The short answer
Microsoft Copilot is Microsoft’s AI assistant. It grounds its answers in Bing search and shows its sources, so Bing indexing and Bing Webmaster Tools matter for Copilot visibility.
Updated Oct 18 2026
Why Bing and Copilot matters
Copilot can cite your pages even when Bing sends few clicks, so a site that only watches Google traffic can miss it completely.
How to measure or use it
Use the AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools, which lists citations, cited pages and a sample of grounding queries.
How I handle it
On my own site it reported 4.4K citations across Copilot and Bing AI answers in 90 days, mostly to comparison and how to pages, while Bing clicks stayed tiny. That is why I treat Bing as its own channel.
Related terms
- CitationsThe sources an AI answer names, links or relies on to support what it says.Read
- Citation RateHow often one of your pages is cited when your tracked questions are asked.Read
- Source AuthorityHow much a system trusts a source, based on relevance, reputation, freshness and who else cites it.Read
Bing and Copilot questions
Do I need Bing Webmaster Tools?
Yes. Its AI Performance report is Microsoft’s own count of how often your pages are cited in Copilot and other Bing AI answers, and it lets you submit your sitemap.
Does ranking on Google help in Copilot?
Sometimes, but the two engines favored different pages on my own site, so check each.