Case study · One of my own sites
GageRef: one number for the person at the machine
Built for someone who needs the answer before the puddle cools. GageRef is my free reference for welding electrode settings and hydraulic fitting threads, and Bing is where its readers find it.
- 262Bing clicks in September 2026, up from 4 in April
- 1Google click from Feb 21 to Oct 8, 2026, 230 days of data
- 69comparisons on the live site, up from 67 in March
The whole site, month by month
The last 28 days for GageRef: flat on Bing. Google 1 to 0, Bing -8%.
- September vs August-4%262 search clicks, from 272
- Last 28 days vs the 28 before-8%238 search clicks, from 259
- Jul to Sep vs Apr to Jun+322%730 search clicks, from 173
- 4Apr
- 42May
- 127Jun
- 196Jul
- 272Aug
- 262Sep
Who is on the other end of the search?
GageRef serves someone standing in front of a welding machine who needs to know the amperage range for 1/8-inch E7018 right now. Or a mechanic lying under a piece of equipment trying to figure out which hydraulic fitting standard they are looking at. The session is short. The need is immediate.
Are they at a desk or in a shop? Do they have two minutes or ten seconds? Can they scroll or are they wearing gloves? Those constraints do not show up in keyword research. You have to think about who is actually on the other end of the query.
From my GageRef case study, published March 1, 2026.
What GageRef shows first, and the library behind it
Quick lookup on the GageRef homepage
E7018 70-400A
The full range across every rod size. Each size has its own, narrower range on the E7018 page.
The amperage range is shown right in the homepage menu (read on the live site 2026-10-11). The tools on the site:
Between March and October, the catalog of rods stayed the same size. The comparisons and the guides grew around it.
| What | Mar 1, 2026 | Oct 11, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Welding consumables | 30 | 30 |
| Comparisons | 67 | 69 |
| Guides | 25 | 33 |
| Fitting standards | 7 | 7 |
March: my GageRef case study on this site, published March 1, 2026. October: the homepage's library counts, read 2026-10-11.
Does it get used? On Bing, slowly
Bing clicks climbed from 4 in April to 271 in August and held at 262 in September.
On Google, no. Search Console shows 1 click in 230 days of data. The data does not say why.
How I measured it. Bing Webmaster Tools and Google Search Console daily totals, pulled 2026-10-11 and 2026-10-10. Clicks only; these tools can't see visitors who arrive any other way.
What I got wrong building it
The mid-task framing helped me build the right pages. It did not prevent me from building them in the wrong order or at the wrong depth.
The fittings side went live too thin
I was excited about having two verticals live and rushed the second one.
Welders search by the name on the box
Welders search by brand name more than I expected. I had to retrofit brand names and manufacturer equivalents into existing pages after seeing the data. The live site now has a brand cross-reference covering Lincoln, ESAB, Hobart and Forney (read 2026-10-11).
Quoted lines are from my GageRef case study, published March 1, 2026.
The evidence
Receipt · GageRef
