SEO
Top Google Searches (US & Worldwide)
Are you wondering what people in the U.S. (and around the world) are searching for the most? Then you’re in luck!
We’ve pulled four lists from our database of 19.8 billion keywords:
| # | Keyword | Search volume |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 160,000,000 | |
| 2 | youtube | 151,000,000 |
| 3 | amazon | 121,000,000 |
| 4 | weather | 103,000,000 |
| 5 | 70,000,000 | |
| 6 | walmart | 63,000,000 |
| 7 | gmail | 59,000,000 |
| 8 | google translate | 42,000,000 |
| 9 | home depot | 41,000,000 |
| 10 | yahoo mail | 39,000,000 |
| 11 | yahoo | 38,000,000 |
| 12 | wordle | 34,000,000 |
| 13 | election results | 33,000,000 |
| 14 | fox news | 32,000,000 |
| 15 | december global holidays | 28,000,000 |
| 16 | ebay | 28,000,000 |
| 17 | food near me | 28,000,000 |
| 18 | 26,000,000 | |
| 19 | costco | 24,000,000 |
| 20 | restaurants near me | 24,000,000 |
| 21 | nfl | 24,000,000 |
| 22 | nba | 24,000,000 |
| 23 | google maps | 24,000,000 |
| 24 | amazon prime | 23,000,000 |
| 25 | starbucks | 23,000,000 |
| 26 | weather tomorrow | 23,000,000 |
| 27 | best buy | 22,000,000 |
| 28 | cnn | 22,000,000 |
| 29 | walgreens | 21,000,000 |
| 30 | translate | 20,000,000 |
| 31 | espn | 20,000,000 |
| 32 | lowes | 20,000,000 |
| 33 | mcdonalds | 19,000,000 |
| 34 | craigslist | 19,000,000 |
| 35 | usps tracking | 19,000,000 |
| 36 | news | 19,000,000 |
| 37 | zillow | 18,000,000 |
| 38 | traductor | 18,000,000 |
| 39 | nfl scores | 17,000,000 |
| 40 | calculator | 16,000,000 |
| 41 | 16,000,000 | |
| 42 | target | 16,000,000 |
| 43 | wells fargo | 15,000,000 |
| 44 | netflix | 15,000,000 |
| 45 | restaurants | 15,000,000 |
| 46 | bank of america | 15,000,000 |
| 47 | food | 14,000,000 |
| 48 | chick fil a | 14,000,000 |
| 49 | cvs | 14,000,000 |
| 50 | indeed | 14,000,000 |
| 51 | google docs | 14,000,000 |
| 52 | trump | 14,000,000 |
| 53 | macys | 13,000,000 |
| 54 | bba scores | 13,000,000 |
| 55 | etsy | 12,000,000 |
| 56 | kohls | 12,000,000 |
| 57 | msn | 12,000,000 |
| 58 | roblox | 12,000,000 |
| 59 | dominos | 12,000,000 |
| 60 | shein | 11,000,000 |
| 61 | hotmail | 11,000,000 |
| 62 | google classroom | 11,000,000 |
| 63 | bitcoin price | 11,000,000 |
| 64 | aol mail | 10,000,000 |
| 65 | ups tracking | 10,000,000 |
| 66 | pizza hut | 10,000,000 |
| 67 | facebook login | 10,000,000 |
| 68 | fedex tracking | 10,000,000 |
| 69 | walmart near me | 9,900,000 |
| 70 | autozone | 9,700,000 |
| 71 | taco bell | 9,700,000 |
| 72 | maps | 9,600,000 |
| 73 | usps | 9,500,000 |
| 74 | english to spanish | 9,500,000 |
| 75 | dollar tree | 9,400,000 |
| 76 | tiempo | 9,300,000 |
| 77 | gas station | 9,300,000 |
| 78 | gmail login | 9,000,000 |
| 79 | lakers | 9,000,000 |
| 80 | southwest airlines | 8,700,000 |
| 81 | google flights | 8,600,000 |
| 82 | dow jones | 8,500,000 |
| 83 | american airlines | 8,500,000 |
| 84 | restaurant | 8,400,000 |
| 85 | paypal | 8,300,000 |
| 86 | chipotle | 8,300,000 |
| 87 | old navy | 8,300,000 |
| 88 | ikea | 8,200,000 |
| 89 | airbnb | 8,100,000 |
| 90 | capital one | 8,100,000 |
| 91 | 8,000,000 | |
| 92 | speed test | 8,000,000 |
| 93 | google drive | 7,900,000 |
| 94 | spanish to english | 7,800,000 |
| 95 | amc stock | 7,800,000 |
| 96 | fedex | 7,700,000 |
| 97 | coffee | 7,700,000 |
| 98 | hobby lobby | 7,500,000 |
| 99 | gas | 7,500,000 |
| 100 | facebook marketplace | 7,500,000 |
Sidenote.
We removed all NSFW queries from this list. What you see above are the top 100 “clean” search queries. You can see the full list with NSFW keywords in Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer.
Before we move on to the next list of trending keywords, it’s important to understand what search volume is and how it works.
Search volume
Search volume shows how many times a given keyword gets searched for in Google per month. And because the search demand for many keywords tends to fluctuate from month to month, the number that we give you is an annual average.
| # | Keyword | Search volume |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | youtube | 1,163,000,000 |
| 2 | 1,033,000,000 | |
| 3 | 513,000,000 | |
| 4 | whatsapp web | 490,000,000 |
| 5 | weather | 400,000,000 |
| 6 | gmail | 394,000,000 |
| 7 | translate | 367,000,000 |
| 8 | amazon | 348,000,000 |
| 9 | google translate | 332,000,000 |
| 10 | 301,000,000 | |
| 11 | traductor | 235,000,000 |
| 12 | hotmail | 206,000,000 |
| 13 | cricbuzz | 196,000,000 |
| 14 | tiempo | 170,000,000 |
| 15 | fb | 146,000,000 |
| 16 | satta king | 123,000,000 |
| 17 | yahoo mail | 121,000,000 |
| 18 | yahoo | 119,000,000 |
| 19 | weather tomorrow | 110,000,000 |
| 20 | google maps | 108,000,000 |
| 21 | погода | 99,000,000 |
| 22 | tradutor | 89,000,000 |
| 23 | sarkari result | 86,000,000 |
| 24 | переводчик | 85,000,000 |
| 25 | yandex | 83,000,000 |
| 26 | tiempo mañana | 78,000,000 |
| 27 | walmart | 76,000,000 |
| 28 | ebay | 74,000,000 |
| 29 | traduçoes | 72,000,000 |
| 30 | nba | 72,000,000 |
| 31 | flipkart | 67,000,000 |
| 32 | google traduction | 65,000,000 |
| 33 | çeviri | 64,000,000 |
| 34 | wordle | 63,000,000 |
| 35 | meteo | 62,000,000 |
| 36 | bbc news | 61,000,000 |
| 37 | satta | 60,000,000 |
| 38 | hava durumu | 53,000,000 |
| 39 | ютуб | 52,000,000 |
| 40 | dolar | 51,000,000 |
| 41 | home depot | 50,000,000 |
| 42 | вконтакте | 48,000,000 |
| 43 | dr | 46,000,000 |
| 44 | cowin | 46,000,000 |
| 45 | xsmb | 46,000,000 |
| 46 | amazon prime | 45,000,000 |
| 47 | snaptik | 45,000,000 |
| 48 | ipl | 45,000,000 |
| 49 | wetter | 44,000,000 |
| 50 | december global holidays | 44,000,000 |
| 51 | instagram login | 43,000,000 |
| 52 | previsão do tempo | 42,000,000 |
| 53 | e devlet | 42,000,000 |
| 54 | serie a | 41,000,000 |
| 55 | яндекс | 41,000,000 |
| 56 | เเปลภาษา | 41,000,000 |
| 57 | google tradutor | 41,000,000 |
| 58 | google dịch | 39,000,000 |
| 59 | setka matka | 39,000,000 |
| 60 | clima para amanhã | 39,000,000 |
| 61 | แปลภาษา | 38,000,000 |
| 62 | wp | 38,000,000 |
| 63 | lottery sambad | 38,000,000 |
| 64 | bild | 37,000,000 |
| 65 | traduttore | 36,000,000 |
| 66 | starbucks | 36,000,000 |
| 67 | election results | 36,000,000 |
| 68 | fox news | 35,000,000 |
| 69 | programme tv | 35,000,000 |
| 70 | nfl | 34,000,000 |
| 71 | le bon coin | 34,000,000 |
| 72 | costco | 34,000,000 |
| 73 | cuaca | 33,000,000 |
| 74 | marca | 33,000,000 |
| 75 | dpboss | 33,000,000 |
| 76 | matka | 32,000,000 |
| 77 | übersetzer | 32,000,000 |
| 78 | pogoda | 32,000,000 |
| 79 | flamengo | 31,000,000 |
| 80 | food near me | 31,000,000 |
| 81 | onet | 31,000,000 |
| 82 | globo | 30,000,000 |
| 83 | restaurants near me | 30,000,000 |
| 84 | seznam | 29,000,000 |
| 85 | uol | 29,000,000 |
| 86 | mercado livre | 28,000,000 |
| 87 | gg dịch | 27,000,000 |
| 88 | kalyan chart | 27,000,000 |
| 89 | mynet | 27,000,000 |
| 90 | zyrtec | 25,000,000 |
| 91 | xsmn | 25,000,000 |
| 92 | english to hindi | 25,000,000 |
| 93 | dịch | 25,000,000 |
| 94 | sxmb | 25,000,000 |
| 95 | xổ số miền nam | 25,000,000 |
| 96 | as | 25,000,000 |
| 97 | download video tiktok | 24,000,000 |
| 98 | 네이버 | 24,000,000 |
| 99 | 天気 | 24,000,000 |
| 100 | epfo | 22,000,000 |
| # | Keyword | Search volume |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | what to watch | 2,500,000 |
| 2 | what dinosaur has 500 teeth | 1,500,000 |
| 3 | how i met your father cast | 1,300,000 |
| 4 | what time is it | 1,300,000 |
| 5 | how many ounces in a cup | 1,000,000 |
| 6 | where my refund | 770,000 |
| 7 | where am i | 770,000 |
| 8 | how many ounces in a gallon | 690,000 |
| 9 | how many weeks in a year | 640,000 |
| 10 | when is fathers day | 560,000 |
| 11 | when is mothers day | 490,000 |
| 12 | how many days until christmas | 470,000 |
| 13 | what space movie came out in 1992 | 460,000 |
| 14 | how to screenshot on mac | 450,000 |
| 15 | what time is it in california | 430,000 |
| 16 | how many ounces in a pound | 430,000 |
| 17 | when is easter 2022 | 420,000 |
| 18 | what song is this | 410,000 |
| 19 | how to | 400,000 |
| 20 | when is the super bowl | 390,000 |
| 21 | what is critical race theory | 360,000 |
| 22 | how i met your father | 360,000 |
| 23 | how many liters in a gallon | 350,000 |
| 24 | what time is the super bowl | 340,000 |
| 25 | what we do in the shadows | 340,000 |
| 26 | how to tie a tie | 330,000 |
| 27 | how to delete instagram account | 330,000 |
| 28 | how long to boil eggs | 320,000 |
| 29 | how many grams in an ounce | 320,000 |
| 30 | how i met your mother | 310,000 |
| 31 | what is | 310,000 |
| 32 | when is thanksgiving | 310,000 |
| 33 | when is easter | 310,000 |
| 34 | how to lose weight fast | 310,000 |
| 35 | why is russia invading ukraine | 300,000 |
| 36 | what time is it in hawaii | 300,000 |
| 37 | what is my ip | 290,000 |
| 38 | how many cups in a quart | 280,000 |
| 39 | how many oz in a gallon | 270,000 |
| 40 | when is daylight savings | 270,000 |
| 41 | how many quarts in a gallon | 260,000 |
| 42 | what is juneteenth | 260,000 |
| 43 | why women kill | 260,000 |
| 44 | when does the time change | 250,000 |
| 45 | when we were young festival | 250,000 |
| 46 | what is an nft | 250,000 |
| 47 | how late is the closest grocery store open | 250,000 |
| 48 | how many oz in a cup | 240,000 |
| 49 | how much house can i afford | 240,000 |
| 50 | where am i right now | 230,000 |
| 51 | what if | 230,000 |
| 52 | what time is the inauguration | 230,000 |
| 53 | what is bitcoin | 220,000 |
| 54 | how many days till christmas | 220,000 |
| 55 | how to train your dragon | 220,000 |
| 56 | what is pansexual | 220,000 |
| 57 | how many teaspoons in a tablespoon | 220,000 |
| 58 | who killed sara | 210,000 |
| 59 | how many people are in the world | 210,000 |
| 60 | how did bob saget die | 210,000 |
| 61 | where does vanilla flavoring come from | 210,000 |
| 62 | when is mother’s day | 210,000 |
| 63 | what time does walmart close | 210,000 |
| 64 | what time is it in australia | 210,000 |
| 65 | how many cups in a gallon | 210,000 |
| 66 | when is memorial day | 210,000 |
| 67 | when is the next full moon | 200,000 |
| 68 | how many feet in a mile | 200,000 |
| 69 | how to pronounce | 200,000 |
| 70 | how to write a check | 200,000 |
| 71 | why were chainsaws invented | 200,000 |
| 72 | what time is it in arizona | 200,000 |
| 73 | what is nft | 200,000 |
| 74 | how to screenshot on windows | 190,000 |
| 75 | what time is sunset | 190,000 |
| 76 | what space movie was made in 1992 | 190,000 |
| 77 | where is xur | 190,000 |
| 78 | how to make french toast | 190,000 |
| 79 | when is the super bowl 2022 | 190,000 |
| 80 | which wich | 180,000 |
| 81 | how many ounces in a quart | 180,000 |
| 82 | when is super bowl 2022 | 180,000 |
| 83 | what is today | 180,000 |
| 84 | how many tablespoons in a cup | 180,000 |
| 85 | how old is queen elizabeth | 180,000 |
| 86 | how to delete apps | 180,000 |
| 87 | how to make banana bread | 170,000 |
| 88 | how to draw | 170,000 |
| 89 | when is labor day | 170,000 |
| 90 | how to delete facebook account | 170,000 |
| 91 | how many grams in a pound | 170,000 |
| 92 | what does let’s go brandon mean | 170,000 |
| 93 | how many steps in a mile | 170,000 |
| 94 | what does pushing p mean | 170,000 |
| 95 | what time is it in texas | 170,000 |
| 96 | where the crawdads sing | 170,000 |
| 97 | how to get rid of fruit flies | 170,000 |
| 98 | who is the richest person in the world | 170,000 |
| 99 | when is valentines day | 160,000 |
| 100 | what day is it | 160,000 |
| # | Keyword | Search volume |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | how many ounces in a cup | 6,400,000 |
| 2 | what to watch | 4,700,000 |
| 3 | what dinosaur has 500 teeth | 2,200,000 |
| 4 | how late is the closest grocery store open | 2,100,000 |
| 5 | qué significa | 1,900,000 |
| 6 | how many centimeters is an inch | 1,900,000 |
| 7 | what time is it | 1,800,000 |
| 8 | cuando cobro | 1,800,000 |
| 9 | what is my ip | 1,500,000 |
| 10 | how i met your mother | 1,500,000 |
| 11 | where am i | 1,400,000 |
| 12 | how i met your father cast | 1,400,000 |
| 13 | what if | 1,300,000 |
| 14 | how to delete instagram account | 1,200,000 |
| 15 | how many weeks in a year | 1,100,000 |
| 16 | how to | 983,000 |
| 17 | какой сегодня праздник | 982,000 |
| 18 | how to make banana bread | 979,000 |
| 19 | when is fathers day | 971,000 |
| 20 | where does vanilla flavoring come from | 965,000 |
| 21 | when is mothers day | 812,000 |
| 22 | how i met your father | 801,000 |
| 23 | where my refund | 773,000 |
| 24 | how are you | 761,000 |
| 25 | que hora es | 757,000 |
| 26 | сколько миллилитров в стакане | 745,000 |
| 27 | when is easter 2022 | 739,000 |
| 28 | где посылка | 737,000 |
| 29 | how many ounces in a gallon | 711,000 |
| 30 | how many days until christmas | 711,000 |
| 31 | que horas são | 705,000 |
| 32 | where is my train | 697,000 |
| 33 | how to screenshot on mac | 690,000 |
| 34 | what song is this | 653,000 |
| 35 | how to lose weight fast | 639,000 |
| 36 | what we do in the shadows | 633,000 |
| 37 | why women kill | 632,000 |
| 38 | how many liters in a gallon | 615,000 |
| 39 | cuando y donde cobro | 615,000 |
| 40 | how to train your dragon | 597,000 |
| 41 | what space movie came out in 1992 | 578,000 |
| 42 | what time is it in california | 572,000 |
| 43 | how to tie a tie | 527,000 |
| 44 | cuando juega river | 521,000 |
| 45 | how many ounces in a pound | 512,000 |
| 46 | cuando juega boca | 490,000 |
| 47 | cuando juega argentina | 487,000 |
| 48 | who killed sara | 485,000 |
| 49 | what is the meaning of | 481,000 |
| 50 | how many grams in an ounce | 473,000 |
| 51 | when is easter | 463,000 |
| 52 | why is russia invading ukraine | 456,000 |
| 53 | que pasa salta | 442,000 |
| 54 | what is today in india | 434,000 |
| 55 | how many days till christmas | 412,000 |
| 56 | what is the factorial of hundred | 408,000 |
| 57 | how many millilitres in a cup | 403,000 |
| 58 | quem saiu do bbb | 398,000 |
| 59 | what is critical race theory | 393,000 |
| 60 | who called me | 385,000 |
| 61 | what is bitcoin | 377,000 |
| 62 | how long to boil eggs | 375,000 |
| 63 | when is thanksgiving | 375,000 |
| 64 | what is an nft | 362,000 |
| 65 | how many states in india | 362,000 |
| 66 | what is pansexual | 362,000 |
| 67 | what time is the super bowl | 357,000 |
| 68 | when is mother’s day | 332,000 |
| 69 | cuando cobro anses | 332,000 |
| 70 | where am i right now | 320,000 |
| 71 | what time is it in australia | 318,000 |
| 72 | how many calories are in an apple | 316,000 |
| 73 | what time is it in hawaii | 313,000 |
| 74 | when we were young festival | 310,000 |
| 75 | how many people are in the world | 304,000 |
| 76 | how many grams in a kilo | 301,000 |
| 77 | что посмотреть | 298,000 |
| 78 | quem sai do bbb | 295,000 |
| 79 | how many cups in a quart | 292,000 |
| 80 | when is daylight savings | 287,000 |
| 81 | how many oz in a gallon | 283,000 |
| 82 | when does the time change | 281,000 |
| 83 | when is the next full moon | 276,000 |
| 84 | what is juneteenth | 274,000 |
| 85 | how many quarts in a gallon | 271,000 |
| 86 | how many teaspoons in a tablespoon | 257,000 |
| 87 | how many oz in a cup | 254,000 |
| 88 | how much house can i afford | 246,000 |
| 89 | how did bob saget die | 246,000 |
| 90 | que dia é hoje | 245,000 |
| 91 | क्या आस-पास कोई पेट्रोल पंप है | 241,000 |
| 92 | cuando juega chile | 241,000 |
| 93 | cuando llega | 239,000 |
| 94 | what time is the inauguration | 233,000 |
| 95 | how many cups in a gallon | 226,000 |
| 96 | how many feet in a mile | 223,000 |
| 97 | que música é essa | 223,000 |
| 98 | what time does walmart close | 215,000 |
| 99 | when is memorial day | 210,000 |
| 100 | quem sai do bbb hoje | 208,000 |
Top 100+ Google searches in 200+ countries
Looking to see more than the top 100 Google searches?
Go to Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer, choose Google as the search engine, leave the search field blank, then hit search. You’ll see every keyword in our database for your chosen country, sorted by monthly search volume in descending order.
Need to see the most searched keywords in another country?
Hit the dropdown and choose one of the 200+ countries in our database.
We also show SEO metrics like Traffic Potential (TP), Keyword Difficulty (KD), clicks, CPC, and Parent Topic for each keyword.
To see the current top-ranking pages for any query, hit the SERP button.
Top 100+ Google searches in your niche
Did you know that you can use the keyword ideas reports in Keywords Explorer to find the most popular searches on any topic?
For example, if you search for “netflix” and go to the Matching terms report, there are over 2.9 million keyword ideas sorted by monthly search volume.
How is this useful?
Imagine that you run a website about movie reviews. You can filter this report for queries containing the word “review” to find the most popular Netflix shows people want reviews for.
If you then add a KD filter into the mix, you can narrow down the report to find the easiest topics to rank for.
Want to do keyword research for your site? Sign up for Keywords Explorer.
SEO
Google Ads To Phase Out Enhanced CPC Bidding Strategy
Google has announced plans to discontinue its Enhanced Cost-Per-Click (eCPC) bidding strategy for search and display ad campaigns.
This change, set to roll out in stages over the coming months, marks the end of an era for one of Google’s earliest smart bidding options.
Dates & Changes
Starting October 2024, new search and display ad campaigns will no longer be able to select Enhanced CPC as a bidding strategy.
However, existing eCPC campaigns will continue to function normally until March 2025.
From March 2025, all remaining search and display ad campaigns using Enhanced CPC will be automatically migrated to manual CPC bidding.
Advertisers who prefer not to change their campaigns before this date will see their bidding strategy default to manual CPC.
Impact On Display Campaigns
No immediate action is required for advertisers running display campaigns with the Maximize Clicks strategy and Enhanced CPC enabled.
These campaigns will automatically transition to the Maximize Clicks bidding strategy in March 2025.
Rationale Behind The Change
Google introduced Enhanced CPC over a decade ago as its first Smart Bidding strategy. The company has since developed more advanced machine learning-driven bidding options, such as Maximize Conversions with an optional target CPA and Maximize Conversion Value with an optional target ROAS.
In an email to affected advertisers, Google stated:
“These strategies have the potential to deliver comparable or superior outcomes. As we transition to these improved strategies, search and display ads campaigns will phase out Enhanced CPC.”
What This Means for Advertisers
This update signals Google’s continued push towards more sophisticated, AI-driven bidding strategies.
In the coming months, advertisers currently relying on Enhanced CPC will need to evaluate their options and potentially adapt their campaign management approaches.
While the change may require some initial adjustments, it also allows advertisers to explore and leverage Google’s more advanced bidding strategies, potentially improving campaign performance and efficiency.
FAQ
What change is Google implementing for Enhanced CPC bidding?
Google will discontinue the Enhanced Cost-Per-Click (eCPC) bidding strategy for search and display ad campaigns.
- New search and display ad campaigns can’t select eCPC starting October 2024.
- Existing campaigns will function with eCPC until March 2025.
- From March 2025, remaining eCPC campaigns will switch to manual CPC bidding.
How will this update impact existing campaigns using Enhanced CPC?
Campaigns using Enhanced CPC will continue as usual until March 2025. After that:
- Search and display ad campaigns employing eCPC will automatically migrate to manual CPC bidding.
- Display campaigns with Maximize Clicks and eCPC enabled will transition to the Maximize Clicks strategy in March 2025.
What are the recommended alternatives to Enhanced CPC?
Google suggests using its more advanced, AI-driven bidding strategies:
- Maximize Conversions – Can include an optional target CPA (Cost Per Acquisition).
- Maximize Conversion Value – Can include an optional target ROAS (Return on Ad Spend).
These strategies are expected to deliver comparable or superior outcomes compared to Enhanced CPC.
What should advertisers do in preparation for this change?
Advertisers need to evaluate their current reliance on Enhanced CPC and explore alternatives:
- Assess how newer AI-driven bidding strategies can be integrated into their campaigns.
- Consider transitioning some campaigns earlier to adapt to the new strategies gradually.
- Leverage tools and resources provided by Google to maximize performance and efficiency.
This proactive approach will help manage changes smoothly and explore potential performance improvements.
Featured Image: Vladimka production/Shutterstock
SEO
The 25 Biggest Traffic Losers in SaaS
We analyzed the organic traffic growth of 1,600 SaaS companies to discover the SEO strategies that work best in 2024…
…and those that work the worst.
In this article, we’re looking at the companies that lost the greatest amount of estimated organic traffic, year over year.
- We analyzed 1,600 SaaS companies and used the Ahrefs API to pull estimated monthly organic traffic data for August 2023 and August 2024.
- Companies were ranked by estimated monthly organic traffic loss as a percentage of their starting traffic.
- We’ve filtered out traffic loss caused by website migrations and URL redirects and set a minimum starting traffic threshold of 10,000 monthly organic pageviews.
This is a list of the SaaS companies that had the greatest estimated monthly organic traffic loss from August 2023 to August 2024.
Sidenote.
Our organic traffic metrics are estimates, and not necessarily reflective of the company’s actual traffic (only they know that). Traffic loss is not always bad, and there are plenty of reasons why companies may choose to delete pages and sacrifice keyword rankings.
| Rank | Company | Change | Monthly Organic Traffic 2023 | Monthly Organic Traffic 2024 | Traffic Loss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Causal | -99.52% | 307,158 | 1,485 | -305,673 |
| 2 | Contently | -97.16% | 276,885 | 7,866 | -269,019 |
| 3 | Datanyze | -95.46% | 486,626 | 22,077 | -464,549 |
| 4 | BetterCloud | -94.14% | 42,468 | 2,489 | -39,979 |
| 5 | Ricotta Trivia | -91.46% | 193,713 | 16,551 | -177,162 |
| 6 | Colourbox | -85.43% | 67,883 | 9,888 | -57,995 |
| 7 | Tabnine | -84.32% | 160,328 | 25,142 | -135,186 |
| 8 | AppFollow | -83.72% | 35,329 | 5,753 | -29,576 |
| 9 | Serverless | -80.61% | 37,896 | 7,348 | -30,548 |
| 10 | UserGuiding | -80.50% | 115,067 | 22,435 | -92,632 |
| 11 | Hopin | -79.25% | 19,581 | 4,064 | -15,517 |
| 12 | Writer | -78.32% | 2,460,359 | 533,288 | -1,927,071 |
| 13 | NeverBounce by ZoomInfo | -77.91% | 552,780 | 122,082 | -430,698 |
| 14 | ZoomInfo | -76.11% | 5,192,624 | 1,240,481 | -3,952,143 |
| 15 | Sakari | -73.76% | 27,084 | 7,106 | -19,978 |
| 16 | Frase | -71.39% | 83,569 | 23,907 | -59,662 |
| 17 | LiveAgent | -70.03% | 322,613 | 96,700 | -225,913 |
| 18 | Scoro | -70.01% | 51,701 | 15,505 | -36,196 |
| 19 | accessiBe | -69.45% | 111,877 | 34,177 | -77,700 |
| 20 | Olist | -67.51% | 204,298 | 66,386 | -137,912 |
| 21 | Hevo Data | -66.96% | 235,427 | 77,781 | -157,646 |
| 22 | TextGears | -66.68% | 19,679 | 6,558 | -13,121 |
| 23 | Unbabel | -66.40% | 45,987 | 15,450 | -30,537 |
| 24 | Courier | -66.03% | 35,300 | 11,992 | -23,308 |
| 25 | G2 | -65.74% | 4,397,226 | 1,506,545 | -2,890,681 |
For each of the top five companies, I ran a five-minute analysis using Ahrefs Site Explorer to understand what may have caused their traffic decline.
Possible explanations include Google penalties, programmatic SEO, and AI content.
| Causal | 2023 | 2024 | Absolute change | Percent change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Organic traffic | 307,158 | 1,485 | -305,673 | -99.52% |
| Organic pages | 5,868 | 547 | -5,321 | -90.68% |
| Organic keywords | 222,777 | 4,023 | -218,754 | -98.19% |
| Keywords in top 3 | 8,969 | 26 | -8943 | -99.71% |
Causal is a finance platform for startups. They lost an estimated 99.52% of their organic traffic as a result of a Google manual penalty:
This story might sound familiar. Causal became internet-famous for an “SEO heist” that saw them clone a competitor’s sitemap and use generative AI to publish 1,800 low-quality articles like this:
Google caught wind and promptly issued a manual penalty. Causal lost hundreds of rankings and hundreds of thousands of pageviews, virtually overnight:
As the Ahrefs SEO Toolbar shows, the offending blog posts are now 301 redirected to the company’s (now much better, much more human-looking) blog homepage:
| Contently | 2023 | 2024 | Absolute change | Percent change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Organic traffic | 276,885 | 7,866 | -269,019 | -97.16% |
| Organic pages | 32,752 | 1,121 | -31,631 | -96.58% |
| Organic keywords | 94,706 | 12,000 | -82,706 | -87.33% |
| Keywords in top 3 | 1,874 | 68 | -1,806 | -96.37% |
Contently is a content marketing platform. They lost 97% of their estimated organic traffic by removing thousands of user-generated pages.
Almost all of the website’s traffic loss seems to stem from deindexing the subdomains used to host their members’ writing portfolios:
A quick Google search for “contently writer portfolios” suggests that the company made the deliberate decision to deindex all writer portfolios by default, and only relist them once they’ve been manually vetted and approved:
We can see that these portfolio subdomains are now 302 redirected back to Contently’s homepage:
And looking at the keyword rankings Contently lost in the process, it’s easy to guess why this change was necessary. It looks like the free portfolio subdomains were being abused to promote CBD gummies and pirated movies:
| Datanyze | 2023 | 2024 | Absolute change | Percent change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Organic traffic | 486,626 | 22,077 | -464,549 | -95.46% |
| Organic pages | 1,168,889 | 377,142 | -791,747 | -67.74% |
| Organic keywords | 2,565,527 | 712,270 | -1,853,257 | -72.24% |
| Keywords in top 3 | 7,475 | 177 | -7,298 | -97.63% |
Datanyze provides contact data for sales prospecting. They lost 96% of their estimated organic traffic, possibly as a result of programmatic content that Google has since deemed too low quality to rank.
Looking at the Site Structure report in Ahrefs, we can see over 80% of the website’s organic traffic loss is isolated to the /companies and /people subfolders:
Looking at some of the pages in these subfolders, it looks like Datanyze built thousands of programmatic landing pages to help promote the people and companies the company offers data for:
As a result, the majority of Datanyze’s dropped keyword rankings are names of people and companies:
Many of these pages still return 200 HTTP status codes, and a Google site search still shows hundreds of indexed pages:
In this case, not all of the programmatic pages have been deleted—instead, it’s possible that Google has decided to rerank these pages into much lower positions and drop them from most SERPs.
| BetterCloud | 2023 | 2024 | Absolute change | Percent change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Organic traffic | 42,468 | 2,489 | -39,979 | -94.14% |
| Organic pages | 1,643 | 504 | -1,139 | -69.32% |
| Organic keywords | 107,817 | 5,806 | -102,011 | -94.61% |
| Keywords in top 3 | 1,550 | 32 | -1,518 | -97.94% |
Bettercloud is a SaaS spend management platform. They lost 94% of their estimated organic traffic around the time of Google’s November Core Update:
Looking at the Top Pages report for BetterCloud, most of the traffic loss can be traced back to a now-deleted /academy subfolder:
The pages in the subfolder are now deleted, but by using Ahrefs’ Page Inspect feature, it’s possible to look at a snapshot of some of the pages’ HTML content.
This short, extremely generic article on “How to Delete an Unwanted Page in Google Docs” looks a lot like basic AI-generated content:
This is the type of content that Google has been keen to demote from the SERPs.
Given the timing of the website’s traffic drop (a small decline after the October core update, and a precipitous decline after the November core update), it’s possible that Google demoted the site after an AI content generation experiment.
| Ricotta Trivia | 2023 | 2024 | Absolute change | Percent change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Organic traffic | 193,713 | 16,551 | -177,162 | -91.46% |
| Organic pages | 218 | 231 | 13 | 5.96% |
| Organic keywords | 83,988 | 37,640 | -46,348 | -55.18% |
| Keywords in top 3 | 3,124 | 275 | -2,849 | -91.20% |
Ricotta Trivia is a Slack add-on that offers icebreakers and team-building games. They lost an estimated 91% of their monthly organic traffic, possibly because of thin content and poor on-page experience on their blog.
Looking at the Site Structure report, 99.7% of the company’s traffic loss is isolated to the /blog subfolder:
Digging into the Organic keywords report, we can see that the website has lost hundreds of first-page rankings for high-volume keywords like get to know you questions, funny team names, and question of the day:
While these keywords seem strongly related to the company’s core business, the article content itself seems very thin—and the page is covered with intrusive advertising banners and pop-ups (a common hypothesis for why some sites were negatively impacted by recent Google updates):
The site seems to show a small recovery on the back of the August 2024 core update—so there may be hope yet.
Final thoughts
All of the data for this article comes from Ahrefs. Want to research your competitors in the same way? Check out Site Explorer.
SEO
Mediavine Bans Publisher For Overuse Of AI-Generated Content
According to details surfacing online, ad management firm Mediavine is terminating publishers’ accounts for overusing AI.
Mediavine is a leading ad management company providing products and services to help website publishers monetize their content.
The company holds elite status as a Google Certified Publishing Partner, which indicates that it meets Google’s highest standards and requirements for ad networks and exchanges.
AI Content Triggers Account Terminations
The terminations came to light in a post on the Reddit forum r/Blogging, where a user shared an email they received from Mediavine citing “overuse of artificially created content.”
Trista Jensen, Mediavine’s Director of Ad Operations & Market Quality, states in the email:
“Our third party content quality tools have flagged your sites for overuse of artificially created content. Further internal investigation has confirmed those findings.”
Jensen stated that due to the overuse of AI content, “our top partners will stop spending on your sites, which will negatively affect future monetization efforts.”
Consequently, Mediavine terminated the publisher’s account “effective immediately.”
The Risks Of Low-Quality AI Content
This strict enforcement aligns with Mediavine’s publicly stated policy prohibiting websites from using “low-quality, mass-produced, unedited or undisclosed AI content that is scraped from other websites.”
In a March 7 blog post titled “AI and Our Commitment to a Creator-First Future,” the company declared opposition to low-value AI content that could “devalue the contributions of legitimate content creators.”
Mediavine warned in the post:
“Without publishers, there is no open web. There is no content to train the models that power AI. There is no internet.”
The company says it’s using its platform to “advocate for publishers” and uphold quality standards in the face of AI’s disruptive potential.
Mediavine states:
“We’re also developing faster, automated tools to help us identify low-quality, mass-produced AI content across the web.”
Targeting ‘AI Clickbait Kingpin’ Tactics
While the Reddit user’s identity wasn’t disclosed, the incident has drawn connections to the tactics of Nebojša Vujinović Vujo, who was dubbed an “AI Clickbait Kingpin” in a recent Wired exposé.
According to Wired, Vujo acquired over 2,000 dormant domains and populated them with AI-generated, search-optimized content designed purely to capture ad revenue.
His strategies represent the low-quality, artificial content Mediavine has vowed to prohibit.
Potential Implications
Lost Revenue
Mediavine’s terminations highlight potential implications for publishers that rely on artificial intelligence to generate website content at scale.
Perhaps the most immediate and tangible implication is the risk of losing ad revenue.
For publishers that depend heavily on programmatic advertising or sponsored content deals as key revenue drivers, being blocked from major ad networks could devastate their business models.
Devalued Domains
Another potential impact is the devaluation of domains and websites built primarily on AI-generated content.
If this pattern of AI content overuse triggers account terminations from companies like Mediavine, it could drastically diminish the value proposition of scooping up these domains.
Damaged Reputations & Brands
Beyond the lost monetization opportunities, publishers leaning too heavily into automated AI content also risk permanent reputational damage to their brands.
Once a determining authority flags a website for AI overuse, it could impact how that site is perceived by readers, other industry partners, and search engines.
In Summary
AI has value as an assistive tool for publishers, but relying heavily on automated content creation poses significant risks.
These include monetization challenges, potential reputation damage, and increasing regulatory scrutiny. Mediavine’s strict policy illustrates the possible consequences for publishers.
It’s important to note that Mediavine’s move to terminate publisher accounts over AI content overuse represents an independent policy stance taken by the ad management firm itself.
The action doesn’t directly reflect the content policies or enforcement positions of Google, whose publishing partner program Mediavine is certified under.
We have reached out to Mediavine requesting a comment on this story. We’ll update this article with more information when it’s provided.
Featured Image: Simple Line/Shutterstock
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