Reddit lost over a million Google referrals a week in October. Its CEO says AI Mode sends traffic to nobody

Two earnings calls this week pointed at the same thing: Google's AI answers are keeping clicks on Google.

What happened

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said Reddit lost more than one million Google search referrals per week in October. He blamed AI Overviews and AI Mode: "AI Mode does not drive traffic. Not for us, and not to anybody as far as I know." Reddit shares dropped more than 25 percent despite strong earnings, according to The Decoder. Reddit says demand for the platform has not changed, Google simply stopped sending people there. In response it is testing login walls outside the U.S. and wants to become a direct destination.

Google felt it too. Latent Space quoted Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler: "the strong growth in AI Mode queries had an impact because of the lower monetization we were seeing in AI Mode." Google does not break out AI Mode in enough detail for a rigorous analysis, but the market read it as AI answers cutting into Search revenue.

My take

If Reddit cannot hold its Google traffic, a local clinic or a B2B services firm should not assume its blog will.

For operators, this is a measurement job before it is a marketing job:

1. Split organic leads by landing page and source in the CRM, monthly, so you see the slope and not just the total.
2. Tag every form fill with how the person found you. A required "how did you hear about us" field still beats guessing.
3. Build owned channels that do not depend on a search click: email lists, booking links in every reply, referral asks after a closed deal.
4. Watch cost per lead on paid search, since fewer organic clicks often push more budget there.

Reddit's answer is to become a destination people go to directly. Small businesses need the same thing at their scale: a list they own and a follow up system that converts the traffic they still get. That part is pure automation work, and it is where I would spend the effort first.