SEO giant crashes: How HubSpot lost about 75-80% of its traffic and what that means for you – Image: Xpert.Digital
The end of clicks: Google's new AI changes everything – the HubSpot case is a warning to us all
From role model to problem case: This lesson from the HubSpot disaster is something every marketer must now learn
Imagine an industry leader who practically invented modern content marketing losing three-quarters of its organic traffic within a few months. What sounds like a nightmare scenario has become a bitter reality for HubSpot, the once undisputed king of B2B search engine optimization. However, the dramatic drop from over 24 million to just around 6 million monthly visitors is far more than the story of a single company – it's a warning shot for the entire digital world and perhaps the clearest sign of a fundamental revolution in online marketing.
The HubSpot case ruthlessly exposes how radically the rules of the game have changed due to Google's aggressive algorithm updates, and especially the introduction of AI-powered "AI Overviews." The old formula for success—producing masses of content to rank for as many keywords as possible—is not only outdated, it is actively penalized. We are entering a new era characterized by "zero-click searches," in which Google delivers the answers directly and clicking on the actual website becomes the exception.
This article delves deep into the analysis of the HubSpot case to uncover crucial lessons for the future of digital communications. We unravel why the company's once-celebrated strategy became its Achilles heel, the role played by Google's focus on topical authority, and how artificial intelligence is changing the customer journey forever. Most importantly, we show you which concrete strategies—from focusing on core competencies to AI-optimized content structures to new ways of measuring success—are now necessary to not only survive but thrive in this new landscape.
The Change in Content Marketing: What the HubSpot Case Teaches About the Future of Digital Communication
What happened to HubSpot and why is it relevant to everyone?
When reflecting on the developments in content marketing in recent years, one inevitably comes across a case that has made the entire industry sit up and take notice. It involves HubSpot, a company that for years was considered a prime example of successful search engine optimization. However, between 2024 and 2025, the company lost approximately 75 percent of its SEO traffic. Monthly visitors fell from 24.4 million in March 2023 to just 6.1 million in January 2025. These figures are not only dramatic for HubSpot, but symbolize a fundamental shift in the way content is consumed and discovered online.
Why is this case so significant? HubSpot wasn't just any company—it was the gold standard in B2B SEO, with a Domain Authority Score of 81 and over 120 million backlinks. When even such an industry leader loses traffic so drastically, it indicates structural changes that extend far beyond a single company. This case exemplifies how the rules of digital marketing are fundamentally changing under the influence of artificial intelligence.
What makes this traffic loss particularly remarkable? The numbers speak for themselves: From November 2024 to December 2024, organic traffic dropped from 13.5 million to 8.6 million visitors—a loss of nearly 5 million visitors in just one month. This trend continued until the company eventually landed at around 6-7 million monthly visitors. For a company that had built its reputation on content marketing, this was an unprecedented drop.
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How did HubSpot's content strategy work and why was it so successful?
To understand what went wrong, you first have to look at the strategy that had led HubSpot to success for years. The company pursued what could be called the "content game"—a mass-market approach to content creation. HubSpot published a massive number of how-to articles, a total of 13,000 URLs in the blog section alone. This strategy was based on the idea of being relevant to as many search queries as possible and thereby achieving maximum visibility.
The content spanned a wide range of topics, extending far beyond the company's core competency. HubSpot, originally a CRM provider, published articles on topics such as famous quotes, cover letter examples, resignation letter templates, and even business ideas for small businesses. This diversification of content was intended to cast the widest possible net and appeal to a variety of audiences.
What was the secret to this strategy's success? First of all, it actually worked—and worked very well for years. HubSpot was able to establish itself as an authority in the field of inbound marketing, a term the company itself had coined. The sheer volume of content ensured that HubSpot ranked for countless search terms, thereby continuously driving new visitors to the website. These visitors could then be converted into customers through clever marketing.
The strategy was based on several pillars: first, the continuous production of large volumes of content; second, the optimization of this content for search engines; and third, the interconnection of content through internal linking. HubSpot even developed its own content strategy tools to systematize and scale these processes. The company not only published dozens of articles per week but also focused on long-form content in the form of guides, how-to articles, and lists.
HubSpot actually lost approximately 75-80% of its organic blog traffic. This dramatic trend began in March 2024 and was significantly amplified by Google's algorithm updates in November and December 2024.
According to various SEO tools such as Ahrefs and SEMrush, HubSpot's organic traffic fell from approximately 13.5 million visitors in November 2024 to just 8.6 million in December 2024. By early 2025, traffic dropped to just 6-7 million monthly visitors—a dramatic decline from a peak of 24 million monthly visitors in 2022.
HubSpot's blog subdomain (blog.hubspot.com) was particularly affected, losing 81% of its traffic according to SurferSEO. The main domain, hubspot.com, was less affected.
Why the traffic loss occurred: Lack of thematic authority
HubSpot had pursued a broad content strategy for years, publishing content on topics far outside its core business as a CRM platform. Among the content particularly affected were:
◾️ Famous quotes and sales slogans
◾️ Cover letter examples
◾️ Resignation letter templates
◾️ Small business ideas
◾️ Affiliate programs
What role did Google's algorithm change play in HubSpot's decline?
HubSpot's dramatic traffic loss cannot be separated from the changes to Google's search algorithm. Several major updates in 2024 and 2025 fundamentally changed the rules of the game. The March 2024 update was particularly impressive—Google called it the largest in the company's history and promised a 45 percent reduction in low-quality, unoriginal content.
What exactly happened with these updates? Google began penalizing websites that published content outside their area of expertise—exactly what HubSpot had been doing for years. The search engine increasingly focused on the concept of "topical authority." Websites would no longer be rewarded for the breadth of their topics, but rather for the depth of their expertise in specific areas.
This development hit HubSpot particularly hard, as the company had pursued a very broad content strategy. Articles about famous quotes or resignation letters had little to do with HubSpot's core business as a CRM provider. Google began classifying such content as "SEO-first content"—that is, content created primarily for search engines, not for people. The algorithm updates aimed to remove useless or superficial content from search results and instead favor in-depth, relevant information.
In addition to the core updates, Google also implemented several spam updates aimed at combating manipulative practices. For example, the June 2024 Spam Update focused on automatically generated AI content solely designed to rank in search engines. These updates were part of Google's larger strategy to improve the quality of search results and provide users with more relevant information.
How is artificial intelligence changing the way we search for information?
Perhaps the most significant factor in HubSpot's traffic loss, however, was the introduction of Google's AI Overviews in May 2024. This feature generates AI-based summaries directly in search results, answering user queries without requiring them to click through to external websites. For companies like HubSpot, which relied heavily on informational, superficial content, this posed an existential threat.
How exactly do these AI overviews work? When a user asks a question, Google's AI analyzes various sources and creates a summarized answer that appears directly in the search results. These answers appear prominently at the top of the page, even before traditional organic search results. For many users, these summaries are sufficient to satisfy their information needs, eliminating the need to click through to the original sources.
The impact is measurable: Studies show that AI overviews appear in approximately 13.14 percent of all search queries, an increase of 6.49 percent in just a few months. The effect on click-through rates is even more dramatic: Websites lose between 15 and 60 percent of their traffic when their content is replaced by AI overviews. Informative content and superficial SEO strategies based on simple glossaries or lists are particularly affected.
What does this mean for users? On the one hand, they benefit from faster, more direct answers to their questions. Instead of having to search multiple websites, they receive the information they need immediately. On the other hand, this leads to the phenomenon of "zero-click searches" – search queries in which the user doesn't click on any further links because the AI answer is already sufficient.
What are zero-click searches and why are they problematic for content publishers?
Zero-click searches have become one of the defining features of the modern search landscape. With these search queries, users receive their answers directly on the Google search results page without having to click on external links. For publishers and content companies, this represents a fundamental shift: They continue to produce content but receive fewer direct visitors to their websites.
The numbers illustrate the scale of the problem: For large publishers like Mail Online, AI Overviews led to a drop in click-through rates of over 56 percent. Other major media companies experienced similar losses: At People.com, 71.2 percent of searches using AI Overviews resulted in zero clicks to the website. CBS News experienced even more drastic effects, with a 75 percent zero-click rate for searches using AI Overviews compared to 54 percent for regular searches.
Why is this development so problematic? The traditional business model of many online publishers is based on a simple principle: create content, attract visitors, place ads, or sell subscriptions. However, if visitors stop coming to the websites, this revenue chain breaks down. Publishers continue to invest time and resources in creating high-quality content, but the fruits of their labor are increasingly being "harvested" by AI systems without any corresponding compensation.
The problem is exacerbated by the fact that AI Overviews are particularly prevalent in information-heavy content—precisely the area in which many publishers excel. Areas such as science, healthcare, and law are seeing the strongest increases in AI Overviews, as Google prioritizes trust and factual accuracy in these areas. For news sites, this means that their valuable advice content and informative articles are being "cannibalized" by AI, while direct contact with readers is lost.
How can content creators respond to these changes?
In light of these dramatic changes, content creators are faced with the challenge of fundamentally rethinking their strategies. The traditional approach of producing as many superficial articles on various topics as possible is no longer successful. Instead, new approaches are needed that are aligned with the changing realities of AI-powered search.
A key strategy is building topical authority. Instead of producing broad content, companies should focus on their core competencies and create comprehensive, in-depth content in those areas. This means working on fewer topics but covering them exhaustively. A company should become the undisputed expert on a specific topic rather than writing superficially about hundreds of different areas.
What does this focused approach look like in practice? The concept of "pillar pages" and "topic clusters" offers a structured approach. Companies first create comprehensive, in-depth pages (pillar pages) on their main topics and supplement these with detailed articles (cluster pages) on specific subtopics. All of this content is connected by a logical internal linking structure, creating a coherent knowledge network for both users and search engines.
Another important aspect is the quality of the content. In an age where AI tools can easily generate average texts, it is becoming increasingly important to create content that goes beyond average. SEO experts are already using the phrase "average is the new bad." Only content that is so valuable and unique that users read it in its entirety and engage with it will be rewarded by Google.
What role does content structure play in AI-optimized content?
The way content is structured is becoming increasingly important in the AI era. AI systems like Google's AI Overviews prefer clearly structured, easily understandable content that they can easily analyze and summarize. This means that content creators no longer need to optimize their articles not only for human readers, but also for machine interpretation.
What makes content AI-friendly? First and foremost, clarity is crucial. Information should be organized into logical sections, with meaningful headings and subheadings that structure the content. Structured data also plays an important role, as it helps AI systems better understand the context and meaning of the content. Lists, tables, and other formatted elements make it easier for both humans and machines to quickly grasp relevant information.
Using long-tail keywords and answering specific questions is also particularly important. Instead of using general terms, content creators should identify precise questions their target audience is asking and answer them in detail. This increases the likelihood of the content being cited in AI Overviews, leading to a new form of visibility—being mentioned as a trusted source in AI-generated answers.
Content length also matters. While superficial, short articles can easily be replaced by AI summaries, comprehensive, in-depth essays offer value beyond auto-generated answers. These longer pieces of content can explain complexities, reveal nuances, and provide profound insights that an AI summary can't fully capture.
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Tools, metrics, teams: The checklist for AI-optimized content
How is the importance of backlinks and external signals changing?
Traditionally, backlinks were one of the most important ranking factors for search engines. But the AI era is bringing changes here as well. While backlinks are still important, their role has shifted in the context of the changing search landscape. The sheer number of backlinks has become less important than their quality and relevance to the specific topic.
What does this mean in practice? Companies should focus on obtaining backlinks from authoritative sources in their field, rather than randomly collecting links from random websites. One backlink from a recognized publication or industry expert is significantly more valuable than hundreds of links from irrelevant or low-quality sites. These high-quality backlinks signal to both search engines and AI systems that the linked website is a trustworthy source of information in that field.
However, external signals go beyond backlinks. Social media mentions, mentions in trade media, and the participation of industry experts in discussions about a company's content are becoming increasingly important. These signals help build external topical authority—a concept that describes how other websites and stakeholders perceive and recognize an organization's expertise.
This becomes particularly relevant in the context of AI Overviews and other AI-powered search functions. These systems consider not only a website's content, but also its reputation and credibility in the broader online community. A website with strong external signals has a better chance of being cited as a source in AI-generated answers, leading to a new form of visibility.
What impact does this have on different industries and business models?
The changes in the search landscape don't affect all industries and business models equally. While information-heavy sectors like news, advice websites, and educational providers are heavily impacted by zero-click searches, other sectors may even benefit. E-commerce websites, for example, are less at risk because AI overviews appear less frequently in product-related or transactional search queries.
Which industries are particularly affected? Media companies that rely heavily on informative content are experiencing the most dramatic declines. Lifestyle magazines, health portals, and how-to websites are systematically losing traffic because their content is frequently replaced by AI summaries. This is particularly problematic for companies whose business models are based on advertising or affiliate marketing, as both models depend on high visitor numbers.
On the other hand, new opportunities open up for companies that adapt their strategies. B2B service providers that can demonstrate in-depth subject-matter expertise benefit from focusing on subject-matter authority. Consulting firms, software providers, and specialized service providers can strengthen their position as industry experts through comprehensive, subject-specific content and thus generate more qualified leads.
Another interesting aspect is the geographical difference. While AI Overviews are already widespread in the US, their adoption is still underway in other markets. This gives companies in different regions different amounts of time to adapt their strategies. German companies, for example, still have the opportunity to learn from the experiences of their American counterparts and react proactively.
How should companies realign their content marketing budgets?
The dramatic changes in the search landscape require a reconsideration of budget allocation in content marketing. The previous strategy of producing as much content as possible is no longer cost-effective. Instead, companies should invest in less, higher-quality content that delivers real value to their target audiences.
Where should the priorities lie? A larger portion of the budget should be devoted to thorough research and planning. Instead of spontaneously creating articles on various topics, a strategic approach based on in-depth target audience analyses and keyword research is required. This preparatory work is more time-consuming and costly, but it leads to more targeted and effective content.
At the same time, quality assurance is becoming more important. Whereas the sheer volume of content used to be the focus, today the excellence of individual contributions is crucial. This means companies should invest in experienced content creators capable of developing in-depth, nuanced content. The cost per article is rising, but the potential value of each individual contribution is significantly higher.
The technical infrastructure also deserves more attention. Tools for content management, SEO analysis, and performance tracking are becoming more important as measuring success becomes more complex. It's no longer enough to simply look at traffic figures – companies need to understand how their content performs in AI overviews, which topics are preferred by AI systems, and how user behavior is changing.
Which tools and technologies are becoming more important for successful content marketing?
The content marketing tool landscape is changing as dramatically as the strategic approaches. While traditional SEO tools remain important, new categories of instruments are emerging, designed specifically for the AI era. These tools help optimize content that is relevant to both humans and AI systems.
Which new tool categories are gaining importance? AI analytics tools are becoming increasingly important for understanding how content is interpreted by different AI systems. These tools can predict which content is likely to appear in AI Overviews and provide recommendations for optimization. They also help measure content performance in a world of zero-click searches.
Content intelligence platforms are becoming indispensable tools for strategic planning. These systems analyze not only keywords and search volume, but also semantic correlations, user intent, and thematic gaps in the market. They help develop content strategies that are aligned with thematic authority rather than solely targeting individual keywords.
Tools for structured data markup and technical SEO optimization are also becoming particularly relevant. Since AI systems prefer structured information, content creators must ensure their content is machine-readable. Tools that help implement Schema.org markup, optimize rich snippets, and improve technical performance are becoming critical success factors.
How is the measurability of content marketing success changing?
One of the biggest challenges in the new era of content marketing is the changing way we measure success. Traditional KPIs like page views, dwell time, and bounce rate become less meaningful when a large portion of user interactions already take place on the search results page. Companies must develop new metrics and interpret existing ones differently.
Which new metrics are becoming relevant? Visibility in AI Overviews is becoming a key indicator of the success of content strategies. Companies should measure how frequently their content is cited as a source in AI-generated answers. Despite the traffic losses, HubSpot is showing an interesting development: The company has a 35.3 percent share of AI-generated answers in its category and is mentioned in over half of all brand mentions.
Brand mentions and share of voice in AI responses are becoming critical metrics. These metrics demonstrate a brand's presence in the new search landscape, even if direct website visits decline. A company can experience less traffic but still maintain a dominant position in its target audience's perception if it is regularly cited as an authority in AI responses.
At the same time, qualitative metrics are gaining importance. The engagement rate of users who actually visit the website is becoming more important than the absolute number of visitors. These users have already passed the "filter" of AI overviews and are looking for deeper information. Their conversion rates are often higher, and their behavior provides more valuable insights into the true effectiveness of the content strategy.
What impact does this have on the customer journey?
The way customers discover information and make purchasing decisions is fundamentally changing due to AI-powered search. The traditional customer journey, which began with searching for information on various websites, is increasingly being shortened or transformed by AI-powered responses. This has far-reaching implications for marketing and sales.
What does the new customer journey look like? The first contact with a topic or problem often occurs through AI overviews. Potential customers receive immediate answers to their basic questions without having to visit multiple websites. Only when they need more in-depth information or are looking for a specific solution do they click through to the original sources.
This means companies need to rethink their funnel strategies. The top part of the funnel—the awareness stage—is increasingly dominated by AI systems. Brands need to ensure they are present in these AI responses, even if they don't directly generate traffic. The middle and lower funnel stages, on the other hand, are becoming increasingly important, as the users who actually arrive on the website are already pre-qualified.
The change in the B2B sector is particularly interesting. While B2C purchases can often be made impulsively, B2B decisions usually require in-depth research and the comparison of various options. This is where companies that offer comprehensive, detailed content can gain an advantage, as AI systems can answer superficial questions but cannot replace the nuanced considerations necessary for complex business decisions.
What does this mean for the future of content marketing?
The developments surrounding HubSpot and the broader changes in the search landscape point to a fundamental transformation in content marketing. The era of mass-produced, SEO-optimized content is coming to an end. Instead, a new era is emerging in which quality, expertise, and genuine added value take center stage.
How will the industry evolve? Experts predict that the importance of AI Overviews and similar features will continue to grow. Google and other search engines are investing heavily in improving these technologies, as they significantly enhance the user experience. For content creators, this means they must learn to work in symbiosis with these systems rather than trying to circumvent them.
The future likely belongs to hybrid approaches optimized for both AI systems and human users. Successful content will be cited in AI overviews and provide deeper information for users who need more detail. This dual optimization requires new skills and approaches from content teams.
At the same time, personalization is becoming more important. As AI systems become increasingly adept at understanding individual user preferences, content strategies must also become more personalized. This means not only creating different content for different audiences, but also adapting content based on the context and customer journey stage of each user.
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What lessons can other companies learn from HubSpot's experience?
The HubSpot case offers valuable lessons for companies of all sizes and industries. Perhaps the most important is that even the most successful content marketing strategies of the past are not automatically suitable for the future. Companies must be willing to continually question and adapt their approaches.
What concrete steps should companies take? First, an honest assessment of their current content strategy is necessary. Companies should analyze which of their content is actually related to their core business and which may have been created solely for SEO purposes. Content that falls outside their core expertise should be critically examined or possibly removed.
At the same time, companies should invest in building true thematic authority. This means focusing on fewer topics, but covering them more comprehensively and in depth. Focusing on three to five core topics is often more effective than superficially covering 30 different areas.
Integrating AI optimization into content planning is also particularly important. Companies should consider how new content might be interpreted by AI systems right from the start. This doesn't mean writing exclusively for machines, but rather choosing structures and formats that are easily understandable for both humans and AI systems.
How can companies prepare their content teams for these changes?
The transformation of content marketing also requires new skills and competencies from the teams involved. Existing roles and processes must be reconsidered and potentially fundamentally redesigned. This applies to both strategic planning and the operational implementation of content projects.
What new skills are needed? Content creators must learn to write for multiple audiences: both human readers and AI systems. This requires a deeper understanding of how search engines and AI algorithms interpret content. At the same time, subject-matter depth is becoming more important—superficial generalists are being replaced by specialized experts who possess true authority in their fields.
Technical skills are also becoming increasingly important. Content teams need to understand how structured data works, how to optimize rich snippets, and how the technical aspects of website performance affect content performance. This requires closer collaboration between content and tech teams or the development of hybrid-skilled staff.
Analytical skills are becoming critical as measuring success becomes more complex. Content managers must learn to interpret new metrics and understand how to measure success in a world of zero-click searches. This requires both quantitative analytical skills and a qualitative understanding of how user behavior and brand perception are changing.
What does this change mean for the future of digital communication?
The HubSpot case is more than just the story of a single company—it symbolizes an epochal shift in the way information is created, distributed, and consumed online. The era of mass-produced, SEO-optimized content, which has shaped the digital landscape for over two decades, is coming to an end. It is being replaced by a new era in which quality triumphs over quantity and genuine expertise over superficial keyword optimization.
This transformation isn't just a technical adjustment, but a fundamentally new way of thinking about content marketing. Companies must abandon the notion that more content is automatically better. Instead, a more strategic, focused approach is needed, one based on building real authority and delivering genuine value.
The winners of this new era will be those willing to fundamentally rethink their strategies and invest in quality, expertise, and technical excellence. The losers will be those who cling to outdated models of mass content production and hope that the changes will reverse themselves.
The transformation is already underway and will accelerate in the coming years. Companies that act now and adapt their content strategies to the new reality have the opportunity to establish themselves as market leaders in the AI-powered search landscape. Those that wait too long risk being left behind and fading into insignificance.
So, HubSpot's story isn't the end of one era, but the beginning of a new one—an era in which content marketing comes of age and evolves from its quantity-oriented beginnings to a strategic, quality-driven approach that creates real value for users and businesses alike.
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