How buyer behavior is moving off-site and what it means for websites going forward

For years, the B2B website was the cornerstone of a company’s marketing strategy. Every campaign pointed back to it, every buyer journey was tracked on it, and every tool in the stack, from Google Analytics to HubSpot, depended on website data to measure success.

That model is under pressure. Organic traffic is declining, and high-growth companies are moving investments into platforms and channels they don’t fully control. The question now is: what role will the website play in the inbound motion going forward?

When the Website Was King

The traditional funnel revolved around the website. Campaigns redirected every click there. Platforms like HubSpot built their ecosystems on capturing website activity. Analytics tools mapped the journey page by page, and marketers lived by bounce rates, form fills, and session replays.

AI Overviews, algorithm changes, and content saturation have led to a sharp drop in organic traffic, up to 64% in some industries (Forbes). Even high-ranking sites lose clicks before prospects can reach them. As buyer behavior continues to shift off-site, organic search can’t be the backbone of inbound anymore.

Discovery Has Moved Off-Site

The website’s shrinking role is part of a bigger change in how buyers search, compare, and decide. Three shifts in particular are driving discovery away from corporate websites.

1. Buying Solutions on Social Platforms

In B2C, the funnel has already moved. Social and marketplace platforms are no longer just discovery channels. They’re where purchases happen. Nearly 70% of marketers predict more shopping will take place inside social apps than on brand websites or third-party marketplaces this year (HubSpot). Already, 46.5% of consumers buy clothes on Instagram monthly (Capital One), and 89% have purchased beauty products they discovered on TikTok (StyleSeat).

B2B is starting to mirror this behavior. With Millennials and Gen Z making up 65% of buying committees (Luxid), the habits formed in consumer markets are now shaping professional purchasing decisions. These buyers search for solutions on social platforms, mobile-first, with less patience for long browsing sessions.

2. Google’s Zero-Click Shift

Search itself is changing. We were used to a predictable flow: type a query, click a result, land on a website. But today, most searches end without a click.

Nearly 60% of Google searches in the US and EU now stop on the results page (SparkToro). Traffic that once flowed to websites is being captured by Google’s own AI-powered answers.

3. AI Search Is Accelerating the Shift

AI is compressing the funnel even further. By the end of 2024, nearly 90% of B2B buyers were using generative AI in at least one stage of their buying process. Sales conversions influenced by ChatGPT recommendations grew 436% year over year (Transmission).

Instead of spending weeks reading case studies and compiling vendor lists, buyers are asking AI to surface comparisons, reviews, and shortlists in minutes. Answers are delivered directly, often without a single click to a vendor’s page.

The Website’s Shrinking Role

With discovery moving off-site, the website is no longer the first stop in the funnel. It’s the last checkpoint before action.

Today’s B2B buyers want quick paths to:

• View pricing
• Watch a product demo
• Talk to a rep
• Book a demo

Everything else, from education to validation and comparisons, happens elsewhere.

This changes how success is measured. Tracking a dozen page views per visitor doesn’t matter if the buyer opens one page, clicks “Book a Demo,” and leaves. The real question is whether the website removes friction in the final leg of the journey.

What the Website Becomes Next

The website isn’t dead, but it’s no longer the hub. Its future is about conversion, not discovery.

That means rethinking design and strategy:

• Strip it down. Prioritize actions over browsing. Make booking, contacting, and watching a demo effortless.
• Enable off-site conversion. If a buyer wants to book a meeting from LinkedIn or G2, let them. Don’t force them through a landing page.
• Rethink attribution. Accept that your CRM won’t capture every touch. Build models that combine platform data, intent signals, and direct conversion metrics.
• Invest off-site. If buyers are in AI search, LinkedIn threads, or review sites, meet them there instead of waiting for them to come to you.

B2C platforms already show where this is heading. Shopify launched Marketplace Connect to unify sales across Amazon, eBay, and Walmart. Pure site builders that only host static content are becoming niche.

The website isn’t the center of the funnel anymore. It’s one of many endpoints.

The New Real Estate

B2B websites once defined how buyers discovered, learned, and decided. Now those stages happen off-site. By the time a buyer visits your domain, they already know what they want.

The new real estate is where those decisions are being made: on platforms, inside communities, and increasingly through AI-driven experiences.

The website isn’t dead. But if you’re still treating it like the center of the funnel, you’re marketing to a world that no longer exists.