HubSpot, a global leader in marketing and CRM software, has recently made headlines for an unexpected and significant decline in its organic search traffic. This drop, from 34.4 million visits in November 2024 to just 17.6 million in December 2024, has sparked widespread discussion in the digital marketing world. While HubSpot has long been admired for its strong content marketing and SEO strategies, this downturn is a cautionary tale for all content creators and marketers. Let’s dive into what went wrong and how businesses can avoid a similar fate.
Google’s core updates in 2024 focused on improving content relevance, depth and topical authority. These updates aimed to prioritize websites offering in-depth, high-quality content on their core topics. HubSpot’s strategy of publishing content on a broad range of topics, including those outside its primary expertise, likely caused a drop in its perceived authority.
For Example: Articles on tangential topics such as "famous quotes" or "generic life advice" diluted its focus, making it vulnerable to Google’s evolving algorithms.
Despite its vast library of blog posts, much of HubSpot’s content was labeled as "thin" or too generic. Search engines and users alike value actionable, detailed and original content that stands out in competitive niches. The lack of depth in certain articles may have contributed to lower rankings.
HubSpot’s strategy heavily relied on publishing a large volume of content. While this tactic can drive traffic, it risks diluting quality. In the long term, search engines prioritize quality over quantity, especially when updates emphasize expertise and relevance.
With years of aggressive blogging, HubSpot might have inadvertently created multiple posts competing for the same keywords. Content cannibalization confuses search engines, leading to lower rankings for all similar posts rather than boosting a single authoritative page.
The rise of AI-driven search (e.g., Google Bard, ChatGPT, Bing AI) has changed how users interact with content. Simple queries may now yield instant answers directly on search engines, reducing traffic to informational blog posts. HubSpot’s reliance on such queries could have impacted its organic performance.