Your Website Traffic Dropped This Year. Here's What's Actually Going On.
If you've logged into your Squarespace Analytics lately and felt your stomach drop, you're in good company. Across industries, small business websites are seeing fewer visitors than they did a year ago. Landscapers, therapists, attorneys, bakeries. Different businesses, same trend.
The good news: in most cases, nothing is wrong with your website. The way people use Google has changed, and your traffic numbers are reflecting that.
Google is answering questions before people reach your site
For the past two years, Google has been putting AI-generated summaries at the top of search results. This spring it went further. At its annual developer conference in May, Google announced what it called the biggest upgrade to the Search box in over 25 years and reported that AI Mode, its conversational search experience, now has more than 1 billion monthly users. Searchers can now ask a follow-up question right from an AI Overview and move into a back-and-forth conversation with AI Mode. Search Engine JournalGoogle
That's convenient for searchers. For business websites, it means more people get their answer without ever clicking through.
The research backs this up. SparkToro's 2026 study found that clicks from Google to the open web saw the biggest change of anything measured, a decline of nearly 23% since 2024. A separate analysis of more than 100 million keywords found that ranking first today delivers about the same traffic that ranking third did before AI Overviews existed. SparkToroBright Labs
Your rankings might be fine
This is the part that confuses people. You can hold your spot on page one and still get fewer clicks. In fact, many sites are seeing more impressions in Search Console than ever, while those impressions turn into fewer clicks. Bright Labs
So a lower visitor count doesn't automatically mean you've lost ground. It may just mean Google is keeping more of the conversation on its own page.
How to tell what's happening on your site
A few minutes in Google Search Console will tell you most of what you need to know. If you haven't connected it to your Squarespace site yet, that's the first step.
Compare clicks, impressions, and average position against last year. If impressions and position held steady but clicks fell, that's the AI shift at work. If your position dropped too, something else is going on and it's worth a closer look.
Look at which pages lost traffic. Blog posts and "how to" content tend to take the biggest hit because those are exactly the questions AI summaries answer. Service pages usually hold up better.
Check your leads, not just your visitors. Form submissions, calls, and booking requests are what pay the bills. Some businesses are getting fewer visitors but the same number of inquiries, because the people who do click through tend to convert better, since they've already read a summary and want to go deeper. Digital Applied Team
Watch your Google Business Profile. For local businesses, calls, direction requests, and website clicks from your profile often matter more than organic blog traffic.
What to focus on now
Traffic is becoming a less reliable scoreboard. Here's where your energy is better spent.
Make your service pages do the heavy lifting. When someone is ready to hire, they still click. Clear pages that explain what you do, who it's for, and how to get started are more valuable than ever.
Build your name, not just your rankings. People searching for your business by name behave differently. Research shows branded searches actually see a click-through lift when AI Overviews appear. Reviews, referrals, and a strong local presence all feed that.
Give AI something worth citing. Specific, original content based on your real experience is harder for Google to summarize away than generic advice. Your process, your local knowledge, and your results are things only you can write about.
Measure what matters. If your only metric is monthly visitors, this year is going to feel like failure even when your business is healthy. Track inquiries, calls, and booked work instead.
The bottom line
Search is changing faster than it has in decades, and it's easy to read a traffic drop as a sign your site stopped working. Usually it's a sign the rules changed. The businesses that come out ahead will be the ones with sites built to turn fewer, better visitors into real customers.
If you want a second set of eyes on your numbers, we're happy to take a look and tell you what we're seeing. Say howdy.
