Microsoft announced Topics Portfolio on October 13, a beta feature in Bing Webmaster Tools that groups a website's presence in AI answers into subject areas. The new tab within the AI Performance report shows the topics in which a site is cited, the scale of activity within each topic, and queries for which other websites appear. The feature is displayed when there is sufficient data about the site's presence and ecosystem activity.
The update extends analysis beyond an individual query or page. According to Microsoft, topic groups and opportunities are generated from the website's actual activity in AI search. The portfolio is therefore specific to the property being analyzed, rather than reproducing the same general list of subjects for every administrator. Its intended audience includes publishers, content teams, and people responsible for website visibility.
Three indicators describe activity within each topic
Topics Portfolio brings the phrases used to ground AI answers into broader thematic groups. These phrases, known as grounding queries, are used by the system to find the web information supporting a generated answer. A topic can contain several such queries, while the portfolio shows subject areas in which the website already has a meaningful presence.
For each topic, Topic Size represents the approximate number of citations across all websites in that group during the selected period. Sites Cited shows the approximate number of sites appearing for the relevant queries. Queries indicates the approximate number of distinct queries. The first indicator describes the scale of citation activity, the second the number of participating websites, and the third the diversity of queries within the topic.
These values refer to the ecosystem surrounding the subject being analyzed, rather than exclusively to the managed website's results. Opening a topic displays its size, the site's own citations, and the query count separately. Distinguishing overall activity from the property's own participation allows the same topics to be read at two levels: the broader context and the site's specific presence.
Existing queries and opportunities appear separately
A topic's detail page contains two tables. Your Grounding Queries includes the main queries for which the website already appears, consistent with information in Citations & Pages. Opportunity Queries contains queries within the same subject for which other sites appear while the analyzed property is not cited. Citation volumes in this second list are presented as ranges.
The overall portfolio also includes Top Opportunity Queries, a selection of opportunities spanning several topics. This provides a cross-topic view without requiring each subject to be opened separately. Microsoft states that the selection comes from real AI grounding activity. The highlighted queries relate to the site's portfolio, and their values are also expressed as citation ranges.
Queries containing other brands' names can appear in these lists. Their presence shows how the system grouped activity within a topic; it does not automatically make every phrase a suitable commercial subject for the company reading the report. Microsoft's announcement explicitly identifies this behavior in the beta version and distinguishes it from simply listing queries already associated with the website.
The beta uses AI classification and estimates
Topics are classified using AI, and ecosystem indicators are approximations. Microsoft presents these data as planning signals. Topics with insufficient site presence or overall activity are not displayed. Consequently, a website can have a short list, while the tab does not appear for some properties. The announcement does not establish a public numerical threshold for its activation.
The interface includes feedback for each topic and suggested query through positive or negative ratings. These signals reach the team developing classification and opportunity selection. The report allows a one-, two-, or three-month window to be selected. The feature described in October carries a beta label, keeping observed data, ecosystem estimates, and administrator feedback distinct.
In the original report, grounding query data represents a sample of citation activity. URL-level indicators show how often each page is referenced during the selected period. Microsoft describes these values as citation frequencies, without equating them with a page's importance or its role within an individual answer.
Topics Portfolio extends a report introduced in February
AI Performance was introduced in public preview on February 10 for citations in Microsoft Copilot, AI-generated summaries in Bing, and selected partner integrations. The report includes total citations, cited pages, and changes over time. Total Citations counts references displayed in answers, while Average Cited Pages shows the daily average of distinct cited pages. These measurements describe how content participates in AI answers.
In June, Microsoft announced Intents, Topics, Citation Share, and Compare in preview. Thematic classification therefore existed before Topics Portfolio was launched. The October package adds the personalized portfolio, ecosystem indicators, and opportunity selections now described. For AI and LLM optimization, this information concerns observing cited pages and subjects, separately from counting visits to a website.
Citation Share, introduced earlier, expresses a site's proportion of all citations for the same query. Microsoft defines it as an observational indicator, without equating it with search position, traffic share, or a quality score. Compare allows periods under analysis to be overlaid. Topics Portfolio complements this framework with distribution across subjects and query lists, keeping each measurement within its own scope.
The original documentation also states that Bing respects owner preferences expressed through robots.txt and other supported controls. For information freshness, Microsoft describes IndexNow as the system through which participating engines are notified when pages are added, changed, or removed. These mechanisms concern content discovery and control; Topics Portfolio adds a reporting perspective on citations already observed.
