Is your website telling Bing not to read it?
A 2-minute check any business owner can do. No tools, no logins.
Why this matters
Every website has a small public file called robots.txt that tells search engines which pages they may read. Bing reads it too, and Bing's results are what Microsoft Copilot uses for its web answers.
Some website platforms still ship an old rule aimed at msnbot, Microsoft's crawler name from before 2010. Bing's own webmaster team explains that Bingbot follows the msnbot rules when there is no Bingbot rule, so blocking msnbot blocks Bingbot too. They give User-agent: msnbot followed by Disallow: / as the most common example.
While checking Australian car dealer websites in November 2026, we found that exact rule on 29 of the 98 sites we looked at, all built on the same platform.
The 2-minute check
- In your browser, go to
https://yourwebsite.com.au/robots.txt(use your own address). - Look for a line that says
User-agent: msnbotorUser-agent: bingbot. It may sit in a list with other names. - Check the first
Disallowline under that group. If it isDisallow: /(just a slash), that group is blocked from the whole site.
What the problem looks like
User-agent: msnbot Disallow: /
If you don't see msnbot or bingbot at all, this issue doesn't apply to you.
What to ask your web provider
Send them this, word for word if you like:
“Please remove msnbot from the blocked group in our robots.txt, or add a separate User-agent: bingbot group that allows the site, keeping any existing private-page rules such as enquiry forms. Bing treats the msnbot rule as applying to Bingbot.”
Once it's changed, add your site to Bing Webmaster Tools (free) and submit your sitemap so Bing re-reads your pages sooner.
Questions
Does this mean my site is not on Bing?
Not necessarily, and we won't claim it is. It means the file, as written, tells Bing's crawler not to fetch any page. Search engines can still list a blocked address they hear about elsewhere, usually without a proper description. The reliable check is Bing Webmaster Tools, after the file is fixed.
Does it affect Google?
Not if only msnbot or bingbot is blocked. Googlebot reads its own group, or the User-agent: * group if there is no Google group.
Why does Microsoft Copilot matter?
Copilot's web answers are grounded in Bing search results. If Bing cannot read your pages, it has less of your own wording to work from when someone asks for a local business like yours.
Will fixing it get me more customers?
It removes a barrier; it does not guarantee rankings, traffic or AI mentions, and nobody honest can promise those.
Want us to check this and two other things on your site? A free Quick Look takes us one business day and you get three specific findings, in writing. No call, no obligation.
Get a free Quick LookWritten by the Pitch & Panel Team. We name no platform here; the rule is easy to check yourself. Source for how Bing reads robots.txt: Bing Webmaster Blog (2012) linked above.