Chartbeat Data: Small Publishers Lost 60% of Google Search Traffic in Two Years as AI Answers Erode Clicks

New data from Chartbeat, covering thousands of global publisher sites, shows that small publishers (1,000–10,000 daily pageviews) lost 60% of Google Search referral traffic over two years. Mid-sized publishers lost 47%; large publishers lost 22%. Google Search pageviews fell 34% year over year; Google Discover dropped 15%. ChatGPT referrals rose 200% but still account for less than 1% of total publisher traffic. Total weekly pageviews fell just 6% from 2024 to 2025, suggesting traffic is shifting to direct, internal, and messaging channels rather than disappearing entirely.