Search Traffic Down 60% for Small Publishers
Plus: Instagram adds links to captions (for paying users)
Hello! I’m back after some time travelling.
One article that caught my attention over the last few days was this piece from Search Engine Journal, which highlights that small publishers are seeing a 60% decrease in search referral traffic - and nothing is replacing it.
This symptom of “zero click” has been theorised for some time now, but seems to now actually be happening, and is obviously starting to hit the pockets of small publishers.
What’s interesting, and more concerning, however is that while search traffic has declined, Chatbots contribute 1% of publisher page view referrals. In other words, clicks from AI tools aren’t coming anywhere near close to filling the gap left by search traffic.
Why is this? Well, AI summaries, either via Google or chatbot, are answering and summarising questions - not sending traffic. They aren’t trying to either - there are no CTAs, or intentions to “find out more here.” This is breaking the traditional content monetisation model.
What does this mean for small publishers? Nothing good - these tend to be the sites with the least resources and capability to suddenly turn on new streams or channels.
Which begs the question - how are these publishers adapting? Well, I’d expect to see a number of them turning even more to clickbait or polarising content in a bid to try and win social algorithms instead.
We might also see more of these publishers becoming social media-first enterprises, but otherwise would expect to see more consolidation for major publishers.
Further Reading
Last year, Meta vowed to stop illegal financial ads in the UK - though, as a Reuters investigation has found, it is currently failing spectacularly.
Elsewhere, Meta is testing clickable links in Instagram captions - but, importantly, for verified subscribers only. Instagram’s thing for a long time was that you couldn’t put links in posts - now in a bid to further monetise the platform, this looks like it might soon be changing.
This isn’t necessarily the end of the ubiquitous “link in bio” as this will only be pay-to-play, but interesting nonetheless.
Meta is also trying to tempt creators away from TikTok with bonuses for posting on Facebook.
FIFA and YouTube have agreed a partnership whereby broadcast partners will be able to stream select games on the platform. FIFA has hailed this as a game changer, though I can’t help but wonder why you’d bother watching on YouTube when you can likely watch via the broadcast partner - but I’m curious to see how it goes.
That’s it for this week! I’ll be back next week. If you found this interesting, I would hugely appreciate it if you shared with your friends and colleagues.
If you’re feeling particularly generous and enjoyed this edition, I won’t stop you from buying me a coffee. Otherwise, I’ll see you next time 🫶