TL;DR Summary:
Bing AI Breakthrough: Microsoft launches dashboard tracking when site content appears in AI answers like Copilot and Bing summaries.Key Citation Metrics: Reveals total citations, average pages, grounding queries, page-level activity, and visibility trends for verified owners.Publisher Power Tool: Helps spot top-cited pages, content gaps, and trends despite lacking click data for optimization.Microsoft Shows Publishers Which Pages Get Cited in AI Answers
Microsoft made a big announcement for website owners. The Bing AI Performance dashboard now shows when your content appears in AI-generated answers. This is the first time a major search platform offers dedicated AI appearance tracking.
The dashboard went live on February 10 as a public preview. Any verified site owner can access it through Bing Webmaster Tools. Publishers have wanted this information since AI search became popular.
The report tracks citation visibility only. It does not measure clicks or traffic from AI answers. Instead, it answers one key question: Is my content being referenced by AI systems?
What the Bing AI Performance Dashboard Tracks
The new tool shows five main metrics about AI citations:
Total citations count how many times your site appears as a source in AI answers during a selected timeframe.
Average cited pages show the daily average of unique URLs from your site that AI systems reference.
Grounding queries reveal sample phrases the AI used when finding your content. These are not what users searched for. They are the queries the AI system used to pull your content.
Page-level citation activity breaks down citation counts by specific URL. You see which pages get referenced most often.
Visibility trends over time show how citation activity changes across AI experiences.
The report covers Microsoft Copilot, AI summaries in Bing, and select partner platforms.
AI Citations Come Without Click Data
The Bing AI Performance dashboard does not include click-through information. You see that your content gets cited, but you cannot see how many users clicked through to your site.
Publishers still cannot tell if AI visibility delivers real business value. Citation frequency also does not show ranking or prominence. A page could be cited once briefly or serve as the primary source. The data does not distinguish between these scenarios.
This is still more detailed AI data than Google Search Console provides. Google includes AI Overviews in its general Performance reporting but offers no dedicated AI citation tracking.
How to Use Your AI Citation Data
This report offers several practical opportunities for website owners:
Compare your top-cited pages with your top-traffic pages. They might not match. Pages that rank well in traditional search are not always the ones AI systems cite. Look at what your most-cited pages share: structure, depth, supporting evidence, and recent updates.
Use grounding queries to find content gaps. These queries show the phrases AI used to find your content. If those phrases do not match topics you deliberately target, you might be getting cited by accident rather than on purpose.
Compare cited pages with indexed-but-not-cited pages. If a page gets indexed but never shows up in citation data, it might not be structured well enough for AI systems to reference. Start with clear headings, evidence-backed claims, and current information.
Set a baseline for tracking. The report includes time-series data from launch day. Export your current numbers and track changes over time. This helps you measure the impact of any improvements you make.
Research shows that 39% of grounding queries are conversational questions or longer phrases. This means your content needs clear, direct responses to longer queries to serve as reliable AI reference points.
SEO Community Welcomes New Tool
The response has been mostly positive. SEO experts appreciate having citation data broken out by grounding queries, page-level visibility, and historical trends.
The main criticism focuses on reach. Copilot and Bing serve fewer users than Google and ChatGPT. The data reflects a narrow slice of AI search behavior. However, it is the only first-party AI citation data available right now.
For broader AI visibility tracking beyond Microsoft’s ecosystem, tools like AI_Mentions provide insights across multiple AI platforms and help identify where competitors appear when you do not.
Want to see how your brand performs across all major AI platforms, not just Bing?
