AI has sparked a revolution that is transforming everything from how products are made and marketed to how people discover and choose what to buy.

Instead of scrolling through lists of blue links, people now explore through conversations, ask follow-up questions, and build confidence long before they reach a website. This new path to conversion means brands and content owners must stop chasing clicks and focus on the signals that truly drive outcomes.

But how do we know which conversion signals are most important?

While the specific goals of every business or publisher differ, AI search is making one thing clear: the most valuable signals are the ones connected to visibility. By tracking impressions, placement in AI answers, and citations, brands can see where content is being surfaced, trusted, and considered, even before a visit occurs. More importantly, these signals reveal where interest is forming and where optimization can create lift, helping teams double down on what works to improve visibility in the moments when decisions are being shaped.

It’s not that people are no longer clicking. They’re just clicking at later stages in the journey, and with far stronger intent. In fact, current industry research shows that visits from AI-search environments are not just matching but often exceeding traditional conversion rates, reinforcing a simple truth: quality matters more than volume. The priority now is to understand user actions and guide people toward high-value outcomes, whether that is a subscription, an inquiry, a demo request, a purchase, or other meaningful engagement.

This shift applies not only to commercial sites but also to news and information publishers, where visiblity in AI answers can shape deeper forms of engagement such as read-depth, recirculation, or return visits rather than immediate clicks.

The objective for publishers is to align with user intent and deliver clarity, credibility, and value at every stage of discovery, so that when someone is ready to act, your brand or content becomes the natural choice.

How the Path to Conversion has Changed

Before AI search, a typical customer might start with a broad query like “best dishwashers for small spaces,” then scroll through pages of blue links, piecing together details from reviews, spec sheets, and reseller sites. It was a manual, time-consuming process.

Today, AI-powered search experiences understand intent and surface richer, more relevant results instantly.  Instead of sending users through multiple clicks and sources, the system embeds high-quality content within answers, summaries, and citations, highlighting key details like energy efficiency, noise level, and smart home compatibility. This creates clarity faster and builds confidence earlier in the journey, leading to stronger engagement with less friction.

In the dishwasher example, the customer quickly realizes that a quiet, energy-efficient model with smart features best suits their open-concept kitchen. They refine their query and AI search responds with a more detailed summary drawn from brand sites, reviews, and resellers, surfacing purchase options and rebates alongside recommendations with more relevant links. 

In fewer steps than ever, the customer reaches a confident decision, guided by intent-aligned, multi-source content that reflects brand and third-party perspectives. This behavior shift, where discovery, research, and decision happen continuously within one environment, is redefining how site owners understand conversion. 

With journeys becoming shorter and more connected, content clarity is critical. When information is not easily interpreted by LLMs, key details may be missed, reducing opportunities to appear in influential moments.

As these shifts play out, the signals generated inside AI experiences become even more valuable, helping content teams see what resonates and where improvements can strengthen visibility.

How AI Search Understands and Responds to Evolving Intent 

AI systems refine their understanding of user intent across each follow-up question, chat turn, and contextual signal, including proactive moments where the system surfaces relevant content based on context or inferred needs.

 According to Microsoft internal research, data from Microsoft Copilot sessions show a 22% increase in unique chat turns per session¹, reflecting that search has evolved into an ongoing conversation rather than a single query. Each follow-up clarifies intent and brings the user closer to conversion, whether that means clicking a product link, making a purchase, or taking another high-value action.

Microsoft Advertising reports that Copilot-assisted customer journeys are 33% shorter on average than traditional search, and high intent conversion rates (users showing clear readiness to act) are 76% higher for AI-powered experiences compared to traditional search surfaces².

For marketers, publishers, and SEOs, this means moving beyond traditional metrics to track new engagement signals that reflect influence, trust, and readiness to convert.  

AI-powered search builds on retrieval to generate contextual, conversational answers. Structured content, like schema-marked product pages, FAQs, and comparison tables, helps AI systems interpret and summarize your content more effectively. This increases the chances of your being cited, clicked, and engaged with in multi-source answers.

The New Conversion Journey in AI Search 

As AI-powered search reshapes how people explore information, more of the journey now happens inside the experience itself.

 Across the industry, AI-powered search is changing how users interact with search results. Users now spend more of the journey inside AI experiences, shaping visibility and engagement in new ways. As a result, engagement is shifting upstream (pre-click) within summaries, comparisons, and conversational refinements, rather than through multiple outbound clicks.

 Zero-click visibility is one clear example of this change. When structured content such as FAQs, product specs, or schema-marked reviews appear in AI summaries or side-by-side comparisons, it can help shape brand awareness and preference before a user ever clicks through. A well-structured product page might have its key features surfaced in an AI-generated summary, while a retailer’s support content could appear in an answer box explaining setup or compatibility. 

 But zero-click outcomes are only part of the picture. In AI search, users also refine and narrow intent within a single session, asking follow-up questions, comparing brands, or filtering by features like “quietest dishwasher with smart home integration.” Each interaction creates engagement that moves the user closer to purchase, subscription, signup, or other meaningful action, even if the final action happens later or on another device.

The strategic challenge is that many of these signals, including visibility in summaries, cited content, or follow-up query engagement, are not captured in traditional analytics as it exists today. Yet they strongly influence trust, familiarity, and downstream conversions (on-site actions). 

For marketers, visibility itself is becoming a form of currency. If your content is surfaced in summaries or comparisons, you’re shaping preference before a click ever happens. 

Does AI Search Traffic Convert?  

The latest research from multiple independent sources points to the same trend: AI-search visits may be smaller in volume but are producing more qualified traffic and higher conversion rates than traditional organic search.

Amsive found that 56% of sites saw higher conversions from AI-driven sessions, with high-traffic sites converting at 7.05% compared to 5.81% for organic³. Similarweb reported a similar pattern, with AI referrals converting at 11.4% versus 5.3% for organic across global ecommerce⁴.

Additional industry data supports the same direction. Adobe Digital Insights shows AI-referred retail conversions improving steadily year-over-year⁵, while Microsoft Advertising reports that Copilot-powered journeys are 33% shorter and 76% more likely to lead to lower-funnel conversions⁶. And though BrightEdge notes that AI search still represents less than 1% of referral traffic, each visit carries notably higher intent and stronger engagement⁷.

Microsoft Clarity’s latest platform data confirms this pattern. Analyzing traffic across 1,200 publisher and news sites, Clarity reports that AI-driven referrals grew 155% over eight months and converted at up to three times the rate of traditional channels such as search and social. Even though AI referrals still represent under 1% of total visits, these users consistently display higher intent and engagement, signing up, subscribing, or purchasing at far greater rates8. Clarity now tracks AI referrals directly, distinguishing between organic AI platform visits and paid AI placements to help publishers see where their content performs best within AI experiences.

These findings suggest that AI search is not replacing organic traffic but improving the quality and outcome of each visit. Users arrive with clearer intent, encounter content that meets their needs faster, and move through the conversion path in fewer steps.

For marketers, publishers, and content owners this shift means success should be measured not just by visit volume but by quality of engagement, visibility, and downstream conversion readiness.

As more of the journey happens upstream inside AI experiences, understanding those early signals has become essential. Brands need visibility into where content is being surfaced, how users interact with it, and how those interactions translate into on-site behavior.

What This Means for News and Information Publishers

News and information publishers often measure value differently than commercial sites. Rather than focusing on product-driven actions, success may depend on signals such as read depth, article completion, returning reader patterns, recirculation into related stories, and newsletter sign-ups or registrations.

AI search can surface authoritative reporting earlier in the journey, bringing in readers who are more inclined to engage deeply with coverage or return for follow-up stories. As these upstream interactions grow, publishers benefit from visibility into how their work appears across AI answers, summaries, and comparisons, even when user journeys are shorter or involve fewer clicks.

Connecting Visibility to Real Engagement

Bing Webmaster Tools continues to evolve to help site owners, publishers, and SEOs understand how content is discovered and where it appears across traditional search results and emerging AI-driven experiences. Paired with Microsoft Clarity’s AI referral insights, these tools connect upstream visibility with on-site behavior, helping teams see how discovery inside summaries, answers, and comparisons translates into real engagement. As user journeys shift toward more conversational, zero-UI-style interactions, these combined signals give a clearer view of influence, readiness, and conversion potential.

Rethinking Success Metrics in the Age of AI Search 

AI search is changing not only how users discover content but also how and when they demonstrate intent to act.  Conversion is now a distributed journey influenced by every touchpoint, from summaries and comparisons to high-intent clicks. 

Success depends on connecting traditional key performance indicators (KPIs) with emerging AI search visibility signals. Rather than only tracking clicks or last-touch conversions, brands and content owners should align their analytics with signals like impressions, citations, query refinements, and answer inclusion that reflect how influence builds throughout the journey.  

Ultimately, AI search provides new opportunities to connect more directly with user intent and deliver solutions that feel immediate, relevant, and personalized, whether the goal is commercial or informational. 

 Just as the dishwasher shopper formed confidence through AI-generated summaries, refinements, and comparisons before ever clicking, today’s conversions are increasingly shaped upstream inside the AI experience.  Those early evaluation moments, before a click ever happens, are where preference forms and intent solidifies.

To adapt, marketers should define which new visibility and engagement signals matter most for their business and map them to existing performance metrics. Tools like Bing Webmaster Tools and Microsoft Clarity can help surface insights into how users engage with your site, navigate to key content, and interact after discovery. By optimizing for intent, structure, and responsiveness, site owners can better capture and act on the most meaningful results that show how visibility and engagement now drive performance in AI search.

Fabrice Canel and Krishna Madhavan 

Principal Product Managers 

Microsoft Bing 

To stay updated on the latest AI search strategies, continue to follow the Bing Webmaster Blog.   

1. Microsoft. (2024). First-Party Data – Copilot Chat Turns (Aug 2023–Aug 2024). Internal Microsoft dataset, cited in The New Search Advertising Landscape: How to Win When AI Is Changing Everything. https://about.ads.microsoft.com/en/resources/discover/insights/the-new-search-advertising-landscape-how-to-win-when-ai-is-changing-everything
2. Microsoft. (2025). 73% Higher CTRs and 33% Shorter Journeys in Copilot Search. Microsoft Advertising Blog. https://about.ads.microsoft.com/en/blog/post/august-2025/73-higher-ctrs-why-advertisers-need-to-pay-attention-to-conversational-ai
3. Amsive. (2025). LLM-Driven Traffic Performance vs. Organic Sessions. https://www.amsive.com/insights/marketing-strategy/ai-search-conversion-performance/
4. Similarweb. (2025). Global Ecommerce Report: Growth Shifts to Apps and AI. https://ir.similarweb.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/132/similarwebs-3rd-annual-global-ecommerce-report-growth-shifts-to-apps-and-ai
5. Adobe Digital Insights. (2025). AI-Driven Traffic Surges Ahead in Q2. https://business.adobe.com/blog/ai-driven-traffic-surges-ahead-in-q2
6. Microsoft. (2025). Copilot Conversion Rates Higher for Lower-Funnel Ad Types. Microsoft Advertising Blog. https://about.ads.microsoft.com/en/blog/post/april-2025/psst-the-valuable-consumers-are-over-at-microsoft-medias-ai-powered-experiences
7. BrightEdge. (2025). AI Search Visits Surging in 2025. AI Search Visits Surging in 2025—But Organic Search Remains the Cornerstone of Digital Growth. https://www.brightedge.com/resources/research-reports/ai-search-visits-in-surging-2025
8. Microsoft Clarity. (2025). AI Traffic Converts at 3× the Rate of Other Channels [Study]. https://clarity.microsoft.com/blog/ai-traffic-converts-at-3x-the-rate-of-other-channels-study/

]]> https://seonews.info/bing-introduces-support-for-the-data-nosnippet-html-attribute/ Wed, 15 Oct 2025 16:55:16 +0000 https://seonews.info/bing-introduces-support-for-the-data-nosnippet-html-attribute/

At Bing, empowering creators with meaningful control over their content is a core priority. This is why we’re introducing the data-nosnippet HTML attribute. It gives webmasters, developers, and publishers precise control over what content appears in search results and AI-generated answers, while keeping the rest of their page discoverable.

This selective visibility helps creators maintain their presence across Bing Search and Copilot experiences powered by Bing, and ensures that paywalled, sensitive, or non-essential content remains protected from being displayed.

Why Should You Use the data-nosnippet HTML Attribute?

Using data-nosnippet in Bing-supported environments gives creators and SEOs more control over how their content appears in Bing Search and AI-powered experiences. It can help you:

• Protect premium or paywalled content: Keep subscriber-only text, tables, and media out of previews while the page stays discoverable and eligible for inclusion in search and AI-powered experiences.
• Manage brand reputation: Exclude comments and volatile reviews from previews to keep messaging on-brand.
• Remove legal boilerplate from previews: Hide disclaimers, licensing, and cookie notices so snippets focus on value.
• Suppress outdated or irrelevant sections: Hide legacy notices and expired promotions to prevent stale summaries.
• Exclude sponsored or promotional content: Keep ads, affiliate blurbs, and promotional FAQs out of neutral previews.
• Stabilize A/B tests and experiments: Hide variant copy to avoid snippet churn during testing.
• Balance visibility and discretion: Surface high-value content while keeping sensitive sections behind the click.

How Does the data-nosnippet HTML Attribute Work?

The data-nosnippet attribute allows you to mark specific sections of a webpage’s HTML so they don’t appear in Bing Search snippets or AI-generated answers.

When Bing crawls your site, any content marked with data-nosnippet is still indexed normally, but it will be excluded from snippets and AI summaries. The content tagged as data-nosnippet is available for ranking. This lets creators keep control over what is shown in previews without limiting their page’s visibility or ranking potential.

How to Add data-nosnippet in HTML

You can apply the data-nosnippet attribute to any HTML element you want to exclude from Bing Search snippets or AI summaries.

When Bing crawls your site, the marked content remains fully discoverable but won’t appear in snippet text or AI-generated previews.

Example HTML Markup

 

<h2>Overview</h2>

<p>This section may appear in Bing Search and Copilot answers.</p>

<div data-nosnippet>
  <h3>Subscriber Content</h3>
  <p>This section does not appear in Bing Search and Copilot answers.</p>
</div>

After implementation, use Bing Webmaster Tools to verify your pages. You can use URL inspection to check the last crawl time. Depending on Bing’s crawl schedule, it can take anywhere from a few seconds to up to a week for your latest content changes to be reflected in search results.

How Does data-nosnippet Compare to Other Bing Robots Directives?

The data-nosnippet attribute complements Bing’s broader suite of meta tags and HTTP headers that manage how content is indexed, cached, and displayed in search results.

Common directives include:

• noindex: Prevents a page from being indexed.
• nosnippet: Blocks all text and preview thumbnails from appearing in snippets.
• max-snippet, max-image-preview, max-video-preview: Limit the size or duration of preview content.

For more technical details and scenario-based examples (such as protecting paywalled content or managing user-generated sections), visit Bing Webmaster Help.

Putting Control in Your Hands

The data-nosnippet attribute represents another step in Bing’s commitment to giving creators meaningful control over how their content is represented across search and AI experiences. By offering flexibility without limiting discoverability, it helps ensure that the web remains both open and creator driven.

Krishna Madhavan
Fabrice Canel
Cata Milos
Principal Product Managers, Bing, Microsoft AI ]]> https://seonews.info/introducing-the-new-bing-places-for-business-built-for-business/ Fri, 03 Oct 2025 15:51:59 +0000 https://seonews.info/introducing-the-new-bing-places-for-business-built-for-business/

Today, we are excited to announce the launch of the new Bing Places for Business experience —an evolution shaped by deep user research, thoughtful design, and a commitment to help business owners thrive in local search. Bing Places for Business is a free online platform where businesses can create and manage their listings to appear in Bing search results and Bing Maps, making them more visible to potential customers.

Listening First: What Business Owners Told Us

Before we wrote a single line of code, we spent months listening to business owners about their challenges and goals. Our research revealed a few consistent themes:

• We need to make Bing Places for Business more discoverable to help business owners to claim their business in Bing
• The portal needs to be simplified and built with the same design principles as the rest of our products.
• Importing should be seamless. Business owners wanted to seamlessly import all their businesses to Bing without spending a lot of time by claiming or adding their business manually.

We took these insights to heart and rebuilt the experience from the ground up.

A Unified Experience Under Bing.com

One of the most significant changes is the migration of the entire business owner’s experience into the Bing.com domain. This move simplifies access, improves trust, and aligns Bing Places with the broader Bing ecosystem. Whether you’re claiming a listing, updating business hours, or uploading photos, everything now lives in one cohesive space.

As part of this transition, the domain will change from www.bingplaces.com to www.bing.com/forbusiness, making it easier for business owners to find and manage their listings directly within the Bing experience.

The new experience is now live and will continue adding further features in the following months to ensure a complete and polished rollout. Our current users and their business listings will be automatically migrated to the new account and current users will be redirected to this brand-new experience when they login with their Bing Places for Business credentials.

Smarter Imports, Smoother Management

We’ve made major improvements to how business owners import listings from Google. The new import flow is faster, more reliable, and better at preserving key attributes like business name, hours, and contact details. Once imported, managing listings is easier than ever—with intuitive dashboards, bulk editing tools, and real-time status updates.

Introducing the Recommendation Tool

Launching alongside the new experience is our Recommendation Tool, designed to help new business owners enrich their listings with high-impact information that can help drive more engagement with your listing. Using listing health signals and the segment of the business, the tool suggests business owners:

• Add Photos that attract attention
• Add key missing Business details that drive engagement like website link, hours of operations, social media links
• Segment specific suggestions like adding a menu link or online order link for restaurants

This feature is especially helpful for owners who are new to local SEO and want to stand out in Bing search results.

What’s Next

This launch is just the beginning. We are continuing to invest in features that make Bing Places for Business more powerful and accessible—from deeper integrations with Bing Maps and Copilot to expanded support for agencies and other partners.

We invite all business owners to explore the new Bing Places for Business and see how easy it is to claim, manage, and grow your presence on Bing.

https://www.bing.com/forbusiness

Please use our support channels to share your feedback. It will help us plan and prioritize future features and enhancements.

Get ready for the Microsoft Rewards Ultimate Giveaway, where more prizes mean more winners every day! We’re giving away one $1,000,000 USD Grand Prize and 650 daily Instant Prizes equaling a total of $1,000,000 USD. Whether you’re new to Microsoft Rewards or a longtime member, it’s your opportunity for a chance to win* big—just by participating in daily activities and searches.

How Do You Enter?

Every member can claim one free entry from the Sweepstakes landing page at aka.ms/win-promo. To redeem your free entry via the landing page, you will need to log into your Microsoft account or create a new one, then you will be prompted to enter additional information via the entry page. The Microsoft Rewards Ultimate Giveaway features two chances to win:

• Daily Instant Win:** Complete one (1) search in the Bing app each day during the promotion period for a chance to win one of 650 daily cash prizes, valued from $500 to $5,000. Each day, perform at least 1 search in the Bing app. Then, tap “Check if you’re a winner” to use that day’s chance. Unused chances do not carry over to future days.
• Sweepstakes:*** The Sweepstakes will award ONE grand prize of $1,000,000 USD. Members will receive a free entry once completing the entry form. You can boost your chances and earn up to 340 bonus entries for completing various activities. These activities can be found on the Sweepstakes Entry Dashboard.

Track your entries

You can track all your entries by logging into your Microsoft account and visiting your entry tracker. Or you can sign into the Rewards page with your Microsoft account, select “Redeem” and then select “Order history.” On the Order history page, find your order and then look under “Status.” It can take up to 72 hours for entries to post.

Also, you can share your entry link with friends to earn up to 20 extra entries if it’s their first time entering the sweepstakes. For each person you refer to who enters the Sweepstakes, you will receive 5 entries. Terms apply, see terms here.

Need help?

If you encounter issues submitting your entry or your entry hasn’t posted after 72 hours, contact Rewards customer service. Once you’ve submitted the form, a member of the support team will contact you within 24 hours.

Why Join Microsoft Rewards?

• Earn points doing things you already enjoy, like searching, gaming, and shopping.
• Redeem points for gift cards, subscriptions, and charitable donations.
• And now, with this sweepstakes, you can even win cash prizes!

Start entering now—the Instant Win and Sweepstakes end on October 17, 2025.

A huge congratulations to Nate from the USA, who walked away with the life-changing grand prize of $1,000,000 USD in our last major sweepstakes! We were excited to welcome Nate to tour the Microsoft campus in Redmond, WA and personally present him the check. As Nate said, “I would give it a try. You’re not losing anything, you’re only gaining from using Microsoft Rewards.”

In addition to the grand prize, several lucky participants won $10,000 USD each in the weekly drawings.

The Microsoft Rewards Ultimate Giveaway is your chance to win big while enjoying everything you already love about Microsoft Rewards. Don’t miss out—claim your free entry, complete daily activities, and invite friends to increase your chances. Every entry brings you closer to becoming our next millionaire. Start participating today and let the excitement begin!

*NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Instant Win and Sweepstakes: Ends 10/17/25 at 11:59:59 PM PT. Must be age of majority. To enter and for Official Rules, including odds, and prize descriptions, see Rules: https://aka.ms/win-IW-Rules (Instant Win) and https://aka.ms/win-Sweeps-Rules (Sweepstakes). Connect time charges may apply. Canadian and Mexican residents: Skill-testing question applies. Void where prohibited.

**Instant Win: Open to U.S. + D.C./P.R., CA, UK, FR, DE, NL, IE, NO, AT, ES, MX, NZ, JP, SG, KR, and CN.

***Sweepstakes: Open to U.S. + D.C./P.R., CA, UK, FR, DE, IE, NO, AT, ES, MX, NZ, JP, and SG. Sweepstakes Grand Prize: one (1) prize of $1,000,000.00 USD in cash (equivalent to approximately $1,368,780.00 CAD / £741,440.00 GBP / €856,200.00 EUR / kr10,139,100.00 NOK / $18,643,500.00 MXN / $1,662,780.00 NZD / ¥147,325,000.00 JPY / $1,280,150.00 SGD). Grand Prize will be awarded in USD dollars. Free Entries into the Grand Prize Draw with Microsoft Rewards Account: print full name, address, phone number (with area code), date of birth, and email address on a 3 x 5-inch card and mail it to “Microsoft Rewards Ultimate Giveaway Sweepstakes, Free to Enter” at the address corresponding to your country of residence in the Official Rules. Requests must be postmarked by 10/17/25 and received by 10/24/25. Additional Sweepstakes entry opportunities will be available, see terms here. These additional entry methods are subject to the Official Rules for the Sweepstakes including (but not limited to) any and all eligibility and registration requirements, as well as any limitation on the total number of entries which may be earned across all entry methods.

Since the launch of Bing Image Creator in March 2023, we’ve loved seeing everything you’ve created and shared. We’re constantly evolving Bing Image Creator based on your feedback, and this update is all about giving you more choice and creativity than ever before.

We’re thrilled to share that Bing Image Creator now includes the latest GPT-4o image generation model – for free. This upgrade delivers you even more intelligence, flexibility, and options; GPT-4o joins the existing DALL-E3 model many of you know and love so you can turn your ideas into stunning visuals with greater ease, confidence, and control.

Finding what you need is just the beginning. Bing, as your AI-powered search and answer engine, gives you the freedom to create exactly what you’re looking for.

To get started creating with GPT-4o, visit bing.com/create, open the Bing app, create directly in Copilot Search, or type directly in your Bing search bar or Edge address bar.**

Bing Image Creator, now with GPT-4o

In 2023, Bing Image Creator brought the power of AI image generation to everyone, for free. It’s always been our mission to give you the tools to satisfy your curiosity.

That’s why starting today Bing Image Creator offers you the choice of two models to fit your needs: GPT-4o and DALL-E3. GPT-4o delivers a major leap in image generation quality, bringing users an upgraded experience with more creative and photorealistic visuals as well as a deeper understanding of detailed prompts – including improved rendering of text and fine details. Whether you’re crafting a mood board, visualizing a product idea, or simply exploring your imagination, GPT-4o brings your vision to life with richer image generation.

We recognize that creativity is nothing without freedom. That’s why now, with just a click, you can switch models to DALL-E3 to not only get quick AI image generation, but also more options to choose from – all with the same look and feel you’ve been accustomed to from Bing Image Creator.

Bing Image Creator is available on all platforms world-wide,*** including bing.com/create and within Copilot Search.

Bing Image Creator remains free to use with 15 fast creations available.*

Let your imagination run wild

We can’t wait to see what you create. To kickstart your imagination, check out two of our favorite examples below:

Prompt: A large koi fish swimming through the clouds with lanterns floating around and a crescent moon in the background – in dreamy pastel tones, realistic

Prompt: A beautiful, square, detailed, elegant, modern, scientific infographic titled “Phases of the Moon,” with illustrations for each phase, and a starry background

Try it today

Ready to create something amazing? Head to bing.com/create, open the Bing app, create directly in Copilot Search, or type directly in your Bing search bar or Edge address bar** to try Bing Image Creator.

*15 daily fast creations. Thereafter, fast creations will require 10 Rewards points per creation. Standard speed creations are unlimited.

**Bing as default search engine required

***Except Russia and China

As AI powered search engines like Bing Copilot continue to reshape how content is discovered and surfaced, keeping your website crawlable, fresh, and fully indexed is more important than ever. While real-time URL submission protocols such as IndexNow help notify search engines of immediate content changes, sitemaps remain a foundational signal for ensuring comprehensive URL coverage across your site.

Scalable Sitemap Support for Large Sites

Bing continues full support of the Sitemap protocol, which allows:

• Up to 50,000 URLs per individual sitemap file.

• Up to 50,000 child sitemap files referenced within a single sitemap index file.

• A single sitemap index file can reference up to 2.5 billion URLs. At scale, multiple index files can support up to 2.5 trillion URLs across a domain, making this approach ideal for large, complex sites.

If you manage a large-scale website, ecommerce platform, or content-rich publishing site, taking full advantage of these limits allows you to ensure all your relevant URLs are discoverable — even at enterprise scale.

Why lastmod Still Matters for AI Powered Indexing

For AI powered search engines like Bing, freshness signals directly influence how quickly updates are reflected in search results and AI generated answers. The lastmod field in your sitemap remains a key signal, helping Bing prioritize URLs for recrawling and reindexing, or skip them entirely if the content hasn’t changed since the last crawl.

To ensure your signals are interpreted correctly, use standard ISO 8601 date formatting for lastmod values, including both the date and time. For example:

 

Example Sitemap XML<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?> <br /> <br /> <sitemapindex xmlns=”http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9″> <br /> <sitemap> <br /> <loc>http://www.example.com/sitemap1.xml.gz</loc> <br /> <lastmod>2004-10-01T18:23:17+00:00</lastmod> <br /> </sitemap> <br /> </sitemapindex> <br />

Including a timestamp provides a more precise signal of when content was updated, helping Bing prioritize crawling activity more efficiently — especially for frequently updated or time-sensitive pages. 

Accurate lastmod values help Bing focus crawling on updated content, a particularly important factor as AI search engines adjust ranking and surfacing in near real time based on content changes. Optional sitemap tags like changefreq and priority are ignored by Bing and do not influence how your content is crawled or ranked. 

Tip: Avoid setting lastmod to the time your sitemap was generated unless the content on that URL was actually updated. The value should reflect the true last modification time of the page content, not the sitemap file itself. For additional guidance, see our article on the importance of setting the lastmod tag in your sitemap. 

 

Preferred Sitemap Format for Bing Crawling and Indexing 

XML remains the preferred format for sitemaps, as it supports structured metadata like lastmod, which helps Bing assess content freshness and relevance more effectively.  

 

You can also compress your sitemap files using gz format (e.g., sitemaps.xml.gz) to reduce network bandwidth usage and improve submission efficiency.  

How to Submit Sitemaps to Bing for Full Coverage 

Bing recommends submitting XML sitemaps following the Sitemap specification to help ensure full site discovery and indexing coverage. You can submit your sitemaps through one of these two methods: 

• Robots.txt : Include the sitemap location in your site’s robots.txt file for automatic discovery. 
  
  Example: 
  
  Sitemap: https://www.example.com/sitemap.xml 

• Bing Webmaster Tools: Submit your sitemaps directly in Bing Webmaster Tools and monitor indexing performance from your verified account. 

When Does Bing Read Your Sitemaps? 

Once your sitemap is referenced in your robots.txt file or submitted through Bing Webmaster Tools, Bing will attempt to fetch it immediately upon submission. After that, it will revisit your sitemap on a regular basis, typically at least once per day, to check for updates.  

 

How to Verify That Bing Is Processing Your Sitemaps 

 

To confirm that Bing is reading and using your sitemap: 

1. Sign in to Bing Webmaster Tools. 
2. Go to the Sitemaps section for your verified site.
3. Review the: 

• Submission status (success or error). 
• Last read date to confirm it’s being accessed regularly. 
• Any processing errors that may block indexing. 

These checks help ensure your sitemap is accessible and actively supporting Bing’s crawling and indexing—both for traditional search and AI-powered experiences like Copilot. 

For full protocol details, visit sitemaps.org. 

2. Communication: Turn your idea into something easy to understand, a joke into a lasting memory, or add a customized experience to your everyday conversations. Or stand out in the scroll by sharing your creation to social media.

2. Communication: Turn your idea into something easy to understand, a joke into a lasting memory, or add a customized experience to your everyday conversations. Or stand out in the scroll by sharing your creation to social media.

]]> https://seonews.info/solving-the-vehicle-routing-problem-with-routesavvy-and/ Tue, 17 Jun 2025 20:45:15 +0000 https://seonews.info/solving-the-vehicle-routing-problem-with-routesavvy-and/

As an increasing number of people now work and live in more diverse locations post COVID and the demand for home delivery and onsite services has risen in parallel, more organizations find themselves looking for assistance solving the vehicle routing problem (VRP). VRP is the omnipresent dilemma of finding a set of optimized routes for a fleet of vehicles that minimizes travel times or distances. OnTerra Systems’ RouteSavvy API PLUS combines Microsoft Maps APIs with their own proprietary algorithms to make optimized route planning easy and offers an essential set of fleet optimization features for small business to large companies.

Multi-vehicle route optimization is a proven approach to enhancing logistical efficiency and decreasing expenses for organizations that handle deliveries, pickups, service calls, and site visits. Regardless of whether you are a business or a non-profit organization, minimizing service costs while maximizing customer satisfaction can be challenging, particularly when managing numerous customer visit locations across your fleet of drivers each day. 

As an example, let’s take a medium-sized organization that for a given workday has 1,000 customer site visits to complete and has 50 service delivery drivers spread across a defined geographic area. How do you decide which service delivery drivers should be assigned to which customer site visits?  Which vehicles can deliver goods or services to those sites? Will someone be at that receiving location when the driver gets there? These are some of the critical elements to solve with any VRP solution.

Example of RouteSavvy API PLUS optimized routes for three vehicles and 125 stop locations displayed on a map using the Azure Maps web SDK.

Factoring in business requirements and customer constraints

Remember that question, will someone be there when I deliver the goods or services? Optimized routes can factor in multiple availability time windows for visit locations, such as customer hours of operation so you don’t leave valuable deliveries unattended and helps ensure someone can let you into a property if you need to complete a scheduled service. It can also consider driver availability times, such as when any driver shift starts and ends as part of the itinerary plan so both the driver and customer will be available to make sure important service delivery happens.

RouteSavvy API PLUS + Microsoft Maps, better together

While RouteSavvy API PLUS can be used on its own, there are several Azure Maps services that can be used in combination with RouteSavvy API PLUS to provide even greater capabilities to your route planning and optimization needs. Here are a few Azure Maps features to highlight that can be used to enhance your VRP solution:

Address geocoding: For a VRP solution, visit locations and driver start/end locations in the API request use latitude/longitude coordinates. If you don’t have your location data formatted as latitude/longitude coordinates, you can use the Azure Maps Search Service to geocode your street address data before . Azure Maps offers highly accurate street address geocoding capabilities that are compatible with RouteSavvy API PLUS.

Map overlays: The Azure Maps Web SDK is a great map canvas to help your back office and drivers see the routes on a map as part of your route planning process or while the routes are being driven. Azure Maps satellite and aerial imagery can also provide drivers with additional context about customer visit locations such as where parking areas and building entrances are and any other physical landmarks that can quickly help drivers find their destination.

Weather info: Azure Maps Weather Services can be combined with a VRP solution like RouteSavvy API PLUS to provide your drivers with useful weather insights that can help them be prepared for extreme weather conditions that may impact customer visits on the route itineraries.  Specifically, Severe Weather Alerts, Daily Forecasts and Weather Along a Route are some of the Azure Maps Weather features that can be useful in preparing for weather-related obstacles on your routes.

Getting started with RouteSavvy API PLUS

Migrating from the Bing Maps Multi-Itinerary Optimization API to RouteSavvy API PLUS is relatively easy, especially with the RouteSavvy API PLUS team at OnTerra Systems ready to assist you. RouteSavvy API PLUS offers a free trial and can be purchased via OnTerra Systems, Azure Marketplace or Microsoft AppSource.

For more information and RouteSavvy API PLUS technical documentation, please visit the OnTerra Systems RouteSavvy API PLUS website.

 

Erik Lindeman is the Director of Product Management & Professional Services at OnTerra Systems. He has over 20 years of experience delivering web-based software services and solutions to enterprise customers at Microsoft and now leads Product Management, Consulting and Solution Development Services at OnTerra Systems.

]]> https://seonews.info/start-using-bing-webmaster-tools-to-improve-your-site-visibility/ Tue, 17 Jun 2025 17:22:55 +0000 https://seonews.info/start-using-bing-webmaster-tools-to-improve-your-site-visibility/

If you’re not optimizing for Bing, you’re leaving valuable search opportunity on the table. Bing powers a wide range of AI and search experiences — including Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Microsoft Start, and AI tools like ChatGPT and Inflection.ai. We handle billions of queries each month, connecting users to relevant information across Microsoft Edge, Windows, and the new Copilot experience. With Microsoft deeply integrated into how users search, shop, and discover content, Bing is more innovative and powerful than ever before — it’s a vital part of a modern search strategy.

Free and full of powerful features, Bing Webmaster Tools (BWT) gives digital marketers and SEO professionals direct access to indexing insights, keyword performance, and crawl diagnostics aligned with how AI-powered search engines index and display content. It’s not just about ranking — it’s about gaining visibility where more high-intent searches are happening every day.

Bing Webmaster Tools Helps You Monitor SEO and Improve Visibility

BWT offers a comprehensive set of features designed to help you monitor your site’s performance, understand how users and search engines interact with your content, and make informed decisions to support ongoing optimization. These capabilities are especially important as search becomes increasingly AI-driven — where visibility depends not just on ranking, but on relevance, content structure, freshness, and how well your pages align with user intent.

Here’s what you can access once your Bing Webmaster Tools account is set up:

• Search Performance Reporting: Track impressions, clicks, and average position across pages and keywords using up to 16 months of data.

• Top Recommendations: Get prioritized, actionable suggestions to improve site health and search visibility.

• URL Inspection Tool: Analyze indexing status, crawlability, HTTP response codes, and blocked resources for specific URLs.

• IndexNow Integration and URL Submission: Instantly notify Bing and other search engines participating in IndexNow when content is added, updated, or deleted. No need to wait for traditional crawling.

• Keyword Research and Query Data: Discover trending keywords, related search queries, and long-tail opportunities in real time.

• Copilot in Bing Webmaster Tools: Use this built-in AI assistant to troubleshoot issues, surface insights, and navigate Bing Webmaster Tools more efficiently.

• Backlink Insights: View referring domains, anchor text, and link profiles for both your own site and competitors.

• Site Explorer: Explore your site’s structure as seen by Bing. Identify indexed pages, crawl blocks, and error responses.

• Sitemaps Report: Submit and monitor your sitemap. Bing processes sitemaps at least once every 24 hours for indexing updates.

• Site Scan Tool: Run technical SEO audits to detect broken links, duplicate tags, and missing metadata—no third-party tools required.

• Robots.txt Tester: Validate your robots.txt file and confirm that Bingbot can access key content.

• Crawl Control: Schedule when Bingbot visits your site and block staging or outdated pages from appearing in search.

How to Set Up Bing Webmaster Tools

Setting up Bing Webmaster Tools is quick and when done right, it gives you greater visibility into how your content is discovered, crawled, and indexed across Microsoft’s search ecosystem, including experiences like Copilot. Follow these steps to get started and unlock key features like IndexNow, Search Performance, URL Inspection, and more.

Step 1: Sign In or Create a Bing Webmaster Tools Account

Go to www.bing.com/webmasters and sign in using your Microsoft, Google, or Facebook account. If you don’t have one, you can create a Microsoft account during the sign-up process.

Tip: Already using Google Search Console? You can import your verified sites directly for faster setup into Bing Webmaster Tools.

Step 2: Add and Verify Your Website

After signing in, select “Add a Site” and enter your website URL. You can verify ownership using one of these methods:

• Domain Connect (recommended if available): Verify your domain automatically by logging into your DNS provider (e.g., GoDaddy, Bluehost, Wix).

• Upload an XML verification file: Download the verification file provided by Bing Webmaster Tools and upload it to your site’s root directory.

• Add a meta tag to your homepage: Insert a unique meta tag into the <head> section of your homepage HTML.

• Add a DNS TXT record manually: Insert the verification string as a TXT record through your domain registrar’s DNS management.

• Import your site from Google Search Console: If your site is already verified in Google Search Console, you can import your verified ownership directly.

Once verified, you’ll see a green checkmark and your dashboard will begin collecting data shortly.

 

Step 3: Enable IndexNow for Instant Content Updates (Optional but Highly Recommended)

Bing Webmaster Tools supports IndexNow, a protocol that instantly alerts Bing and other IndexNow Search Engines when you add, update, or delete content. This eliminates the need to wait for traditional crawling and helps ensure your most important updates are indexed faster.

You can enable IndexNow through one of the following options:

• Use a supported CMS platform such as Shopify, Wix, or Duda.

• Install an IndexNow Pugin.

• Implement IndexNow directly in your site’s code.

IndexNow helps ensure your most important updates are reflected in search results fast, especially critical in AI-driven environments. Learn more and get started at https://www.bing.com/indexnow.

Step 4: Submit a Sitemap (Optional but Highly Recommended)

A sitemap gives Bing a complete view of your site’s structure, even when using IndexNow.

• Auto-generate a sitemap using your CMS or plugin

• Reference it in your robots.txt, or submit it in Bing Webmaster Tools under Sitemaps.

Step 5: Explore Your Dashboard

Once your site is verified, your dashboard will begin populating with data. From here, you’ll be able to explore tools for performance tracking, site diagnostics, keyword research, and more — all designed to help you monitor your SEO and improve search visibility over time.

Ready to See What You’ve Been Missing?

Bing Webmaster Tools provides ongoing insight into how your content is being interpreted, what users are searching for, and where you can optimize for greater visibility.

Take a few minutes to explore your dashboard, enable IndexNow for URL submissions, and run your first site scan. Whether you’re troubleshooting technical issues or fine-tuning for AI-powered visibility, you’ll have the tools to move faster, get clearer answers, and make smarter SEO decisions.