Hi there.
This is Thomas, co-founder here at Otterly.AI. I’m writing this post because there has been a lot of noise on LinkedIn (and probably on many Slack channels) in the last few days about the decline of Hubspot’s organic traffic.
To be precise: a decline in the organic traffic of Hubspot’s blog.
Since Hubspot is the inventor of inbound marketing and has always been a true leader in content marketing, this is huge news—or is it?
Ryan Law’s original post on this topic can be found here (by the way, it includes some great product placement for Ahrefs).
There have been many reactions, comments, and thoughts shared on LinkedIn about this topic. I’m attempting to distill those into a few theories and insights.
A New Era in SEO?
Ryan wrote that this is a new era in SEO and I thought a bit about that statement and what it actually Ryan wrote that this marks a new era in SEO, and I’ve spent some time reflecting on what that actually means.
- Is the inbound content playbook dead? Not necessarily.
- Is creating content purely for Google still effective? Probably not—but that’s not new.
I’m not an SEO expert by any means, but I’ve gathered LinkedIn comments, stats, and publicly available data to shape a few theories. Overall, I don’t believe this is the end of SEO or even the start of a new era. Instead, I see it as a valuable lesson in marketing.
Hubspot’s Blog – a Quick Recap and Analysis
Hubspot’s Blog is massive. According to Semrush:
- blog.hubspot.com ranks for 655,000 keywords and organic traffic peaked at 1.7 million per month.
- The big majority of traffic is coming from non-branded keywords
So what are the biggest traffic losses?
The biggest losses happened for topics like:
- Famous quotes: The 100+ most famous quotes of all time
- Small Business Ideas
- Resignation letter: How to write one
- What is your greatest weakness
You get the picture: we’re talking about extremely top-of-funnel (TOFU) content that’s only loosely connected—or sometimes completely unrelated—to Hubspot as a product or business.
I understand why Hubspot may have created this content originally: to attract small businesses, get marketers on board early in their careers, and eventually turn them into evangelists and product users.
Stop Creating Extreme Top-of-Funnel Content
My initial reaction to all this buzz was: Why does it matter? This traffic loss probably isn’t hurting Hubspot’s core business.
User journeys have changed, especially in B2B SaaS, where they’re no longer linear. Just because someone reads a piece of very generic blog content doesn’t mean they’ll convert—even in the long run.
Yes, you might retarget that traffic and bring back your ideal audience through lead-gen efforts. But I would argue this type of TOFU content doesn’t directly impact Hubspot’s core business.
Takeaway: Don’t waste resources on fluffy TOFU content that’s unlikely to convert. A strong content and blog strategy focuses on the real money-making topics and keywords elsewhere.
Where Did All the Traffic Go?
Tim Soulo, CMO at Ahrefs, shared his findings on where all this lost traffic went. Spoiler alert: it went to websites like Canva, Wikipedia, Microsoft, Adobe, and others (check out his post here).
I agree with his assessment, but I believe he’s missing one critical factor: zero-click search.
Zero-Click Search is Real
TOFU content often falls into the category of zero-click search—where users find their answers directly on Google without needing to visit a website. Consider search queries like:
- Famous Quotes
- How to Take a Sabbatical
Search results for these queries often provide direct answers through featured snippets, suggested questions, forum discussions, YouTube embeds, and—more recently—AI Overviews.
For example, here’s what the search results for famous quotes look like:
No need to click on a website, right?
or look at “How to take a sabbatical”
Zero click search is a thing here.
As SparkToro has analyzed, nearly 60% of all search queries result in zero clicks. Google is increasingly becoming an answering machine, and TOFU content is one of the biggest casualties.
Did Hubspot loose traffic due to AI Overviews?
It’s reasonable to wonder if Hubspot’s traffic decline is partly due to AI Overviews, which provide users with direct answers on Google. AI Overviews, introduced in May 2024, have already impacted organic traffic for many businesses.
At Otterly.AI, we’ve heard countless stories from customers losing 10%, 20%, or even 30% of organic traffic since AI Overviews launched. Curious about this, I used Otterly.AI to analyze Hubspot’s keywords. Here’s what I found:
- Hubspot’s blog focuses heavily on general, high-volume topics like:
- What is a Startup?
- What is Branding?
- What is PPC Marketing?
- What is Entrepreneurship?
These types of queries haven’t triggered AI Overviews yet. After analyzing 20 top-performing keywords for Hubspot’s blog, Otterly.AI found zero AI Overviews triggered.
So, while AI Overviews may impact other industries or funnel stages, they’re not a factor for Hubspot’s decline—at least not yet. Side note: Hubspot already got some nice first mentions on ChatGPT and Perplexity.AI as a brand. So while no impact through AI Overviews yet, they might already get some decent traffic from ChatGPT and Perplexity.
What should this tell you about your SEO strategy?
Gone are the days when SEO was simply about driving traffic and clicks to your website. If you haven’t already, it’s time to rethink your metrics for SEO success.
It’s no longer about sheer volume—it’s about being top of mind for your ICP through:
- Well-researched, highly relevant content.
- A focus on high-intent, long-tail keywords.
- Conversational prompts (think ChatGPT) that align with specific ICP use cases.
Ultimately, the goal is to drive conversions and revenue—not just clicks. And that’s what we should measure as success.
Final Thoughts
Inbound still works, but publishing half-baked TOFU content doesn’t.
Hubspot’s decline in organic traffic isn’t the end of SEO, nor is it a crisis. It’s a lesson: the old playbook of high-volume, generic TOFU content no longer cuts it.
SEO strategies need to evolve to focus on high-intent, highly specific, and genuinely valuable content—content that resonates with your ICP and drives measurable business outcomes.
Hubspot may be at a crossroads, but for marketers, this is an opportunity to refine strategies and focus on what truly matters.