Chegg filed swimsuit in opposition to Google for adjustments of their algorithm forcing the corporate to contemplate a sale.
They allege the Google AI Overviews function shows Chegg’s AI-enabled Q&A homework helper. This swimsuit stands as the primary of its form difficult Google for altering search patterns, nevertheless it gained’t be the final.
The info tells a stark story. Chegg’s site visitors utilizing SEMRush analytics, their natural site visitors has dropped from 5.6 million to three.7 million guests in months—a 34% decline.
Natural key phrase quantity has shrunk from 11.1 million key phrases to three.5 million—a 68% collapse. This implies for tens of millions of scholar queries the place Chegg as soon as appeared, Google’s AI intercepts that site visitors.
Is that this an remoted case or a part of a broader shift?
To seek out out, I sampled a couple of different corporations. First: HubSpot. The sample is comparable,though it’s a really completely different product. B2B SaaS vs B2C content material.
Stack Overflow —the web’s premier data base for programmers is seeing the identical downward trajectory. When AI can instantly reply coding questions the place builders work, why go to a webpage?
Not all content material publishers are struggling. The New York Instances reveals a very reverse sample. Teir site visitors continues to surge upward and to the fitting on this identical timeframe.
What explains this stark distinction? Maybe a strategic association? The Instances signed a $100 million licensing cope with Google in 2023.
As AI brokers crawl and digest the web, we witness the delivery of a brand new financial hierarchy.
Content material publishers face an existential selection: forge partnerships with AI platforms, pivot their enterprise fashions, or watch their site visitors disappear into agentic solutions.
