Bing-First AEO: Why Optimizing for Bing Means You’re Optimizing for ChatGPT
Trust is the new visibility.
Website visibility isn’t just for Google anymore today it’s about the index behind AI recommendations, and that index is Bing.
Most local businesses still assume that getting to page one of Google via SEO is the key to being visible online. But here’s the turning point: if you’re looking to be recommended by AI chat engines such as ChatGPT (and other LLM-powered tools), Google rank isn’t enough. In fact, you may be overlooking the true “back-door” of AI visibility: Bing.
Recent data from an audit of over 500 citations shows that ~87 % of ChatGPT citations align directly with Bing’s top results.Further commentary in specialist SEO publications affirms that when ChatGPT invokes its web-search capability (“ChatGPT Search”), it taps into Bing’s index rather than Google’s.
Guides on “Bing SEO” now emphasize that “optimizing for Bing means you’re laying the groundwork for being referenced in ChatGPT answers.”
In other words: if your brand is visible and credible in Bing’s index, you’re far more likely to appear in AI-driven recommendations; if you ignore Bing, you’re leaving that door wide open for competitors.
At a mechanistic level:
First, Bing crawls and indexes web pages using its own infrastructure; sites need to be discoverable, correctly structured, technically sound, and free of major signals of penalty or exclusion.
Second, when ChatGPT (or a similar LLM) receives a user query that triggers a web-search path, it sends that query into the retrieval system that crawls the Bing index (or relies on Bing’s search results) and fetches candidate source pages.
Third, the LLM assesses those candidate pages for relevance, authority (including structured data, domain trust, update recency) and incorporates citations from them in its answer. The websites that come from Bing’s index thus have a direct pathway to being cited in AI-generated output.
Therefore: your visibility in Bing → your eligibility as a source for ChatGPT → your chance of being recommended by AI when someone asks “Who’s the best near me?” or “Which brand should I trust?”
Thus the key contrast: SEO optimizes for ranking in Google’s index. AEO (AI Engine Optimization) optimizes for being recommended by LLMs, which means being visible in Bing’s index.
In AEO we say: AI doesn’t rank relevance—it recommends reliability. When you realize that the AI recommendation layer is built on a retrieval graph (fed by Bing’s index) then you shift from “how do I beat Google’s algorithm” to “how do I validate my entity so that AI sees me as trustworthy and cites me.” That shift changes the ga
Log into Bing Webmaster Tools (free), submit your sitemap, check for indexing errors, and ensure your key service-pages (location, services, credentials, testimonials) are being crawled. Make sure they’re mobile-friendly, secure (HTTPS), and use clear schema markup. You’re not just prepping for Bing search—you’re prepping for AI visibility.
When you optimize for Bing you’re not just seeking “rank” in a search engine—you’re building eligibility to be named in AI answers. Trust becomes visibility—and visibility requires being present in the retrieval layer behind the conversation.
Verification sources referenced: SEOinHouse article (Jessica Bowman), SeroundTable, SeerInteractive audit report.
Q: Does this mean Google doesn’t matter anymore?
A: No — Google still matters for many discovery flows. But if your goal is being recommended by AI, focus must shift to the retrieval layer (Bing).
Q: How do I know if ChatGPT is citing me?
A: There is no direct public dashboard yet. You can monitor traffic from chat.openai.com if available, and search your brand + query phrases manually in ChatGPT to see if you’re referenced.
Q: What if I’m already ranking well on Google but not Bing?
A: That’s common. In that case you must audit your Bing indexing, adjust technical SEO for Bing (e.g., sitemap submission, robots.txt, Bing-specific guidelines) and ensure domain trust signals carry over.
Q: Should I abandon Google SEO?
A: No. Continue doing baseline SEO for Google. But allocate incremental resources to Bing-first AEO—that is your tactical wedge into AI visibility.
Q: How soon will I see results in AI citations?
A: It varies. If your site is clean, indexed in Bing, and your content aligns with user intent, you can begin to test in weeks. But full citation visibility builds over time as AI retrieval and trust graphs mature.
Misti Bruton is the founder of HeyPearl and creator of the AEO Method (AI Engine Optimization) — a framework that helps real-estate agents and home-service providers become AI-visible, not just Google-visible.
Her work translates the principles of AEO into practical strategies for local businesses, showing how AI engines interpret credibility, consistency, and reputation across the web — transforming trust into the new metric of visibility.
Website: heypearl.io
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/misti-bruton
Tagline: “Trust is the new visibility.”