AI Makes Up 0.1% of Visitors, however Clicks Aren’t Every thing

AI Makes Up 0.1% of Visitors, however Clicks Aren’t Every thing


Whereas AI site visitors is rising as a referral supply, Google nonetheless dominates by an element of 345x, and Reddit out-refers all three main AIs mixed.

Because it stands AI site visitors isn’t making a lot of a dent, so is it value pursuing?

Right here’s what we all know so far…

Sidenote.

Due to our information scientist Xibeijia Guan for aggregating all the information behind this analysis.

AI is a modest supply of site visitors

We studied the site visitors make-up of ~35K web sites, and located that AI sends simply 0.1% of whole referral site visitors—far behind that of search, and simply barely under e mail.

Ahrefs AI traffic research. Bar chart showing Traffic by Channel, with Search at 43.8%, Direct at 42.3%, Social at 13.1%, Paid at 0.5%, Email at 0.2%, and LLM at 0.1%

Breaking that down by supply, we discovered that Google sends 345x extra site visitors than the three important AIs mixed

Ahrefs AI traffic research. Bar graph displaying Percentage of Website Traffic by Source, with Google leading at 41.14%, followed by Direct at 20.58%, Facebook at 8.92%, and just 0.12% for AI sources ChatGPT, Perplexity, and GeminiAhrefs AI traffic research. Bar graph displaying Percentage of Website Traffic by Source, with Google leading at 41.14%, followed by Direct at 20.58%, Facebook at 8.92%, and just 0.12% for AI sources ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini

AI sends roughly the identical quantity of site visitors as Reddit

To place AI referral site visitors into context, the three main AIs (ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini) ship over roughly the identical proportion site visitors as Reddit.

Ahrefs AI traffic research. Bar graph comparing Reddit (0.13%) with ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini (0.12%), showing nearly identical referral traffic percentagesAhrefs AI traffic research. Bar graph comparing Reddit (0.13%) with ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini (0.12%), showing nearly identical referral traffic percentages

In accordance with our analysis, referral site visitors from Reddit solely started selecting up again in November 2024 and already it has overtaken AI.

This has a few of us questioning whether or not we’re over-investing in AI, vs. different channels.

A LinkedIn comment on Ryan Law's post about AI sending the same amount of traffic as Reddit. The comment, from Jaime Capitel, reads "And who's talking about good Reddit marketing? Asking for a friend."A LinkedIn comment on Ryan Law's post about AI sending the same amount of traffic as Reddit. The comment, from Jaime Capitel, reads "And who's talking about good Reddit marketing? Asking for a friend." A LinkedIn comment on Ryan Law's post about AI sending the same amount of traffic as Reddit. The comment, from Wawa Gilewski, reads "Nice insight. What I'm seeing on the supple side is every other new agency popping up on the market promises to do wonders for 'your LLM optimisation'. Yet, Reddit marketing doesn't get the same spotlight."A LinkedIn comment on Ryan Law's post about AI sending the same amount of traffic as Reddit. The comment, from Wawa Gilewski, reads "Nice insight. What I'm seeing on the supple side is every other new agency popping up on the market promises to do wonders for 'your LLM optimisation'. Yet, Reddit marketing doesn't get the same spotlight."

However site visitors isn’t the one factor that issues.

It’s additionally about consciousness and conversions, and we’re seeing indicators that AI can ship on each fronts.

As an example, roughly 3% of our personal conversions have come from AI during the last yr, based mostly on registration information, and qualitative “how did you hear about us?” responses.

Perplexity has overtaken Gemini as a referrer

It is best to anticipate AI site visitors from ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini in that order—with ChatGPT accounting for roughly 50% of that (based mostly on information in our earlier AI site visitors examine).

Ahrefs AI traffic research. AI chatbot traffic distribution. ChatGPT sends 50% of AI traffic, Perplexity sends 30.7%, and Gemini sends 17.6%Ahrefs AI traffic research. AI chatbot traffic distribution. ChatGPT sends 50% of AI traffic, Perplexity sends 30.7%, and Gemini sends 17.6%

Our new analysis exhibits that Perplexity has overtaken Gemini as a site visitors referral supply.

Ahrefs AI traffic research. Line graph tracking the traffic referral trends of ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini from July 2024 to January 2025, highlighting Perplexity's rise and overtaking of GeminiAhrefs AI traffic research. Line graph tracking the traffic referral trends of ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini from July 2024 to January 2025, highlighting Perplexity's rise and overtaking of Gemini

In accordance with information from Kevin Indig, Perplexity is the AI most certainly to quote a model in its responses, which does quite a bit to elucidate this progress.

Kevin Indig AI brand mention research. A bar chart shows average brand mentions for each AI model. Perplexity sends 3.17 brand mentions, ChatGPT sends 2.87, and Google AI sends 2.8Kevin Indig AI brand mention research. A bar chart shows average brand mentions for each AI model. Perplexity sends 3.17 brand mentions, ChatGPT sends 2.87, and Google AI sends 2.8

In the identical examine, Kevin reveals that model mentions in ChatGPT correlate most with a website’s area ranking, whereas Perplexity and AI overview mentions correlate with deep content material.

Kevin Indig AI brand mention research, showing the factors that correlate most with AI brand visibility, broken down by AI source (Perplexity, AI Overviews, and ChatGPT), showing Perplexity correlates closest with factors like sentence and word count, Flesch score, and DomainsKevin Indig AI brand mention research, showing the factors that correlate most with AI brand visibility, broken down by AI source (Perplexity, AI Overviews, and ChatGPT), showing Perplexity correlates closest with factors like sentence and word count, Flesch score, and Domains

AI sends probably the most site visitors to enterprise web sites within the US

You’re about 1.6 occasions extra more likely to obtain AI site visitors within the US than in India or the UK—the next-highest areas, in keeping with our information.

Bar graph showing Top 10 Countries by AI Traffic Distribution, with the United States leading at 7.71%, followed by India at 4.9%, UK at 4.85%, and other countries with descending percentagesBar graph showing Top 10 Countries by AI Traffic Distribution, with the United States leading at 7.71%, followed by India at 4.9%, UK at 4.85%, and other countries with descending percentages

And for those who’re within the “Enterprise & Industrial” sector, even higher. You will have double the prospect of receiving AI site visitors vs. the 2 different most-referred industries of “Jobs & Schooling” and “Well being”.

Bar chart of AI Traffic by Industry, with Business and Industrial leading at 21.0%, followed by Jobs and Education at 10.5%, and Health at 10.2%, with various other industries representedBar chart of AI Traffic by Industry, with Business and Industrial leading at 21.0%, followed by Jobs and Education at 10.5%, and Health at 10.2%, with various other industries represented

In case your website sits outdoors of those areas and industries, actively pursuing AI site visitors might present diminishing returns.

Smaller websites nonetheless decide up extra AI site visitors

Our newest information exhibits that smaller websites seize extra AI site visitors as a proportion of their whole site visitors, which helps findings in our earlier AI site visitors analysis.

Websites receiving underneath 10K visits can now anticipate 0.3% of their site visitors to return from LLMs, vs. 0.1% for these exceeding 1 million visits.

Bar chart showing Traffic by Source across different website visitor ranges, with Paid, LLM, and Email traffic percentages for visitor segments from less than 10K to over 1M visitorsBar chart showing Traffic by Source across different website visitor ranges, with Paid, LLM, and Email traffic percentages for visitor segments from less than 10K to over 1M visitors

Smaller websites additionally have a tendency to draw extra site visitors from AI than they do from e mail, whereas the alternative is true of bigger websites.

One attainable rationalization for this discrepancy is that smaller websites and types are much less acquainted to the consumer, leading to extra research-geared clicks.

Greatest-of content material, product pages, and guides drive probably the most AI site visitors

We analyzed the forms of content material and pages that decide up AI site visitors, by analyzing key phrase frequency in URLs that earn AI site visitors.

To do that, we:

  • Grouped URLs by area
  • Extracted distinctive phrases from URL paths
  • Deduplicated extracted phrases
  • Cleaned information (take away digits, widespread phrases, single letters, language TLDs)
  • Aggregated phrase occurrences throughout domains

Bar chart of Common Words in URLs Earning AI Traffic, with 'Blog' leading at 11.20%, followed by 'Best' at 7.06%, and other terms like 'Contact', 'Products', and 'Guide'Bar chart of Common Words in URLs Earning AI Traffic, with 'Blog' leading at 11.20%, followed by 'Best' at 7.06%, and other terms like 'Contact', 'Products', and 'Guide'

Other than the apparent “weblog” pages, ‘’greatest” (7.06%), “high” (5.5%), “vs” (4.88%) and basic comparability content material appears to earn the best proportion of AI site visitors.

Guides (6.35%) and tutorial content material additionally improve site visitors from AI chatbots.

And other people are likely to click-through extra when researching merchandise, manufacturers, and providers, as evidenced by the presence of the ngrams “contact” (6.8%), “merchandise” (6.43%), “product” (4.71%), and “providers” (4.53%).

Attributable AI site visitors is simply the tip of the iceberg

Attributable AI site visitors is simply the tip of the iceberg relating to the worth of AI.

In our final piece of analysis, we observed that AI site visitors is being underrepresented because of reporting as “direct” site visitors in analytics instruments.

However, even with out monitoring anomalies, AI site visitors can be modest, as a result of customers are in a position to do extra of their analysis with out clicking.

The fact is AI drives vital model consciousness, creates extra knowledgeable audiences, and delivers extra certified leads—it’s not nearly site visitors.

Wrapping up

AI is the shiny new factor. Everybody desires to become involved. However AI site visitors continues to be minimal in comparison with extra established channels—you danger over-investing for those who get carried away by the hype.

Like social media retains you on-platform sharing fascinating content material, AI retains you on-platform having fascinating conversations—sending out exterior site visitors will not be the aim.

For that cause, AI won’t ever be one of many high referrers in your website analytics.

Its important advantages are elevated model consciousness and constructive model sentiment, by way of on-platform mentions.

Trackable AI site visitors and conversions are a contented byproduct—deal with them as your secondary KPIs.

Earlier than you decide to constructing your AI site visitors, ask your self: are my viewers truly utilizing AI to search out my enterprise?

Make a judgement name based mostly on regional and vertical AI site visitors utilization, and your individual buyer information.

When you’re assured your viewers is there, monitor AI broadly and repeatedly.

Monitor model mentions in AI

Use a software like Ahrefs Model Radar to observe the expansion of your model mentions, and monitor model sentiment in AI.

Ahrefs Brand Radar showing brand mentions in AI Overviews for Ahrefs, SEMRush, Moz, SE Ranking, BuzzSumo, and Majestic for the topic of backlinksAhrefs Brand Radar showing brand mentions in AI Overviews for Ahrefs, SEMRush, Moz, SE Ranking, BuzzSumo, and Majestic for the topic of backlinks

Monitor AI site visitors

Arrange AI site visitors studies to trace chatbot referral tendencies…

…and optimize pages which can be incomes precise visits.

A screenshot of Ahrefs Web Analytics showing a trended line chart comparison of URLs/content receiving traffic from LLMsA screenshot of Ahrefs Web Analytics showing a trended line chart comparison of URLs/content receiving traffic from LLMs

Monitor AI conversions

Enhance your conversion monitoring to higher attribute any AI-assisted conversions.

A screenshot of Ahrefs' Slack channel, highlighting 14k "Where did you learn about Ahrefs" messages referencing ChatgptA screenshot of Ahrefs' Slack channel, highlighting 14k "Where did you learn about Ahrefs" messages referencing Chatgpt

AI site visitors is modest, and whereas it’s not one thing to disregard, you should be sensible about the way you method it.

 



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