Hayden SchusterSenior SEO Manager

What I've built, and what happened

I help companies get found in Google and in AI answers. Full-time, I'm a Senior SEO Manager at Optimal, across many industries; my own sites test the same methods.

WireRef: a wiring-code reference electricians keep finding on Bing

7.8K Bing clicks from August to October 2026, up 87% on May to July 2026, data through .

I kept improving its code lookups and calculators after Google visibility fell, and Bing clicks grew over the months shown here.

Read the WireRef case study

HI-SCORE the best month so far

Under each month, how much it rose or fell from the month before. Complete months only. Bing Webmaster Tools.

The limit. Google impressions fell from 2.3K a day to 243 on Mar 6, 2026, and Google sent 11 clicks in the same 7 months (Search Console, data through ).

Across all my sites: 25.7K clicks from Google and Bing search in October, up 7% from September, data through . See every month for every site

Watch: what I do, in 18 secondsA silent book-release example, from source check to useful answer.

Every site I built, by who it's for

Each card opens that site's case study. Three more run unnamed below them, and the one that didn't hold comes after.

For people deciding what to buy or use

For people mid-task who need a number

For fans

Sites I built because I couldn't not build them.

Three more I run, names withheld

I built and run all three. Their names stay private, and each case study still shows the numbers and where the site fell short.

Getting facts rightIndependent fan reference 52.4K clicks from Google and Bing search, April to September 2026 Pages that answer the question first and say where each fact comes from, with a way to fix mistakes built after readers reported real ones. Read the measured case One source for every pageIndependent comparison reference 17.1K clicks from Google and Bing search, April to September 2026 Every comparison reads from one set of records, and automatic checks catch a wrong number on every page at once instead of one page at a time. Read the measured case Sources and AI answersIndependent data reference 602K times Bing's AI answers named it as a source, April to September 2026 A reference built from many sources, each one shown. Google sent it no clicks in the same months, and the case study says so. Read the measured case

What didn't hold

Didn't hold CheckMyTap A water-quality site for cities across the US that Google mostly stopped showing, and what I changed. 1.6K to 218 pages Google kept ready to show in search, Apr 26 to Oct 3, 2026 Fixed and a check now stops it coming back. Still open: why it happened and making the site refuse to publish when that check itself breaks. Read what happened

Every site's miss, and the step where it happened

When each site reached search

Eight of my sites first showed up in search in February and March 2026. Hear Homer followed in July, and nothing new has reached search since. SaltCellCheck has no search data yet, so it is outlined on the day I started building it.

  1. CheckMyTap
  2. UpOrbit
  3. GageRef
  4. WireRef
  5. An independent fan reference
  6. The Quack Report
  7. Title Town PDX
  8. RatingPlate
  9. Hear Homer
  10. SaltCellCheck
Google Search Console (from Feb 10, 2026) and Bing Webmaster Tools (from Mar 27, 2026), first impression per site, data through .
The numbers, month by monthSearch clicks across my sites, from Google Search Console and Bing, data through Nov 4, 2026

Across the portfolio, Google showed pages 912K times in the 28 days to Nov 4, 2026. Each one is a time a page showed up, clicked or not. Source: Google Search Console.

Search clicks across my sites, month by month

In September 2026, an independent fan reference had its best Google month yet (13.8K clicks). WireRef had its best Bing month yet (2.8K clicks).

Search clicks up 7% in October, a new best month, and the sixth month in a row it grew.

Data through

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.

October 2026

A mistake, and the fix, , WireRef

Made WireRef round breakers down, and let one failed check stop the deploy

  • Google: no data
  • Bing: down, 2.5K clicks the four weeks before and 2.1K 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

This is what else was going on that month. I list it for context; nothing here shows any of it moved my clicks.

June 2026: what else happened

This is what else was going on that month. I list it for context; nothing here shows any of it moved my clicks.

August 2026: what else happened

This is what else was going on that month. I list it for context; nothing here shows any of it moved my clicks.

September 2026: what else happened

This is what else was going on that month. I list it for context; nothing here shows any of it moved my clicks.

October 2026: what else happened

This is what else was going on that month. I list it for context; nothing here shows any of it moved my clicks.

HI-SCORE the best month so far

Google Bing A measured result A mistake, and the fix Each marker sits under its month; tap one to see the four weeks before and after. A Google or Bing change The row under the markers is what else happened; tap a month for it. Under each month, how much it rose or fell from the month before. Complete months only. Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, data through .

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.

My full-time work

The rest of the work

The one-page version: my resume Title, dates and skills, with these case studies as the receipts behind each line. What I've written about it Posts that start from a problem on one of these sites, with the method and the numbers. The systems behind the sites The checks that stop a wrong fact or a broken page before it ships, and the failure behind each one. The dashboard How every site is doing, month by month.

Or judge one skill across all the sites: psychology, technical, content, AI search or design.

Questions about something here? Write to me

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

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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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