYahoo Help · accessed November 3, 2026
GuideSEO for ChatGPT
GuideAI Overviews