Reputation on Bing and Copilot: The Microsoft Search Engine Almost Nobody Monitors
A few months ago, the CFO of a manufacturing company told us about a scene that happens far more often than you'd think. After months of work, his team had managed to clean up the first page of Google for the company's name: corporate website, official profiles, positive news about a recent expansion. Everything under control. Until a prospective German partner, in the middle of due diligence, forwarded him a paragraph Copilot had generated on his corporate laptop. The paragraph mentioned, as if it were current news, a labor dispute from six years earlier and cited as its source an article from a local outlet that no longer appeared even on page three of Google.
Nobody at the company had ever checked what Bing said. Nobody had ever asked Copilot about their own brand. And yet the most important contact of that quarter had formed his first impression right there: on Microsoft's search engine, built into the browser and the operating system his company used by default.
That's the paradox behind the title of this article. For most communications and marketing departments, Bing is "the other search engine," the one that gets an occasional glance or none at all. But a meaningful share of the searches that truly matter for your reputation—those run by executives, corporate buyers, analysts, journalists and procurement managers working on Windows machines—goes through Microsoft's ecosystem without the user ever consciously choosing Bing.
The key idea of this article
Your online reputation isn't what Google says: it's what any relevant person finds, with whatever tool they have at hand, when they search your name. If that tool is Edge, the Windows search box or Copilot inside Microsoft 365, the story they form about you may differ from the one you've spent years curating on Google. And almost nobody is watching it.
1. Why Bing matters more than it seems
It's true that, in general web search, Google holds a dominant position in most markets. But stopping at that snapshot leads to the wrong conclusion: that whatever happens on Bing is marginal. A search engine's weight in your reputation doesn't depend on its global share, but on who uses it when they search for you and at what point in an important decision they do it.
It ships by default
Edge comes preinstalled on Windows and its default search engine is Bing. Many users never change that setting, especially on devices managed by an IT department.
It rules the office
In corporate environments running Windows and Microsoft 365, company policies often lock in the browser and search engine. That's exactly the user profile—executive, buyer, analyst—that carries the most weight in a B2B decision.
It feeds AI answers
Copilot relies on Bing results to answer questions about current events, and Bing's index has served, and still serves, as a source for other assistants and alternative search engines.
It ranks differently
Bing has its own crawler and its own algorithm. Content you've managed to push to page three on Google can sit in Bing's top 5 for months.
On top of that, there's a factor we often see in audits: because almost nobody actively works on Bing, the results that show up for a brand or a personal name tend to be "older" and more static. What has been refreshed with new content on Google can stay frozen on Bing in a snapshot from years ago. And in reputation, an old snapshot is almost always an unfair one.
"When we audit a brand for the first time, Bing is often where the surprises turn up. Not because Bing is worse or better than Google, but because it's the one place nobody has been looking. What isn't monitored, stays."
2. Edge, Windows, Microsoft 365 and Copilot: the search engine that shows up uninvited
What sets Bing apart from any other alternative search engine is that it doesn't need the user to choose it: it's built into software that millions of professionals use every day without thinking about which search engine sits behind it. Understanding those entry points is the first step in sizing up the real reputational risk.
| Entry point | How the user reaches Bing | Why it matters for your reputation |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Edge | Default search engine in the address bar and on the new tab page | Many searches for personal names and brands are typed straight into the address bar, without opening any search engine |
| Windows search | The taskbar search box can display web results served by Bing | A quick "let's see who this company is" search before a meeting can be answered right there |
| Copilot in Windows and Edge | Assistant built into the operating system and the browser, with web-grounded answers | The user doesn't see ten links: they get a ready-written summary about you, with a handful of cited sources |
| Copilot in Microsoft 365 | Available in work apps such as Outlook, Word or Teams, depending on the company's license and configuration | A buyer can ask "summarize what's known about this vendor" without ever leaving their inbox |
| IT-managed devices | Browser and search engine set by corporate policies | The profiles with the most decision-making power in B2B purchasing often can't—or don't bother to—switch search engines |
2.1. The typical Bing user isn't who you imagine
There's a cliché that Bing is used by "people who don't know how to change their search engine." For reputation purposes, that cliché is dangerous. Precisely because it ships by default into corporate environments, a meaningful share of Bing searches about companies and executives is run by professionals during business hours: the procurement team vetting a vendor, the compliance department reviewing a partner, the headhunter researching a board candidate, the journalist preparing a story on a newsroom laptop.
How to tell how much Bing matters in your specific case
You don't need general market share figures: you need your own data. In your web analytics tool, check what percentage of organic traffic comes from Bing and, above all, from what kind of users (desktop devices, business hours, "about us," "leadership team" or "investors" pages). In B2B companies it's common for that percentage to be clearly higher than anyone assumed, and for it to concentrate on exactly the pages people visit right before a decision.
And if your brand sells to large organizations, government agencies or regulated industries, where the Microsoft environment is practically a standard, the question is no longer "does Bing matter?" but "how long has it been since I checked what it says?"
3. Bing's index as a source for AI assistants
Until recently, search engine reputation was a matter of rankings: what shows up on page one and in what order. With AI assistants, the logic changes. The user no longer chooses which link to open; they get a written answer that blends and summarizes several sources. And to write it with up-to-date information, many of those assistants need to query a web index in real time.
Bing is one of the few large-scale web indexes in existence. Copilot uses it directly to ground its answers, and over the past few years Bing's index has served—through various agreements and services that Microsoft has changed over time—as a source of results for other alternative search engines and conversational assistants. The specific details of those arrangements change frequently and aren't always public, so it's wise not to take anything for granted, but the practical conclusion is stable: whatever ranks well or badly on Bing is more likely to end up inside an AI-generated answer, whether from Copilot or from other systems.
Key concept: AI's "retrieval layer"
Conversational assistants combine two things: what the model learned during training and what it retrieves at the moment of the question by querying the web. That second layer, retrieval, depends on a search engine. If the search engine the assistant queries returns an old negative article among the top results for your name, the answer will very likely incorporate it, summarize it and present it with an air of authority the original link never had.
This phenomenon, which we've analyzed in detail in our article on what ChatGPT says about you and how to manage your reputation in AI, has a direct consequence on Bing: optimizing your presence on Bing is no longer just a traditional SEO matter, it's one of the levers of what's known as GEO (Generative Engine Optimization). If you want the full framework, we recommend our guide to GEO and reputation.
Watch out for "flattened" summaries
An AI-generated answer tends to flatten nuance. An article that once said "the company was investigated and ultimately cleared" can end up summarized as "the company has been involved in investigations." The bias isn't always malicious: it's the effect of compressing a lot of information into a few lines. That's why it's not enough for negative content to sit "further down": you need to make sure the sources Bing ranks at the top tell the complete, up-to-date story.
4. How to audit what Bing shows about your brand or name
The first Bing audit is usually revealing precisely because nobody has done one before. The goal isn't just to see "what comes up," but to document it in a way that's comparable with Google so you can track how it evolves. This is the process we follow in our initial audits.
- Set up a clean environment
Use an Edge InPrivate window, not signed in to a Microsoft account, to reduce personalization. Set the region and language in Bing's settings to match the market you care about (for example, United States and English), then repeat the test for any relevant secondary markets. - Define your set of searches
Brand name alone; brand + "reviews," "scam," "complaint," "problems," "working at"; the full name of each key executive; executive name + company; and the most relevant product or service searches. Use exactly the same list as in your Google audit. - Capture the first three pages
Bing presents results in a different layout from Google, with sidebar panels, news and image tabs and, increasingly, generated answers. Take dated full-page screenshots and note the URL, position and tone (positive, neutral, negative) of each result. - Review the "non-organic" elements
Entity sidebar panel, autocomplete suggestions, related searches, news, images and video tabs. An autocomplete suggestion like "brand + fraud" can do as much damage as a result in the top spot. - Compare with Google, result by result
Build a gap table: what negative content appears on Bing but not on Google, where it ranks on each, and what positive owned content isn't being indexed by Bing.
4.1. What to look for with particular care
| Signal on Bing | What it usually means | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Old negative news story in the top 5 that no longer shows up on Google | Bing hasn't picked up the new content that displaced it on Google | High |
| Your corporate website doesn't rank first for your own brand | Crawling or indexing issues on Bing, or weak entity signals | High |
| Sidebar panel with incorrect or outdated data | Bing is pulling information from external sources you haven't reviewed | Medium-high |
| Autocomplete with negative terms | Search pattern tied to a past or current crisis | Medium-high |
| Abandoned profiles or pages for former employees | Owned assets nobody has closed or updated | Medium |
Best practice: the mirror audit
Every time you review your reputation on Google, run the same review on Bing the same day with the same list of searches. That "mirror audit" turns a one-off check into a historical series and lets you spot when a piece of content starts climbing on one of the two search engines before it settles in. If you already have an online brand monitoring system, just add Bing as a source.
5. How to audit what Copilot says about you
Auditing Copilot calls for a different approach from a classic search engine. There's no stable list of ten results: there are written answers that can vary from one query to the next, depending on how the question is phrased, the conversation mode and the context. That's why the audit isn't about asking one question, but asking many and looking for patterns.
5.1. The set of questions we recommend
Identity questions
"What is [brand]?", "Who is [full name]?", "What does [company] do and who runs it?" They show how the AI defines you in a single sentence.
Risk questions
"Is [brand] trustworthy?", "Has [company] had legal problems?", "What controversies has [name] been involved in?" These can do the most damage if the answer is skewed.
Comparison questions
"Which is better, [brand] or [competitor]?", "Alternatives to [brand]." They reveal whether the AI recommends you or rules you out against your competitors.
Decision questions
"Would you recommend hiring [company] as a vendor?", "Summarize customer reviews of [brand]." They simulate the exact moment a decision gets made.
5.2. How to document the answers
- Ask each question at least three times, in new conversations, and note whether the answer changes in substance
- Record the relevant claims word for word and, above all, the cited sources: Copilot usually links the pages it relies on, and those are the ones you need to work on
- Classify each claim as accurate, incomplete, outdated or false
- Test across the different access points your audience uses (Copilot in the browser, in Windows and, if you have access, in Microsoft 365), because configuration can affect the result
- Repeat the audit on a fixed schedule to see whether the changes you make to the sources carry over into the answers
What NOT to do when you spot an incorrect answer
- Try to "convince" Copilot in the chat: what you tell it in one conversation doesn't correct what it will tell other users
- Publish masses of low-quality content to "flood" the results: search systems tend to penalize it and it can worsen how your brand is perceived
- Create fake reviews, profiles or articles to contradict the negative information: besides being unethical, it can have legal consequences and multiply the crisis if it's discovered
- Assume that because the answer is wrong today, it'll be the same tomorrow: document before you act so you can measure the effect of your changes
Copilot includes mechanisms for rating answers (for example, flagging an answer as unhelpful or inaccurate and leaving a comment). Use them when you spot a clear factual error, but understand their scope: it's a quality signal for Microsoft, not a guaranteed correction channel. The real fix almost always involves acting on the sources the system consults.
6. Bing Webmaster Tools: the dashboard almost nobody sets up
Practically every company with a website has Google Search Console set up. Very few have registered their domain in Bing Webmaster Tools, Microsoft's equivalent. It's free, takes minutes to configure—including the option to import verification and sitemaps from Google Search Console—and it's the only way to see how Bing crawls, indexes and ranks your own content.
6.1. The features with the biggest reputational impact
| Feature | What it does for reputation |
|---|---|
| Sitemap and URL submission | Speeds up Bing's discovery of new positive content (press releases, interviews, team pages) that should hold the top results for your brand |
| IndexNow | An open protocol, championed by Microsoft and adopted by other search engines, that lets you notify instantly that a URL has been created, updated or deleted. Very useful when you correct or remove your own content |
| URL inspection | Check whether a specific page is indexed and how Bing sees it; key if your corporate website doesn't rank first for your brand |
| Search performance | See which queries you appear for and with which pages, including negative searches tied to your brand that you may not have been seeing |
| Blocking your own URLs | Request that a URL on your own site temporarily stop showing while you delete or permanently fix it |
| Backlinks and SEO diagnostics | Detect links and technical issues that weaken the authority of your owned assets against third-party content |
Why this is reputation and not just SEO
The strongest strategy against negative content is always making sure the top results for your name are owned assets or reliable third parties with accurate, current information. If Bing isn't crawling your website, official profiles or press pages properly, you're leaving that space open for anything else to fill. Bing Webmaster Tools is the tool that tells you whether you're competing with your full arsenal or with half of it.
One practical detail: when you delete or correct one of your own pages that contained problematic information (an old press release, a bio of a former executive, a PDF with data that should no longer be public), don't just delete it. Make sure it returns the correct status code, notify the change through IndexNow or URL submission and, if it's urgent, use the temporary block while Bing processes the removal.
7. Content removal and privacy requests at Microsoft
Just like Google, Microsoft offers several channels to request that certain content stop appearing in Bing results. The specific forms, their names and their requirements change over time, so the prudent move is always to check Microsoft's official support pages when you're ready to act. But the overall map of available routes is fairly stable.
Privacy requests (Europe)
Under the right to be forgotten and European data protection rules, Microsoft offers a procedure to request blocking of search results about a person on the European versions of Bing, which it assesses case by case.
Illegal or harmful content
Reporting channels for content that breaks the law or Microsoft's policies: intimate images shared without consent, exposed sensitive personal data, impersonation or abusive material.
Intellectual property
Notice procedures for copyright or trademark infringement, useful against sites that copy your content or use your brand to mislead people.
Outdated content
Tools to ask Bing to refresh or drop from its results a page that has already changed or been deleted at the source but still shows up in its old version.
7.1. How it fits with what you already do on Google
One of the most common surprises is discovering that a result successfully delisted from Google through a right to be forgotten request still appears on Bing. That's not a glitch: each search engine is responsible for its own data processing, and each request has to be filed separately. A favorable decision from Google doesn't automatically carry over to Microsoft, although the arguments and documentation can be reused.
Common mistake: closing a case that's only been resolved on Google
If you've gotten a result removed from Google, check right away whether it's still visible on Bing and file the equivalent request with Microsoft using the same reasoning. And remember that delisting from a search engine doesn't remove the content from the original website: for that, you have to go after the publisher. Our guide on how to remove negative content from Google explains the routes for dealing with publishers, and our guide to the right to be forgotten in Spain details the criteria usually weighed in these requests, which essentially apply to Bing as well.
7.2. What to prepare before filing a request
- Inventory of exact URLs
List every URL that appears on Bing, with dated screenshots of the search where it shows up. Generic requests ("everything that talks about me") don't succeed. - A rationale for each URL
Why that result is inaccurate, outdated, excessive or no longer of public interest. The passage of time, the person's lack of public relevance and the sensitive nature of the data are common arguments. - Supporting documentation
Court rulings, dismissed cases, published corrections or any evidence showing the information no longer reflects reality. - Follow-up and alternatives
If the request is denied, consider escalating to the competent data protection authority and, in parallel, a positive content strategy to push the result down.
8. Bing Places for Business: the forgotten local listing
If your business has a physical presence—stores, clinics, offices, branches—Bing Places for Business is Microsoft's equivalent of Google Business Profile. It feeds the local information Bing shows in its results and on its map, and it's one of the sources Microsoft's assistants can use to answer questions like "what time does … open?" or "where is …'s office?"
The usual problem isn't that the listing is bad, but that nobody has claimed it. In that case, Bing builds the information from third-party sources, with the risk of showing old hours, addresses of closed locations, phone numbers that no longer work or categories that don't fit.
| Aspect | Google Business Profile | Bing Places for Business |
|---|---|---|
| Typical level of attention from companies | High: usually claimed and managed | Low: often unclaimed |
| Initial setup | Creating and verifying the listing | Lets you import existing listings from Google Business Profile |
| Main risk | Negative reviews and local reputation management | Outdated or incorrect data nobody corrects |
| AI impact | Feeds local answers across the Google ecosystem | Feeds local answers on Bing and Copilot |
How to get Bing Places in order in one morning
Claim or create the listing for each location, take advantage of the import from Google Business Profile if you've already worked on it, review name, address, phone, website, hours and category one by one, upload current photos and make sure closed locations are marked as such. Then add Bing Places to your local maintenance routine, on the same level as your Google listing. The local reputation SEO principles you apply on Google are essentially the same.
For businesses with many locations—chains, franchises, clinic networks or car dealerships—data consistency across Google, Bing, Apple and local directories is a trust signal in itself. Inconsistencies don't just confuse customers: they also make automated systems, AI included, unsure which information is correct.
9. How it differs from your Google strategy
The good news is that most of the reputation work you already do for Google also works for Bing: quality owned content, complete official profiles, consistent data and media relationships. The bad news is that there are enough differences that copying and pasting the strategy isn't enough.
| Aspect | On Google | On Bing and Copilot |
|---|---|---|
| Update speed | Very frequent crawling of most relevant websites | Can take longer to reflect changes unless they're submitted; IndexNow and URL submission help a lot |
| Entity panel | Knowledge Panel with verification and change-suggestion mechanisms | Sidebar panel fed by external sources; the main route is correcting those sources |
| Generated answers | AI Overviews and AI Mode within search | Copilot built into search, browser, operating system and work tools |
| Result removal | Google's forms, including the right to be forgotten | Microsoft's own forms; each request is filed separately |
| Local listing | Google Business Profile | Bing Places for Business |
| Relative weight of the professional setting | Broad use, both personal and professional | Especially significant on corporate devices running Windows and Microsoft 365 |
9.1. The entity panel: Google and Bing don't draw from exactly the same sources
If you've worked on your Google Knowledge Panel, don't assume Bing's sidebar panel will show the same thing. Bing builds its entity information from its own index and from external structured sources, and it doesn't always update at the same pace. The most effective strategy is the same for both: make sure the reference sources about your entity—an official website with structured data, corporate profiles, public knowledge bases, professional profiles such as LinkedIn—are consistent, complete and up to date.
A note on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is part of the Microsoft group, and in our experience personal and company LinkedIn profiles tend to have good visibility on Bing for searches of personal names. It's not a guaranteed rule, but it's one more reason to keep company and executive profiles complete, consistent with the official website and active.
9.2. Generated answers: two ecosystems, the same principle
Google has its AI summaries inside search, which we analyze in depth in our article on Google AI Overviews and brand reputation. Microsoft has Copilot, present across more surfaces. The underlying principle is the same in both cases: AI summarizes what it finds at the top. If you control which sources hold the top results on each search engine, you influence what each AI says about you.
10. Common mistakes when managing reputation on Bing
After many audits, the mistakes we find are almost always the same. None of them is technically hard to fix; the problem is that nobody goes looking for them.
The five mistakes we see most
- Never looking: all reputation efforts are measured on Google alone, and Bing remains a permanent blind spot
- Not having Bing Webmaster Tools: the corporate website is poorly indexed on Bing and nobody knows it
- Closing cases only on Google: a result gets delisted from Google and nobody remembers to request it from Microsoft too
- Unclaimed local listing: Bing shows old data for a location that no longer exists or a phone number that no longer works
- Ignoring Copilot: nobody has ever asked Copilot about the brand or its executives, even though the company's own corporate clients use it every day
Opportunity cost, in reverse
Precisely because almost nobody works on Bing, the effort needed to improve what it shows about your brand is usually lower than on Google. There's less competition for the top results for your own name and less recent content competing. In reputation, it's one of the few scenarios where getting there first is still relatively cheap.
If your starting point already includes significant negative content, a recent crisis or an exposed executive, the work on Bing should be integrated into your overall corporate reputation strategy, not treated as a technical appendix. The same sources you strengthen for Google need to be properly indexed and ranked on Bing.
11. Bing and Copilot reputation checklist
This is the minimum checklist we use in any audit that covers the Microsoft ecosystem. If you can tick every box, your brand is better protected on Bing than the vast majority of companies in your industry.
- The corporate website is verified in Bing Webmaster Tools, with sitemaps submitted and no serious crawl errors
- IndexNow (or URL submission) is active to report new, updated or deleted content
- Bing results have been audited for the brand and for each key executive, with dated screenshots
- There's a Google vs. Bing comparison table showing the negative content that appears on each
- Autocomplete, related searches and the entity sidebar panel on Bing have been reviewed
- Copilot's answers to identity, risk, comparison and decision questions have been audited, with cited sources documented
- Any result removed from Google for privacy reasons has also been requested from Microsoft
- Bing Places listings for every location are claimed, verified and consistent with Google Business Profile
- Corporate and executive profiles (LinkedIn included) are consistent with the official website
- Bing and Copilot are part of the regular monitoring routine, with an assigned owner
Recommended frequency
Bing Webmaster Tools review: monthly. Google/Bing mirror audit of the brand and executives: quarterly, or immediately in any crisis. Copilot question set: quarterly. Bing Places listings review: every six months and whenever hours or an address change, or a location opens or closes.
11.1. Conclusion: watching half isn't watching
The online reputation of a company or an executive isn't decided on a single search engine. Bing, and above all Copilot, are part of the everyday work tools of many of the people who weigh most heavily on your business decisions: buyers, investors, journalists, potential partners. The fact that almost nobody monitors them isn't a reason to ignore them; it's exactly why you should start now. An initial audit, a properly configured Bing Webmaster Tools account, local listings in order and a periodic review of Copilot are enough to close a blind spot you probably didn't even know you had.
12. Frequently asked questions
Yes, especially if your audience includes professionals. Bing arrives by default through Edge, Windows search and Copilot, all very common in corporate environments. Its index also feeds AI answers. The volume may be lower than Google's, but searches run from the office ahead of a decision tend to be among the ones that matter most.
Not automatically. Each search engine handles its own requests. You need to file the equivalent request with Microsoft, although you can reuse the arguments and documentation you used with Google. And if the content was deleted from the original website, it's worth notifying Bing so it updates its results.
You can use Copilot's answer-rating mechanisms to flag errors, and if the answer reproduces illegal content or protected personal data, there are specific reporting channels. But the most effective and lasting fix is to act on the sources Copilot cites: correct, update or displace the inaccurate content and strengthen reliable sources with current information.
It's Microsoft's free dashboard for website owners. Google Search Console only tells you about Google; Bing Webmaster Tools tells you whether Bing is crawling and indexing your site properly and which searches you appear for, and lets you report changes or temporarily block your own URLs. You can set it up in minutes by importing verification from Search Console.
Not necessarily. Answers can vary depending on how the question is phrased, the conversation context, the access point and changes in the search results it queries. That's why we recommend repeating each question several times and focusing on patterns and cited sources rather than a single answer.
Yes, if you have physical locations. If you don't claim it, Bing may display information gathered from third parties that could be outdated. Bing Places lets you import listings from Google Business Profile, so the initial effort is small, and after that you just need to keep both consistent.
As a benchmark: a Google/Bing mirror audit of results and a Copilot question set every quarter, a monthly Bing Webmaster Tools review, and an immediate review in any crisis, after relevant news or when executives change. What matters is that Bing becomes part of the routine, not something you check once and forget.
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