Google has remained a stable source of traffic to news publishers over the past year. Although many websites have seen their traffic significantly impacted by Google’s AI Overviews, Chartbeat data shows that for 565 U.S. and UK news publishers:
- Search referrals made up 19% of traffic in July, little changed since early 2019.
- Google dominates search traffic: 96% of publisher referrals.
Yes, but. “Search” here includes Google Discover, which is not traditional search. Discover is now the primary driver of Google referrals.
Why we care. Search traffic hasn’t collapsed. However, the stability is somewhat masked by a shift from traditional Google Search to Google Discover.
Dig deeper. Google says AI is boosting Search. Yes, but…
Direct traffic is shaky. Efforts to build a loyal, “type-in” audience have largely stalled, leaving publishers more dependent on Google and aggregators. Direct traffic to homepages and landing pages has fallen to 11.5% from a pandemic-era high of 16.3%.
Social keeps sinking. Social’s decline means fewer diversified referral sources:
- Facebook referrals are down 50% since 2019, despite a recent bump.
- X traffic is down 75% vs. 2019.
- Only Reddit is surging – up 220% since 2019, boosted by Google visibility and an AI training deal (but it still sends less referrals than Facebook and X).
The report. Publisher traffic sources: Google steady but social and direct referrals are down, as reported by PressGazette