AI causes the fall (downhill and without brakes) of web traffic: this is how brands can defend themselves

It’s no secret that The loud entry on the scene of AI is causing an earthquake of many degrees on the Richter scale in web trafficwhich is collapsing (in some cases quite dramatically) because of Google and its “AI Overview” and also ChatGPT and other AI chatbots.

By providing the user with direct and concise answers to their questions, AI results significantly reduce the need to click on web pages (to the despair of both brands and publishers). The collapse in web traffic inevitably puts advertisers in trouble, particularly those who rely on “inbound marketing” to fuel their promotional efforts.

According to the data managed by HubSpotcurrently only 40% of searches performed on Google end in a click. The American multinational software company, whose client portfolio is made up mainly of SMEs and also some large corporations, has its focus on CRM solutions and “inbound marketing” and, because the problem affects it directly, it did not take long to realize that a problem was brewing. «web traffic apocalypse» (as HubSpot CEO Yamini Rangan himself refers to this phenomenon).

Fighting the “web traffic apocalypse”

And precisely for this reason HubSpot has launched a whole plethora of products specially designed to combat this apocalypse.. These products are adapted to a new reality in which simple SEO strategies inevitably remain lame and the so-called AEO (AI Engine Optimization) must also inevitably be placed in the spotlight.

In the new context posed by AI, becoming visible to the eyes of large language models (LLM) is an absolutely unavoidable priority for brands.which in view of the fact that more and more queries are answered directly by ChatGPT and company, they must focus a good part of their efforts on appearing in the answers provided by artificial intelligence.

HubSpot has, for example, lifted the curtain on an AEO tool that informs brands about their presence (or absence) in AI-generated responses.. This tool also allows brands to identify which sources AI draws on (blogs, product pages or social networks) and in which contexts they are mentioned by this technology. This HubSpot solution is in any case similar to the functionalities already offered by players such as Adobe, Salesforce and Yext.

The company insists, on the other hand, that “inbound marketing” is in no way dead and that it is simply changing. Content, the main raw material of “inbound marketing”, continues to be highly demanded by the consumer, as was already the case before AI entered the scene, which has, however, led to the rules of the game changing. If before everything started in the search box of search engines, now many people begin their “customer journey” by asking questions not so much to Google but to ChaGPT and other similar chatbots.

In the new era ushered in by AI, el «inbound marketing» muta en «loop marketing»a term with which HubSpot refers to the constant (and literally looping) optimization that brands need to instill in their content.

Thinking about the new needs of advertisers, HubSpot has equipped, for example, its Marketing Hub platform with tools focused on AI such as “Marketing Studio.”which allows you to illuminate complete campaigns (including newsletters, landing pages or posts for social networks) from a simple briefing.

AI has not killed inbound marketing, it has changed it

HubSpot has also released new features in its Data Hub platform, which has been redesigned to connect, clean and enrich the multiple data sources used within companies. and thus create consistent and updated “datasets” that can be directly integrated into CRM systems and marketing campaigns.

On the other hand, and in line with what many other martech solutions companies are already doing, HubSpot has launched more than 20 AI agents, which are now available on the Breeze platform and with which it is possible, among other things, to identify potential clients, prepare sales staff for meetings and suggest strategies, create content for different platforms or adapt existing content to channels other than the one for which they were originally conceived.

Through Breeze Studio HubSpot also allows brands to develop their own AI agentsadapt existing agents to align with your needs or integrate third-party agents. The company is fully convinced that the present and future of AI largely depends on open ecosystems and for this reason it has forged multiple alliances in recent months with platforms such as Canva, HeyGen, Synthesia, Deep Research Connector (ChatGPT) and Claude (Anthropic).

With its latest innovations, HubSpot wants to help brands not so much to sneak into the first Google search results (which was previously the main objective) but to be part of the answers. (regardless of the form they take). In the new landscape drawn by AI, visibility no longer comes from mass but from relevance in the right places. Brands do not need, therefore, to appear everywhere, but in truly relevant channels (which are increasingly the results generated with AI). And HubSpot is ready to provide support to brands so that they can make their way to where the answers are, which are increasingly coming from the lips of AI and when they do so, they are also bearers of very good news for advertisers. The company estimates that the “leads” that take root in the results generated with AI translate into three times more conversions than those coming from more traditional SEO.