AI accounts for 0.1% of traffic, but clicks are not everything

Despite the growth of AI traffic as a recommendation source, Google still dominated by multiples of 345 times, while Reddit Out-Refers all three major AISs are combined.

Because its shelf flow is not a big dent, is it worth pursuing?

This is what we know so far…

We studied the traffic composition of ~35K websites and found that AI only sent 0.1% of the total referral traffic, which is after search volume, slightly lower than email.

By breaking down the source, we found that Google sent 345 times more traffic than the combination of three major AISs

To put AI recommended traffic in context, the traffic for the three main AIs (ChatGpt, Confused and Gemini) is roughly the same as Reddit’s percentage.

According to our research, Reddit’s recommended traffic didn’t start to rise until November 2024, and has surpassed AI.

This has some of us ask Whether we over-invest in AI or other channels.

But traffic is not the only thing that matters.

It’s also about consciousness and transformation, and we see signs that AI can deliver in both ways.

For example, based on registration data and qualitative “How did you know us?” qualitatively, about 3% of the conversions come from AI. answer.

You should do AI traffic from chatgpt, confusion and Gemini AI traffic in that order – with Chatgpt about 50% of it (based on our previous data AI Transportation Research).

Our new study shows that confusion has exceeded Gemini as a source of traffic referral.

According to data From Kevin Indigconfusion is the most likely AI to cite brand responses, which largely explains this growth.

In the same study, Kevin revealed that the maximum extent to which brands mentioned in chatgpt is related to the domain rating of the website, while confusion and AI overview mentions being related to in-depth content.

According to our data, you are 1.6 times more likely to get AI traffic in the US than in India or the UK, which is the second highest region.

And, if you are in the “business and industry” field, it’s even better. You have twice the chance to get AI traffic with other most cited “work and education” and “healthy” industries.

If your website is located outside of these regions and industries, actively pursuing AI traffic may provide reduced returns.

Our latest data suggests that smaller sites capture more AI traffic, as a percentage of their total traffic, support our early discovery Research on artificial intelligence transportation.

Now, websites receiving 10k visits can expect 0.3% of their traffic to come from LLM, while websites with over 1 million visits are 0.1%.

Smaller sites also tend to attract more traffic to AI than email, while the opposite is true for larger sites.

One possible explanation for this difference is that users are less familiar with smaller websites and brands, thus gaining more research clicks.

We analyze the content and the type of page that receives AI traffic by analyzing the keyword frequency in the URL that obtains AI traffic.

To do this, we:

• URLs grouped by domain
• Extract unique words from URL path
• Repeated extracted words
• Clean data (delete numbers, common words, single letters, language tlds)
• Cross-domain summary words appear

In addition to the obvious “blog” page, “Best” (7.06%), “TOP” (5.5%), “VS” (4.88%) and general comparison content seem to get the largest percentage of AI traffic.

Guidelines (6.35%) and teaching content also increase traffic to AI chatbots.

When researching products, brands and services, people tend to click more, as evidenced by the presence of Ngrams “Contact” (6.8%), “Product” (6.43%), “Product” (4.71%) and “Service” (4.53%).

When it comes to AI values, it can be attributed to AI traffic is just the tip of the iceberg.

In our last study, we noticed Inadequate representation of artificial intelligence traffic Because reports are “direct” traffic in analytical tools.

But even without tracking exceptions, AI traffic is humble, as users are able to do more research without clicking.

The reality is that AI drives important brand awareness, creates a more knowledgeable audience, and provides more qualified leads, not just transportation.

Summarize

AI is a shining new thing. Everyone wants to be involved. However, AI traffic remains very small compared to more mature channels – if you are taken away by hype, you risk overinvestment.

Just as social media allows you to share interesting content on the platform, AI allows you to have interesting conversations on the platform – out of external traffic is not the goal.

Therefore, AI will never be one of the top referrals in your website analytics.

Its main benefit is Improve brand awareness and Positive brand sentimentmentioned through the platform.

Trackable AI traffic and conversions are a happy by-product, treating them as your secondary KPIs.

Before you promise to build AI traffic, ask yourself: Are my listeners actually using AI to find my business?

Make judgments based on regional and vertical AI traffic usage and your own customer data.

Once you are full of confidence, your audience is there, please track AI extensively and regularly.

Track Brand mentioned in AI

Use similar tools Ahrefs brand radar Monitor brand mentions growth and track brand sentiment in AI.

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