What went wrong and why?

Hubspot’s SEO strategy is the talk of the SEO world today. Why? Just look at this picture:

Organic traffic appears to have plummeted, falling from 13.5 million in November to 8.6 million in December, according to Semrush (Disclosure: Search Engine Land is a Semrush company). HubSpot’s blog seems to have had the biggest impact.

It could be that Google wants to stop rewarding sites that publish content outside of their area of ​​expertise – that lacks depth and topical authority. The type of content that is more focused on getting organic Google traffic than being written for people. What Google might call “SEO-first content” (or useful content).

Some of the topics that seem to have seen a huge drop for HubSpot are blogs about famous quotes, how to write a resignation letter, and cover letter examples.

Why do we care? SEO is getting harder. For years, HubSpot has executed a masterful content strategy that has been emulated by countless other brands and websites. For years, it was considered by many to be the gold standard of B2B seller blogs. Now, the SEO guide seems to no longer work, probably due to a combination of Google’s core updates and AI reports. Think depth, not breadth.

SEO response. Some SEOs blame the huge drop in traffic on HubSpot’s lack of up-to-date authority, while others point to potential “thin content” issues. Here’s a sampling of some of the reactions to HubSpot’s SEO results falling off a cliff:

Taylor (Berg) Chapa, Group Manager, Web Strategy & Experience at Headspace, had a great one thread on Xsome points of interest:

• “I don’t want a [mental health] to put the company under ‘why I feel funny when I’m in love’ or ‘thanksgiving’ or ‘love quotes’ is not a good use of resources and we weren’t the place for it.’
• “Our biggest competitor focused so heavily on traffic that it couldn’t even rank for MH keywords. And still not. and it’s all because they have a “traffic at any cost” keyword strategy.

Gemma Brunson wrote on X:

• “So about that massive drop on the HubSpot blog…just look at what they published.” They deserve a smooch for being so lazy SEOs and content marketers!”

Chris Long had an interesting analysis of HubSpot’s blog traffic X.

Adam Ryan, CEO of Workweek, wrote further X:

• “If true, it’s very bad for companies that are heavily dependent on SEO. HubSpot has one of the best blogs, invests heavily in this content and has for over a decade. When they can’t…”