Hayden Schuster
Senior SEO Manager at Optimal, Austin
I build the systems that make complex sites visible.
1.1M times my sites showed up in Google and Bing in September
Data through Oct 23, 2026
How I get a site found634K times Bing's AI answers cited my sites in September
Data through Oct 11, 2026
How I get a page understood14× more searchers picked my sites in September than in April
Data through Oct 23, 2026
How I get a page chosenClear a line, unlock a real result
Press Play, or just watch it run. Every result comes from my own sites' data, and the red rows are my misses.
- Left arrowRight arrow slide (hold to glide)
- Up arrowZ turn
- Down arrow 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 at the top 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.
Game over
What changed:
The full storyHigh scores
- 1You?any score gets on
Top 10 on this site, up to 8 letters each. Beat the last row and the board asks for your name.
The work
Case studies from my own sites: what I built, what happened and what missed.
What I do for enterprise brands
At Optimal, a OneMagnify company, I work on SEO and AI visibility for enterprise brands across many industries. How I work
- 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.
- 2Roadmaps built around how customers search Each brand gets its own plan, built from who is searching, how they decide and what they need next.
- 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.
- 4Measuring AI visibility How AI tools mention, cite and describe a brand, against its competitors, so the work is judged on what searchers did, not on what we shipped.
- 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.
- 6Checks that keep the work right A wrong fact or a broken page gets stopped before anyone sees it, so the same mistake doesn't happen twice and the next project starts ahead.
What I'm writing about
I post on LinkedIn about what I'm building and what the numbers show.
Follow on LinkedInLately on LinkedIn
- The Quack Report“Live and breathe Oregon Duck Football? Cool, same.”
- 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.”
- 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 Get found Can the person with this need find the right answer?
- 2 Get understood Can they quickly tell what the answer means for their situation?
- 3 Get chosen What makes this answer worth trusting and acting on?
Why it adds up: when something goes wrong, the fix goes into the process as well as the page, so the next project starts where the last one finished. The process keeps changing too: what changed in how I work, and the data behind each change.
My own sites
The work, the results and the misses. Read the projects or explore the monthly data.
Search clicks, the last four weeks against the four before. Up is more than 10% higher. Small is under 50 clicks.
UpDown / flatSmall / unknown
| Site | State | Last 28 days | Age |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fan reference | Up | 15.9K clicks, up 16% | 7 months in |
| The Quack Report | Up | 2.1K clicks, up 64% | 7 months in |
| WireRef | Down / flat | 2.1K clicks, down 20% | 8 months in |
| GageRef | Down / flat | 227 clicks, down 7% | 8 months in |
| Title Town PDX | Down / flat | 128 clicks, down 58% | 7 months in |
| CheckMyTap | Down / flat | 89 clicks, down 37% | at least 8 months in |
| RatingPlate | Small / unknown | 17 clicks | 7 months in |
| UpOrbit | Small / unknown | 17 clicks | at least 8 months in |
| Hear Homer | Small / unknown | 7 clicks | 3 months in |
| SaltCellCheck | Small / unknown | No search data yet | age not measured yet |
The numbers, month by monthSearch clicks across my sites, data through Oct 23, 2026
Search clicks across my sites, month by month
In September 2026, an independent fan reference had its best Google month yet (13.8K clicks), and its run of 100+ Google clicks a day is at 99 days and still going. WireRef had its best Bing month yet (2.8K clicks).
- September, compared with Augustup 21%24K search clicks, up from 19.7K
- August, compared with Julyup 39%19.7K search clicks, up from 14.2K
- Best month on record, and the latestSeptember24K search clicks
Search clicks up 21% in September, a new best month, and the fifth month in a row it grew.
Data through
- April 2026: 1 decision, and what happened after
- July 2026: 1 decision, and what happened after
- September 2026: 2 decisions, and what happened after
- May 2026, what else happened: 1 search change
- June 2026, what else happened: 1 search change
- August 2026, what else happened: 1 search change
- September 2026, what else happened: 1 search change
April 2026
A measured result, , WireRef
Moved WireRef's effort from Google to Bing and AI answers
- Google: too few to tell, 0 clicks the four weeks before and 1 the four weeks after
- Bing: no data
This lines up the four weeks before and after; it doesn't prove the decision caused the change.
July 2026
A measured result, , an independent fan reference
Answered a question fans kept asking before anyone had the answer
- Google: up, 1.8K clicks the four weeks before and 6.6K the four weeks after
- Bing: up, 608 clicks the four weeks before and 971 the four weeks after
This lines up the four weeks before and after; it doesn't prove the decision caused the change.
September 2026
A mistake, and the fix, , an independent fan reference
Put every reader correction on the reference in public, fixed or not
- Google: up, 9.7K clicks the four weeks before and 12.8K the four weeks after
- Bing: down, 1.2K clicks the four weeks before and 1K the four weeks after
A mistake, and the fix, , The Quack Report
Stopped building fan features that need a crowd to work
- Google: down, 323 clicks the four weeks before and 216 the four weeks after
- Bing: up, 600 clicks the four weeks before and 933 the four weeks after
This lines up the four weeks before and after; it doesn't prove the decision caused the change.
May 2026: what else happened
- Google, : The May 2026 core update. Source: Google Search Status Dashboard; my sites' 14 days either side are on the log.
What else was going on that month, for context. Before and after, not cause: none of it is shown to have moved the clicks.
June 2026: what else happened
- Google, : The June 2026 spam update. Source: Google Search Status Dashboard; my sites' 14 days either side are on the log.
What else was going on that month, for context. Before and after, not cause: none of it is shown to have moved the clicks.
August 2026: what else happened
- Google, : The August 2026 spam update. Source: Google Search Status Dashboard; my sites' 14 days either side are on the log.
What else was going on that month, for context. Before and after, not cause: none of it is shown to have moved the clicks.
September 2026: what else happened
- Google, : The September 2026 spam update. Source: Google Search Status Dashboard; my sites' 14 days either side are on the log.
What else was going on that month, for context. Before and after, not cause: none of it is shown to have moved the clicks.
HI-SCORE the best month so far
| Month | Search clicks | Change from the month before |
|---|---|---|
| April | 1.7K | first month |
| May | 4.4K | up 159% |
| June | 7.6K | up 74% |
| July | 14.2K | up 87% |
| August | 19.7K | up 39% |
| September | 24K | up 21% |
These compare months; they don't prove what caused a change. Too few to tell means under 50 clicks in both months, where a percentage swings on a handful of clicks.
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.
- Ducks
- Seahawks
- Blazers
- Timbers
- Portland, home