Yes, it is worth setting up Bing Webmaster Tools, even if most of your customers use Google. It is free, importing an existing Google Search Console verification can make setup quicker, and since February 2026 it includes an AI Performance report that shows when your pages are cited as sources in Microsoft Copilot, AI-generated summaries in Bing and some partner services (Bing Webmaster Blog, 10 Feb 2026). Google Search Console does not give you that citation view for Microsoft's AI answers, so Bing's tool fills a real gap.
Setting it up won't make Copilot or any other AI tool cite you. What it does is help Bing find and index your pages properly, and show you what is already happening.
Why Bing matters more in the age of AI answers
For years, many small businesses ignored Bing because its share of searches was small. That reasoning is weaker now, for two reasons.
- Microsoft's AI answers draw on Bing. Bing's own announcement describes the AI Performance report as covering Microsoft Copilot, AI-generated summaries in Bing and "select partner integrations" (Bing Webmaster Blog). If Bing can't crawl or index a page, it is unlikely to be used as a source in those answers.
- Other AI tools use search providers too. OpenAI says ChatGPT search "leverages third-party search providers, as well as content provided directly by our partners" (OpenAI, 31 Oct 2024). OpenAI's current Enterprise and Edu documentation confirms that ChatGPT search may send queries to Bing. That does not mean every ChatGPT answer uses Bing, or that Bing indexing guarantees ChatGPT visibility. What OpenAI does confirm is that its own crawler, OAI-SearchBot, needs access for your content to appear in ChatGPT search answers (OpenAI crawler documentation).
The practical takeaway: being properly indexed in Bing is one of the few low-effort, in-your-control steps that supports visibility across more than one AI system.
What you need before you start
- Admin access to your website, or to whoever manages it.
- Ideally, a verified property in Google Search Console. If you don't have one yet, our guide to setting up Google Search Console is a good first step, because Bing can import from it.
- Your sitemap address. On most website builders and WordPress SEO plugins it is something like
yourdomain.com/sitemap.xmloryourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml.
How to set up Bing Webmaster Tools, step by step
These steps follow Bing's own setup guide (Bing Webmaster Blog, 17 Jun 2025).
Step 1: Sign in
Go to Bing Webmaster Tools (bing.com/webmasters) and sign in with a Microsoft, Google or Facebook account. Use an account your business controls long term, not a personal account belonging to a freelancer or former staff member.
Step 2: Add and verify your site
You have five options. Pick the first one that applies:
- Import from Google Search Console. The quickest route if your site is already verified there. Bing brings over the verified sites you choose.
- Domain Connect. If your DNS provider supports it, you log in to the provider and verification happens automatically.
- DNS record. Add the verification record shown by Bing in your domain's DNS settings, using exactly the record type, host/name and value it provides.
- Meta tag. Paste a tag into the
<head>of your homepage. - XML file upload. Upload a small file to the root of your site.
Once verified, you will see a green tick. Data starts to build up over the following days, so don't worry if reports are empty at first.
Step 3: Submit your sitemap
Under Sitemaps, submit your sitemap URL (or reference it in your robots.txt file). Bing says it normally revisits submitted or discovered sitemaps at least once a day. Bing also recommends that the lastmod date in your sitemap reflects when content actually changed, not simply when the file was regenerated (Bing Webmaster Blog, 31 Jul 2025).
If you imported from Search Console, check whether your sitemap came across. If it didn't, add it here.
Step 4: Turn on IndexNow if your platform supports it
IndexNow is a protocol that tells Bing and other participating search engines when you add, update or delete a page, rather than waiting for them to recrawl. Bing calls it "optional, but highly recommended". Support varies by platform: some integrations are built in, while others need a plugin or setup. Check your platform's documentation rather than assuming IndexNow is already active (IndexNow FAQ).
IndexNow is a notification, not a guarantee of crawling, indexing or AI citation. For a small site that rarely changes, it is a nice-to-have. It matters more if you update prices, opening details or service information often, because it helps search engines (and the AI answers built on them) pick up the current version sooner.
Step 5: Check your important pages
Use URL Inspection on your homepage and your three to five most important service pages. It shows whether Bing has indexed each page, whether it could crawl it and whether anything is blocked. While you're there, run the robots.txt tester to confirm Bingbot can reach your key content. If you have changed your robots.txt to manage AI crawlers, our guide to robots.txt and AI crawlers explains which bots do what.
What the AI Performance report shows
Once your site has some citation activity, the AI Performance report shows (Bing Webmaster Blog):
| Metric | What it means |
|---|---|
| Total citations | How many times your pages were shown as sources in AI-generated answers in the period |
| Average cited pages | The average number of unique pages from your site cited per day |
| Grounding queries | Key phrases the AI used when retrieving your content (a sample, not the full list) |
| Page-level citations | How often each URL was cited |
| Visibility trends | Citation activity over time |
Bing also introduced Intents, Topics, Citation Share and Compare in preview in June 2026. These add query categories, thematic groupings, relative citation share and period comparisons, not traffic or ranking measures (Bing Webmaster Blog, 16 Jun 2026).
In October 2026, Bing added a Topics Portfolio tab in beta. It groups grounding queries into broader topics and lists "opportunity queries", where other sites are cited but yours isn't. Bing describes these groupings as AI-generated and directional, and the tab only appears when your site has enough data (Bing Webmaster Blog, 13 Oct 2026).
How to read the AI numbers without over-reading them
A few cautions, most of them from Bing itself:
- It's a sample. Bing says the data "represents a sample of overall citation activity", so it is not a complete log of every citation (Bing AI Performance help).
- Citations aren't rankings or clicks. Bing says citation counts reflect how often pages are cited, not their importance or position. The report doesn't tell you how many people clicked through.
- Grounding queries aren't what people typed. They are the phrases the AI used to retrieve content, which may differ from the customer's original question.
- It is not a complete cross-platform view. Bing reports supported Microsoft experiences and select partner integrations, but does not identify every partner in these sources. Do not treat the totals as a separate report for ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google AI Overviews. For a wider check, see our guide on how to check whether AI tools mention your business.
- Low numbers do not automatically mean a problem. Sparse citation activity may not appear in the dashboard. Check indexing and crawlability before treating an empty report as a content problem.
A simple monthly routine
Once set up, start with this short monthly check:
- Check Search Performance for clicks and impressions from Bing (it keeps up to 16 months of data).
- Open AI Performance. Note which pages are cited and which grounding queries appear. Are they the pages and topics you want to be known for?
- If you see Topics Portfolio, look at opportunity queries. Ask: do we have a clear, accurate page that answers this? If not, is it a question our customers actually ask?
- Run URL Inspection on any page you've changed or added.
- Glance at Site Scan or recommendations for broken links or missing titles.
What's in your control, and what isn't
In your control: verifying your site, submitting a sitemap, keeping important pages crawlable and indexable, using IndexNow if your platform supports it, and publishing clear, accurate, up-to-date pages. Bing's own suggestions for pages that get cited include clear headings, tables and FAQ sections, supporting claims with examples and sources, and keeping content current (Bing Webmaster Blog). Our guide on writing pages AI answers can quote goes into that in more detail.
Not in your control: whether Copilot or any other AI system chooses to cite you for a given question, how it phrases its answer, and how often the underlying systems change. No one can guarantee AI citations, including us.