Social media falling behind Google in sending traffic to publisher sites

A new report from social analytics platform Chartbeat shows that social media's share of traffic sent to news sites has dropped by a third - from 6% in January 2023 to 4% now. Traffic from Facebook is down by more than 40%.

In the same timeframe, traffic from Google Search has held steady at around a 17% share, the share of external traffic (from sites that are neither search nor social) has increased from 16% to 20%, and the traffic share of Google Discover - which offers personalized content recommendations in Google's mobile apps - has increased by 13%.

Panelists at the Online News Association's annual conference last week said that although a really strong SEO game generally translates into success with Google Search, they are still experimenting to see what works in Google Discover. Google recommends using "page titles that capture the essence of the content" but discourages "catering to morbid curiosity, titillation or outrage."

Who besides news publishers is benefiting from Google Discover? Watch for updates.