Bing Webmaster Tools and IndexNow: the search setup behind AI answers

Why Bing matters for AI answers

When ChatGPT searches the web, it needs a search index to search. OpenAI says ChatGPT search uses third-party search providers, as well as content provided directly by partners. Its help centre adds that ChatGPT may share search queries with “third-party search providers such as Bing”. It doesn’t publish a full list. Earlier, in May 2023, Microsoft announced it would offer Bing as the default search engine in ChatGPT.

Bing also powers Microsoft’s own AI answers. So for a brand in India, where most marketing attention goes to Google, Bing is easy to neglect and worth a few minutes of setup.

Be clear about what this does and doesn’t do. Being in Bing’s index means search can find your pages. It doesn’t mean an answer will cite them, and being cited doesn’t mean you’ll be named. Think of it as getting your name on the guest list. It doesn’t decide what anyone says about you once you’re inside.

Step 1: add and verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools

Bing Webmaster Tools is Microsoft’s free dashboard for site owners. It’s Bing’s equivalent of Google Search Console.

If your site is already in Google Search Console, the quickest route is to import it. Bing says imported sites are verified automatically, with no manual verification steps, and your sitemaps are connected along with them. Bing keeps checking ownership by syncing with your Search Console account, so if you later remove that access you’ll need to reconnect or verify another way.

If you don’t use Search Console, add the site directly in Bing Webmaster Tools and follow its verification steps. Your developer can do this in a few minutes.

Step 2: submit your sitemap

A sitemap is a file, usually at /sitemap.xml, listing the pages you want search engines to find. If you imported from Search Console, check that it came across. If not, submit it in Bing Webmaster Tools.

Also add a line to your robots.txt pointing to it, for example Sitemap: https://www.yourbrand.example/sitemap.xml, so any crawler can find it.

Make sure the sitemap lists your product pages, not just your homepage. Those are often the pages AI answers cite; see which websites ChatGPT cites.

Step 3: turn on IndexNow

Search engines normally find changes by coming back to crawl your site on their own schedule. IndexNow flips that around: your site tells search engines when a page is added, updated or deleted.

According to indexnow.org, it’s supported by Microsoft Bing, Naver, Seznam.cz, Yandex and Yep. The IndexNow documentation explains how it works:

1. Create a key: a string of 8 to 128 letters, numbers and dashes.
2. Host the key in a text file named after it (for example yourkey.txt) at the root of your site. This proves the site is yours.
3. Send a ping when a page changes, for one address (https://<searchengine>/indexnow?url=...&key=...) or for up to 10,000 addresses at once.

Two details are worth knowing. Participating search engines share submitted addresses with each other, so one ping reaches them all. And a successful response only means the search engine received the address: the documentation doesn’t promise it will crawl or index it.

Check whether your website platform or hosting provider has a built-in IndexNow option. If it doesn’t, your developer can add the ping to your publishing process.

Step 4: look at Bing’s AI Performance report

In February 2026 Bing added an AI Performance report to Webmaster Tools, in public preview. It shows when your site is cited as a source in AI-generated answers across Microsoft Copilot, AI summaries in Bing and some partner integrations Bing doesn’t name. It reports total citations, which pages are cited, and the search phrases behind them.

Read it carefully, for two reasons:

• It isn’t a ChatGPT report. Bing’s announcement names its own surfaces and doesn’t mention ChatGPT.
• A citation count isn’t a ranking. Bing itself says the counts reflect how often pages are cited, not page importance, ranking or placement.

It’s still free, first-hand data about AI answers citing your pages, which is rare. Check it monthly. Look at which of your pages are cited and which search phrases led to them, then compare that with the pages you’d want cited: your main product pages and the answers to your buyers’ common questions. A product page that never shows up is a page to improve first; see how to write a product page AI answers can quote.

Step 5: check that crawlers are allowed in

None of the above helps if your robots.txt blocks the crawlers that matter. Make sure it allows Bingbot and OpenAI’s search crawler, OAI-SearchBot. OpenAI says sites that block OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, and that robots.txt changes can take about 24 hours to take effect. See robots.txt for AI crawlers for the details.

The whole setup at a glance

Step	Where	Who
Add and verify your site	Bing Webmaster Tools (import from Search Console if you can)	Marketing or developer
Submit your sitemap	Bing Webmaster Tools, plus a line in robots.txt	Developer
Turn on IndexNow	Your platform’s setting, or your developer	Developer
Allow Bingbot and OAI-SearchBot	robots.txt	Developer
Check AI Performance monthly	Bing Webmaster Tools	Marketing

How Citationly helps

Our free checker tests whether OAI-SearchBot and Bingbot are allowed by your robots.txt and whether your sitemap can be found. Once the setup is in place, a Citationly audit shows whether ChatGPT’s answers in your category actually name you, and which websites they cite instead.