Why HubSpot Lost 20M Clicks (and How They Plan to Recover)

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Oct 2, 2025

HubSpot’s organic traffic plummeted dramatically from 24M to just 3.6M clicks. Discover the reasons their top-of-funnel strategy failed and their exciting pivot to product-focused content. Learn how pruning irrelevant pages and using experiment tracking can lead to better SEO results. HubSpot is shifting their focus to down-funnel keywords and new success metrics like brand mentions and sentiment. Tune in for insights on where SEO is headed and how to avoid the missteps of even the biggest brands.

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ANECDOTE

Relentless Daily Podcasting

Edward flew to another city to keep producing his daily podcast during a flood warning.
He also recorded after medical procedures, highlighting his commitment to daily publishing.

INSIGHT

Shift Content Closer To Product

HubSpot shifted blog content down-funnel to strengthen semantic ties to product.
Moving content closer to product aims to capture more valuable, conversion-ready queries.

INSIGHT

Massive Organic Traffic Collapse

HubSpot's organic clicks fell from 24M to 3.6M monthly and top-3 keywords collapsed dramatically.
Their ranking footprint shrank from 4.7M keywords to 2.1M and top-three positions from 307k to 53k.

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E820: HubSpot’s organic traffic collapsed from 24M monthly clicks down to just 3.6M - their lowest since 2018.

At Inbound 2025, they shared how they plan to recover with a new SEO and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) strategy.

I break down: - The shocking data behind HubSpot’s SEO decline - Why top-of-funnel content stopped working - Their pivot to product-focused & down-funnel content - Content pruning, refreshing, and experiment tracking - The new success metrics HubSpot is using (mentions, citations, share of voice, sentiment)

This is a must-watch if you want to understand where SEO is heading in 2026 - and how to avoid the mistakes even huge brands like HubSpot made.

⭐️ Gagan Ghotra’s post - https://x.com/gaganghotra_/status/1972968409995624781 ⭐️ Content Refreshes in SEO: How to Double Your Traffic Fast - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/content-refreshes-seo-double-traffic-fast/ ⭐️ Work Momentum During a Flood - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTnjb-BGBIQ ⭐️ 1 Billion Users on Google Discover - The SEO Opportunity Everyone’s Sleeping On - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8X4y9yDP18 ⭐️ How I Run SEO Experiments - https://youtu.be/bwWFAnc_cB4?si=moUBLZO5o-BSZ77Z

💎 Compact Keywords - My SEO Course - Get paying customers through SEO - Clear step-by-step video breakdowns - SEO templates to be copied and adapted for your products and services: https://compactkeywords.com/

00:00 The Flood That Almost Stopped the Podcast 01:23 Introduction to HubSpot's Inbound 2025 Conference 02:11 Gagan Ghotra's Insights on HubSpot's Strategy 02:22 HubSpot's Content Strategy Shift 03:20 SEO Challenges and Changes at HubSpot 05:40 Focusing on Product-Related Topics 07:50 Experimenting with New Tactics 08:42 Updating and Pruning Content 11:17 Adopting New Metrics for Success 12:00 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/

#searchengineoptimization #contentmarketing #seotips #digitalmarketing