Microsoft and Bing: What Matters for SEO Today

Bing is not just a secondary search engine anymore. It is the backbone for Microsoft’s AI experiences across Copilot, Edge and Windows, which means wins on Bing ripple into high intent discovery moments beyond the traditional SERP. If you want durable organic visibility in 2025, you need a Microsoft-aware SEO plan.

TL,DR

• Prioritize fast discovery with IndexNow, and fix crawl blockers quickly.

• Write for answers, short, sourceable passages that Copilot can cite.

• Strengthen entity clarity, people, products, organizations and places.

• Add the right schema, Organization, FAQ, HowTo, Product, Article.

• Use Bing Webmaster Tools weekly, URL Inspection, Site Explorer and IndexNow.

• Invest in image SEO, Bing Images and Visual Search drive meaningful clicks.

• Monitor Bing-specific KPIs, impressions, sitelinks, image clicks, answer citations.

• Ship updates often, freshness matters across Bing and Copilot surfaces.

Why Bing matters

Microsoft owns the distribution. Your content can surface in:

• Bing search results in Edge and other browsers

• Copilot, integrated across Windows and Microsoft 365

• The Edge sidebar, instant answers while users browse

• Bing Images and Visual Search, a growing discovery channel

This multi-surface footprint means ranking on Bing drives visibility where work happens, inside the browser, the operating system and productivity apps. Learn more about Copilot’s experience at Microsoft Copilot.

Ranking signals

Bing’s guidance has been consistent. The core signals are relevance, quality and credibility, user engagement, freshness, location, and page load and UX. Review Microsoft’s official guidance at the Bing Webmaster Guidelines.

What to apply in practice today:

• Map search intent precisely, then answer it above the fold.

• Prove experience and expertise, author bios, credentials, sources, and transparent citations.

• Keep pages easy to parse, clean headings, scannable paragraphs, descriptive anchors.

• Improve speed and stability, Core Web Vitals still correlate with crawlability and trust.

• Keep facts and prices fresh, Copilot favors current, clear answers.

For a broader algorithm primer, see our guide on Search Engine Algorithms Explained.

Indexation

Fast discovery is half the game with Microsoft. Do all three:

• IndexNow, enable it via your CDN, CMS or plugin so every new or updated URL is pushed to Bing. Start at IndexNow.

• Sitemaps and headers, keep XML sitemaps fresh and return accurate Last-Modified and canonical tags.

• API options, high volume sites can explore Bing’s Content Submission API to push content changes directly.

Use Bing Webmaster Tools for ground truth on crawl and index status. We published a focused playbook here, Why Bing Webmaster Tools Is Your Secret Weapon for AI Search Visibility in 2025.

AI surfaces

Copilot relies on Bing’s index, and it tends to cite concise, well structured passages with clear attribution. To increase your odds of inclusion:

• Create answer blocks, one or two sentence, unambiguous summaries near section tops.

• Strengthen entity signals, define who, what, where, and link out to authoritative references when useful.

• Add schema, FAQPage and HowTo for procedural content, Article and Organization for identity.

• Keep pages current, add a visible updated date and refresh at meaningful intervals.

For a deeper method that unifies classic SEO with AI visibility, see our blueprint on GEO vs SEO and our hands-on guide to making content crawlable by LLMs.

SERP features

Bing’s SERPs reward structure and clarity. Focus on the features that move the needle:

• Sitelinks and jump links, use logical H2 and H3 headings, add a table of contents for long guides.

• Image and video packs, provide high resolution images with descriptive alt text, add ImageObject schema where relevant.

• Local and map units, maintain consistent NAP data and mark up address and opening hours.

• News and discover, if you are eligible, ensure rapid publishing pipelines and clean feed hygiene.

What to do now

If you are scaling production, our internal linking advice here will help, Internal Linking Automation: Best Practices.

Technical checklist

• Robots and canonicals are clean, no accidental noindex and no conflicting canonicals.

• XML sitemaps split by type, and are under 50,000 URLs per file.

• Accurate hreflang and language signals for international sections.

• Stable URLs with clear intent in slugs.

• Correct 2xx responses for primary content, and minimal client side rendering for critical text.

• Schema validates, use schema.org vocabulary and test regularly.

We explain why performance still matters for AI visibility in Do Core Web Vitals Matter for LLMs.

Measurement

Track Microsoft specific outcomes alongside Google:

• Impressions and clicks in Bing Webmaster Tools

• Coverage, URLs discovered, crawled, indexed

• Rich results presence, sitelinks, image pack appearances

• Copilot or answer citations, monitor branded mentions and referral logs

• Indexation latency after publish or refresh

Set a monthly cadence to review, refresh and interlink pages. Treat Bing insights as an early signal for AI driven discovery across the Microsoft ecosystem.

Workflow tips

• Publish fast, iterate often, short release cycles beat quarterly overhauls.

• Standardize outlines to include answer blocks, sources, and a mini FAQ.

• Automate internal links so every new post supports a hub.

• Use human QA to fact check dates, data and examples before shipping.

If you need a repeatable process, our post on Human + AI Collaboration maps a five stage workflow you can adopt in days, not months.

How BlogSEO helps

• Generate on brand drafts for every target keyword, with your voice.

• Auto publish to your CMS on a schedule, and keep a steady cadence.

• Automate internal linking to feed authority into your hubs.

• Monitor gaps and competitors to decide what to write next.

Connect BlogSEO to your CMS, keep your editors in the loop for review, and pair it with IndexNow at the CDN or plugin level to speed up discovery. That combination is a pragmatic way to win on Microsoft and Bing without adding headcount.

FAQ

Is optimizing for Bing worth it if my Google traffic is larger? Yes, Bing often accounts for a meaningful slice of organic traffic and it powers Copilot across Windows and Edge. Wins here compound across Microsoft surfaces.

Does Bing use IndexNow for ranking? IndexNow does not boost rankings by itself, it speeds up discovery and recrawl. Faster inclusion means your updates can compete sooner.

Do backlinks still matter on Bing? Yes, links remain a quality and discovery signal. Focus on relevant, high quality links earned through useful content and credible mentions.

How do I get cited in Copilot? Make your answers extractable. Provide concise, unambiguous passages, keep facts current, and reinforce entities with schema. Clear sourcing helps attribution.

Should I write differently for Bing than for Google? No separate content is needed. Write for users, structure for machines. The same helpful, well structured content with strong entities and schema works on both.

Is AI generated content allowed? Both search engines evaluate usefulness, originality and trust, not the writing method. Use human review to ensure accuracy, freshness and citations.

Next steps

Ready to operationalize Microsoft and Bing SEO without adding headcount? Start a 3 day free trial of BlogSEO to generate, interlink and auto publish at scale, or book a live demo to see a workflow tuned to your stack.