Website Traffic Is Dying. Here’s What's Next

Free: 15 prompts to keep your brand visible in search https://clickhubspot.com/wz06 68% of Google searches now end without a click. For every 1,000 searches in the US, only a couple hundred clicks ever reach the open web. Search itself is growing faster than ever. The traffic just isn't coming back to your website. Amanda Natividad of SparkToro, co-author of Zero-Click Marketing with Rand Fishkin, joins Kipp and Kieran with the 2026 data and a plan for what to do about it. They get into why AI is accelerating a ten-year trend instead of starting one, why abandoning SEO would still be a mistake, and why search is now a behavior that happens on Google, Amazon, TikTok, Reddit, and ChatGPT all at once. Ep 454 Mentions: Amanda Natividad ⁠LinkedIn: amandanat Zero Click Marketing ⁠https://zeroclickmarketing.co SparkToro ⁠https://sparktoro.com Loop: Outlearn. Outmarket. Outgrow ⁠https://www.hubspot.com/loop-marketin... 📌 WHAT WE COVER: → The 2026 zero-click study: 68% of Google searches end without a click → Where the remaining clicks go: paid ads, Google's own properties, and the open web → Why this trend is ten years old and AI is only speeding it up → Publishers blocking AI crawlers and what that means for the open web → Where search actually happens now: Google, e-commerce, social, and AI tools → Should you abandon SEO for answer engine optimization? → "Search is a behavior, not a platform" → The HubSpot traffic story: what was lost, what was kept, and why revenue still grew → Building an audience vs building the right audience → Why the transient-traffic era of marketing is over → Chasing the algorithm vs serving your audience, and what changed on this channel → Riches in the niches: why depth matters 10x more in the AI era → The five rules of zero-click marketing → Channel, source, tactic: how to go where your people are → Duolingo, zero-click value, and "value debt" → Using audience research to find the platforms your customers over-index on 🎙️ Hosts: Kipp Bodnar and Kieran Flanagan Guest: Amanda Natividad, SparkToro, co-author of Zero-Click Marketing ⏱️ CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Search is growing, but the clicks are vanishing 01:00 - The 2026 data: 68% of Google searches end without a click 02:35 - Where the clicks go, and is the open web dying? 05:05 - Where people actually search now (it's not just Google) 06:45 - Should you abandon SEO for AEO? 08:50 - HubSpot lost 140 million visits. Here's what happened 13:20 - Building the right audience vs chasing transient traffic 15:55 - Chasing the algorithm vs serving your audience 18:40 - Riches in the niches: why depth beats breadth with AI 20:40 - The 5 rules of zero-click marketing 22:20 - Go where your people are: channel, source, tactic 24:25 - Duolingo, zero-click value, and "value debt" 26:40 - How to find the platforms your audience really uses 31:35 - From volume to value: final takeaways 📺 Subscribe to Marketing Against the Grain for weekly episodes on AI, marketing, and growth. #ZeroClickMarketing #ZeroClickSearch #SEO #AEO #GoogleSearch #AISearch #SparkToro #AmandaNatividad #ContentStrategy #AudienceResearch #B2BMarketing #AIMarketing #MarketingStrategy #HubSpot #MarketingAgainstTheGrain Host Links: 📲Kipp Bodnar, Twitter: kippbodnar 📲Kieran Flanagan, Twitter: searchbrat ‘Marketing Against The Grain’ is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by The HubSpot Podcast Network // Produced by Darren Clarke. About the Show Kipp Bodnar, HubSpot’s CMO and Kieran Flanagan Hubspot's SVP of Marketing, lead you down the rabbit hole of marketing trends, growth tactics and innovation. On the way you’ll pick up undiscovered strategies to give you that slight edge for success. These are not your typical twitter thread regurgitated marketing tactics that everyone is doing. These are new methods, with unfiltered examination of successful fresh ideas.