How to get your business on Bing, Bing Maps and Copilot

If you've set up Google and never got round to Bing, give Bing an afternoon. Microsoft's Copilot uses Bing search to find what it tells people, so if Bing can't find your business, Copilot probably can't either. The afternoon comes in three parts: claim your Bing Places listing, add your website to Bing Webmaster Tools, and give Bing what its guidelines ask for. Copilot has no sign-up of its own, so Bing is the way in.

What Bing looks at when it ranks a page

Microsoft sets out the main factors on its page How Bing delivers search results:

• Relevance: how closely a page matches what the person is looking for, including synonyms and the words other sites use when they link to it.
• Quality and credibility: how clear the site's purpose is, how usable and well presented it is, and its reputation, including which other sites link to it.
• What people do with the results: whether they click through to your page, and whether they stay once they arrive.
• Freshness: Bing generally prefers up-to-date content where the subject calls for it.
• Location and language: where the person searching is, where the page is hosted, what language it's in, and where its other visitors are.
• Page load time: Bing treats a slow page as a poorer experience.

The same page says Bing may show business information such as your opening hours and location, and that you, as the owner, can claim and update that listing through Bing Places for Business. That is the place to start.

Step one: claim your Bing Places listing

Bing Places is Microsoft's free answer to Google Business Profile, and it's the listing that puts you in Bing's results and on Bing Maps. Microsoft rebuilt it in October 2025 and moved it from bingplaces.com to bing.com/forbusiness.

• Search Bing for your business first. If a listing already exists, claim it rather than creating a second one.
  What good looks like

  You have searched Bing and Bing Maps for your business name, phone number and address, and you know whether a listing already exists before creating anything.

  Takes five minutes. Covered in full above.

• Import from Google if you already have a Google Business Profile. Microsoft says the import keeps key details such as the business name, hours and contact details, and it's much the quickest route.
  What good looks like

  Your Bing Places listing was created by importing your Google Business Profile, and the business name, hours and contact details came across.

  Takes fifteen minutes. Covered in full above.

• Otherwise, add your business manually, using exactly the same name, address and phone number as everywhere else.
  What good looks like

  The listing was added by hand with the name, address and phone number written exactly as they appear on your website and Google profile, down to "Road" or "Rd".

  Takes half an hour. Covered in Local SEO for UK businesses: the complete checklist.

• Complete whichever verification steps Bing offers you. The options vary by business and by country.
  What good looks like

  Bing Places shows your listing as verified, using whichever method Bing offered you.

  Takes ten minutes, plus any wait for a code. Covered in full above.

• Check everything after importing. Categories, hours, the map pin, your website link and your description.
  What good looks like

  You have gone through the imported listing field by field: categories, hours, the pin on the map, the website link and the description are all correct.

  Takes twenty minutes. Covered in full above.

• Follow the Recommendation Tool. Microsoft says it suggests missing details that help, such as photos, your website link, opening hours and social links.
  What good looks like

  The Recommendation Tool shows no missing details you could reasonably add, such as photos, the website link, opening hours or social links.

  Takes twenty minutes. Covered in full above.

• Add photos of your premises and your work.
  What good looks like

  The listing has recent photos of your premises, if customers visit, and of your work, taken by you rather than stock images.

  Takes half an hour. Covered in Local SEO for UK businesses: the complete checklist.

Whichever route you take, use the same details you use on Google, word for word. Bing's guidelines ask for people and organisations to be named clearly and consistently, because search engines and AI assistants both cross-check what different sites say about you. If your details have drifted apart over the years, the local SEO checklist will help you bring them back into line.

Step two: add your website to Bing Webmaster Tools

Bing Webmaster Tools is Bing's version of Google Search Console. It shows you what Bing knows about your site, and it now includes a report on when AI answers cite you.

• Add your site. Microsoft's help on adding a site gives you two routes: import from Google Search Console, which verifies your sites for you, or add the site by hand and verify it with one of four methods.
  What good looks like

  Your site appears in Bing Webmaster Tools as verified, either imported from Search Console or added and verified by one of Bing's four methods.

  Takes fifteen minutes by import from Search Console. Covered in full above.

• Submit your sitemap, which is the list of your pages, if the import didn't bring it across.
  What good looks like

  The Sitemaps section in Bing Webmaster Tools lists your sitemap as submitted and processed without errors.

  Takes five minutes. Covered in The launch checklist: what to check before a new website or campaign goes live.

• Wait about 48 hours, which Microsoft says is how long data usually takes to appear.
  What good looks like

  You have put a reminder in the diary two days after adding the site, rather than judging the empty reports on day one.

  Takes two days of waiting. Covered in full above.

• Look at Search Performance for the searches you appear for on Bing.
  What good looks like

  You have looked at the searches you appear for on Bing, noted the ones that matter to your business, and set a monthly reminder to look again.

  Takes twenty minutes. Covered in full above.

• Look at AI Performance for when Copilot cites your pages. We explain the report in Bing's AI Performance report.
  What good looks like

  You have opened the AI Performance report, noted any pages Copilot cites, and know where to look each month.

  Takes fifteen minutes. Covered in Bing's AI Performance report: how to see where Copilot cites your website.

• Run Site Scan and fix whatever it flags.
  What good looks like

  A Site Scan has run on your site, and every error it flagged has been fixed or noted with a reason to leave it.

  Takes an hour, depending on what it finds. Covered in full above.

• Use Keyword Research to see what people search for on Bing in your area of business.
  What good looks like

  You have looked up the searches people make on Bing for your main services and area, and noted any that no page on your site answers.

  Takes half an hour. Covered in full above.

Step three: give Bing what its guidelines ask for

Bing's webmaster guidelines are unusually specific, which is a kindness, and most of what they ask for costs you nothing but attention.

• Tell Bing when pages change, using IndexNow, which is a way of telling it straight away rather than waiting for it to come back. Bing asks sites to report pages as they're added, updated or removed, one at a time rather than in big batches. Plenty of website platforms and plugins support IndexNow, so check whether yours does.
  What good looks like

  Your website platform or a plugin sends IndexNow notifications when pages are added, updated or removed, or you have a plan and a date to add it.

  Takes fifteen minutes if your platform supports it; longer if not. Covered in full above.

• Keep your sitemap accurate, listing only real pages, with the date each was last changed.
  What good looks like

  The sitemap lists only real pages you want found, with no redirects or missing pages, and each entry's last-changed date is correct.

  Takes half an hour to check. Covered in full above.

• Don't block Bingbot, the software Bing uses to read your pages, in your robots.txt file.
  What good looks like

  Your robots.txt file, read on the live site, has no rule that blocks Bingbot or all crawlers from the pages you want found.

  Takes five minutes. Covered in Why is my website not showing up on Google or Bing? A step-by-step diagnosis.

• Make sure your content doesn't need scripts to run before it appears. Bing warns that content it can't reliably display may never be indexed. If pages are missing, work through why.
  What good looks like

  The main text of each important page is present in the page as delivered, and Bing's URL Inspection shows it, rather than appearing only after scripts run.

  Takes twenty minutes with URL Inspection. Covered in Why is my website not showing up on Google or Bing? A step-by-step diagnosis.

• Avoid two page settings, "nocache" and "noarchive", on pages you want cited. Bing says noarchive stops the content being used in Copilot's answers at all, and nocache limits Copilot to the address, the title and a short snippet.
  What good looks like

  None of the pages you want cited carries a nocache or noarchive setting in its robots meta tag or headers.

  Takes fifteen minutes. Covered in full above.

• Put the key information near the top of each page, and keep each page to one topic.
  What good looks like

  Each important page opens with what it is, who it is for and where, and covers one topic.

  Takes fifteen minutes a page. Covered in Landing pages that convert: the structure, section by section.

• State the facts plainly on the page, rather than leaving them implied, or only visible in a picture.
  What good looks like

  Prices, areas served, opening hours and similar facts are written in the page's text, not only shown in images or implied.

  Takes half an hour on a small site. Covered in full above.

• Give images alt text and, where useful, captions.
  What good looks like

  Every meaningful image has alt text describing what it shows, and captions where they help a reader.

  Takes an hour on a small site. Covered in full above.

• Use a permanent redirect when a page moves, so anyone visiting the old address lands on the new one.
  What good looks like

  Every page that has moved redirects permanently, in one step, to its new address.

  Takes depends on the site; a list of old addresses helps. Covered in The launch checklist: what to check before a new website or campaign goes live.

• Write clear titles and descriptions for every page.
  What good looks like

  Every page has its own title and description that say what that page is about, with no two alike.

  Takes an hour on a small site. Covered in full above.

The same guidelines list what to avoid: showing search engines different content from what visitors see, buying links, duplicate pages, copying other sites' content, stuffing pages with keywords, mass-produced automated pages, misleading hidden labels, and anything designed to manipulate AI answers. None of it is a shortcut worth taking.

Getting cited by Copilot

Everything above is what makes you eligible to be cited at all, because Bing has to find your site, index it, understand it and trust it first. Microsoft says Bing and Copilot's search rest on the same foundation as traditional search.

Two practical things help:

• Answer questions directly. Bing's guidelines ask for key information near the top of the page, and a clear, specific answer there is easier for Copilot to use than a paragraph of preamble.
• Check what Copilot actually cites. The AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools shows which of your pages get cited, and for which phrases, so you aren't left guessing.

The Bing checklist, in one place

• Bing Places listing claimed, verified and complete.
• Details identical to Google Business Profile and your website.
• Site added to Bing Webmaster Tools, with a sitemap.
• IndexNow set up, or a plan to add it.
• Nothing blocking Bingbot, and no nocache or noarchive setting on pages I want cited.
• Key pages answer their main question near the top.
• AI Performance report checked monthly.

If you'd rather hand the whole afternoon to someone else, our SEO audit and first fixes covers Google and Bing together for a fixed £2,500.