Microsoft is making its AI visibility tools more useful for publishers and marketers. The company has added a new feature of Page Mapping to Grounding Queries inside the AI Performance dashboard in Bing Webmaster Tools.
The advancement will let users connect a grounding query to the exact pages cited in AI answers and also trace a page back to the grounding queries that triggered it. Microsoft says the update was introduced after strong customer feedback, and the dashboard remains in public preview.
The AI Performance dashboard shows how often publisher content appears in AI-generated answers across Microsoft Copilot, AI summaries in Bing, and select partner integrations. It also shows which URLs are referenced and how citation activity changes over time. Microsoft describes the data as a sample of citation activity, not a full log, and says it does not include click-through data.
What is the New Page Mapping in Grounding Queries Feature About?
Until now, Bing’s AI Performance dashboard showed key metrics such as total citations, average cited pages, grounding queries, page-level citation activity, and visibility trends over time. The new mapping layer in Grounding Queries links those views together.
It means a user can click a grounding query to see which URLs were cited or click a page to see which grounding queries are driving its citations. Microsoft expresses that one grounding query can map to multiple pages, and one page can map to multiple grounding queries.
Source: Microsoft
Grounding queries are not the same as user searches. They are the phrases Bing’s retrieval system uses when constructing an AI answer. By tying those phrases to cited URLs, site owners can better see which pages are being cited, which topics are appearing often, and where content updates may help.
How do Site Owners and Publishers Stay Ahead?
Site owners must keep their content current, clear, and well-structured to address the situation. Since Microsoft is prioritizing content with stronger depth, better headings, and fresher information, adhering to the thorough approach and creating content will offer reliable citations.
Bing also says it respects robots.txt and other supported control mechanisms, so publishers should review those settings carefully if they want to learn how content is used. Microsoft recommends IndexNow for faster discovery of updates, and Bing Places for Business for accurate local details like address, hours, and contact information.
Microsoft frames AI Performance as part of its broader Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) push. The new page mapping feature makes Bing’s dashboard feel less like a stats panel and more like a working map of how AI systems are citing content.
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