HubSpot Lost 70% of Its Search Traffic and Still Gets Picked First by AI
A 21-section teardown of how HubSpot kept its place in AI answers after its blog lost 97% of its search traffic, and the plays behind it you can copy.
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What the deep dive covers
Slate pulled apart how HubSpot handled the fall of its blog traffic, from the product pages AI quotes to the media brands it bought, then checked how all of it shows up in AI search. Here's what came out of it.
How HubSpot Lost Its Traffic
What AI Really Cites
The Lists That Dropped It
Buying the Audience
Where HubSpot Is Exposed
Eight Plays to Copy
Get the deep dive
Slate emails you the Figma board. Nothing downloads from this page.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the HubSpot teardown?
It's a 21-section Figma board on how HubSpot kept its place in AI answers after its blog lost 97% of its search traffic. It walks through the plays behind that and how each one shows up in AI search.
What does the teardown cover?
HubSpot's traffic history, the pages and sites AI cites when it talks about HubSpot, the best-of lists that dropped it, the media brands it bought, its founders on LinkedIn, its new AEO tool, and the gaps a challenger could use. It's organized into 8 plays, and each ends with the move to copy.
Who is it for?
Growth, SEO, Content and GTM leaders at B2B companies who want to see what a category leader did when search traffic fell, and which of those moves could work for their own brand.
Where does the data come from?
Traffic, keyword and AI citation figures come from Ahrefs Site Explorer and Brand Radar. Slate ran live AI answers on ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. Company facts come from HubSpot's filings, announcements and interviews.
When was the data collected?
October and November 2026. The traffic, customer and AI answer figures reflect HubSpot's position at that time.
Why a Figma board instead of a PDF?
The board holds more than 50 screenshots of HubSpot's pages, AI answers and posts, placed next to the analysis they support. You can zoom into any section and see the evidence for each point.