Microsoft introduced “Topics Portfolio”, a beta feature in Bing Webmaster Tools that groups AI search visibility by topic and highlights related queries where other websites appear but yours does not.
Microsoft announced the feature on October 13, 2026 as an addition to the AI Performance report. It gives publishers and SEO teams a broader view of the subjects associated with their website’s citation activity.
What Is the Bing Topics Portfolio?
Topics Portfolio is a beta analytics view within Bing Webmaster Tools. It clusters related grounding queries into broader subjects, showing where your website receives citations and where related opportunities exist.
Instead of reviewing isolated queries, you can explore citation activity across a subject and then examine the questions within it.
Grounding queries are phrases AI uses to retrieve supporting content. As Microsoft explains in its AI Performance launch announcement, they sample citation activity rather than a complete record of users’ original prompts.
The underlying report covers Microsoft Copilot, Bing’s AI summaries, and selected partner integrations.
Core Features You Need to Know
The report combines your existing citation activity with broader topic context:
• Opportunity Queries: Queries where other websites appear but yours does not. Citation volumes are displayed as ranges.
• Topic Size: Approximate citations across all websites within a topic during the selected period. This is not keyword search volume.
• Sites Cited: Approximately how many websites appear for queries within that topic.
• Queries: The approximate number of distinct grounding queries within a topic, rather than how frequently people search.
• Your Grounding Queries: Queries where your website already appears, helping you review existing coverage.
The overview also includes Top Opportunity Queries across your portfolio. You can open an individual topic to investigate its existing citations and opportunities more closely.
What Has Changed Since Bing’s June Update?
Topics are not entirely new to Bing’s AI reporting.
Microsoft’s June update introduced Topics, Intents, Citation Share, and Compare. These features help publishers understand citation context and spot changes between reporting periods.
Topics Portfolio adds a broader view: estimates across the topic’s citation ecosystem and related queries where your website is absent.
This helps content teams move from reviewing existing visibility to investigating what they may be missing.
Strategic Benefits for Your Website
1. Find Content Gaps Worth Investigating
Opportunity Queries can point to questions your website may not fully answer. Before adding an article to your calendar, check whether an existing page already addresses the subject. A clearer explanation, an updated comparison, or missing service information may be more useful than another page.
2. Understand Where Your Content Already Contributes
Your Grounding Queries can help identify subjects associated with your existing citations.
Review those pages to find information worth keeping or expanding. Look for what makes them useful: specific explanations, first-hand examples, current details or evidence readers can verify.
3. Make More Focused Content Decisions
Topic-level reporting gives your team context for choosing what to investigate next.
However, a large Topic Size or a small number of cited websites doesn't guarantee an easy win. Customer relevance, your expertise, and the quality of your existing coverage should guide the decision.
What This Means for Your Website
If you have been investigating why your business is missing from AI answers, Topics Portfolio adds another source of information. It can point to related questions worth reviewing, though it cannot explain every reason your website wasn't selected.
The next step is to look at your own pages. Do they answer the question clearly? Are important details missing? Could a reader verify the claims?
Sometimes the answer will be a new article. In other cases, improving an existing page will make more sense.
Simple Steps to Get Started
• Access the report: Sign in to Bing Webmaster Tools, select your verified website and open AI Performance. Look for Topics Portfolio beside Citations & Pages.
• Choose a reporting window: Select a one-, two- or three-month period and keep the dates consistent while reviewing opportunities.
• Start with a relevant topic: Focus on subjects connected to your services and customers, preferably where your website already has citation activity.
• Review Opportunity Queries: Shortlist queries you can answer credibly. Set aside irrelevant suggestions and competitor-branded searches that do not help your audience.
• Check existing content: Identify whether a page already serves the question before commissioning another article.
• Make a specific improvement: Add a missing explanation, current details, a useful comparison or evidence you can substantiate.
• Record and review the change: Note the URL, update date and reason for the edit. Review citation activity over comparable periods, with visits and enquiries measured separately.
What to Keep in Mind During the Beta?
Microsoft’s Topics Portfolio announcement identifies several limitations:
• AI-generated topic labels may occasionally place queries in unsuitable categories.
• Topics with insufficient website presence or ecosystem activity are excluded.
• Some opportunities may involve a competitor’s brand.
• Metrics are approximate, and opportunity citation volumes appear as ranges.
Smaller websites may have fewer topics or may not appear in the feature at all. A missing tab does not prove that a website never appears in AI answers.
If your site is not included in Topics Portfolio, consider focusing on other insights available through Bing Webmaster Tools, such as the Performance or Index reports. These can help you understand your site's broader visibility in Bing search and highlight areas for improvement until broader AI reporting becomes available.
Users can flag unsuitable topics and suggestions through the report’s thumbs-up and thumbs-down controls.
Turn Citation Gaps into Your Next Content Priority
Start with one relevant topic and one page you can meaningfully improve. This keeps the work manageable and gives you a clear record of what changed.
More citations do not necessarily mean more traffic or leads. Measure those outcomes separately, and don't assume every change in citation activity resulted from your update.
Bing’s new Topics Portfolio can help you spot opportunities, but making the most of those insights still needs experienced people who understand your website, customers, and business goals.
Our basic AI visibility audit helps you see where your brand appears and where it is missing. For a closer look, our in-depth GEO optimization reviews your content and technical setup, with recommendations on what to improve next.
Let’s turn those insights into a clear plan for your website.