A new set of industry figures shows organic search traffic fell 2.5% year on year, with the decline hitting mid?sized and upper?mid?tier websites hardest while the largest destinations gained. The data points to a redistribution of visibility in unpaid search, rather than a broad collapse in demand. The sharpest drops appeared among sites ranked roughly 100 to 10,000 by size, while the very largest properties recorded growth. The pattern underlines how search engines continue to channel a greater share of clicks to a small number of giant domains, even as overall volumes fluctuate only slightly.
The change matters for publishers, retailers and service providers that depend on unpaid search for reach. A modest headline decline can conceal deeper swings at cohort level, reshaping which organisations feel the impact. It also comes amid ongoing changes to search presentation and ranking systems, which have shifted the way users find and click results over the past two years.
Headline figures point to a modest decline with uneven impact
The top?line number shows a 2.5% year?on?year drop in organic search traffic. In plain terms, organic search means unpaid clicks from search engines to websites. A small change at this scale is meaningful for large categories, but it does not signal a collapse in search behaviour. People continue to use search engines at massive volumes, but the distribution of clicks across the web has shifted.
The cohort pattern is more striking. The largest sites saw growth in organic visits, while sites outside the top tier (roughly those ranked from 100 to 10,000) faced the steepest declines. That spread indicates consolidation: a bigger share of unpaid clicks flowed to a narrower band of leading domains, while many well?established but smaller properties saw pressure on their search traffic.
Consolidation strengthens the biggest destinations
Growth among the largest sites suggests concentration at the top of the results. When users see familiar brands ranked highly for common queries, clicks tend to cluster. This can favour platforms and publishers with broad authority, extensive content libraries, strong brand signals and high engagement. The new figures match a long?running structural pattern on the web: a small group of large sites attracts a large share of search clicks.
This concentration does not mean mid?sized websites cannot rank. It does mean the margin for error tightens when ranking systems surface more results from top domains and direct users to answers faster. In practice, consolidation often shows up as a slow squeeze on mid?tier traffic, even when total search use remains steady.
Search presentation changes reshape click distribution
Over the past two years, search engines have adjusted ranking systems and result layouts. Core updates, spam?fighting measures and shifts in how systems weigh signals have moved pages up and down. Search pages also feature more modules, such as product carousels, local packs, visual cards and AI?generated summaries in some markets. These elements can attract clicks that might once have gone to traditional blue links.
Such changes do not inherently reduce overall search activity. They can, however, change where the clicks go. The new cohort data aligns with this context: when result pages emphasise trusted sources, established brands and richer on?page information, very large sites can benefit while mid?sized sites see fewer clicks for the same queries.
Mid?tier websites face sharper headwinds than the average
The overall 2.5% decline masks larger movements inside the distribution. Sites ranked between the top 100 and top 10,000 saw the most pronounced drops. Many of these websites run sizeable operations, serve niche audiences at scale, or specialise in product, news, review or service content. They can face higher volatility when ranking systems give extra weight to breadth, authority and freshness at scale.
This group often competes with both top?tier platforms and smaller specialised sites. When the largest properties expand coverage across more topics and queries, the competitive space narrows. The new figures suggest that tension grew during the measured period, with mid?tier sites giving up share even as the very largest destinations added organic traffic.
Understanding the measure behind the numbers
Year?on?year comparisons track performance for the same period across two consecutive years. They help control for seasonality. Organic search traffic counts unpaid clicks from search engines to websites across devices and markets, depending on the dataset. The 2.5% figure reflects the aggregated change measured across a broad sample of websites.
Methodology matters when interpreting such data. Large?scale web panels, analytics aggregates and clickstream models each capture different parts of behaviour. While the published figures provide a clear directional signal (slight overall decline, sharper mid?tier drops, top?tier gains) individual sites can diverge from the average based on their audience, category and content mix.
Business context: budgets, channels and measurement
Marketing and audience teams plan across multiple channels, including organic search, paid search, social, email and direct. Even a small shift in organic volumes can change channel mix, reporting and resource allocation. When cohorts move in different directions, internal benchmarks also change. A mid?sized site that sees a decline in organic visits may now be in line with peers, even if its own year?on?year graph looks negative.
In this context, measurement clarity becomes more important. Teams that segment performance by cohort, query type and result surface can track how distribution changes on key terms. That level of detail supports accurate reporting and helps organisations understand whether changes reflect market?wide shifts or site?specific issues.
AI in search and its role in distribution
Search engines have expanded use of AI systems to understand queries, summarise content and surface relevant results. In some markets, AI?generated summaries now appear for certain queries, sitting above traditional links. These features can reduce the number of clicks on some result types while increasing clicks on others, depending on how users choose to explore further.
At the same time, publishers and retailers use AI to scale content operations, improve product data and structure information. This can increase supply in competitive query spaces. When many sites improve content quality and structure at once, ranking systems may lean more on authority and engagement signals, which can reinforce gains for the largest sites.
What this means
- The overall drop in organic search traffic is modest, but the distribution of clicks has shifted toward the largest websites.
- Mid?tier sites in the top 100 to 10,000 range face sharper traffic pressure than the headline figure suggests.
- Changes to search layouts and ranking systems continue to influence where clicks go on results pages.
- Measurement at cohort and query?type level can help organisations understand whether they track with market?wide patterns or outliers.
- Multi?channel planning remains a key operational reality, as shifts in organic performance can affect channel mix and reporting.
The year?on?year slip in organic search traffic, combined with gains at the very top, signals an ongoing rebalancing in how search engines distribute visibility. Large destinations appear to have tightened their grip on unpaid clicks, while many established mid?sized sites experienced a tougher year. The data fits with the broader direction of search: evolving result formats, more AI features, and ranking systems that emphasise authority and relevance across broader topic ranges. For organisations that rely on organic discovery, the key takeaway is not a collapse in search, but a reshaped landscape where size and established signals carry more weight. As search experiences continue to evolve, the balance of clicks will likely keep shifting across cohorts, even if headline volumes change only slightly.
When and where
Published figures and cohort detail were released on 20 January 2026 by Search Engine Land.
