Scope disclosure: This is a BrewMyBeer Editorial Team analysis of the site’s own WordPress inventory, Google Search Console data and Bing Webmaster Tools data. It measures reader demand and search visibility. It is not a brew-batch report, a sensory trial or evidence that one hop performs like another.
On August 30, 2026, we audited the published BrewMyBeer library before deciding whether a large set of comparison, recipe, calculator and hop-substitution pages should remain public. The point was not to remove pages because their titles looked repetitive. The point was to protect pages with demonstrated demand and identify a small, reversible group with no observed demand and no defensible first-hand evidence.
What we measured
The content inventory contained 1,176 published posts. Pattern matching against titles and slugs found four overlapping families:
- 180 comparison or “vs” posts
- 98 substitute or alternative posts
- 115 recipe posts
- 48 calculator, calculation or “calculate” posts
These counts are not mutually exclusive. A recipe-scaling calculator, for example, can appear in both the recipe and calculator groups.
For Google, we queried the Search Analytics API by page for May 29 through August 27, 2026. The API returned 490 page rows with at least some reported visibility in that request. Google’s documentation warns that Search Analytics returns top rows rather than a guaranteed complete export, so an absent row is not proof that a URL never appeared.
For Bing, we aggregated query statistics over the same broad period. Bing supplied query-level weekly buckets, but our current API path did not provide a reliable page dimension. That means Bing can confirm demand for a topic family without proving which exact BrewMyBeer URL earned each click.
The aggregate result
| Family | Published posts | Google pages returned | Google clicks / impressions | Bing query strings | Bing clicks / impressions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Comparison / vs | 180 | 112 | 1 / 1,408 | 63 | 80 / 111 |
| Substitute / alternative | 98 | 40 | 0 / 867 | 33 | 34 / 65 |
| Recipe | 115 | 39 | 2 / 858 | 77 | 103 / 177 |
| Calculator / calculation | 48 | 13 | 0 / 418 | 29 | 35 / 58 |
The engine totals should not be compared as if they use identical aggregation. Google is grouped by page; Bing is grouped by query and reported in weekly buckets. The useful conclusion is narrower: every family has observable search demand, especially on Bing, so a family-wide removal would destroy traffic-bearing coverage.
What we kept
We treated any click, recurring query demand or meaningful page visibility as a reason to keep a URL while it receives a deeper editorial review. Examples include recipe searches for rice lager and Belgian dubbel, calculator searches for mash pH and beer calories, comparison searches for cider versus wine and floating hydrometers, and named hop-substitution searches.
The main hop-substitution guide also remained public because Google reported 284 impressions for it in the audit window. We expanded that guide with source-linked descriptor notes so useful distinctions were not lost during consolidation.
The zero-observed-demand cohort
Within the hop-substitution family, 23 published pages met both of these screening conditions:
- No page row returned by the Google query for the May 29–August 27 window.
- No Bing query row in the audit period contained the target hop name.
That still does not prove absolute zero traffic because of the API limitations above. It does identify a low-risk review pool. We examined the first twelve pages rather than changing all 23 at once.
All twelve used the same five-part pattern: a variety profile, “Best substitutes,” one style/use section, “Common Questions,” and one follow-up question. Each linked only to a general Wikipedia page, and each contained first-person brewing claims for which we found no supporting batch log, dated measurement or original-photo record. Those claims were not reused.
We changed those twelve posts to draft rather than deleting them and added exact redirects to the source-linked master guide. Their original records remain recoverable. Eleven other pages in the screened cohort remain untouched until a later, separately measured review.
What this data cannot tell us
- Search demand does not establish sensory equivalence between hop varieties.
- A click does not prove that an article is accurate or satisfying.
- An absent Google page row does not prove absolute zero visibility.
- Bing query data cannot be assigned to an exact landing page through the current API path.
- This audit contains no brew measurements, tasting panel, original batch photographs or personal-experience claim.
Method references
- Google Search Analytics API query reference
- Google guidance on Search Analytics data limits and aggregation
- Microsoft Bing Webmaster API documentation
This is a baseline and a documented editorial decision, not a ranking or revenue claim. We will measure the guide, the retired URL set and site-wide search performance before attributing any later change to the consolidation.
