What Bing's webmaster guidelines ask of a contractor website

Your web person says Bing's guidelines have a whole section on AI. You've never opened them.

So you open the page. It's long: twenty-two numbered rules, then a list of practices to avoid. Its first lines say it covers Bing search, Copilot and grounding results.^[1] For the bigger picture of how AI assistants pick local companies, see our guide to AI search for home service companies.

What is grounding, and what's the first rule?

Microsoft uses the word grounding for the sources an AI answer leans on and cites.^[2]

Bing's first rule says Copilot and Bing search rest on the same crawling, indexing and ranking foundation as ordinary search. It adds that the usual SEO practices also help a page qualify for citation in AI answers.^[1] Google says much the same about its AI features: no additional requirements to appear.^[3]

Google does have one setting to check. Since August 31, 2026, every site has a Search generative AI control in Search Console. It covers AI Overviews, AI Mode and the AI features in Google Discover, and including your site is the default.^[7]

Does Copilot use Bing, and what about ChatGPT?

Copilot Chat does, says Microsoft: with web search on, it turns your prompt into a short Bing query and uses the results.^[4] That page covers Copilot Chat and agents only.

ChatGPT is less clear. OpenAI's help page says its search sometimes partners with other search providers, and links Microsoft's and Shopify's privacy policies.^[5] The word Bing appears on neither that help page nor OpenAI's crawler page.^[5][6]

That doesn't rule Bing out. Those pages don't say which provider answers which question. So after you fix Bing, check ChatGPT on its own.

OpenAI's own advice is to allow its crawler, OAI-SearchBot, and traffic from its published IP addresses.^[5] Our guide to checking whether your site blocks ChatGPT covers both.

Which of Bing's rules matter for a small service site?

I'd sort Bing's rules into five groups:

• Let Bing find your pages. Bing lists blocking its crawler, Bingbot, in robots.txt as something to avoid. It asks for a sitemap that lists only each page's main address and, where it applies, a last-changed date.^[1] It also asks for IndexNow, a free signal that tells Bing and other supporting engines when a page is added, changed or removed.^[1][8]
• Redirect moved pages. Bing says to use a permanent (301) redirect when a page moves, and a temporary (302) only for a change under two days.^[1] If Bing Webmaster Tools lists a page as a redirect, here's what that status means.
• Let each page stand on its own. Bing says missing, duplicate or overly short titles and descriptions may reduce indexing reliability, ranking and eligibility for citations. It prefers one topic per address, logical headings, the essentials near the top, and facts that don't depend on an image. It also asks for descriptive file names, alt text and captions on photos.^[1] I'd put your name, trade, towns and phone number in text.
• Keep names the same and facts current. Bing asks for clear, consistent names for people, organizations and places, and says to update a page when a fact changes.^[1] I'd start with your company name, hours, phone number and service area.
• Match your markup to the page. Bing says structured data (schema markup) may support clearer grounding but doesn't guarantee visibility, and that it must match what visitors can see.^[1] Our schema markup guide covers what's worth adding.

What do Bing's webmaster guidelines say not to do?

The page names ten practices that can cost you rankings, citations in AI answers or your place in Bing's index.^[1] I'd ask any vendor to say in writing that none is part of the job:

• Cloaking, which shows crawlers something different from what visitors see.
• Link schemes: bought links, link networks and fake social buzz.
• The same text at many addresses, like a city page copied for twenty towns.
• Copied or lightly reworded text with nothing added, like a manufacturer's product copy.
• Keyword stuffing, or text written to trigger AI answers.
• Pages generated in bulk with no oversight or editing.
• Thin affiliate pages.
• Malware and phishing.
• Markup that doesn't match the page.
• Prompt injection: content meant to manipulate the AI models behind Bing and Copilot, such as hidden text telling an assistant to recommend you.

Google's spam policies name most of the same practices.^[9] Microsoft says sites can't pay to improve their organic ranking on Bing, so I'd doubt anyone who says they can.^[10]

How can you check your site in 20 minutes?

Six quick looks, in this order:

1. Open yourdomain.com/robots.txt. Look for a rule that blocks Bingbot or every crawler, and ask who added any you can't explain.
2. Open your sitemap (try yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml) and click five addresses. Each should load its page directly, with no redirect or error. Bing says you can name the sitemap in robots.txt too.^[11]
3. Add your site to Bing Webmaster Tools, which is free, and run Site Scan, its on-demand check for common technical problems.^[12]
4. Look in your website platform, host or SEO plugin for IndexNow support. Many offer it built in or as an add-on.^[13]
5. Open your busiest service page. I'd want the browser tab to name the job and the town, and the first paragraph to say what you do, where and how to call.
6. Open the AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools, announced February 10, 2026. It shows a sample of the pages cited in Copilot, Bing's AI summaries and select partner products. Microsoft says very sparse activity may not appear, which doesn't indicate a penalty.^[14][15]

If that list turns up more than you want to chase, start with our AI search visibility audit. It checks whether AI crawlers can reach your site and whether your schema matches the page. The Expert Action Plan ($149) is the full report plus a 30-minute consultation.

What the guidelines can't promise

Bing says SEO doesn't guarantee rankings or traffic, and that preparing content for AI answers doesn't guarantee citations.^[1] The page doesn't say how much any one rule weighs.

It says nothing about local business listings or an llms.txt file. The AI Performance announcement says local businesses can register with Bing Places to help keep their address and hours current and eligible for AI answers.^[15] The guidelines show no date, so reread them before acting.