Reddit's CEO Confirms Declining Google Search Traffic as Stock Drops 36% in a Week
TLDR
Reddit's stock fell 36% over the past week after CEO Steve Huffman confirmed that Google Search traffic to the platform has been declining.
Optimixed Overview
Optimixed's original report on this story.
Reddit's stock dropped 36% over the past week after CEO Steve Huffman confirmed that Google Search traffic to the platform has been declining, as first reported by SERoundtable. The decline was something many SEO professionals had expected would eventually happen.
How we got here: earlier coverage
- Nov 1Reddit Looks to Shift Toward a Logged-In Experience
Reddit's U.S. weekly active count fell in the third quarter and search referral traffic dropped significantly, though revenue rose more than 50%, as the company moves toward a logged-in experience.
- Oct 31Reddit Search Referrals Fell by Over 1 Million a Week in October, Huffman Blames AI Mode
Reddit's CEO Steve Huffman says search referrals to Reddit fell by more than 1 million a week in October and blames Google's AI Mode, which he says sends no traffic to Reddit.
- Oct 30Reddit Says Search Referrals Are Falling and Its CEO Points to Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, as It Tests a Login-Only Mode
Reddit says its search referrals are falling and CEO Steve Huffman points to Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, while Reddit tests a login-only mode.
- Aug 19Reddit's Share of ChatGPT Search Citations Crashed 86% in Four Days, Promptwatch Data Shows
Reddit's citations in ChatGPT Search dropped from ~3.8% to ~0.5% between August 8 and 17, per Promptwatch monitoring data, while Google's AI products showed only gradual declines.