Copilot Search in Bing: What Changes for Websites

Copilot Search in Bing is Microsoft’s new AI search mode, and it went live for everyone on 4 April 2025. You type a question and Bing writes an answer built from several web pages, with links to those pages in the text and in a source list. For website owners, the big change is simple: on many searches, the first thing people see is now an AI summary, not a list of ten blue links.

If you get traffic from Bing, or from anything that runs on Bing’s index, this is worth a few hours of your time. Below I explain what Copilot Search is, how it picks sources, what it may do to your clicks, and the checks I would run on a site this week.

What Is Copilot Search in Bing?

Copilot Search is a separate search experience inside Bing. Microsoft announced it on its Bing blog on Friday 4 April 2025, the same day as its 50th anniversary Copilot event. The Bing team describes it as a mix of traditional search and generative AI (software that writes new text based on what it has read).

It had been in testing for a couple of months before that. Some people saw a “Copilot Search” option on Bing in the days before the official post, and Microsoft then confirmed it for everyone.

Here is what a Copilot Search result usually includes:

• A written answer that pulls points from several web pages.
• Links inside the answer, so you can click from a sentence straight to the page it came from.
• A list of all sources, opened with a “See all links” button that shows every page used.
• Images and videos from websites, when they help.
• Suggested follow-up topics and a box to ask the next question without starting over.

How It Decides What Kind of Answer to Show

Microsoft says Copilot Search changes the format based on the question. A simple question gets a short, clear answer. A broad or complex question gets a summary of the main points, or a layout that groups information from many sources.

In practice, that means a query like “what time zone is Dubai in” will likely get a one-line answer. A query like “best way to soundproof a home office” will get a longer, structured summary with several cited pages. The second type is where most websites have a real chance to be cited.

Where to Find It

You can reach Copilot Search in a few ways:

1. Go to bing.com/copilotsearch directly.
2. Run a normal search on bing.com and pick Copilot Search from the options under the search box. On some screens it sits inside the “More” menu.
3. Click one of the suggested related topics that appear under some answers on regular Bing.
4. Use the Bing app on iPhone or Android.

Microsoft says it is rolling out to everyone, but the exact features you see may depend on your country, language and device. If you don’t see it yet in your market, check again in a few weeks.

How Copilot Search Differs From Normal Bing Results

Regular Bing results are still there for people who prefer the classic list of links. Bing already shows some AI answers on regular results for longer, question-style searches. Copilot Search goes further: the AI answer becomes the whole page, and links play a supporting role.

It is also different from the Copilot app or chat. The chat is a conversation tool that can search when it needs to. Copilot Search starts from a search box and is built around finding and citing web pages, so it behaves more like a search engine than a chatbot.

Copilot Search vs Google AI Mode

The timing is not a coincidence. Google started testing AI Mode in Search Labs on 5 March 2025, about a month earlier. Both products try to answer complex questions in one go, with links to sources. The main difference right now is who can use them.

My honest view: Google’s version will matter more to most sites because of Google’s size. But Bing shipped first to a wide audience, so Copilot Search is the best live example we have of how AI-first search pages treat websites.

What Copilot Search in Bing Changes for Websites

Nothing about this launch changes how Bing crawls or indexes the web. Copilot Search still builds its answers from pages in Bing’s index. What changes is how people see and click on those pages.

Simple Questions Will Send Fewer Clicks

If your page answers a quick fact, such as opening hours, a definition or a conversion, Copilot Search can give that answer without a click. This is not new; featured snippets and AI answers have done the same for years. But a full AI page makes it more common.

In my experience, pages built only to answer one short fact are the most exposed. Pages that help people do something, compare options or make a decision hold up better, because a summary rarely gives the full picture.

Being Cited Is the New Top Spot

On a Copilot Search page, the most visible places for your site are the links inside the answer and the source list. Being one of the few cited pages is worth more than ranking fifth in a classic list that people now have to scroll past.

Microsoft says citations are a key part of the design, and that it wants to send people to publishers and support a healthy web. I take that at face value for now, but I would judge it by the traffic you actually see over the next few months, not by the promise.

Bing’s Index Matters More Than You Might Think

Many site owners treat Bing as an afterthought because Google sends most of their traffic. That made some sense when Bing was only a small search engine. Now Bing’s index also feeds Yahoo search results and Microsoft’s own AI products.

If Bing can’t crawl a page, or has an old version of it, that page can’t be cited in Copilot Search. When I audit a site, I now check Bing Webmaster Tools alongside Search Console, not months later.

Reporting Will Be Hard to Read at First

Bing Webmaster Tools does show clicks and impressions from AI answers, but Bing has merged chat clicks and impressions with normal web data. Bing has said it may split them out in the future. As of this launch, there is no filter to show Copilot Search traffic on its own.

In GA4, visits from Copilot Search on bing.com will most likely look like normal Bing organic traffic. So you probably won’t see a clean “Copilot Search” line in your reports. I recommend you watch Bing organic traffic as a whole and note the launch date, so you can compare before and after.

How to Get Your Site Ready for Copilot Search in Bing

There is no special sign-up or tag for Copilot Search. Your pages get in the same way they get into Bing: by being crawlable, indexed and useful. These are the steps I would take, in this order.

1. Verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools. If you already use Google Search Console, you can import your sites from it in a few clicks. This gives you crawl errors, index data and search performance for Bing.
2. Submit your XML sitemap. Add it in Bing Webmaster Tools and list it in your robots.txt file. Check that it only includes live, indexable pages with a 200 status (the code that means the page loads fine).
3. Make sure Bingbot is not blocked. Look at your robots.txt for rules that block bingbot or all bots. Also check your firewall, CDN or security plugin. I often see sites that block unknown bots and catch Bingbot by mistake. My robots.txt guide covers the rules and common errors.
4. Turn on IndexNow if your platform supports it. IndexNow is a free protocol Bing supports that lets you tell search engines the moment a page is added or changed. Many CMS plugins and CDNs offer it with one setting. It helps Bing see your updates faster, which matters for answers that should be current.
5. Check the robots meta tags on key pages. Tags like noarchive and nocache change how Bing can use your content in AI answers. More on that in the next section.
6. Test real questions. Search your main topics in Copilot Search and note which pages it cites. If competitors are cited and you aren’t, look at what their pages answer that yours don’t.

How to Control How Bing Uses Your Content in AI Answers

Bing gave site owners two controls for its AI answers in 2023, back when the product was called Bing Chat. Microsoft has not announced new controls just for Copilot Search, so these are the documented options today. You can read the details in Bing’s post on controlling content use in Bing Chat.

• NOCACHE: Bing can still show your page in AI answers, but only the URL, title and snippet. Microsoft may use only those parts to train its AI models.
• NOARCHIVE: Bing won’t use your page in AI answers or link to it from them, and won’t use the content to train its AI models.

Neither tag removes your page from Bing’s normal search results. If you use both on the same page, Bing treats it as NOCACHE.

A typical robots meta tag looks like this:

<meta name="robots" content="noarchive, nocache">

If you only want this rule for Bing, you can target Bingbot by name:

<meta name="robots" content="noarchive"><meta name="bingbot" content="nocache">

Here is the catch I see most often. Many paywalled or older sites added noarchive years ago to stop cached copies, and forgot about it. On Bing, that same tag now keeps those pages out of AI answers completely. If you want to be cited, check your templates for a stray noarchive before anything else.

My advice for most business sites is simple: don’t add either tag. If you want visibility in Copilot Search, you want Bing to be able to use and link your content.

How to Write Pages That Copilot Search Is More Likely to Cite

Microsoft has not published a list of ranking factors for Copilot Search, and I won’t pretend there is a secret formula. But the answers are built from indexed pages, so the basics of good content still apply. These are the habits I follow.

Answer the Question Early and Clearly

Put a direct answer near the top of the page, in plain words. Then explain the details below it. An AI summary needs a clean sentence it can pull from, and so does a busy reader.

Use Clear Headings That Match Real Questions

Break long pages into sections with headings that say what each part covers. A heading like “How long does a boiler service take?” is easier to match to a question than “Our process”. Clear structure helps both people and machines find the right part of the page.

Cover the Topic, Not Just the Keyword

Complex questions get longer answers that pull from several sources. Pages that cover the follow-up questions, the trade-offs and the “it depends” cases give Copilot Search more to cite. Thin pages that repeat one phrase rarely get picked.

Make Facts Easy to Check

Use specific details: prices with dates, steps in order, clear names for products and places. Mark up your content with the right structured data where it fits, such as Article markup for posts. Google and Bing both read schema.org markup. I don’t think markup alone gets you cited, but it removes doubt about what a page is.

Keep Important Pages Fresh

If your page has an old price, an old date or a dead link, an AI answer may skip it for a newer source. I review my most important pages on a schedule and use IndexNow to tell Bing when they change.

How to Check If Copilot Search Cites Your Site

There is no report that lists your Copilot Search citations yet. So for now, checking is a manual job. This is the routine I use:

1. Make a short list of 10 to 20 questions your customers actually ask.
2. Search each one in Copilot Search and click “See all links” to see every source.
3. Note whether your site is cited, which page is cited, and which other sites show up.
4. Repeat once a month, because AI answers change often.

Do the same check on regular Bing and in other AI tools, such as ChatGPT search, which is now open to everyone. Seeing where you show up, and where you don’t, tells you more than any single number.

Mistakes I Would Avoid

• Ignoring Bing because it’s small. Its index now powers AI answers people use every day.
• Blocking bots without checking who they are. A strict firewall rule can quietly block Bingbot.
• Leaving old noarchive tags in place. On Bing, they keep pages out of AI answers.
• Writing for the AI instead of people. Stuffing pages with question phrases makes them worse to read and doesn’t make them better sources.
• Judging the impact after a week. Rollouts take time. Give it a few months of data before you change your strategy.

Copilot Search in Bing: My Take

Copilot Search in Bing is the clearest sign yet that AI answers are becoming the main search page, not just a box on top of it. For websites, the goal shifts a little: from ranking in a list to being one of the few pages the answer cites.

The good news is that the work is familiar. Get your site verified in Bing Webmaster Tools, let Bingbot in, remove any stray noarchive tags, and write pages that answer real questions clearly. If you want a starting point for the wider basics, my SEO checklist for 2025 walks through what to fix first.