What Is Bing Generative Search, and What Does It Mean for SEO?

Ever since ChatGPT made it big in 2022, tech companies have been obsessively scrambling to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) tools and features into their own products (whether people want it or not). One example of this is the Bing generative search experience, released in 2024.

Though Bing’s AI chatbot, Copilot, had already been live for over a year, the new generative search experience integrated that AI tech more directly into search results pages. This has a lot of marketers wondering what’s next for search engine optimization (SEO).

If you’re one of those marketers, don’t worry — we have some answers. On this page, we’ll cover the following:

• What is the Bing generative search experience?
• Bing generative search vs. Google AI overviews
• How to use Bing generative search
• How does Bing AI search impact SEO?
• How to optimize your content for the Microsoft AI search feature

Keep reading to find out more, and then subscribe to Revenue Weekly — our email newsletter — for more helpful digital marketing tips!

What is the Bing generative search experience?

Bing generative search is a feature that Bing first rolled out in July of 2024. It closely mirrors the AI overviews in Google search — that is, it shows AI-generated responses to search queries at the top of search results, which appear above traditional rankings.

Bing generative search vs. Google AI overviews

You might be wondering how Bing’s AI search features compare to Google’s. In terms of the responses themselves, there isn’t much distinction. Instead, the biggest difference comes down to scope.

Google’s AI overviews consistently appear in a box at the top of search results, and the rest of the page is dedicated to traditional rankings. That’s as far as it goes. But in Bing, the plan appears to be for AI to completely dominate search results. You’ll see what we mean by that further down the page.

Of course, Bing’s AI is still rolling out as of this writing — they’re taking it slow — so it’s impossible to say how the two will compare when all is said and done.

How to use Bing generative search

At the moment, there are three different ways to access generative search features in Bing. The first is to just search for a keyword like normal. Depending on what you search for, you may see an AI response somewhere in search results. Unlike with Google, though, they aren’t clearly labeled in Bing, so you need to know what to look out for.

The second method is to conduct a normal search and then click the “Deep search” button to the right of the search bar. That will usually add some AI responses into the search results if there aren’t any already.

Bear in mind that generative search is still in the process of being rolled out, so neither of these two methods will (as of yet) give you a search results page where AI takes full priority.

That brings us to the third method. If you want a glimpse at what the full AI experience will eventually look like, you can simply search for the keyword “Bing generative search.”

At the top of search results, you should see some sample queries you can click on to get a look at what the generative search response for each of them is. This approach will sideline all traditional search rankings and focus exclusively on providing a list of AI responses.

How does Bing AI search impact SEO?

Needless to say, these Microsoft AI search features have a significant impact on SEO. But what is that impact?

First and foremost, it might become harder for your business to get content ranking in Bing. As AI responses take precedence, fewer people may bother clicking on links to other websites. That naturally poses quite a big challenge.

Of course, it’s worth pointing out that this is only true of Bing. The majority of people use Google, which hasn’t (yet) let AI take over search results as thoroughly as Bing. So, it’s not like this wrecks SEO across the whole Internet. But it definitely makes things more challenging in Bing, specifically.

That said, there’s still a way to take advantage of generative search. Namely, you can optimize your content to show up in AI responses. After all, those responses typically still provide links to their sources, so if your site is one of those sources, people will be more likely to see it and visit it.

How to optimize your content for the Microsoft AI search feature

To optimize your website content for Bing generative search, there are a few tips you’ll want to follow. Those tips include:

1. Factor in search intent
2. Optimize for featured snippets
3. Optimize for voice search

Read on to learn more about each one.

1. Factor in search intent

You probably already know about the importance of search intent to SEO. If not, search intent refers to the reason users search for a particular keyword. You want to make sure that your content addresses search intent so that users will actually click on it and benefit from it.

And search intent isn’t limited to traditional SEO. It’s equally important when you’re optimizing for generative search — maybe even more so. AI is more effective than standard search algorithms at judging whether a piece of content matches the search intent for a given term, so it’s extra important to optimize for it.

2. Optimize for featured snippets

Another way to help your content show up in AI responses is to optimize for featured snippets. If you’re not familiar, featured snippets are where Bing (or Google) provides a direct answer to a query at the top of the page, usually in the form of a paragraph pulled from a specific page (which is also linked to).

As it happens, the tactics needed to optimize for featured snippets can also help you appear in AI results. What are those tactics? The main one is that when you target a search query that takes the form of a question, you should directly address that question on the page with a dedicated header. You should then answer the question with a short paragraph beneath that header.

3. Optimize for voice search

Finally, you should optimize your content for voice search. Just like with featured snippets, this is a type of optimization you might do anyway, but it’s also helpful for getting into AI search responses.

That’s because when people conduct voice searches, they tend to ask full-sentence questions rather than short phrases. The same pattern happens when people use AI tools, since those tools are inherently more conversational than traditional search.

That means that by optimizing for question-based keywords and building content that answers those questions, you’ll have a better shot of showing up in the Bing generative search experience.

Optimize your website for Bing AI search with WebFX

Optimizing for Google is hard enough. When you add Bing into the equation, it gets even harder. And now with AI tools being factored in as well, SEO can become quite a vast and complex strategy to manage. That’s why a lot of businesses simply partner with a professional SEO agency like WebFX.

With our SEO services, you’ll be able to create content that shows up in traditional search results and AI responses alike. And though we’ll handle all the work for you, you’ll still have full control over your campaigns.

Interested in partnering with us? Just give us a call at 888-601-5359 or contact us online today!