Exclusive: Small publishers hit hardest by search traffic declines

"Page views from Google Search and Google Discover - the two biggest referrers of traditional search traffic globally - fell 34% and 15%, respectively, from December 2024 to December 2025. While page views from ChatGPT referrals have increased by more than 200% during that period, chatbots still account for less than 1% of all publisher page view referrals."

"Over the past two years, referral traffic from traditional search engines has declined by 60% for small publishers, compared with 47% for medium-sized publishers and 22% for large publishers, per Chartbeat. Chartbeat aggregates that data from thousands of client websites that use its revenue and analytics tools globally."

"Search traffic for news and media sites, in particular, is being partially offset by new referral channels, such as direct traffic and internal traffic, or traffic that comes from a different page on the same website. Referrals from email, apps and instant messages are also growing as a share of overall traffic."

Chartbeat data reveals significant disparities in search traffic decline across publisher sizes from 2024 to 2025. Small publishers experienced a 60% referral traffic drop, compared to 47% for medium-sized and 22% for large publishers. Google Search and Google Discover saw respective declines of 34% and 15%. While ChatGPT referrals increased over 200%, they represent less than 1% of total publisher referrals, failing to offset search losses. Overall web traffic declined only 6%, attributed to external factors like election cycles. Larger publishers mitigate declines through diversified referral channels including direct traffic, email, apps, and internal links, suggesting sophisticated publishers adapt better to shifting search dynamics.

Read at Axios