How do I get my company recommended by Microsoft Copilot?

To be recommended by Microsoft Copilot, make sure Bing can crawl and index your site, then publish pages that answer your customers' questions with checkable facts. Copilot grounds its web answers in Bing, so submit a sitemap with honest lastmod dates, ping changes through IndexNow and avoid robots tags that keep content out of chat answers. Nobody can guarantee a citation.

Facts

Since February 10, 2026, Bing Webmaster Tools has an AI Performance report, in public preview, showing citations of a site across Microsoft Copilot, with total citations and grounding queries. (Bing Webmaster Blog: Introducing AI Performance (Feb 2026))
Bing said on July 31, 2025 that the sitemap lastmod field remains a key signal, while changefreq and priority are ignored. (Bing Webmaster Blog: Sitemaps in AI powered search (Jul 2025))
Bing said on September 22, 2023 that content tagged NOARCHIVE will not be included in its chat answers, and NOCACHE content shows only URL, title and snippet. (Bing Webmaster Blog: Controlling content in Bing Chat (Sep 2023))
An IndexNow submission is shared with all participating search engines, Bing among them, and can carry up to 10,000 URLs per request. (IndexNow FAQ)
A single sitemap file can list up to 50,000 URLs, according to Bing's July 2025 guidance. (Bing Webmaster Blog: Sitemaps in AI powered search (Jul 2025))

Where does Copilot get the companies it recommends?

Copilot's web answers come from Bing: it grounds them in pages Bing has indexed and links to them as citations. A company that Bing cannot crawl, or whose pages do not answer the question clearly, has nothing for Copilot to cite.

Which tags keep a page out of Copilot answers?

The robots meta values NOARCHIVE and NOCACHE limit what Bing's chat answers can use: NOARCHIVE keeps the content out, and NOCACHE limits it to URL, title and snippet. Check that your templates or CMS do not add them by default.

<!-- Do NOT add these if you want Copilot to quote the page -->
<meta name="robots" content="noarchive">  <!-- kept out of chat answers -->
<meta name="robots" content="nocache">    <!-- only URL, title and snippet -->

How do IndexNow and the sitemap help with Copilot?

IndexNow and the sitemap tell Bing what changed, so Copilot is less likely to quote an old price or a removed offer. The sitemap gives Bing the full list of pages with real lastmod dates; IndexNow pings Bing the moment a page is added, updated or removed.

How do I know if Copilot cites my site?

Bing Webmaster Tools' AI Performance report shows which of your URLs Copilot cites and for which grounding queries. Your own analytics and server logs add the rest: visits referred by copilot.microsoft.com and Bingbot reads. easyIndex records AI visits and crawler reads per page.

Step by step

Verify the site in Bing Webmaster Tools. Add the site so you can see indexing, sitemap status and the AI Performance report.
Let Bingbot in. Check robots.txt, the CDN and the firewall: Copilot cannot cite what Bing cannot crawl.
Remove NOARCHIVE and NOCACHE where you want citations. Search the templates for these robots values and keep them only on pages you want out of AI answers.
Submit a sitemap with honest lastmod. Set lastmod to the time the page content changed, not the time the sitemap was generated.
Turn on IndexNow. Host the key file and ping Bing each time a page is published, changed or removed.
Write one page per buyer question. Answer first, then facts with numbers, dates and sources, identical on every page and language.

Common mistakes

Optimising only for Google and never checking Bing Webmaster Tools, where Copilot's index lives.
Leaving a NOARCHIVE tag from an old paywall or CMS setting on pages meant to be cited.
Updating lastmod on every page at every build, so the date stops meaning anything.
Changing prices without pinging IndexNow, so the old figure stays in Bing for longer.

How easyIndex solves it

easyIndex has your coding agent build these pages over MCP, audits each one, checks it on the live site, notifies Bing through IndexNow when a batch goes live and measures AI visitors and crawler reads per page, for US$ 30 per website a month, with a 7-day free trial.

Frequently asked questions

Is Copilot the same as Bing for my website?

For web answers, Copilot grounds in Bing's index, so being crawlable and indexed by Bing comes first.

Do I need IndexNow to appear in Copilot?

No, Bing also crawls on its own and reads sitemaps. IndexNow tells Bing about a change right away instead of waiting for the next crawl.

Does NOCACHE remove me from Copilot?

Not entirely: Bing said NOCACHE content can appear, but only as URL, title and snippet. NOARCHIVE keeps it out of chat answers.

Will Copilot recommend my company for sure?

No one can promise that. You can make the pages easy for Bing to reach and quote, and measure the citations and visits.

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Last verified on October 9, 2026.