Most small business owners who are thinking about AI search visibility are focused entirely on ChatGPT and Google. Reasonable — those are the most-talked-about platforms. But there's a third AI that hundreds of millions of people already have access to, that most local businesses have done absolutely nothing to optimize for. It's Microsoft Copilot — and it's built directly into Windows 11, the Edge browser, and Microsoft 365. Your customers are using it right now.
Bing has 9% market share — but Copilot's reach is much bigger.Microsoft's Bing Webmaster Tools powers both traditional Bing search and Microsoft Copilot. While Bing's share of typed search queries is modest, Copilot is embedded across the entire Windows and Microsoft 365 ecosystem — every time someone asks Copilot for a local recommendation in Edge or from their Windows taskbar, Bing's index is what it searches. If you're not in that index, you're invisible to Copilot.
Why Most Small Businesses Ignore Copilot (and Why That's an Opportunity)
The conversation about AI search optimization has been dominated by ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews. That makes sense — they're the platforms people talk about. But it creates a meaningful gap: most local businesses in Barrie, Orillia, Collingwood, and across the 705 area have done nothing specific for Copilot visibility, which means the competition for Copilot recommendations in local categories is almost nonexistent.
The businesses that take a few specific actions for Copilot now — claim Bing Places, submit to Bing Webmaster Tools, set up a LinkedIn presence — will own those Copilot recommendation spots in their categories while their competitors are still focused entirely on Google. For a detailed look at how these different optimization types fit together, see our SEO vs AEO vs GEO guide.
ChatGPT vs. Copilot: What's Actually Different
Both run on large language models — ChatGPT from OpenAI, and Copilot from Microsoft — both can answer local business questions, but they use different sources and weight different signals. Understanding these differences helps you know what specific actions to take.
The 5-Step Copilot Checklist for Local Businesses
Most of this work takes an afternoon. None of it requires technical expertise. Here's the exact sequence to follow.
Go to bingplaces.com and claim your business. Fill it out as completely as you would a Google Business Profile — business name, address, phone, hours, description, photos, and categories. This is Copilot's primary data source for local business information and takes about 45 minutes to complete properly.
Create a free account at bing.com/webmasters, verify your site (takes about 15 minutes), and submit your sitemap. This tells Bing's crawler to actively index your content. Most Canadian small business websites have never done this — their content is only indexed if Bing happened to find it by following links.
LinkedIn is a unique Copilot signal — no other AI platform weights it as heavily. Create a LinkedIn Business Page if you don't have one, and make sure your employees have their workplace listed as your business. When Copilot is evaluating local business recommendations, LinkedIn presence signals professional legitimacy in a way that matters specifically to Microsoft's ecosystem.
Bing, and by extension Copilot, is more sensitive to page speed than Google's AI. Run your website through PageSpeed Insights (free from Google, but the data is useful for Bing too) or GTmetrix. Aim for under 2 seconds load time. Common quick wins: compress images, remove unused plugins, use a content delivery network (CDN). Your web host may be able to enable caching with one click.
Bing Webmaster Tools includes a Markup Validator (under the Diagnostics section) that checks your schema markup. After adding LocalBusiness schema to your site, run it through Bing's validator to confirm it's reading correctly. Schema errors that don't show in Google's tools sometimes appear in Bing's — catching them improves your Copilot visibility.
A Practical Word on LinkedIn for Local Businesses
LinkedIn can feel like it's for big companies and job seekers — not a restaurant in Orillia or a contractor in Midland. But for Copilot specifically, LinkedIn is worth 30 minutes of setup even if you never post on it regularly.
The value comes from the business page existing with accurate information (name, location, industry, website), and from any employees you have connecting their profile to your business. Microsoft's ecosystem — Copilot, Bing, Teams, Office — treats LinkedIn data as a professional signal of business legitimacy in a way no other AI platform does.
If you do use LinkedIn more actively, posts about completed projects, local events you're involved in, or team milestones can generate the kind of LinkedIn mentions that give Copilot more signal about your business. But simply claiming the page and filling out the basics is already meaningful.
How to Check If Copilot Mentions Your Business
This is easier than it sounds. Open the Edge browser on any Windows computer (or go to copilot.microsoft.com), and ask a question you'd expect a potential customer to ask: "Who's a good [your business type] in [your town]?" or "best [your service] near [your location]."
If you show up — great. Note what sources Copilot is citing and make sure your information on those sources is accurate and complete. If you don't show up, that's your gap. Work through the checklist above, wait 2–3 weeks for Bing to re-index, and check again.
You can also use Bing Webmaster Tools' URL Inspection feature to see when Bing last crawled your website and whether it indexed your pages successfully. This is your diagnostic tool for understanding your Copilot visibility at the technical level.
Don't Leave Copilot on the Table
Every hour spent on ChatGPT and Google AI optimization is well spent — those are real platforms with real users. But spending two hours on Copilot-specific setup (Bing Places, Bing Webmaster Tools, LinkedIn page) gives you visibility on a platform that your local competitors have almost universally ignored. And don't forget to keep your Google Business Profile in sync too — your GBP data flows through to ChatGPT indirectly via Bing's data partnerships.
For Northern Ontario businesses — a restaurant in Gravenhurst, a contractor in Penetanguishene, a wellness studio in Wasaga Beach — the Copilot category space is essentially empty right now. The business that claims that space first will hold it.
Our AI visibility services cover all five major platforms including Copilot, or book a consultation and we'll show you exactly where you stand across every AI platform that matters.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Microsoft Copilot really worth optimizing for if most people use Google?
Yes — for two reasons. First, Copilot's reach is larger than Bing's market share suggests, because it's embedded in Windows 11, Edge, and Microsoft 365. Any business user on a Windows computer can ask Copilot a question without opening a browser. Second, because local businesses have almost universally ignored Copilot optimization, the competitive landscape for Copilot local recommendations is nearly empty. You can become the default Copilot recommendation for your business type in your town with a fraction of the effort it would take to compete on Google.
How is Bing Places for Business different from Google Business Profile?
They're functionally very similar: both are free business listing platforms where you claim your business, add your information, and manage your presence. The key difference is that GBP feeds Google AI Overviews and Google Search, while Bing Places feeds Copilot and Bing Search. GBP is more important because Google's search volume is higher — but Bing Places is worth claiming because it costs nothing and takes less than an hour. Many businesses don't know Bing Places exists, which is exactly why claiming it gives you an advantage.
Does having a LinkedIn profile actually help my local business show up in Copilot?
It does — and this is specific to Copilot, not other AI platforms. Microsoft owns LinkedIn, so Copilot is naturally trained to treat LinkedIn presence as a professional legitimacy signal. For a local business, this means having a LinkedIn Business Page with accurate information (name, location, industry, website) and any employees with their workplace listed. You don't need to post on LinkedIn regularly for this to help. The page simply needs to exist and be accurate.
How do I check if my business shows up when someone asks Microsoft Copilot for a local recommendation?
The simplest method: open Edge or go to copilot.microsoft.com and ask exactly what a customer might ask — "best plumber in Barrie," "chiropractor Orillia accepting new patients," "gift shop Muskoka open weekends." See whether your business appears and what sources Copilot cites. If it doesn't appear, check whether you have a Bing Places listing and whether your website is indexed in Bing Webmaster Tools. Those two gaps account for the majority of Copilot invisibility for local businesses.