Monday.com executives said Google’s recent algorithm updates, including AI Overviews, are driving SEO traffic declines. On its second-quarter earnings call, co-founder and co-CEO Roy Mann explained that Google’s AI-generated summaries are now answering many of the questions that once drove visitors to Monday.com’s site.

For years, Monday.com has leaned heavily on content marketing and SEO to generate organic leads. Blog posts answering questions such as “what is project management?” or “how to run a marketing campaign?” ranked highly in search results and brought in a steady flow of potential customers. But with Google’s generative AI summaries, users can now get answers directly on the search results page without clicking through.

According to Mann, “we do see some pressure from Google on the new side.” CFO Eliran Glazer also confirmed the drop in traffic. He said, “We are seeing some softness within the down market due to the changes in the Google algorithm.” However, the company did not provide actual data on the rate of decline.

Stock drops due to investor concerns

Investors appear worried about the long-term effects of Google’s search changes on Monday.com’s ability to generate leads. Monday.com’s stock price fell nearly 30%, bringing its market value below $10 billion, despite stronger-than-expected Q2 results. The company reported a 27% year-over-year increase in revenue to $299 million, beating analyst estimates of $293.5 million, according to Fiscal AI data.

For a business model that depends on converting website visitors into free trials and paying customers, fewer clicks directly affect the top of the sales funnel.

But executives emphasize minimal impact on enterprise growth

Mann stressed that the impact is not yet severe. Glazer said that the softness in traffic is temporary and the company is already working on ways to offset the decline. “We are already taking actions proactively to address this, and we believe this is going to be recovered going into the second half of the year,” he told investors.

Mann explained that the shift has mainly affected the company’s ability to capture small-business leads. He added that the company can reallocate budgets and shift its focus to other channels, such as YouTube and performance marketing. He added that 

While those leads have slowed, executives stressed that mid-market and enterprise demand remains strong. Mann pointed out that Monday.com’s base of around 250,000 customers continues to expand, with enterprise clients generating much of the growth. “The better, high-quality customers still click on Google and ads,” he said. “If you're looking for a solution such as a CRM or project management, you're going to reach us. So the drop that we see is just on volume because they are experimenting with AI on top. And it's not that significant for the higher quality of customers,” he added.

Industry-wide concerns over AI’s impact on traffic

Google’s AI Overviews are reshaping organic search, and Monday.com is not the only company affected. Other businesses have reported traffic declines since Google launched AI Overviews. Multiple publishers, including HuffPost, Business Insider, and The Washington Post, reported steep drops in referral traffic in June.

According to Press Gazette, a survey by the U.S. trade association Digital Content Next (DCN) found that U.S. and UK publishers experienced an average 10% drop in referral traffic from Google Search in May and June compared with the previous year.

A Pew Research Center study also found that users who encounter AI Overviews are less likely to click on traditional search results. In those cases, only 8% clicked compared with 15% when no AI summary appeared. The study also found that Google users end sessions more often on AI summary pages (26%) than on traditional results (16%).

A bar chart showing that Google users are less likely to click on a link when they encounter search pages with AI summaries.
Data by Pew Research Center

However, Google has disputed these findings. Liz Reid, Google’s VP and Head of Search, said in a blog post that overall click volume to websites has been “relatively stable” and that click quality has slightly improved. “This data is in contrast to third-party reports that inaccurately suggest dramatic declines in aggregate traffic, often based on flawed methodologies, isolated examples, or traffic changes that occurred prior to the rollout of AI features in Search,” Reid said without releasing any supporting data.

Monday.com’s traffic loss shows the importance of adapting new strategies as generative AI reshapes search behavior. When Google AI Overviews answer a user’s question directly, the sales funnel begins to drop at the very top, making it harder for content marketing alone to deliver the same lead volume.

Advertisers may need to rethink their reliance on SEO-driven inbound strategies. Paid channels, YouTube campaigns, and first-party engagement strategies may become important in filling the gap left by lower organic traffic. Monday.com executives suggested that while enterprise customers still click through at high rates, broad-interest queries that once brought in SMB leads are increasingly being absorbed by Google’s AI summaries.

Organic visibility is no longer guaranteed, even for top-ranking content. Optimizing for brand visibility within AI answers and diversifying across channels could be key to staying visible as AI-driven search becomes more common.

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