Why Did HubSpot Lose So Much Website Traffic to AI Search and Google AI Overviews?

What happened, and when?

Semrush's estimate fell from about 14.8 million monthly visits in January 2024 to about 2.8 million in January 2025. Ahrefs showed a similar proportion from a lower starting point. According to Surfer's review of Ahrefs data, the number of keywords where the blog ranked in the top three fell from about 138,000 to 30,000 over the year. These are modelled estimates from ranking data, not HubSpot's analytics.

Why did rankings fall before AI Overviews mattered?

The timing points to Google's quality systems first. The biggest drops came with core and spam updates, and many of the lost rankings were for queries far from HubSpot's products: general how-to and reference topics that a CRM company's blog had covered to attract traffic. SEO analysts read Google's updates in this period as favouring sites with first-hand expertise on a topic and reducing the reach of large sites ranking broadly outside their core subject; Google itself described its March 2024 update as cutting low-quality, unoriginal content.

Two further details support this reading:

• Rankings moved, not only clicks. AI Overviews reduce clicks at a given position, but HubSpot lost positions themselves, which points to ranking systems rather than answer boxes.
• Some queries moved to other HubSpot pages. Surfer found cases where the blog lost a top result while another HubSpot subdomain still ranked.

How much did AI Overviews contribute?

A real but secondary share. For the informational queries HubSpot still ranked for, AI Overviews reduced clicks, as they did across the web. Ahrefs's analysis of 300,000 keywords estimated that AI Overviews cut the click-through rate of the top result by 58% by December 2025. HubSpot's CEO named AI Overviews on the August 2025 earnings call: "AI overviews are giving answers, and fewer people are clicking through to websites." More people, she added, were turning to AI assistants instead of searching.

Separating the two causes precisely is impossible from outside, because the same queries were affected by both. The honest summary is that rankings fell first, and AI Overviews then shrank the clicks from what remained. How to measure the AI Overview share on your own site is covered in how to track clicks and content performance from AI Overviews.

What does HubSpot say?

HubSpot's CMO, Kipp Bodnar, addressed the claims directly in a blog post, updated in July 2026. His account:

• The decline was partly by design. HubSpot had shifted from broad informational content to content built for influence, and put more effort into YouTube, podcasts, newsletters and social, rather than page views.
• No-click searches did cannibalise informational traffic, across the web and for HubSpot.
• LLM visibility grew. HubSpot content was increasingly cited in AI answers, and traffic from AI assistants was rising.
• Transactional search stayed strong. For queries about specific products, actions and problems, HubSpot said its search volume had grown substantially.

On the earnings call, Rangan said HubSpot was cited in AI answers more than any other CRM, and that only about 10% of leads came from blog traffic. That helps explain why a large traffic loss did not show up as a business crisis. Why HubSpot appears so often in AI answers is covered in why HubSpot dominates AI answers.

What can other companies learn?

• Traffic is not the goal. Much of what HubSpot lost was traffic that rarely converted. Measure leads and revenue by content type, not visits.
• Stay close to your expertise. Broad content outside your field was the most exposed, both to Google's updates and to AI answers.
• Informational queries are the most at risk from AI answers. Plan for fewer clicks on "what is" and "how to" topics, and value being cited.
• Transactional and problem-specific pages hold up better. Pages that help someone choose or buy have kept more of their clicks so far, because AI Overviews appear on fewer of those queries, though that share is rising.
• Diversify discovery. Video, newsletters, podcasts and community reach people who never click a search result.
• Treat third-party estimates as estimates. Tools model traffic from rankings; your own analytics may show a different size of change.

The wider trend is covered in whether AI search is reducing organic website traffic, and how much traffic AI tools send in return in how much website traffic AI search engines actually send.

We have no access to HubSpot's analytics. This page is based on HubSpot's public statements, its earnings call as reported, and third-party analyses of Ahrefs and Semrush estimates.

Could the same happen to your site?

Check where your organic traffic comes from before a drop, not after:

1. Group landing pages by topic, and mark which topics sit inside your expertise and which do not.
2. Compare leads and revenue by group. If most traffic comes from topics that rarely convert, it is at risk and may not matter much.
3. Check which queries now show AI Overviews, using a rank tracker, and how their click-through rate has moved.
4. Look at ranking changes around core updates, separately from click changes, to tell the two causes apart.

A site whose traffic is concentrated in off-topic, informational content is exposed in the same way HubSpot's blog was.

What might this look like in practice?

Consider an illustrative accounting software company, Tallyhall, whose blog had grown on general business topics such as "how to write a resignation letter". After a core update, those pages lost rankings, and AI Overviews answered many of the rest. Traffic fell by 60%, but when the team checked leads by page, 85% came from product comparisons, tax deadline guides and software how-tos, which had held up. The company pruned the off-topic posts, deepened its accounting guides, and started reporting leads and AI citations rather than total sessions.

What do people ask about HubSpot's traffic drop?

Did HubSpot really lose 80% of its traffic?

That figure is a third-party estimate for its blog's Google traffic in 2024. HubSpot has not disclosed exact numbers.

Was the drop caused by AI Overviews?

Partly. Rankings fell first during Google's 2024 core and spam updates, and AI Overviews then reduced clicks on informational queries.

How did HubSpot respond?

It shifted towards influence-focused content, video and other channels, and focused on transactional search and AI visibility.

Did the traffic loss hurt HubSpot's leads?

HubSpot said only about 10% of its leads came from blog traffic, and transactional search remained strong.