Microsoft has introduced AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools, a reporting dashboard that provides publishers with visibility into how their content appears across Microsoft Copilot, AI-generated summaries in Bing, and selected partner integrations. The feature is currently released as a public preview.
Rather than functioning as a diagnostic system, the dashboard provides analytics and reporting insights that show when and where a site’s content is cited as a source within generative answers. The release represents an early step toward Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) capabilities inside Bing Webmaster Tools, reflecting a shift from monitoring blue-link rankings to understanding how often content is referenced in AI-generated responses.
Microsoft also notes that AI experiences respect existing publisher controls such as robots.txt directives and other indexing controls, ensuring that website owners retain the same mechanisms used to manage search visibility.
A snapshot of AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools
AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools: The Metrics
The dashboard aggregates citation activity across supported AI experiences and presents several metrics designed to help publishers understand citation patterns.
Total Citations
The total number of times a site appears as a cited source within AI-generated answers. This metric reflects citation frequency only and does not indicate placement, prominence, or ranking within a response.
Average Cited Pages
The average number of unique pages from a site cited per day. This metric reflects overall citation patterns across a domain rather than the authority or importance of any individual page.
Grounding Queries
Representative phrases used by AI systems when retrieving content that is later cited in answers. These queries provide a sample of the types of prompts associated with a site’s citations.
Page-level Citation Activity
Citation counts for individual URLs. These counts indicate how frequently a page is referenced as a source but do not imply ranking position or preferential weighting within an answer.
Visibility Trends
A time-based view showing how citation activity changes across supported AI experiences. This allows publishers to observe shifts in citation frequency as content evolves.
Together, these metrics provide a transparency layer that helps publishers validate which pages are currently being used as sources in generative responses.
Operationalizing Insights for Content Optimization
By identifying cited pages and associated grounding queries, publishers can observe how their content is actually being referenced in AI systems and adjust content structure accordingly.
Strengthening Expertise and Structure
Pages that appear frequently for specific grounding queries often signal topical alignment. Expanding depth in these areas can reinforce subject coverage. Clear structural formatting also improves the likelihood that AI systems can accurately reference content.
Recommended structural practices include:
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descriptive headings
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tables and structured lists
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clearly segmented sections
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FAQ-style explanations where appropriate
These structures help AI systems interpret and extract information with greater precision.
Supporting Claims and Reducing Ambiguity
AI-generated answers often summarize source material. To ensure claims remain accurate when reused in these contexts, publishers should support statements with verifiable information such as:
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cited sources
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original data points
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examples or case evidence
Microsoft also emphasizes maintaining consistency across text, images, and video. When all formats reference the same entities, products, or concepts, ambiguity is reduced and attribution becomes clearer.
Freshness and Local Information
Up-to-date information increases the likelihood that AI systems reference the most current version of a page.
The IndexNow protocol helps search engines discover changes more quickly by notifying participating systems whenever content is added, updated, or removed. Faster discovery improves the chances that updated information is reflected in AI-generated responses.
For location-based businesses, maintaining accurate local data is particularly important. Registering with Bing Places for Business ensures that details such as address, hours, and contact information remain current and eligible for inclusion in AI-generated answers.
Early Transparency Into AI Citation Behavior
AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools introduces a reporting layer for understanding how publisher content is used in generative systems. While the feature currently focuses on visibility reporting rather than optimization diagnostics, it provides one of the first standardized ways for publishers to observe citation behavior across AI experiences.
Microsoft has stated that the feature will continue evolving and that improvements will be informed by feedback from the webmaster community as the public preview develops.
Leela Adwani
AI Visibility Researcher and Editor