WireRef: 2.8K Bing clicks in September 2026, after Google stopped showing it in a single day
For electricians mid-job who need the right wire size, and the code behind it, fast.
WireRef is my free NEC wiring reference for electricians. When Google almost stopped showing it in March 2026, Bing became the way its readers found it.
8 months in In search since Feb 23, 2026; data through Oct 16, 2026
- First recorded version Feb 23, 2026
- Seen on Google Feb 23, 2026
- Seen on Bing By Mar 27, 2026
- First 100-click month Apr 2026, 655 clicks
- A measured result Apr 18, 2026
- First 1K-click month May 2026, 1.1K clicks
- A mistake, and the fix Oct 3, 2026
- Now, 8 months in Sep 2026, 2.8K Google and Bing clicks, best month yet
- 243Google impressions on March 6, down from 2.3K the day before
- 11Google clicks in 6 months, April to September 2026
CBe the source worth citingIts mascot: Leafeon
Why did Google drop WireRef?
The fall happened in one day: from Mar 5 to Mar 6, 2026, daily Google impressions went from 2.3K to 243. Search Console records the change; it does not say what caused it, and nothing in these numbers isolates a single reason.
So the real question was a practical one: how does a reference site keep reaching people when Google stops sending them?
What WireRef does for an electrician
The National Electrical Code is public.
The values are public, spread across code tables and state adoption records. WireRef puts them where a person on a job looks first: the wire size for a circuit, the ampacity of a gauge, the rules in their state, the breaker for an appliance. Three calculators do the arithmetic.
On the live site: 50 state code pages, 62 appliance wiring guides, 35 project guides and 519 URLs in the sitemap.
Counted on the live site, 2026-10-11: menu labels and sitemap.
The calculators are built to stop short of a claim they can't back. On April 14, 2026 I took out the verdict that told a reader their circuit met code, and the FAQ line calling the calculators code compliant. The voltage drop result now says whether the drop is within the 3% recommendation, and that it checks voltage drop only.
The panel load calculator had counted a smaller electric range below the figure in the load table it cites, so the total came out low. It now uses the table's figure for a single range. For two cooking appliances, or one over 12 kW, it refuses to give a total and says the calculator doesn't handle that combination. Tests now compare the numbers the calculators use in the browser with the tables the pages are built from.
How I checked it. The change is in the site's history, dated April 14, 2026. Read on the live voltage drop, ampacity and panel load calculators on October 13, 2026: none of the three uses the words "meets" or "compliant", and the panel calculator's refusal message is in place.
Bing did the growing
Bing sent 655 clicks in April 2026 and 2.8K in September 2026, while Google sent 11 in the same 6 months. The month-by-month chart below shows every month.
In September 2026, Bing clicks were about level with August, at 2.8K. The last full week, Oct 5 to 11, 2026, brought 563 Bing clicks, 25% under the busiest week since Aug 1, 2026, which had 746 (Aug 24 to 30, 2026).
- Aug 24 to 30, 2026
- 746
- Oct 5 to 11, 2026
- 563
Bing clicks over seven days, Monday to Sunday. The first is the busiest week since Aug 1, 2026; the second is the latest complete week.
How I measured it. Google Search Console daily impressions and clicks; Bing Webmaster Tools clicks summed by full month. Pulled 2026-10-20 and 2026-10-19. My Bing archive starts on March 27, 2026 for every site, so there is no Bing baseline from before the drop. The Bing growth that followed is real in the data. Whether it would have happened anyway is something these numbers can't answer.
WireRef's search clicks by month
- September, compared with Augustup 2%2.8K search clicks, up from 2.8K
- August, compared with Julyup 59%2.8K search clicks, up from 1.7K
- Best month on record, and the latestSeptember2.8K search clicks
Search clicks held level in September, up 2% on August, a new best month by a hair.
Data through
- 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,
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.
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.
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
- Google, : The June 2026 spam update. Source: Google Search Status Dashboard; my sites' 14 days either side are on the log.
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
- Google, : The August 2026 spam update. Source: Google Search Status Dashboard; my sites' 14 days either side are on the log.
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
- Google, : The September 2026 spam update. Source: Google Search Status Dashboard; my sites' 14 days either side are on the log.
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
| Month | Search clicks | Change from the month before |
|---|---|---|
| April | 655 | first month |
| May | 1.1K | up 69% |
| June | 1.3K | up 21% |
| July | 1.7K | up 31% |
| August | 2.8K | up 59% |
| September | 2.8K | up 2% |
The numbers, month by monthWireRef's search clicks and the changes I made, data through Oct 23, 2026
| Month | Changes made | Bing | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 2026 | 47 | first month | partial month |
| Apr 2026 | 13 | too few to tell | first month |
| May 2026 | 3 | too few to tell | up 68% |
| Jun 2026 | 0 | too few to tell | up 21% |
| Jul 2026 | 6 | too few to tell | up 31% |
| Aug 2026 | 3 | too few to tell | up 59% |
| Sep 2026 | 3 | too few to tell | up 2% |
content technical data other
What I wrote five days before the drop
My first WireRef case study went up on March 1, 2026. Its page counts can't be confirmed today, so they are not repeated here. The lines below are quoted from it as written.
Every site I build teaches the next one.
The pattern of mistakes shifted from “did not plan this” to “planned it but underestimated the maintenance cost.” That feels like progress, but I am not done making mistakes here.
The mistakes are getting less fundamental. That is the only pattern I am confident about. I am sure the next project will teach me something I do not know yet.
From my WireRef case study, published March 1, 2026.
Breakers one size above the wire
In October 2026 I found WireRef's breaker helper rounding up. The 6 AWG NM-B copper page gave the wire's usable ampacity as 55A, told the reader to pair it with a 60A breaker, and in the next sentence said the ampacity must equal or exceed the breaker. Before the fix on Oct 3, 2026, 23 of the site's 98 wire ampacity pages showed a breaker above the wire's usable ampacity, and so did 23 of the 51 comparison pages whose table lists a breaker.
The code allows the next size up only under specific conditions, and a reader on a web page can't confirm their circuit meets them. So the helper now picks the largest standard breaker at or below the wire's rating, and the next size up appears only as a labeled condition. The live 6 AWG NM-B page now says 50A.
The checks for this kind of error already existed, but I ran them by hand, when I remembered, so a failing one could still ship. Now ten checks run before every push, and one failure stops it. Pushing is what deploys the site, so a failed check means the bad page never goes live.
How I measured it. Counted in the site's published files from Sep 6, 2026, the last version before the fix, then in the current files (Oct 13, 2026): 0 of 98 and 0 of 51. A page counts when its "Pair the wire with a breaker" sentence or its quick answer names a breaker above the usable ampacity; 59 of the 98 name a breaker at all. The 6 AWG NM-B page read on the live site October 13, 2026.
23 of 98 wire ampacity pages put the breaker above the wire on Sep 6, 2026. On Oct 13, 2026, 0 of 98.
23 filled cells: each page paired the wire with a breaker above its usable ampacity. 39 pages name no breaker at all.
Breaker above the wire: 23No breaker above the wire: 75
| Breaker above the wire | 23 |
|---|---|
| No breaker above the wire | 75 |
| All cells | 98 |
Every row clear: the same 98 pages, and the 23 that were wrong now name a breaker at or below the wire.
Breaker above the wire: 0No breaker above the wire: 98
- 1/0 AWG THHN aluminum 120A wire: 125A then, 110A now
- 1/0 AWG XHHW-2 aluminum 120A wire: 125A then, 110A now
- 1 AWG THHN copper 130A wire: 150A then, 125A now
- 1 AWG XHHW-2 copper 130A wire: 150A then, 125A now
- 2/0 AWG THHN aluminum 135A wire: 150A then, 125A now
- 2/0 AWG XHHW-2 aluminum 135A wire: 150A then, 125A now
- 2 AWG NM-B copper 95A wire: 100A then, 90A now
- 2 AWG THHN copper 115A wire: 125A then, 110A now
- 2 AWG XHHW-2 copper 115A wire: 125A then, 110A now
- 3/0 AWG THHN aluminum 155A wire: 175A then, 150A now
- 3/0 AWG XHHW-2 aluminum 155A wire: 175A then, 150A now
- 3 AWG NM-B copper 85A wire: 90A then, 80A now
- 3 AWG THHN aluminum 75A wire: 80A then, 70A now
- 3 AWG XHHW-2 aluminum 75A wire: 80A then, 70A now
- 4/0 AWG THHN aluminum 180A wire: 200A then, 175A now
- 4/0 AWG XHHW-2 aluminum 180A wire: 200A then, 175A now
- 4 AWG THHN aluminum 65A wire: 70A then, 60A now
- 4 AWG THHN copper 85A wire: 90A then, 80A now
- 4 AWG XHHW-2 aluminum 65A wire: 70A then, 60A now
- 4 AWG XHHW-2 copper 85A wire: 90A then, 80A now
- 6 AWG NM-B copper 55A wire: 60A then, 50A now
- 6 AWG THHN copper 65A wire: 70A then, 60A now
- 6 AWG XHHW-2 copper 65A wire: 70A then, 60A now
| Breaker above the wire | 0 |
|---|---|
| No breaker above the wire | 98 |
| All cells | 98 |
On my board of misses, WireRef's row sits at step 4 of 7 (write it in my own voice, with sources): A WireRef page said a wire carried 200 amps. It carries 180. Every site's miss, by step
Where these numbers come from
Heatmap, WireRef
Electricians reach for the breaker shortcut first
Desktop clicks heatmap
On the ampacity chart, the hottest spots on desktop are the buttons that find a wire size from the breaker amps, which sit above the full table.
Microsoft Clarity click heatmap, /ampacity/, captured 2026-10-12
Receipt from WireRef
Receipt from WireRef
Receipt from WireRef
A large AI citation count raises a separate question: does it tell you anyone visited? Compare WireRef’s later Google, Bing and referral reports in the AI measurement lesson.