Hayden SchusterSenior SEO Manager

Hayden Schuster

Senior SEO Manager at Optimal, Austin

I build the systems that make complex sites visible.

1.3M times my sites showed up in Google and Bing in October

Data through Nov 4, 2026

How I get a site found

624K times Bing's AI answers cited my sites in October

Data through Nov 4, 2026

How I get a page understood

25.7K clicks from Google and Bing search results in October, about flat on September

Data through Nov 4, 2026

How I get a page chosen

See the work

Clear a line, unlock a real result

It's Tetris with my own sites' data inside: every result is real, and the red rows are my misses. Press Play, or just watch it run.

  • slide (hold to glide)
  • Z turn
  • faster
  • Space drop
  • C hold
  • V Verify: fill your lowest row
  • Esc pause
  • Drag the piece, or hold an arrow, to slide
  • Tap the board to turn (the left edge turns it the other way)
  • Flick down or tap Drop to place
  • Tap Hold on the pad under the board to save a piece
  • Tap Verify to fill the gaps in your lowest row
  • Fill a row edge to edge to clear it and unlock a real result. The game ends when the stack reaches the top.
  • Verify (V) fills the gaps in your lowest unfinished row. You earn one every 10 lines and can keep three.
  • Red rows are my misses. They rise from the bottom, more often as you go, and the pieces speed up every 5 lines. Clear one to read it.

Score0

High scores

  1. 1You?your score here

Top 10 on this site, up to 8 letters each. Beat the last row and the board asks for your name.

See every high score and its source

    The work

    Sites I built around questions people need answered before they act.

    See the projects and what I learned. For the figures, see the dashboard.

    What I do for enterprise brands

    As the Senior SEO Manager at Optimal, a OneMagnify company, I work on SEO and AI visibility for enterprise brands across many industries.

    1. 1Strategy for search and AI answers Where a brand should show up, in Google and in the answers AI tools give, and what it takes to earn that.
    2. 2Roadmaps built around how customers search Each brand gets its own plan, built from who searches before they know the brand. The client stories show how.
    3. 3Programs that hold up at scale Templates, content programs and structured data that have to stay right across hundreds of pages, because one bad template repeats everywhere.
    4. 4Measuring AI visibility How AI tools mention, cite and describe a brand against its competitors, kept apart from what searchers then did on the site.
    5. 5Getting the right people in early Developers, design, data, PR and paid search in the room before anything is built, so good ideas don't die in a ticket queue.
    6. 6Checks that keep the work right Checks catch wrong facts and broken pages before release. When something gets through, I add a check for the next project.

    How I work at Optimal

    Writing and free lessons

    What I've written lately, and practical lessons using reports from my own sites.

    Free lessons Work through real search reports with short videos and feedback on each answer, without creating an account. Choose a question, check your reasoning and keep your recommendation. Choose a lesson Why a page isn't showing up in search When a page doesn't show up in Google, I find out how far it got, from known to shown, and change what that step needs, with my own site's relaunch as the example. New post, , 5 min read Read the post Why a ranking page still isn't picked A page can rank and still not get picked, so I go through what people check in the few seconds they give a result and a page, and what I change on the page so it gets picked. New post, , 4 min read Read the post

    All my writing, by topic

    Lately on LinkedIn

    1. The Quack Report“Live and breathe Oregon Duck Football? Cool, same.”
    2. Poll: where people start a major purchase“My research habits have changed a lot recently, so curious where everyone is starting the process these days.”
    3. The recommendation layer“Like it or not, there’s a new decision-maker in town.”

    The rest are on my profileFollow on LinkedIn

    One system: get found, get understood, get chosen

    I use three tests on the same page: can someone find it, understand it and choose it? A page nobody sees can't help anyone, a page people can't make sense of loses them in seconds, and a page they don't trust sends them to someone else.

    1. 1 Get found Can the person with this need find the right answer?
    2. 2 Get understood Can they quickly tell what the answer means for their situation?
    3. 3 Get chosen What makes this answer worth trusting and acting on?

    When something breaks, I fix the page and then go after the step that let it through, so the fix can lock in as a check for the next site. Follow one real search through all three tests.

    Eevee, the base form
    Eevee adapts to whatever is around it, and so do I. These six are how that shows up in my work.
    1. AStart from the personEspeon
    2. BTell it as a storyVaporeon
    3. CBe the source worth citingLeafeon
    4. DNever ship a wrong factUmbreon
    5. EMeasure, then double downJolteon
    6. FTurn every lesson into a systemGlaceon

    The six pillars and seven steps behind it

    Off the clock

    I'm from Portland, OR, and recently moved to Austin, Texas, where I'm currently melting in the sun.

    I was going to Autzen Stadium before I could walk. I also follow the Seahawks, the Blazers and the Timbers. Bella is my corgi.

    More about me, including Portland, where I grew up

    Panorama of a packed Autzen Stadium in green and yellow on game day
    Autzen on game day
    Bella, a tri-color corgi, lying on the sand inside a homemade #1 Ducks Fan photo frame
    Bella, number one Ducks fan
    Hayden Schuster courtside at the Moda Center in a Rip City jersey before a Trail Blazers game
    Courtside, Rip City
    Hayden Schuster in a number 7 jersey taking a corner kick
    Taking a corner
    A drone light show drawing the Oregon O in the night sky over Autzen Stadium
    The O, in drones over Autzen
    • Ducks
    • Seahawks
    • Blazers
    • Timbers
    • Portland, home

    Where to next

    See the work My SEO system Follow me on LinkedIn

    What would you like to know?

    Pages shown most in search
    1. What is commercial search intent, and what page does it need?What is commercial search intent?
    2. What is navigational search intent?What is navigational search intent?
    3. What has he written about search behavior and intent, and how does he think about it?Search behavior and intent

    Ranked by page impressions, including former addresses redirected here. An impression is one time a page showed up in search, so this says nothing about visits or about what people typed.

    Google: Jul 9, 2026 to Nov 5, 2026
    Bing: Jul 9, 2026 to Oct 29, 2026

    Arrow keys move. Enter opens. Esc closes.

     Ask Bella

    Ask Bella Hayden's corgi, who answers from this site and cites every fact.

    BELLA

    WOOF. I'm Bella, Hayden's corgi. He's my human. Ask me about him; every answer cites its source.

    Reading this page? The top button is my short version of it.

    How it works: the answers are written ahead from this site's pages, and anything else gets a search of the site that shows you its exact words. Every claim has a numbered source you can tap. Nothing is generated while you wait, nothing is made up, and nothing you type leaves your browser. Every answer, in plain HTML

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