We don’t mean to hit you with the cold water here, but…
Publishers are feeling the sting from Google Search. And aloe vera probably won’t help.
Here are the numbers, according to DCN reports:
- Median referrals are down 10% in just eight weeks.
- Non-news brands got hit hardest—they’re down 14%.
- News sites slipped 7%.
Google claims AI in Search is boosting clicks, of course, but some datasets say otherwise. And as we’ve mentioned before, Google isn’t transparent about its metrics, which doesn’t help.
Chartbeat does offer nuance, however: According to Chartbeat’s data, overall search traffic is steady… but social referrals are cratering.
Facebook is down 50% since 2019, and X has plunged 65% since Musk’s takeover. Reddit is the outlier—it’s up 220%, thanks in part to a $60M Google AI training deal.
And if you were holding out hope that viral social posts will help your rankings, Google’s Gary Illyes just crushed it: Social shares aren’t and won’t be a ranking factor.
They’re too easy to gamify, and they’re outside of Google’s control, which is probably the biggest reason why Google doesn’t like them.
Don’t get discouraged, however. You can still drive traffic, and many brands are. There’s just more pressure on marketers to…
