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Engine guide: Copilot

How to get cited by Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft is the one major vendor that gives publishers citation data. That turns this from guesswork into search work.

The short answer

Microsoft Copilot cites pages, and since 10 February 2026 Bing Webmaster Tools has an AI Performance report in public preview. It shows total citations, cited pages and a sample of grounding queries across Copilot, Bing AI summaries and select partners. Get fully indexed in Bing, use IndexNow for fresh pages and answer the grounding queries you see.

What ranked on 26 September 2026: Microsoft's announcement and trade press rank here. Generic AEO guides predate the report and still call Copilot visibility unmeasurable.

Last reviewed · 3 sources

What is specific to Copilot

Microsoft publishes more than other vendors, and the report ties citations to your own pages.

  • The report lists total citations, average cited pages and page-level counts
  • Grounding queries are a sample of phrases the AI used to retrieve your content
  • Counts reflect how often pages are cited, not importance, ranking or placement
  • IndexNow notifies participating engines of added, updated or deleted URLs
  • Microsoft advises clear headings, tables, FAQs, sources and fresh content

Claim and reality

Things that sound right and are not.

Flip a card for what is actually true.

  • Claim

    Our Google indexing is fine, so Bing must be too.

  • Claim

    Grounding queries are the same as user prompts.

  • Claim

    The report shows traffic from Copilot.

Where to start

In order. Tick as you go, or copy the list.

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Questions

Asked most.

Does the AI Performance report show clicks?

No. It reports citations and grounding queries. Use analytics referrals for traffic.

Is Copilot worth the effort given its market share?

The effort overlaps with Bing indexing, and the report alone justifies an hour of setup.

Does IndexNow guarantee indexing?

No. A 200 response only means the engine received the URL. It does not guarantee crawling or indexing.

Evidence, labelled

What is confirmed, what is reported, what is a hunch.

Each claim is labelled and sourced. Google rows speak only for Google.

Last reviewed · 3 sources

Confirmed
Stated in the platform's own documentation or measured in published data.
Reported
Third-party study or vendor data. Method and conflicts noted.

Sources, fetched 19 October 2026

  1. 01Introducing AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools (public preview) (opens in a new tab)Bing Webmaster Blog · 10 Feb 2026
  2. 02IndexNow documentation (opens in a new tab)IndexNow · No date shown
  3. 03A breakdown of Microsoft's guide to AEO and GEO (opens in a new tab)Search Engine Journal · 22 Jan 2026

Go deeper

Related questions

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