FirebricksSource: when Bing sends more buyers than Google, five months after launch
A refractory bricks exporter launched a specification-heavy catalogue into a market where buyers search by grade, standard and application, and where the site's Google positions started in the 40s and 50s.
- Timeline
- First Google impressions 19 May 2026; data to 11 October 2026
- Stages covered
- AccessUnderstandTrustRetrieve
Headline results
141 to 838
Google impressions per month · Jun vs Sep 2026
Source: Search Console, web search
0 to 21
Bing clicks per month · Jun vs Sep 2026
Source: Bing Webmaster Tools, search performance
30 to 123
Citations in Bing AI answers per month · Jul vs Sep 2026
Source: Bing Webmaster Tools, AI Performance
11 to 151
Impressions in Google AI features per month · Jul vs Sep 2026
Source: Search Console, Generative AI features filter
Month by month
The whole series, not just the two ends
Monthly totals summed from the daily exports. The first month starts at the first recorded impression; October 2026 is partial and left out.
| Month | Value |
|---|---|
| May | 1 |
| Jun | 1 |
| Jul | 2 |
| Aug | 4 |
| Sep | 12 |
| Month | Value |
|---|---|
| May | 13 |
| Jun | 141 |
| Jul | 186 |
| Aug | 1,049 |
| Sep | 838 |
| Month | Value |
|---|---|
| May | 0 |
| Jun | 1 |
| Jul | 11 |
| Aug | 62 |
| Sep | 151 |
| Month | Value |
|---|---|
| May | 0 |
| Jun | 0 |
| Jul | 30 |
| Aug | 75 |
| Sep | 123 |
Context
The property, and what the exports show
The property
FirebricksSource is a manufacturer-cum-exporter of refractory bricks in Rajkot, and one of our own properties. The site has 68 URLs: 39 product pages in seven classes, eight industry pages, quality pages (standards, datasheets, certifications), export guidance and a quote form.
What happened
Google shows the site for the right queries (“refractory furnace”, “cement kiln refractory”, “high alumina bricks”, “fire brick exporters”) but at positions 45 to 70, so almost none of the 2,693 impressions became clicks. The pages that did earn clicks are specification pages: acid-proof tiles, the standards page, the datasheets page and the K28 insulating brick.
Bing is the opposite story for this site. GA4 lists bing / organic as the larger search source (43 sessions against 33 from google / organic), and Bing’s own report shows clicks rising from zero in June to 21 in September.
Approach
Stages this engagement covered
Filled stages are the ones we worked on.
- 1Access
- 2Understand
- 3Trust
- 4Retrieve
- 5Cite
- 6Convert
Publish what buyers actually request: datasheets, testing standards, a grade comparison tool and 39 product pages organised by refractory class, with the operator stated plainly. Track Google and Bing side by side. Stages Access, Understand, Trust and Retrieve.
What we did
Changes, in order of impact
- A testing standards and QC page (IS 1528, ASTM C-series, EN 993) with a method table. It is the most-shown page in Google's AI features (72 impressions) and the second page by Google impressions.
- A datasheet download page for seven refractory categories, the second most-viewed page in GA4 after the home page.
- 39 product pages across seven classes (fire bricks, high-alumina, insulating fire bricks, basic, acid-resistant, specialty, custom shapes) with alumina content and service temperature stated in the navigation itself.
- Organization and WebSite structured data with contact point and opening hours; a 68-URL sitemap declared in robots.txt; llms.txt and ai.txt stating who operates the site and what it supplies.
Results
Before and after, same sources, same window
| Metric | Before | After | Window | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google impressions per month | 141 | 838 | Jun vs Sep 2026 | Search Console, web search |
| Bing clicks per month | 0 | 21 | Jun vs Sep 2026 | Bing Webmaster Tools, search performance |
| Citations in Bing AI answers per month | 30 | 123 | Jul vs Sep 2026 | Bing Webmaster Tools, AI Performance |
| Impressions in Google AI features per month | 11 | 151 | Jul vs Sep 2026 | Search Console, Generative AI features filter |
Open questions
What did not work, and what comes next
Not yet working, or not yet known
- Google rankings are the open problem: a weighted average position of 35.8 in September, improving each month, but not yet on page one for any query with volume.
- Automated traffic distorts the behavioural data. Clarity counted 138 bot sessions against 248 human ones and GA4's top cities are hosting locations, so engagement figures from this export are not reported.
- GA4 has no key events; quote requests, the one number an exporter needs, are not counted.
What we would do next
- Instrument the quote form.
- Build internal links from the eight industry pages to the grade pages they mention.
- Publish the datasheet values as on-page tables rather than PDF-only downloads, so the specification queries Google already shows the site for can match the page text.
Related services
How we do this work
Technical SEO
Crawl, render, index, migrate
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Answer-first pages for buyer questions
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