Bing Webmaster Tools Adds Topics Portfolio to AI Performance Report
Microsoft has rolled out a new beta report inside the AI Performance section of Bing Webmaster Tools called Topics Portfolio. The feature, announced on the Bing blog on October 13, 2026, and reported the same day by Search Engine Land's Barry Schwartz, groups the grounding queries where a site shows up in AI search results into broader subject clusters. The change affects publishers and SEOs who track how their content performs in AI generated answers on Bing, a category where click data has historically been unavailable.
Topics Portfolio sits alongside the existing Citations & Pages view inside AI Performance, which Microsoft opened to public preview on February 11, 2026. Rather than listing individual grounding queries, the new report organizes them into topical clusters. Microsoft uses football, taxes and AI chatbots as sample categories. The goal, according to Microsoft, is to let site owners see the breadth of subjects where they have traction, how much demand exists in each, and how competitive each space is.
The report is built from grounding queries, which Microsoft defines as the queries underpinning AI generated answers where a given site is mentioned, cited or included. Each topic in the portfolio view carries three metrics: Topic Size, an approximate count of total citations across all sites for that topic in the selected window; Sites Cited, an approximate number of sites appearing for queries within the topic; and Queries, the approximate count of distinct grounding queries in that cluster. Microsoft says the combination of these numbers can flag room for growth, since a large topic with few cited sites may be easier to break into than one that is equally large but saturated.
Below the main table sits a Top Opportunity Queries section, which surfaces queries where competing sites appear but the user's site does not. Microsoft reports these citation volumes as ranges rather than precise figures, a deliberate design choice. Clicking into a topic opens a detail page with three summary cards covering Topic Size, the site's own internal citations, and query count, split into two tables: one for queries where the site already appears, matching existing Citations & Pages data, and one for opportunity queries where it does not.
Site owners can filter the view by a one, two or three month window. Microsoft's guidance is to start with topics where citations are already concentrated before moving on to opportunity queries. The company frames the primary use cases as content strategy, editorial planning and competitive positioning for publishers trying to understand their AI search footprint.
Microsoft has been upfront about the beta's limitations. Topic classification is AI generated and can misfile a query. Topics with limited site presence or ecosystem activity are hidden entirely, meaning smaller sites may see a short list or nothing at all. Branded queries can surface as opportunities, so a retailer might see a competitor's brand name listed as something to chase. And the core metrics, Topic Size, Sites Cited and Queries, are all approximate, with opportunity citation volumes shown only as ranges.
Schwartz's reporting notes that despite these caveats, the report still has value simply because AI search traffic data is otherwise invisible to publishers. The feature includes thumbs up and thumbs down controls on every topic row and opportunity query, which Microsoft says feed directly into the team refining the classification and opportunity selection logic, alongside existing Bing Webmaster Tools feedback channels.
Impact
The report gives publishers and SEOs a thematic view of AI search presence that did not previously exist in Bing Webmaster Tools, filling a gap left by the lack of click data from AI generated answers. Because the feature is gated by data volume, smaller sites may not see it at all, which could widen the visibility gap between high traffic and low traffic publishers. The approximate nature of the metrics and the AI generated classification mean the numbers are directional rather than precise, so teams should treat them as planning inputs rather than hard benchmarks.
What to watch
Site owners should check whether Topics Portfolio has appeared under their AI Performance tab and, if not, monitor for when enough data accumulates. Teams should watch how opportunity queries evolve over different time windows, filter out branded noise before acting on competitive gaps, and use the thumbs feedback controls regularly since Microsoft says those signals shape how the classification develops during the beta period.
Whether you rely on an seo backlinks builder bing tools can complement, the new Topics Portfolio helps you see which subjects drive visibility in AI-generated answers.
Many site owners still wonder how to get backlinks bing values most, and the new Topics Portfolio helps show which subjects earn visibility in AI-generated answers.
Site owners tracking how their content appears in AI-generated answers may also compare visibility gains against results from any auto backlink tool they use to build links.
Source: ALM Corp
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