Generate answers from public data using Bing search

Article
04/11/2024

[This topic is pre-release documentation and is subject to change.]

You can generate answers from publicly available data by utilizing Bing search. Configuring Bing search enables the generation of answers from external sources beyond the Power Pages site built on the Dataverse instance.

To use the Bing search

Open Power Pages
Select site + Edit.
Navigate to the Set up workspace, then select Add copilot (preview) under Integrations
Click on View copilot analytics
Select Topics & Plugins
Select the System topics tab.
Choose the Conversational boosting topic.
Navigate to Create generative answers node.
Select Edit under Data sources.
Enter URL under Public websites input box
Click Save
Navigate to the Publish left navigation link.
Select Publish. Verify whether your public site is indexed by conducting a search for any content using Bing search. If you do not receive any results from your site, it may not be indexed. You have the option to either wait for indexing or prompt Bing Webmaster to index your site immediately.

Force Bing webmaster to index your site (Optional)

When you add a site to Copilot, Bing may not start indexing your site immediately. It may take from several hours to a day. If you prefer not to wait for Bing to index your site, you can use Bing Webmaster Tools to expedite the indexing process and have your site's content indexed immediately.

Add your site to your Bing Webmaster Tools account

Open Webmaster Tools.
Create a Bing Webmaster Tools account if you don't have one yet.
Add to your site to your account.
- If your site is already verified on Google Search Console, you can import it to Bing Webmaster Tools.
- If your site isn't verified on Google Search Console, you can add your site manually.

Verify your ownership

Next, verify that you're the owner of the site. Use either of the following methods, which are also described in the Bing Webmaster Tools help.

XML file authentication

With this method, you upload an XML file to your site's root folder. In Power Pages, it's as simple as adding the file to a note on the site's home page.

On the Add & verify site page in Webmaster Tools, select XML File.
Select BingSiteAuth.xml to download the file to your local drive.
In the Power Pages design studio, select More items (⋮) > Portal Management.
In the sitemap under Content, select Web Files.
Select + New.
In Name, enter: BingSiteAuth.xml
In Website, search for and select your site.
In Parent Page, search for and select your site's home page.
In Partial Url, enter: BingSiteAuth.xml
In Publishing State, search for and select Published.
Select Save.
Select the Notes tab.
Upload the BingSiteAuth.xml file.
Select Save & Close.

Meta tag authentication

With this method, you add a metadata tag to your site's header HTML. In Power Pages, it's as simple as adding a content snippet.

On the Add & verify site page in Webmaster Tools, select HTML Meta Tag.
Select Copy.
In the Power Pages design studio, select More items (⋮) > Portal Management.
In the sitemap under Content, select Content Snippets.
Select + New.
In Name, enter: Head/Bottom
In Website, search for and select your site.
In Display Name, enter: Head/Bottom
Leave Type set to Text.
In Content Snippet Language, search for and select English.
In the Value box, paste the metadata you copied in step 2.
Select Save & Close.

Add a Robots.txt file

Add a file to your site to tell Bing, Google, and other search engines, or robots, how much of its content to index. The Robots.txt file in this example allows search engines to index the entire site, but you can control what pages they're allowed to index. Use Bing Webmaster Tools to easily edit and test your Robots.txt file.

On your local drive, create a text file and name it Robots.txt.
Enter the following content in the file:
```
User-agent: *
Disallow:
```
Save and close the file.
In the Power Pages design studio, select More items (⋮) > Portal Management.
In the sitemap under Content, select Web Files.
Select + New.
In Name, enter: Robots.txt
In Website, search for and select your site.
In Parent Page, search for and select your site's home page.
In Partial Url, enter: Robots.txt
In Publishing State, search for and select Published.
Select Save.
Select the Notes tab.
Upload the Robots.txt file.
Select Save & Close.

Add a meta description to pages to index

The meta description tells search engines what text to display along with the page title. It's an important part of making your site easy to find, so you should put some thought into the description of each page you plan to index. Enter the key phrase "meta description" in your favorite search engine to find guidance for creating effective meta descriptions.

In the Power Pages design studio, select More items (⋮) > Portal Management.
In the sitemap under Content, select Web Pages.
Open a page that you want to force Bing to index.
Enter or update the Description on both the Information form and the Content Page form.
Select Save & Close.
Repeat for all pages to be indexed.

Run an SEO scan and fix issues

It's a good idea to scan for common issues with search engine optimization (SEO) that make your site harder to find.

Open Webmaster Tools Site Scan.
Select Start new scan.
Follow the instructions to analyze your site and view the report.
Fix as many of the issues the scan discovered as you reasonably can.

Submit URLs

As the final step, index individual page URLs directly. It's a good idea to submit the URLs of any important new pages or pages with new content to get them indexed faster. You can submit up to 100 URLs per day.

Open Webmaster Tools URL Submission.
Select Submit URLs.
Enter the URLs to index, one per line.
Select Submit.

To verify the indexing status, select URL Inspection in the left side panel. Enter a URL, and then select Inspect.

Indexing should complete within a few minutes, but it may take up to an hour to see the results.