Publishers that depend on Pinterest as a meaningful source of traffic, such as MarthaStewart.com, have seen a notable drop-off in recent months, according to publishing executives and new data. It's the latest reminder of the hazards for publishers of relying too much on social platforms for traffic.

The traffic drop follows a change to Pinterest’s search algorithm earlier this year, which had the effect of putting recent posts near the top of the search, according to one publishing executive. Another publishing executive said that while his company had never gotten a huge amount of traffic from Pinterest, it has dwindled to “practically non-existent.”