VerticalScope reported revenue decrease and search traffic decrease in Q1 2025

[Max Fridman]

VerticalScope, behind 1,200+ online communities, just confirmed Google updates have negatively impacted their business.

Some highlights from their Q1 '25 earnings update:

• Revenue decreased 8% to $13.6M
• Increased consulting costs for "AI initiatives and SEO optimizations"
• Adjusted EBITDA decreased 30% to $3.6M
• They expect to average 90M monthly active users in Q2
• Generated $3M in operating cash flow
• Net loss of $2.4M (compared to a $1M loss a year ago)

Regarding SEO they also noted that volatility in search results is something they've been dealing with for 20 years so they're not in new territory.
They added that it could be the case that in a future update, things swing back in the direction of prioritising their forums in results again.

Over the last 18 months they massively benefitted from Google's change to more prominently feature forums in search results, but the tide may be turning there.

Looking at the year-over-year search traffic changes for 100 of their forums, third-party data suggests 88 have seen search traffic decrease.

To be respectful, I don't want to go into too much detail on the specific sites, but some estimated to have lost traffic include MTBR.com, ArcheryTalk.com and AskAndyAboutClothes.com.

Many sites appear to have dropped in traffic levels to where they were around two years ago, before forums started featuring far more prominently in search results.

Just as I was about to share this report with the world, VerticalScope confirmed they've seen overall traffic drop 8% year over year. They believe Google is now prioritising AI Overviews and YouTube in search results.

I mean all the respect in the world when I write this (and marked it as 'Somewhat Negative') but this may be a good sign for content site owners which lost out to forums in recent years.

From: https://detailed.com/state-of-seo/

"In Q1, we navigated some challenges, including a more uncertain macro environment, softness in video advertising rates and recent changes to Google's search algorithm which affected traffic on Fora communities. As a result, revenue was 8% lower than prior year," said Rob Laidlaw, Founder, Chair and CEO of VerticalScope.

Mr. Laidlaw continued, "Like other user-generated platforms, we're adapting to an evolving search experience, one that requires optimizing our strategy for AI Overviews, and integrating our own proprietary AI-driven enhancements to improve engagement, accessibility and monetization over time. We are better equipped to handle these algorithm changes with the Fora platform, and the integration of AI, allowing us to roll out important upgrades very quickly. Despite the traffic volatility causing MAU's to be 8% lower in the quarter, we remain confident in our business model, the strength of our communities, and the long-term opportunities ahead."

From: https://investors.verticalscope.com...t-Quarter-2025-Financial-Results/default.aspx

 

[thomas1]

Google's March Core Update was detrimental for us, too.

 

[CedricV]

Google's March Core Update was detrimental for us, too.

For everyone. Just the way it goes I guess. Forums are slowly becoming obsolete.

ChatGPT is now actually climbing the ranks, soon above Google. Which means we are adapting new methods of using the internet. So within time, ChatGPT will replace Google. And to be honest, that's what I'm doing too. I'm no longer wasting hours on google doing research. Instead I just ask ChatGPT and get my results within minutes with the correct sources to back up the research. Time is money, people.

 

[Max Fridman]

As usual we come to the argument: forums are obsolete.
The answer is as usual: it depends.

VerticalScope still makes $13+ mln a year. Only 18% of sites belonging to Digital Goliaths had an increase in yoy traffic. SEO as an acquisition channel works and the bulk of users and visitors, comes from Google not various LLMs (Perplexity, Claude, OpenAI).

And AI overviews are available on Google as well, in ever increasing quantities by the way. And so Google's ability to respond better to certain searches. Number exceeding 5 trillion now.

Google Has Over 5 Trillion Searches Per Year

Google has posted some fresh data, saying they answer over 5 trillion searches per year. The last time we saw this data was in 2016, when Google was at 2 trillion searches per year and then 1.2 trillion in 2012.

www.seroundtable.com

People are looking for content produced by other people, trivially the internet is evolving, toward editorial content produced differently and presented by AI. And the market is likely to change again.

Enthusiast Gaming's report on the growth of PocketGamer.com is emblematic:

The Company’s key owned and operated properties saw sustained engagement and continued year-over-year growth, with overall web pageviews across all web properties increasing to 1.8 billion in Q4 2024 compared to 1.5 billion in Q4 2023, despite both the sale of certain of the Company’s legacy casual gaming properties in April 2024 and the Company’s intentional deprioritization of third-party-owned, low-margin network sites throughout 2024. The Company saw material contributions to this growth from its core property Icy Veins, the Company’s leading site for Blizzard games and ARPG enthusiasts, which saw record user activity on the site from both the continued impact of Blizzard’s World of Warcraft expansion: The War Within, and Blizzard’s October launch of the Diablo IV expansion: Vessel of Hatred, as well as significant contributions from sites like PocketGamer.com, which doubled its traffic over the course of 2024 and continues to grow as the go-to destination for mobile game news, guides, tier lists, and reviews.

From: https://www.enthusiastgaming.com/enthusiast-gaming-reports-q4-and-full-year-2024-financial-results/

I would honestly expect more critical thinking from people who have been running forums for more than 10 years now. And not saying the same things over and over again.

The point of the discussion is not to note that forums are dead, but to see how big companies relate to changes in traffic.

 

[TCG2007]

Own 1200 sites and have done NOTHING to advance or improve communities. And since they're locked to an old version of XF 2.1, they're gonna be in some trouble sooner than later.

 

[Suzanne O]

Sounds like people have cottoned on to what Verticalscope is about and hate what they've done to forums and their software.
It will teach them a lesson or two.
Verticalscope have mucked up and found out.

 

[cpvr]

Own 1200 sites and have done NOTHING to advance or improve communities. And since they're locked to an old version of XF 2.1, they're gonna be in some trouble sooner than later.

exactly. Prior to purchasing those forums, a majority of them were flourishing and doing well.

Google focuses on mainly active forums and if a forum isn’t providing that, it won’t perform that well.

The main issue here is that they’re not doing anything, it’s not a google problem, it is not a forum wide concern. It is not a forum’s declining concern.

Online communities are still going to do well as long as their leadership continue to provide value and lead the way. However, once their leadership stop caring, then that’s when forums will become demolished and disappear.

 

[frm]

I know the topic is slanted towards "forums dying" or "forums thriving" with the outlook, but VerticleScope should not be a metric that we compare it to whatsoever.

This shouldn't be surprising to anyone in the finance world when 43% of the company is owned by private equity.

 

[Mr Lucky]

. And since they're locked to an old version of XF 2.1, they're gonna be in some trouble sooner than later.

Are they “locked” and isn’t that likely to be a very long time in the future?

 

[Max Fridman]

I know the topic is slanted towards "forums dying" or "forums thriving" with the outlook, but VerticleScope should not be a metric that we compare it to whatsoever.

True, is just a way to track Google changes data and some online communities engagement.

 

[Ricsca]

Google has been considering forums as places where people chat and without valuable content for many years and this makes them indexed poorly!
whoever says otherwise is lying knowing they are lying

 

[MySiteGuy]

Google has been considering forums as places where people chat and without valuable content for many years and this makes them indexed poorly!
whoever says otherwise is lying knowing they are lying

This flies in the face of the fact that Google added a forums tab to search results:

.

Google's new tools help discussion forums and social media platforms rank higher in search results | TechCrunch

Google today introduced new tools for website owners, including those running social media sites and discussion forums, who want to better elevate their

techcrunch.com

 

[Chris2]

This flies in the face of the fact that Google added a forums tab to search results:
View attachment 322834.

Google's new tools help discussion forums and social media platforms rank higher in search results | TechCrunch

Google today introduced new tools for website owners, including those running social media sites and discussion forums, who want to better elevate their

techcrunch.com

IMHO, that’s just an excuse to move forums off the main search index list and thus away from being as visible to the vast majority of viewers. This gives Google’s pride and joy, Reddit etc, all the more visibility they obviously don’t need. Since they implemented this new tab “tool”, our forum has done nothing but lose views and clicks. Just stating facts…

 

[Suzanne O]

This flies in the face of the fact that Google added a forums tab to search results:
View attachment 322834.

Google's new tools help discussion forums and social media platforms rank higher in search results | TechCrunch

Google today introduced new tools for website owners, including those running social media sites and discussion forums, who want to better elevate their

techcrunch.com

You use the "do not index" option on your forum. It prevents your stuff from being viewed by idiots online.

 

[MySiteGuy]

IMHO, that’s just an excuse to move forums off the main search index list and thus away from being as visible to the vast majority of viewers. This gives Google’s pride and joy, Reddit etc, all the more visibility they obviously don’t need. Since they implemented this new tab “tool”, our forum has done nothing but lose views and clicks. Just stating facts…

If it's an excuse to move them off the main search index, why do forums still appear in the main index? They added the tab to give them a boost in addition to normal search results, not instead of.

Here's what happens when a forum, even in a competitive niche, decides to put in the extra effort:

How I Started a Forum and Ranked It on Google

Build a community and

medium.com

And Google about the topic:

The rise of forums: Why Google prefers them and how to adapt

Discussion boards are cool again. Find out why Google now prioritizes them and how to foster community and engagement on your niche website.

searchengineland.com

Google Defends Statements On Its Search Quality & Forum Results

Recently, we covered some of Google's rationale for ranking forums like Reddit and Quora so well in the Discussion and Forums box for many queries. Just a few days ago, we covered how I was sad to see Google ranking some dangerous and potentially harmful forum threads for health-related queries.

www.seroundtable.com

 

[Chris2]

If it's an excuse to move them off the main search index, why do forums still appear in the main index? They added the tab to give them a boost in addition to normal search results, not instead of.

Here's what happens when a forum, even in a competitive niche, decides to put in the extra effort:

How I Started a Forum and Ranked It on Google

Build a community and

medium.com

And Google about the topic:

The rise of forums: Why Google prefers them and how to adapt

Discussion boards are cool again. Find out why Google now prioritizes them and how to foster community and engagement on your niche website.

searchengineland.com

Google Defends Statements On Its Search Quality & Forum Results

Recently, we covered some of Google's rationale for ranking forums like Reddit and Quora so well in the Discussion and Forums box for many queries. Just a few days ago, we covered how I was sad to see Google ranking some dangerous and potentially harmful forum threads for health-related queries.

www.seroundtable.com

They do for now, but slowly disappearing. Believe what you want. No reason in wasting my time debating this with you about it. As I stated, only facts pertaining to my experience with Google.

On a side note. Who all in today’s society is actively going to search, then scroll over to the forum tab, click that and sort through those, when the topic/answer they were looking for in the first place is right there on the main search listings page. Whether it be in AI forum, or on one of the top links listed, to Reddit or Quora…

Heck, on top of that, a lot of younger users don’t even know what a forum is or want to use one. When they search, they insert Reddit after the search string if they want a forum/discussion type answer.

 

[Mr Lucky]

They do for now, but slowly disappearing.

Google seems to chop and change. There seemed to have been a decline for our forum, then it boosted back up again.

I would assume (as we are talking about VS) they are such a huge corporation then they should have some real market experts/analysts.

But no fire sale yet. Seems to be investment in AI though - perhaps that is a sign of desperation?

 

[Chris2]

Google seems to chop and change. There seemed to have been a decline for our forum, then it boosted back up again.

I would assume (as we are talking about VS) they are such a huge corporation then they should have some real market experts/analysts.

But no fire sale yet. Seems to be investment in AI though - perhaps that is a sign of desperation?

I’ve noticed the ups/downs also, in a very downward trajectory overall.

It seems VS is not doing that well and as they make public, due to google’s search updates and the negative effects of them. I’m seeing the exact same challenges they are. As far as AI goes, I’ve read that Google doesn’t like a lot of AI on end user sites and may demote them as a result. Typical Google arrogance however, they never tell you the exact reason your site is demoted, only giving you a long list of possibilities to work with. In the end you, you get to choose one of those possibilities, make the requested changes, cross your fingers and wait for weeks/months to see any possible search improvements. If I was VS, I’d be very careful implementing AI.

 

[Ricsca]

On a side note. Who all in today’s society is actively going to search, then scroll over to the forum tab, click that and sort through those, when the topic/answer they were looking for in the first place is right there on the main search listings page. Whether it be in AI forum, or on one of the top links listed, to Reddit or Quora…

You said exactly what I wanted to say!

Among other things, in Italy the forum card is not yet there.The forum card is a very negative thing for the forums other than positive! Already in the home page it was a miracle if some posts appeared, let alone now that they are confined to a tab where nobody click ever ...

 

[briansol]

VerticalScope still makes $13+ mln a year.

No, they lost a million or 2, again.

q on q loss along with y on y declines is not a successful business. If i was on the board, heads would be rolling. I guess they already did that though, ditching unprofitable channels like threadloom and who knows what else.

With 13 mil in rev, they don't have a rev problem - they have a spending problem.
2-4 mil can probably host/serve/support/moderate the sites they have. Where's the rest of the burndown?