HubSpot’s Traffic Decline is Largely Due to an Unaddressed, Fundamental SEO Strategy Issue: Content Pruning

What Went Wrong at HubSpot

Content pruning involves removing, consolidating, or improving underperforming or irrelevant web pages.

It boosts your site’s overall authority and quality signal to search engines by reducing “dead weight.”

Content pruning is not a new concept in SEO. It is a must-do activity for large websites.

Pages That Lost Traffic

I analyzed the top 3,176 HubSpot pages that lost traffic.

The distribution shows that both irrelevant and relevant pages lost traffic. (Check the footer for my approach to classification.)

Examples of relevant content that suffered:

• “Guide to Content Marketing” (related to HubSpot’s Marketing products)
• “Customer Satisfaction Survey Examples” (related to their Service product)

Why It Matters? (Content Pruning 101)

(This section is full of mathematics. Feel free to skip the section)        

Let's say you currently have 100 pages on your website.?

And let's assume the distribution of those pages acc. to quality is as follows:

Now, let's assume the quality score for low is 0, medium is 50, and high is 100.

So, the quality of the website overall, as measured by the weighted average, would be 50.

After pruning the content, the table will look like this:

Content Pruning Affects Your Overall Website Quality Score

What HubSpot Can Do From Here?

• If HubSpot prunes or improves low-performing content, it might regain SEO ground for its higher-value business topics.
• My opinion is that delayed action could also affect their future revenue if organic visibility continues dropping. So, this should be addressed urgently.

Here is an excellent case study by Jimmy Daly on how Quickbook nearly doubled its traffic by deleting half its content.

https://www.animalz.co/blog/content-pruning/

Now, what is my advice for startups?

My Advice for Startups: Stop Worrying About HubSpot (And Focus on Your Own Game)

If you’re stressing over HubSpot’s traffic decline, you’re essentially worrying about a storm that isn’t even hitting your shores. HubSpot’s challenges are theirs alone.

Their enormous authority and content saturation do not mirror your reality.

1. Content Saturation (HubSpot) vs. Untapped SEO Potential (You)

HubSpot has effectively over-covered every major topic in their industry.?

Your startup, on the other hand, is in an earlier growth phase and, most probably, still has untapped SEO and inbound potential. If you haven’t tackled your core topics yet, there’s ample room to grow.?

2. Their Weaknesses = Your Opportunities

A decline for HubSpot doesn’t spell doom for SEO. It simply suggests changes that can actually favor smaller players. Why??

Because established websites can no longer abuse their high domain authority to rank for any keywords they want. If those topics are relevant to your business, you now have a better shot at ranking.

Disclaimer: Note that branding is a big factor in ranking. So, it is possible that these rankings are taken by other high-domain authority websites. Still, if one position is vacant, at least smaller players can give a fight.

3. SEO Isn’t Dead—It’s Just Evolved

Some interpret HubSpot’s traffic decline as proof that “SEO is dead.” That’s a misreading:

• HubSpot had simply maximized covered standard SEO topics and were looking for new frontiers.
• If you’re not anywhere near that point, there’s plenty of opportunity left.

As Content Strategists, Where to Focus Your Content Efforts

If you’re starting from scratch:

1. Product-Led Content (PLC): Content that directly addresses how your product/service solves specific problems.
2. Purchase Intent-Focused SEO: Cover the “core” user questions around pain points, how-to guides, etc.
3. Industry/Keyword Expansion: Over time, expand into broader MOFU/TOFU content.

If you’re already doing content marketing, refine your strategy based on this:

1. Solidify Your Product-Led Content: Make sure you’ve nailed all relevant bottom-of-funnel queries.
2. Expand your content portfolio in this order: 1. Intent-specific content (the direct queries people have related to your product’s core niche). 2. MOFU/TOFU content—broader topics, educational resources, and best practices. 3. ICP-based content—appeal to your ideal customer persona’s interests, even if tangentially related to your product.

It’s a phased approach. Don’t jump to “random brand expansion” content if you haven’t locked down core fundamentals first.

Key Takeaways

• Focus on your own game: Whether or not HubSpot fixes its content pruning issue shouldn’t affect your core SEO strategy.
• SEO isn’t dead: One site’s decline doesn’t invalidate a proven channel.
• Avoid extremes: Don’t abandon SEO just because a big player is struggling.
• Adapt, don’t copy: HubSpot’s scale and constraints differ from yours—leverage your unique strengths instead.

Approach to Content Classification