Bing Webmaster Tools Adds Topics Portfolio to AI Performance Report
Microsoft has launched a beta feature called Topics Portfolio inside the AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools. It groups the queries where a site is cited in AI answers into broader topics, and lists queries within those topics where other sites appear but the site in question does not.
Bing calls these grounding queries: the search terms its AI uses to find and cite content in answers across Copilot, Bing's AI summary and select partner integrations. The feature sits in a new tab to the right of Citations & Pages. Each topic row carries three metrics: Topic Size, an estimate of total citations across all sites for that topic in the chosen window; Sites Cited, the approximate number of sites appearing for queries in the topic; and Queries, the approximate number of distinct grounding queries it contains.
Below the topic table, a Top Opportunity Queries list pulls together queries where other sites are cited and yours is not, with citation volumes given as ranges. Clicking a topic opens a detail page showing its size, your citations and its query count, plus two tables: queries where your site already appears, and opportunity queries. Data can be viewed over one, two or three months.
The feature will only appear if Bing has enough data on a site, so smaller websites may see fewer topics or none at all. Topics are generated by AI, meaning a query can land under a different label than expected, and branded searches can surface as opportunities. Microsoft describes the numbers as directional signals for planning rather than a precise ledger, and says feedback from the thumbs up and thumbs down controls shapes what its classification team fixes first. No date has been given for the beta to end.
Reported by Search Engine Journal ↗
Topics: Copilot, Citations, Measurement