Recently, there was some data shared round and round on LinkedIn and Reddit about traffic trends to B2B review sites. 

Have B2B review sites taken a traffic hit due to Google’s algorithm updates. Yes, it’s established. 

• What’s the extent of it? 
• Why is it happening?
• What does it mean for the future of B2B tech review sites?

Now, those are the questions to ask. So, let’s dive in. 

What’s the extent of it?

Well, I can’t share the exact numbers, but I can provide some perspective. And, I can say upfront–it’s not bad–at least for TrustRadius, it’s not. 

At TrustRadius, when we look at the health of our site, we look at a plethora of metrics, but to simplify it, I’m going to talk about two primary ones:

• Traffic
• Our share of voice in the market vs. competitors

For traffic, our tools tell us B2B review sites have been hit proportionally by Google’s algorithm updates. Yes, all of us. But not just us, a lot of other industries too, and there are a lot of unhappy SEO experts out there wondering what to do. 

Why is this happening?

The biggest reason: AI summaries. You know, those short, blithe, robot-synthesized blurbs you see at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs). 

Here’s an example:

Honestly, they’re a great gut check. As a Google-using human myself, I really dig them, but as a marketer, they made me wonder how they would impact the B2B peer review market in general. According to TrustRadius’ most recent research report, Bridging the Trust Gap: B2B Tech Buying in the Age of AI:

• 72% of buyers said they saw a Google AI Overview while doing research
• 38% of B2B tech buyers reference AI tools on their tech buying journey
• 20% of B2B tech buyers are trusting what they’re reading “very often,” up from 9% in 2024

With trust in AI summaries and chatbots like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google Gemini are on the rise, this is a major trend any technology vendor should be aware of. Their growing influence and value along the buyer’s journey is significant, but how is it impacting SEO and the B2B peer review site market in general?

What does this shift mean for the future of the B2B tech review website industry?

Since purely informational, top-of-funnel queries like the “best HR software” example above are being delivered to buyers at-a-glance in AI summaries, click-through rates (CTRs) and traffic for top-of-funnel queries are down across the industry. Nobody panic! 

This is bad news for B2B peer review sites with a lot of generic, AI-generated content and those with short, two-sentence reviews that don’t go into much detail. OK, maybe some should panic—or pivot.

Since buyers are getting the generic information from our AI-synthesizing robot friends, CTRs for juicy, proprietary information are on the rise. In the past year on TrustRadius we’ve seen:

• 12% increase in queries for specific use cases
• 15% increase in product pricing information

It’s apparent that the need for credible information without fluff and bias from real humans is growing, and TrustRadius’ dedication to quality buyer experiences and human-verified content is well-positioned in the market, especially in this new era of search. Huzzah! 

The growth in traffic from mid- to bottom-of-funnel queries is just one piece of the puzzle that’s helping us understand market impact, the other is that our share of voice (SOV) in the market is also growing.

TrustRadius SOV in the market vs. competitors

If you’re not up on SOV, here’s how it’s calculated at a high level:

SOV = (your brand’s metrics / total market metrics) x 100

Here’s an AI overview explaining what SOV means because I knew it would explain it more succinctly than me. I told you, I’m here for it.

If you didn’t know, now you do. And if you do know, the next metric should catch your eye. 

• TrustRadius’ SOV is up 11% 
• TrustRadius’ #1 competitor’s SOV is down 51%

I’m not going to name names, but you can probably figure it out. 

We are looking at percent change in SOV in January 2023 vs. January 2025? Why? To account for Google algorithm updates and SERP volatility due to ChatGPT4’s launch (March 2023) and the launch of AI summaries on Google (May 2024). 

Not all B2B peer review sites were hit this badly, so why did this particular competitor take the hit? The quality of their review content is generic, and AI summaries are already satisfying those searches for buyers. 

Not only are AI summaries impacting how tech buyers find and do research on peer review sites, it’s also changing the landscape of how technology vendors work with B2B peer review sites.

Smart marketers know traffic ≠ intent

In the era before AI summaries, many technology vendors would partner with B2B peer review sites to purchase buyer intent data. Peer review sites touted traffic volume as the primary reason for a vendor to purchase their solution, i.e., “look how much buyer intent data we have!” and technology vendors would happily eat it up, i.e., “look how many of my buyers are reading reviews!” It makes sense, and don’t get me wrong, peer review sites are a high-fidelity source of buyer intent data. 

• B2B peer reviews are a top-three influence on purchase
• 77% of technology buyers read peer reviews on their buying journey

But what marketers began to find was that traffic volume wasn’t always a good indicator of buyer intent. The proliferation of AI-generated reviews, created and harvested by “the other guys” to inflate traffic numbers was an easy play to catch vendors’ attention for purchase, but these short-form, informational, top-of-funnel “reviews” were only attracting top-of-funnel buyers. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy that really didn’t help marketers find their next hot buyer. Maybe a kind of lukewarm buyer searching for a gut-check? Oof.

With AI summaries now officially cannibalizing those top-funnel B2B buyers away from top-funnel, short-form reviews, traffic volume as a considering factor for vendors purchasing intent data is officially dead. See ya later!  

Smart marketers know audience + engagement = intent

How TrustRadius has cultivated a high-propensity-to-buy audience

Reviews on TrustRadius average 400 words and are roughly 4x longer than our competitors. Since 2022, we’ve invested heavily in providing technology buyers with the information they’re looking for to ensure two things:

• Buyers are truly researching and investing in the best technology solution for their use case
• Vendors are able to connect with their ideal buyer through clean, single-source buyer intent data—real buyer activities taken on TrustRadius—no other sources

Understanding what technology buyers are truly looking for along their journey has shaped TrustRadius’ product development and cultivated a high-propensity-to-buy audience. Here’s how we did it. 

For the past eight years, TrustRadius has surveyed tens of thousands of technology vendors and buyers to determine patterns in buying behavior. One of the key questions we ask is, what would you change about the B2B technology buying process? Here’s a sneak peek at what buyers said in 2025.

#1 thing B2B tech buyers want: Transparent pricing

45% of technology buyers reported wanting transparent pricing along the buying process vendors.

• In 2022, TrustRadius rolled out dedicated pricing pages across product listings, and the impact was enormous. 
  • 288% – Increase in traffic to TrustRadius since pricing was added
  • 21% – Average increase to time on page for TrustRadius customers that add pricing to their listing
  • 15x – Average increase in page views for customers after adding pricing to their page
  • 3x – Average increase in CTA clicks after customers add pricing to their product listings

#2 thing B2B tech buyers want: To connect with real people about their use case

• In 2018, TrustRadius launched reference candidates, enabling reviewers to raise their hand to be a reference for a vendor in the sales cycle. 
• In 2024, TrustRadius partnered with LinkedIn to roll out LinkedIn Verification, which gives buyers reading reviews on TrustRadius the ability to connect directly with the reviewer on LinkedIn. 9% of TrustRadius reviewers have connected their LinkedIn profile to their review, and this number continues to grow.

#3 thing B2B tech buyers want: Sales to stop contacting them before they’re ready to buy

• In 2021, TrustRadius launched buyer intent data, delivering detailed buyer activity information to tech vendors to cultivate a personalized ABM strategy. TrustRadius integrations with 6sense, Demandbase, Intentsify, LinkedIn, and ZoomInfo helped pave the way.
• In 2023, TrustRadius launched lead capture forms, enabling buyers to connect with vendors on their terms when they’re ready to chat. 
• In 2024, TrustRadius launched the powerful Intent-Driven Leads program, which gives buyers the power to opt in to vendor contact methods and accelerate pipeline for sellers. In just one year, TrustRadius vendors have driven over $1 billion in pipeline.

How TrustRadius has created a rich buyer audience

Being the ruthlessly competitive marketer that I am, when I first started at TrustRadius, I often thought to myself:

• The other guys are inflating their traffic to sell, why can’t we diversify with paid traffic sources?
• The competition is doing money grabs for pay-to-pay placements and awards, why can’t we?

I was reminded that our buyer audience comes first, which means a dedication to quality content, no bias, no pay-to-play, and that a quality audience equals quality intent data.

Where do we stand three years later?

Audience demographics:

• 66% of our visitors are managers, directors, VPs or C-level.
• 59% of our visitors are mid-market and enterprise accounts
• 75% of our visitors are unique, compared to our competitors
• 57% of our visitors plan to make a purchase decision within three months; 72% in less than six months

Quality indicators:

• 4x longer reviews (400 words on average)
• 9 minutes (time buyers spend on comparison pages)
• 0 pay-to-play awards and placements 

The audience overlap with our competitors is shifting as more enterprise buyers choose TrustRadius. In fact, 96% of Fortune 500 companies do their research on TrustRadius, and on average, on any given day, almost 60% of our audience is mid-market and enterprise.

Audience monetization with TrustRadius Intent-Driven Leads offering

In 2023, our Customer Advisory Board harped on the potential that our audience brought to the table.

The gist:

• Quality content attracting quality buyers
• 70% of our audience is organic
• Enterprise and mid-market buyer rich
• First-party intent data, no blended sources

Sounds like a marketer’s dream, especially when the intent data seas are so full of crappy signals and faulty data. In just one year, the TrustRadius Intent-Driven Leads program was born.

How is the TrustRadius Intent-Driven Leads program different?

You might be saying, “Oh no. Not another leads offering. We tried that before and it didn’t work,” or, “The CPL was too high,” or, “Those programs are only good for top-of-funnel awareness campaigns, not pipeline generation.”

So, why give TrustRadius’ Intent-Driven Leads program a shot? Let’s break it down below:

The results:

• How a Fortune 500 company used TrustRadius Intent-Driven Leads program to generate $475 million in pipeline
• How a Cybersecurity company leveraged TrustRadius Intent-Driven Leads to accelerate lead generation and optimize their pipeline
• How a Financial Services Platform sought to fill pipeline with qualified leads from buyers showing intent on TrustRadius

The feedback:

Who says nice guys finish last?

It’s great to see that TrustRadius’ dedication to quality content and audience cultivation is paying off. Buyers are flocking to TrustRadius for long-form review content and buyer resources, and vendors are seeing real results from using the voices of their customers for pipeline generation and market differentiation. 

TrustRadius customers see:

• 7x more reviews than non-customers
• 27% increase in traffic after subscribing
• 16x more pageviews than non-customers
• 4x pipeline acceleration when using our intent data

If you’re curious about TrustRadius customer results, the Intent-Driven Leads program, or just want a complimentary strategy session with us, reach out. Whether you decide to partner with us, or not, we can show you how to boost trust and pipeline with customer voice. 

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