Can Copilot see your website?
Check whether Microsoft Copilot can use your site, and what to change if it can't.
Free, no sign-up. We only read your homepage, robots.txt and llms.txt.
How Copilot finds websites
Microsoft Copilot answers from Bing: it searches Bing and cites the pages it uses. So the crawler that matters is Bingbot, the same one that builds Bing's search index. There's no separate Copilot crawler to allow. If Bingbot can't read a page, Copilot has nothing of it to cite.
Bing's index also feeds more than Copilot. Microsoft's AI reports cover Copilot, the AI summaries in Bing and some partner products, and ChatGPT lists Bing among its search providers. Being in Bing pays off in several places at once.
Copilot's own controls: noarchive and nocache
Bing gives you two robots meta values aimed at its AI answers. Microsoft announced them in 2023, when Copilot was still called Bing Chat:
| Your page says | In Copilot's answers | In Microsoft's model training | In Bing search |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither | Can be used in full | May be used | Yes |
nocache | Only the title, address and snippet | Only the title, address and snippet | Yes |
noarchive | Not used and not linked | Not used | Yes |
| Both | Treated as nocache | Treated as nocache | Yes |
Neither one takes you out of Bing's normal results, which is what makes them different from noindex. If you're a publisher with a paywall, Microsoft suggests adding nocache next to noarchive, so Copilot can still link to you:
<meta name="robots" content="noarchive, nocache">
To apply them to Bing only, use <meta name="bingbot" ...> instead of robots.
What this checks
- Whether your robots.txt lets Bingbot read your homepage, and which line decides it.
- Whether your homepage says noindex, which keeps it out of Bing altogether, or noarchive, nocache or nosnippet, which limit what Copilot can use. The check reads both meta tags and the X-Robots-Tag header, including rules addressed to Bingbot only.
- Whether your homepage has its text in the HTML.
If Copilot can't use your site
Make sure robots.txt doesn't block Bingbot, and remove noindex, noarchive and nocache from pages you want cited. Then:
- Add your site to Bing Webmaster Tools. If it's already in Google Search Console, you can import it from there instead of verifying again. It shows whether Bing has indexed your pages and lets you submit your sitemap.
- Turn on IndexNow. It tells Bing about new, changed and removed pages straight away instead of waiting for a crawl. Microsoft says fresh pages matter because Copilot should cite the current version. Many hosts and CMS plugins support it; indexnow.org explains the setup.
- For a local business, claim Bing Places. Microsoft points local businesses to Bing Places for Business to keep the address, hours and contact details its AI answers use up to date.
Bing's index is smaller than Google's, so a page Google knows can still be missing from Bing. Search site:yourdomain.com on Bing to see what it has.
See your Copilot citations
Copilot is the one assistant whose maker shows you when it cites you. Bing Webmaster Tools has an AI Performance report, in preview since February 2026, covering Copilot, Bing's AI summaries and some partner products:
- Total citations: how often your pages were shown as sources in AI answers.
- Average cited pages: how many of your pages are cited on a typical day.
- Grounding queries: a sample of the searches the AI ran when it used your content. These are often different from what a person typed.
- Pages: which of your URLs are cited most.
In June 2026, Microsoft added more: Intents sorts those searches into types such as commercial, local or research. Topics groups them into subjects. Citation share shows what share of all citations for a search went to you. Compare lays one period over another. It doesn't name the other sites, and Microsoft says it's not a ranking.
How to tell whether Bingbot is reading you
Bingbot's requests contain bingbot/2.0; +http://www.bing.com/bingbot.htm. To check one is real, look up the address: real Bingbot addresses resolve to a name ending in search.msn.com. Microsoft also publishes the addresses at bing.com/toolbox/bingbot.json, and Bing Webmaster Tools has a Verify Bingbot tool.
Readable isn't the same as recommended
Copilot picks a few pages from Bing's results for each answer. Ranking in Bing gets you considered; what the page says decides whether it's quoted. Microsoft's own advice for being cited is clear headings, tables and FAQ sections, claims backed by examples and data, and pages kept up to date. The AI visibility checklist covers the rest.
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