Microsoft reveals new Bing Webmaster Tools features including a Copilot private preview

Microsoft announced a number of new features this week that are coming to website admins who use its Bing Webmaster Tools. That includes the addition of Copilot generative AI features.

In one blog post, Microsoft revealed that Copilot is currently available as a private preview, via invites only at this point, for a select number of Bing Webmaster Tools users. Microsoft stated:

With features like Real-Time Question/Answer Chat and Deep Data Insights, this new AI tool is set to transform the way webmasters manage their SEO efforts with Bing Webmaster Tools. It also provides a gateway to Microsoft’s ecosystem of services like Microsoft Advertising and Microsoft Clarity to best assist them in optimizing their overall business objectives.

There's no word yet when Microsoft will launch a public preview for Copilot for Bing Webmaster tools, nor when it will become generally available.

In another blog post, Microsoft announced it is making some changes to the Insights feature in Bing Webmaster Tools, including a name change to Recommendations. Microsoft says that this rebranded feature will also offer deeper performance data, using real-time updates and detailed SEO recommendations, compared to the older Insights feature.

Microsoft says the revamped Recommendations feature will give webmasters specific action items they can do to help their site gain new readers and increase their performance.

Finally, Microsoft announced in another blog post that Bing Webmaster Tools will increase the amount of data history for webmasters from six months to 16 months. That will allow those users to go much deeper to find longer-term website traffic trends, along with how different seasons, including the upcoming holiday shopping season, have on traffic.

The new 16-month traffic filter options are available now, but crawling and indexing history for your site will be available once that information is collected by the tools.