Quick answer: Bing’s Topics Portfolio groups the grounding queries connected to your site into themes for AI search planning. Use it to identify relevant gaps, inspect the pages already earning citations, and choose a small editorial experiment. Treat its approximate measures as directional context, then assess actual visits and qualified leads separately.
A list of keywords does not always reveal where a publication has useful depth. A site may cover one subject through tutorials, examples and troubleshooting pages while mentioning another only in passing. Bing’s new portfolio view offers another way to inspect that pattern. The useful outcome is a better content decision, rather than a larger list of articles to commission.
Information checked on 21 October 2026. Planning examples in this article are hypothetical.
What is Bing Topics Portfolio?
Bing introduced Topics Portfolio as a beta feature inside AI Performance on 13 October 2026. It groups related grounding queries into thematic clusters. Its view includes approximate topic size, sites cited and query counts, alongside opportunity queries. Availability depends on sufficient data. Bing explains the feature and its limitations in the official launch post.
The broader AI Performance report provides context about citations across supported Microsoft AI experiences. Keep that platform scope visible in your notes. These observations should not be presented as a universal report of every AI assistant or every search engine.
Understand the measures before prioritizing a topic
Topic size describes approximate citation activity across sites within a theme. It is not your traffic. Sites cited indicates how many sites are represented, while query counts describe grounding-query coverage. Opportunity figures are shown as ranges. Classification can be imperfect, and a topic may be absent when the data is insufficient.
Those definitions change how you interpret an apparent opportunity. A large theme can be broad, competitive and poorly matched to your audience. A smaller theme may connect closely to a service you deliver. Do not turn a platform measure into a promise of revenue or label it as conventional keyword search volume.
| Observation | Editorial question | Useful next step |
|---|---|---|
| Your pages already appear | What question do those pages answer well? | Review their accuracy and supporting resources |
| A relevant gap appears | Can we add distinct evidence or practical detail? | Inspect an existing page before creating another |
| A competitor brand appears | Would our audience need this information? | Reject irrelevant brand targeting |
| A topic is missing | Is there enough observable data? | Check access and coverage without assuming a penalty |
Start with the audience and business you actually serve
Write down the readers you want to help and the decisions you can support. A WordPress agency might focus on choosing a development partner, maintaining a site and improving conversion forms. A broad opportunity about enterprise data centres could have more activity but offer little useful connection to that agency’s experience.
Give each opportunity an audience explanation in plain language. “A store owner comparing migration options” is actionable. “High GEO potential” is not enough to brief a writer. Revisit your keyword research process to connect the observed question to demand, intent and the existing structure of your website.
Inspect the pages that already earn citations
Open a cited page and identify the part that solves the reader’s problem. It may contain a concise definition, an original comparison or a clear explanation of a difficult condition. Record what is actually there. Avoid assuming that a particular heading length or writing style caused the citation.
Check the fundamentals before expanding the subject. Are the examples current? Can readers find the source for an important claim? Does the page describe limitations? Are related resources linked where they help complete the task? Protecting the quality of an existing useful page can be more valuable than producing several new pages with the same introduction.
Turn an opportunity query into a focused brief
A strong brief names the reader, the question, the decision to support, the required evidence and the boundaries of the article. Suppose a hypothetical hosting publisher sees an opportunity around moving an ecommerce site without losing orders. A useful brief would cover order synchronization, testing, payment callbacks and rollback conditions. A generic list of migration benefits would not answer that operational concern.
Search your own site for overlap before assigning a new URL. If an existing guide already owns the reader task, add the missing section there. If the new question has a different audience or workflow, a separate article may be justified. Explain how the pages will link to each other so readers understand which one to use.
For outlining and editing, our SEO content writing guide provides a broader publishing process. Keep the brief specific enough that a writer can identify which facts need primary sources and which sections should contain original analysis or an illustrative example.
Use a small evidence checklist before commissioning work
Ask whether your team can explain the process accurately, obtain current documentation, and add something a reader can act on. If an article needs hands-on testing that has not happened, schedule the test or use a documented explanatory format. Do not publish a first-person review based only on a vendor’s promotional page.
Next, check whether the topic belongs on your site. A marketing publication can reasonably explain analytics tools, campaign planning and technical website decisions. An unrelated commercial subject chosen only for apparent reach can weaken the reader’s understanding of your publication. Fit is an editorial judgement that a dashboard cannot make for you.
Work through one illustrative opportunity
Imagine a publisher already has a broad WordPress hosting guide and a separate performance checklist. The portfolio suggests interest in slow checkout interactions. The editor inspects both resources and finds that neither explains how to distinguish server waiting time from a browser interface that has stopped responding.
The editor commissions a focused diagnostic article with a reproducible test sequence, clear definitions and screenshots captured during the actual work. The broad hosting guide links to the diagnosis where it discusses performance. The new article links back when readers need to assess infrastructure. The plan creates a useful connection without promising that Bing will cite the result.
Record the commissioning reason, final URL and publication date. If visibility later changes, that record explains what was done. Keep a note of other changes made during the same period. A new navigation menu, a merged article or a promotional campaign could also affect how readers and systems encounter the content.
Measure the result with several independent observations
Return to the same reporting period and topic context where possible. Look for whether the intended page appears and whether related questions become visible. Keep the approximate platform measures in their original form. Do not replace a citation range with its midpoint and present that number as an observed count.
In analytics, review visits to the page and the next action readers take. For a service business, examine whether enquiries concern the problem the article was written to solve. A small number of relevant enquiries can be useful even when the page does not attract a large audience. Describe the actual outcome rather than choosing whichever metric improved.
Handle missing data and weak classifications sensibly
Also maintain a short rejection log. If the team declines a query because it concerns an unsupported market, an unrelated brand or a topic that requires unavailable expertise, record that reason. The same suggestion may return during the next review. A rejection note prevents repeated research and helps new editors understand the publication’s boundaries. Revisit the decision only when the underlying business or evidence changes, rather than treating every renewed dashboard appearance as a new instruction.
A small site may not see the portfolio feature or may see only a short topic list. Continue maintaining crawl access, coherent internal links and accurate content. Use other research inputs, including customer questions and support requests. An absent dashboard entry is not enough evidence to conclude that the site has no expertise.
When a classification looks wrong, inspect the underlying question and use the available feedback controls. Keep a local note explaining why the theme does not fit. That helps editors avoid acting on a misleading category while the beta evolves. Do not restructure a whole publication merely to make its section names resemble a platform-generated taxonomy.
Keep discovery work connected to a maintainable site
Good editorial opportunities still depend on reliable pages. Confirm that the selected URL loads, is linked from relevant content and has an appropriate canonical address. Preserve meaningful update dates and remove stale instructions. Our technical SEO checklist covers access issues that should be resolved before evaluating more elaborate content tactics.
Limit each review cycle to work the team can complete and maintain. One substantial addition with verified examples may teach you more than ten loosely related posts. Use the next review to assess whether the content helped its intended reader, then decide whether the subject deserves deeper coverage.
Common questions about Bing Topics Portfolio
Is topic size the same as monthly keyword search volume?
No. It describes a different kind of activity within the report. Keep citation measures separate from keyword volume estimates and website sessions.
Should I publish for every opportunity query?
No. Check relevance, overlap, evidence and your ability to maintain the answer. Some queries will be inappropriate for your publication or already covered adequately.
Does a citation prove that a user clicked through?
No. Use analytics to investigate recorded visits. Citation visibility and traffic can inform the same review without being treated as identical events.
What should a small site do if the feature is unavailable?
Keep improving useful content and technical access. Build briefs from genuine customer questions and review the dashboard again when more observable data becomes available.
Join the discussion