How to get your business recommended by Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft Copilot recommends businesses it can identify and trust

Microsoft Copilot answers a buyer's "who should I use?" with a specific business, and it names the one it can clearly identify and trust. Built by Microsoft, Microsoft Copilot is built into Windows and Office, in front of hundreds of millions at work, so being the business it recommends puts you in front of buyers at the exact moment they are choosing. AI recommendation is the outcome; generative engine optimisation is how you earn it in Microsoft Copilot.

Unlike a search engine, Microsoft Copilot rarely hands back ten options. It commits to a recommendation, and the businesses it omits are invisible to that buyer. That is what raises the stakes: in Microsoft Copilot, second place is no place.

Microsoft Copilot sources answers from OpenAI models plus Microsoft's Bing web index

Microsoft Copilot draws on OpenAI models plus Microsoft's Bing web index, and it cites Bing-indexed pages, with links. To be named, your business has to appear, consistently and credibly, in the places Microsoft Copilot looks. How Microsoft Copilot picks its sources breaks the mechanism down, but the short version is simple: Microsoft Copilot recommends what it can verify.

Because Microsoft Copilot lives in Windows, Edge, Bing and Microsoft 365, its answers reach buyers wherever they already are, which is why a mention inside Microsoft Copilot is worth more than a search ranking almost no one scrolls to.

Buyers ask Microsoft Copilot for a recommendation, not a search

Every appearance in Microsoft Copilot starts with a buyer's prompt, and the phrasing is conversational, not keyword-shaped. People ask Microsoft Copilot things like:

• "best plumber near me, who would you actually recommend?"
• "which accountant should a small business in Leeds use?"
• "recommend a reliable roofer with good reviews"
• "who's the top-rated dentist near me for private treatment?"

Microsoft Copilot recommends local businesses when buyers ask

Yes, Microsoft Copilot recommends local businesses from Bing's index and Bing Places. When someone asks for a provider "near me" or in their town, Microsoft Copilot increasingly names specific local businesses rather than deflecting to a directory. That makes Microsoft Copilot a direct channel to local buyers for trades and professional services alike.

Entity clarity and citations shape Microsoft Copilot's answers

Microsoft Copilot names your business when the signals line up: a clear, consistent entity, credible third-party mentions, genuine reviews and structured data it can read. The single biggest lever for Microsoft Copilot is a strong Bing Places listing plus the entity and citation signals Bing trusts.

To influence how Microsoft Copilot answers, we strengthen:

• Your entity: so Microsoft Copilot knows exactly who you are, what you do and where, via entity optimisation
• Your citations: so trusted sources corroborate you, via citation building
• Your content: so Microsoft Copilot has passages it can quote and attribute to you
• Your reviews and structured data: so the trust and machine-readable signals are in place

Optimising for Microsoft Copilot earns you the recommendation

Appearing in Microsoft Copilot is earned, not bought. There is no paid slot in an organic recommendation. We optimise your business for Microsoft Copilot by fixing your entity, earning the citations Microsoft Copilot trusts, and publishing content it can lift.

The work follows the way Microsoft Copilot actually reads the web: we make your business unambiguous, corroborated and quotable, so the model has every reason to name you and none to hesitate.

Measuring your share of voice inside Microsoft Copilot

You cannot improve what you cannot see, so we monitor your visibility in Microsoft Copilot directly, tracking how often it mentions you, how favourably, and how your share of voice compares with the competitors it names instead. That baseline turns GEO from guesswork into a measured programme.

Microsoft Copilot is one engine, buyers use Google Gemini too

Microsoft Copilot matters, but no buyer uses only one assistant. The same person who asks Microsoft Copilot today asks Google Gemini, Google Gemini or ChatGPT tomorrow, and each sources answers differently. We optimise across every engine that has UK search demand, so your visibility does not hinge on which assistant a buyer happens to open.

See how Microsoft Copilot answers for a business like yours

This is AI lead generation for UK businesses: being named by Microsoft Copilot matters for the enquiries it sends you, not the mention itself. The fastest way to understand your position is to look. Our free AI visibility audit runs real buyer prompts through Microsoft Copilot and the other engines and shows exactly where you appear, where you do not, and who Microsoft Copilot names instead. See how we move businesses into AI recommendations, then book yours.