Traffic to Demand Media sites has taken a big hit since Google introduced its search algorithm change.
Google began rolling out an international update to the algorithm in February. Dubbed Panda, it's intended to reduce rankings for sites with low-quality or unoriginal content. Panda has also been referred to as a "farmer" algorithm change, because it's supposed to weed out so-called content farms. Panda went into full effect this month.
Demand Media recently denied reports that its traffic was affected by the change at all, but Experian Hitwise reports that it's declined by 40 percent since the beginning of the year.
In January, 0.57 percent of people navigated to a Demand Media site after visiting Google. But as of this month, that figure has shrunk to 0.34 percent.
As Forbes notes, some Demand Media properties have been affected even more significantly, with traffic to Answerbag down 80 percent. Traffic to eHow, Demand Media's largest site, has dwindled by 29 percent, comprising just 0.29 percent of Google's downstream traffic.
The slump has hurt Demand Media in other ways, too. The company's stock has slipped by 40 percent, down to an all-time low of $14.05 per share on Tuesday.
Other sites have been burned by Panda, too. For example, Mahalo's traffic from Google has dropped by 78 percent. Associated Content has seen a 61 percent decline, and Examiner.com traffic has decreased by 51 percent. Interestingly enough, tech news site Mashable has also seen a 40 percent slip in traffic.
Demand Media has not commented on the most recent report, but has said it will go into greater detail in a quarterly earnings call on May 5.