HubSpot’s blog peaked at more than 20 million organic visits a month. As AI answers spread, it lost about 80% of that organic traffic. Revenue kept climbing anyway. If you’re an SEO who still reports sessions as the scoreboard , Kipp Bodnar’s account of what HubSpot measures now, and what he’s careful not to claim, is the most useful part of the new book he co-wrote.

That book is Loop , subtitled “Outlearn. Outmarket. Outgrow.,” which Bodnar wrote with HubSpot’s Kieran Flanagan, published Sept. 22, 2026.

Bodnar and I talked over Zoom, and he answered my questions in writing afterward, including a few that authors on a book tour rarely get. He answered every question but one. That one about HubSpot’s Oct. 6 layoffs wasn’t among the questions we discussed on Zoom. So, I’ve pieced together the probable answer from news accounts, and I’ve labeled it that way near the end of this column.

The Old Playbook Said ‘Get Found Using Google’

It’s worth remembering how literal the original promise was.…