Original data study · October 2026
How much search traffic Spanish news outlets lost to Google’s AI
Organic search traffic of 266 Spanish news outlets from 2024 to 2026, before and after AI Overviews and AI Mode, compared with a group of blogs.
See the trend- 266
- Spanish news outlets measured
- −35.2%
- organic traffic, 2026 vs 2024
- 87.2%
- of outlets lost traffic
- −39.3%
- for blogs, the control group
What the data says
- Spanish news outlets get 35.2% less organic search traffic than two years ago. From July to September 2026, the 266 outlets in the study added up to 35.2% fewer estimated visits from Google in Spain than in the same quarter of 2024, before AI reached the search engine.
- The drop did not come with AI Overviews. AI Overviews launched in Spain in March 2025, and a year later third-quarter traffic was 1.4% above 2024. Traffic peaked in June 2025; since summer 2025 it has fallen every quarter, faster in 2026, once AI Mode was available (October 2025). In September 2026 the index stood at 60.3, with Q3 2024 = 100.
- It is not just the press. The 39 Spanish blogs in the control group, measured the same way, lost 39.3%. News outlets do not fall more than other sites: organic search as a whole is shrinking.
- Nearly everyone loses. 87.2% of outlets get less traffic than in 2024 and 28.9% lost more than half. Only 15 outlets with over 30,000 monthly visits in 2024 are growing.
- The outlets AI cites most hold up better overall. The 31 outlets in our ranking of those most cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google lost 25.5% of their combined traffic, against 41.8% for the rest. Outlet by outlet the gap is smaller: a median of −33.2% against −36.2%.
- Topic matters. Health outlets lose the least (median −13.8%) and beauty and fashion outlets the most (−52.1%).
Month by month
Summed organic traffic from Spain, Q3 2024 = 100.
See the chart data
| Month | News outlets | Blogs |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-01 | 103.5 | 139.2 |
| 2024-02 | 99.1 | 134.9 |
| 2024-03 | 109.7 | 127.6 |
| 2024-04 | 106.1 | 125.6 |
| 2024-05 | 103.4 | 115.5 |
| 2024-06 | 100.5 | 104.2 |
| 2024-07 | 99.4 | 97.9 |
| 2024-08 | 101.6 | 93 |
| 2024-09 | 101.2 | 107.5 |
| 2024-10 | 105.4 | 113.8 |
| 2024-11 | 103.8 | 110.3 |
| 2024-12 | 93.8 | 101.2 |
| 2025-01 | 96.6 | 106.5 |
| 2025-02 | 105.2 | 114.4 |
| 2025-03 | 119.8 | 118.6 |
| 2025-04 | 117.9 | 116 |
| 2025-05 | 124.4 | 121.2 |
| 2025-06 | 127.3 | 114.3 |
| 2025-07 | 111.1 | 111.2 |
| 2025-08 | 101.9 | 109.1 |
| 2025-09 | 96.4 | 107.5 |
| 2025-10 | 94.4 | 107.3 |
| 2025-11 | 92.7 | 97.8 |
| 2025-12 | 92.1 | 93 |
| 2026-01 | 90.5 | 94 |
| 2026-02 | 90.7 | 90.5 |
| 2026-03 | 92.8 | 83.5 |
| 2026-04 | 80.7 | 77 |
| 2026-05 | 76.8 | 73.9 |
| 2026-06 | 70.4 | 65.7 |
| 2026-07 | 73.5 | 64.4 |
| 2026-08 | 64.7 | 58.4 |
| 2026-09 | 60.3 | 61.3 |
Which outlets lose most
Median change per outlet, Q3 2026 vs Q3 2024.
- General news outlets 186 outlets
- −33.4%
- Specialist outlets 80 outlets
- −37.5%
- Most cited by AI 31 outlets
- −33.2%
- The rest 235 outlets
- −36.2%
- Blogs (control group) 39 outlets
- −36.9%
- Health 18 outlets
- −13.8%
- Technology 31 outlets
- −28%
- Film, TV and music 27 outlets
- −29.7%
- Science and environment 32 outlets
- −30.2%
- Business and jobs 79 outlets
- −30.6%
- Travel 30 outlets
- −30.7%
- Sports 90 outlets
- −30.9%
- Food and drink 17 outlets
- −32.1%
- Motoring 17 outlets
- −32.1%
- News and politics 186 outlets
- −33.4%
- Humour and leisure 26 outlets
- −35.5%
- Beauty and fashion 17 outlets
- −52.1%
An outlet can have several topics. Only topics with 15 outlets or more.
- 10,000 to 100,000 visits 169 outlets
- −32.1%
- 100,000 to 1 million 85 outlets
- −43.7%
The outlets that grow
15 outlets with over 30,000 monthly visits in 2024 have more traffic today. These grew the most.
- madridiario.es
- +131.4%
- elidealgallego.com
- +128.6%
- beinsports.com
- +112.2%
- espndeportes.espn.com
- +111.4%
- telemadrid.es
- +54.8%
- motofichas.com
- +27.6%
- radio-espana.es
- +27.1%
- iberley.es
- +22.9%
- bbc.com
- +22.7%
- onefootball.com
- +21.3%
What it means for your brand
- Pick outlets by today’s traffic. An outlet may have lost half its visits in a year. Check each outlet’s traffic in the Growwer catalogue before you buy.
- A press link is no longer worth only its clicks. If AI cites the outlet, your brand can show up in AI answers even when the outlet gets fewer clicks. See which outlets AI cites in Spain.
- The drop hits all organic search. Brands that rely on one channel suffer like the outlets do: spreading across press, mentions and AI visibility lowers the risk.
How the study was done
We started from the 360 Spanish news outlets with the most traffic in the Growwer catalogue, in Spanish and Catalan. For each one we pulled its estimated monthly organic traffic from Spain from Ahrefs, January 2024 to September 2026. The study keeps the 266 that had at least 10,000 monthly visits in Q3 2024.
We compare the same quarter of three years (July to September 2024, 2025 and 2026) to remove seasonality. Q3 2024 is the baseline: it predates AI Overviews in Spain (25 March 2025) and AI Mode (8 October 2025). For each outlet we use the median of the three months, which resists one-off spikes. We give two figures: the change in the summed traffic of all outlets and the median of each outlet’s own change.
The control group is 39 Spanish blogs from the same catalogue, measured the same way. Topics come from the catalogue, and an outlet can have several; we only publish groups of 15 outlets or more. The “most cited by AI” are the outlets in our July–September 2026 ranking that are in the sample.
Limits. Ahrefs estimates traffic from rankings, search volumes and click-through rates: these are not measured visits, and they do not separate the effect of AI from algorithm or demand changes. That is why we compare against a control group and talk about trends, not absolute numbers. We only name outlets that grow; everything else is aggregated. Data as of 2026-10-12.
Frequently asked questions
-
35.2% of estimated organic traffic from Spain between Q3 2024 and Q3 2026, across 266 outlets. The median per outlet is −35.1%.
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Not only. A year after AI Overviews reached Spain, press traffic was still 1.4% above 2024. The drop starts in summer 2025, speeds up in 2026 and hits blogs just as hard (−39.3%), so it is a change in organic search as a whole, not just in news.
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Only 15 of the outlets with over 30,000 monthly visits in 2024. The fastest-growing are madridiario.es (+131.4%), elidealgallego.com (+128.6%), beinsports.com (+112.2%), espndeportes.espn.com (+111.4%), telemadrid.es (+54.8%).
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Yes, with a link to this page. You can download the tables as CSV or embed the chart with the code on this page.