{"id":186640,"date":"2025-03-26T04:42:22","date_gmt":"2025-03-26T09:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/?p=186640"},"modified":"2025-08-26T09:54:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T14:54:09","slug":"ai-traffic-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/ai-traffic-research\/","title":{"rendered":"AI Makes Up 0.1% of Traffic, but Clicks Aren\u2019t Everything"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"intro-txt\">While AI traffic is growing as a referral source, Google still dominates by a factor of 345x, and Reddit out-refers all three major AIs combined.<\/div>\n<p>As it stands AI traffic isn\u2019t making much of a dent, so is it worth pursuing?<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s what we know so&nbsp;far\u2026<\/p>\n<div class=\"sidenote\"><div class=\"sidenote-title\">Sidenote.<\/div> Thanks to our awesome data scientist <a href=\"https:\/\/sg.linkedin.com\/in\/xibeijia-guan\">Xibeijia Guan<\/a> for aggregating all of the data behind this research.<\/div>\n<p><a id=\"post-186640-_11urmsh0bo9w\"><\/a> <\/p><div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"AI is a modest source of traffic\" data-section=\"ai-is-a-modest-source-of-traffic\">\n<h2>AI is a modest source of traffic<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>We studied the traffic makeup of ~35K websites, and found that AI sends just 0.1% of total referral traffic\u2014far behind that of search, and just slightly below&nbsp;email.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-186752\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/1-ai-traffic-blog-1.png\" alt=\"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%\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1592\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/1-ai-traffic-blog-1.png 1600w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/1-ai-traffic-blog-1-427x425.png 427w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/1-ai-traffic-blog-1-768x764.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/1-ai-traffic-blog-1-1536x1528.png 1536w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/1-ai-traffic-blog-1-120x120.png 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\"><\/p>\n<p>Breaking that down by source, we found that Google sends 345x more traffic than the three main AIs combined<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-187380 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/2-ai-traffic-blog.png\" alt=\"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 Gemini\" width=\"1600\" height=\"2661\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/2-ai-traffic-blog.png 1600w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/2-ai-traffic-blog-256x425.png 256w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/2-ai-traffic-blog-768x1277.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/2-ai-traffic-blog-924x1536.png 924w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/2-ai-traffic-blog-1231x2048.png 1231w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\"><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"post-186640-_voqtrgyifaow\"><\/a> <\/p><div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"AI sends roughly the same amount of traffic as Reddit \" data-section=\"ai-sends-roughly-the-same-amount-of-traffic-as-reddit\">\n<h2>AI sends roughly the same amount of traffic as Reddit<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>To put AI referral traffic into context, the three major AIs (ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini) send over roughly the same percentage traffic as Reddit.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-186754\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/3-ai-traffic-blog-1.png\" alt=\"Ahrefs AI traffic research. Bar graph comparing Reddit (0.13%) with ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini (0.12%), showing nearly identical referral traffic percentages\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1417\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/3-ai-traffic-blog-1.png 1600w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/3-ai-traffic-blog-1-480x425.png 480w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/3-ai-traffic-blog-1-768x680.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/3-ai-traffic-blog-1-1536x1360.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\"><\/p>\n<p>According to our research, referral traffic from Reddit only began picking up back in November 2024 and already it has overtaken AI.<\/p>\n<p>This has some of us <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/posts\/thinkingslow_llms-send-the-same-amount-of-referral-traffic-activity-7306276459797491712-tVxQ?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop&amp;rcm=ACoAABoEm7QBekJrKEnvC5H6nTAmYwOb4R1k5GE\">questioning<\/a> whether we\u2019re over-investing in AI, vs. other channels.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-186644\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-4.png\" alt=\"A LinkedIn comment on Ryan Law's post about AI sending the same amount of traffic as Reddit. The comment, from Jaime Capitel, reads &quot;And who's talking about good Reddit marketing? Asking for a friend.&quot;\" width=\"1504\" height=\"416\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-4.png 1504w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-4-680x188.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-4-768x212.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1504px) 100vw, 1504px\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-186645\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-5.png\" alt=\"A LinkedIn comment on Ryan Law's post about AI sending the same amount of traffic as Reddit. The comment, from Wawa Gilewski, reads &quot;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.&quot;\" width=\"1524\" height=\"530\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-5.png 1524w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-5-680x236.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-5-768x267.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1524px) 100vw, 1524px\"><\/p>\n<p>But traffic isn\u2019t the only thing that matters.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also about awareness and conversions, and we\u2019re seeing signs that AI can deliver on both fronts.<\/p>\n<p>For instance, approximately 3% of our own conversions have come from AI over the last year, based on registration data, and qualitative \u201chow did you hear about us?\u201d responses.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"post-186640-_stdpmyn6ua2\"><\/a> <\/p><div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"Perplexity has overtaken Gemini as a referrer\" data-section=\"perplexity-has-overtaken-gemini-as-a-referrer\">\n<h2>Perplexity has overtaken Gemini as a referrer<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>You should expect AI traffic from ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini in that order\u2014with ChatGPT accounting for roughly 50% of that (based on data in our earlier <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/ai-traffic-study\/#ai-traffic-distribution\">AI traffic study<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-186646\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-6.png\" alt=\"Ahrefs AI traffic research. AI chatbot traffic distribution. ChatGPT sends 50% of AI traffic, Perplexity sends 30.7%, and Gemini sends 17.6%\" width=\"1600\" height=\"548\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-6.png 1600w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-6-680x233.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-6-768x263.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-6-1536x526.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\"><\/p>\n<p>Our new research shows that Perplexity has overtaken Gemini as a traffic referral source.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-186755\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/4-ai-traffic-blog.png\" alt=\"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 Gemini\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1926\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/4-ai-traffic-blog.png 2000w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/4-ai-traffic-blog-441x425.png 441w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/4-ai-traffic-blog-768x740.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/4-ai-traffic-blog-1536x1479.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\"><\/p>\n<p>According to data <a href=\"https:\/\/www.growth-memo.com\/p\/what-content-works-well-in-llms\">from Kevin Indig<\/a>, Perplexity is the AI most likely to cite a brand in its responses, which does a lot to explain this growth.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-186648\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-8.png\" alt=\"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 2.8\" width=\"1456\" height=\"1109\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-8.png 1456w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-8-558x425.png 558w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-8-768x585.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1456px) 100vw, 1456px\"><\/p>\n<p>In the same study, Kevin reveals that brand mentions in ChatGPT correlate most with a site\u2019s domain rating, while Perplexity and AI overview mentions correlate with deep content.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-186649\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-9.png\" alt=\"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 Domains\" width=\"1456\" height=\"1105\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-9.png 1456w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-9-560x425.png 560w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-9-768x583.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1456px) 100vw, 1456px\"><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"post-186640-_vuosmzwu55bb\"><\/a> <\/p><div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"AI sends the most traffic to business websites in the US\" data-section=\"ai-sends-the-most-traffic-to-business-websites-in-the-us\">\n<h2>AI sends the most traffic to business websites in the&nbsp;US<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>You\u2019re about 1.6 times more likely to receive AI traffic in the US than in India or the UK\u2014the next-highest regions, according to our&nbsp;data.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-186756\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/7-ai-traffic-blog-1.png\" alt=\"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 percentages\" width=\"2422\" height=\"1518\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/7-ai-traffic-blog-1.png 2422w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/7-ai-traffic-blog-1-678x425.png 678w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/7-ai-traffic-blog-1-768x481.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/7-ai-traffic-blog-1-1536x963.png 1536w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/7-ai-traffic-blog-1-2048x1284.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2422px) 100vw, 2422px\"><\/p>\n<p>And if you\u2019re in the \u201cBusiness &amp; Industrial\u201d sector, even better. You have double the chance of receiving AI traffic vs. the two other most-referred industries of \u201cJobs &amp; Education\u201d and \u201cHealth\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-186757\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/8-ai-traffic-blog-1.png\" alt=\"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 represented\" width=\"2747\" height=\"1823\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/8-ai-traffic-blog-1.png 2747w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/8-ai-traffic-blog-1-640x425.png 640w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/8-ai-traffic-blog-1-768x510.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/8-ai-traffic-blog-1-1536x1019.png 1536w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/8-ai-traffic-blog-1-2048x1359.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2747px) 100vw, 2747px\"><\/p>\n<p>If your site sits outside of these regions and industries, actively pursuing AI traffic could provide diminishing returns.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"post-186640-_3ry4pdaremki\"><\/a> <\/p><div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"Smaller sites still pick up more AI traffic\" data-section=\"smaller-sites-still-pick-up-more-ai-traffic\">\n<h2>Smaller sites still pick up more AI traffic<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Our latest data shows that smaller sites capture more AI traffic as a percentage of their total traffic, which supports findings in our earlier <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/ai-traffic-study\/\">AI traffic research<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Sites receiving under 10K visits can now expect 0.3% of their traffic to come from LLMs, vs. 0.1% for those exceeding 1 million visits.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-186758\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/5-ai-traffic-blog-2.png\" alt=\"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 visitors\" width=\"2512\" height=\"1468\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/5-ai-traffic-blog-2.png 2512w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/5-ai-traffic-blog-2-680x397.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/5-ai-traffic-blog-2-768x449.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/5-ai-traffic-blog-2-1536x898.png 1536w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/5-ai-traffic-blog-2-2048x1197.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2512px) 100vw, 2512px\"><\/p>\n<p>Smaller sites also tend to attract more traffic from AI than they do from email, while the opposite is true of larger sites.<\/p>\n<p>One possible explanation for this discrepancy is that smaller sites and brands are less familiar to the user, resulting in more research-geared clicks.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"post-186640-_ojr66s5kku2i\"><\/a> <\/p><div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"Best-of content, product pages, and guides drive the most AI traffic\" data-section=\"best-of-content-product-pages-and-guides-drive-the-most-ai-traffic\">\n<h2>Best-of content, product pages, and guides drive the most AI traffic<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>We analyzed the types of content and pages that pick up AI traffic, by analyzing keyword frequency in URLs that earn AI traffic.<\/p>\n<p>To do this,&nbsp;we:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Grouped URLs by domain<\/li>\n<li>Extracted unique words from URL&nbsp;paths<\/li>\n<li>Deduplicated extracted words<\/li>\n<li>Cleaned data (remove digits, common words, single letters, language TLDs)<\/li>\n<li>Aggregated word occurrences across domains<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-186759\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/6-ai-traffic-blog-1.png\" alt=\"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'\" width=\"1600\" height=\"2255\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/6-ai-traffic-blog-1.png 1600w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/6-ai-traffic-blog-1-302x425.png 302w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/6-ai-traffic-blog-1-768x1082.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/6-ai-traffic-blog-1-1090x1536.png 1090w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/6-ai-traffic-blog-1-1453x2048.png 1453w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\"><\/p>\n<p>Aside from the obvious \u201cblog\u201d pages, \u2018\u2019best\u201d (7.06%), \u201ctop\u201d (5.5%), \u201cvs\u201d (4.88%) and general comparison content seems to earn the greatest proportion of AI traffic.<\/p>\n<p>Guides (6.35%) and instructional content also increase traffic from AI chatbots.<\/p>\n<p>And people tend to click-through more when researching products, brands, and services, as evidenced by the presence of the ngrams \u201ccontact\u201d (6.8%), \u201cproducts\u201d (6.43%), \u201cproduct\u201d (4.71%), and \u201cservices\u201d (4.53%).<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"post-186640-_xsnzcrct15jg\"><\/a> <\/p><div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"Attributable AI traffic is just the tip of the iceberg\" data-section=\"attributable-ai-traffic-is-just-the-tip-of-the-iceberg\">\n<h2>Attributable AI traffic is just the tip of the iceberg<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Attributable AI traffic is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the value of&nbsp;AI.<\/p>\n<p>In our last piece of research, we noticed that <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/ai-traffic-study\/\">AI traffic is being underrepresented<\/a> due to reporting as \u201cdirect\u201d traffic in analytics tools.<\/p>\n<p>But, even without tracking anomalies, AI traffic would be modest, because users are able to do more of their research without clicking.<\/p>\n<p>The reality is AI drives significant brand awareness, creates more informed audiences, and delivers more qualified leads\u2014it\u2019s not just about traffic.<\/p>\n<h2>Wrapping up<\/h2>\n<p>AI is the shiny new thing. Everyone wants to get involved. But AI traffic is still minimal compared to more established channels\u2014you risk over-investing if you get carried away by the&nbsp;hype.<\/p>\n<p>Like social media keeps you on-platform sharing interesting content, AI keeps you on-platform having interesting conversations\u2014sending out external traffic is not the&nbsp;goal.<\/p>\n<p>For that reason, AI will never be one of the top referrers in your site analytics.<\/p>\n<p>Its main benefits are<strong> increased brand awareness<\/strong> and <strong>positive brand sentiment<\/strong>, through on-platform mentions.<\/p>\n<p>Trackable AI traffic and conversions are a happy byproduct\u2014treat them as your secondary KPIs.<\/p>\n<p>Before you commit to building your AI traffic, ask yourself: are my audience actually using AI to find my business?<\/p>\n<p>Make a judgement call based on regional and vertical AI traffic usage, and your own customer data.<\/p>\n<p>Once you\u2019re confident your audience is there, track AI broadly and regularly.<\/p>\n<h3><a id=\"post-186640-_kh8d5p1ccilj\"><\/a>Track brand mentions in&nbsp;AI<\/h3>\n<p>Use a tool like <a href=\"https:\/\/app.ahrefs.com\/brand-radar\">Ahrefs Brand Radar<\/a> to monitor the growth of your brand mentions, and track brand sentiment in&nbsp;AI.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-186654\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-14.jpg\" alt=\"Ahrefs Brand Radar showing brand mentions in AI Overviews for Ahrefs, SEMRush, Moz, SE Ranking, BuzzSumo, and Majestic for the topic of backlinks\" width=\"1884\" height=\"1896\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-14.jpg 1884w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-14-422x425.jpg 422w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-14-768x773.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-14-1526x1536.jpg 1526w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-14-120x120.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1884px) 100vw, 1884px\"><\/p>\n<h3><a id=\"post-186640-_4zvrntnqjayw\"><\/a>Track AI traffic<\/h3>\n<p>Set up AI traffic reports to track chatbot referral trends\u2026<\/p>\n\n<div data-mode=\"normal\" data-oembed=\"1\" data-provider=\"youtube\" id=\"arve-youtube-o49rwqzcino\" style=\"max-width:900px;\" class=\"arve\">\n\t<div class=\"arve-inner\">\n\t\t<div style=\"aspect-ratio:500\/281\" class=\"arve-embed arve-embed--has-aspect-ratio\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"arve-ar\" style=\"padding-top:56.200000%\"><\/div>\n\t\t\t<iframe allow=\"accelerometer 'none';autoplay 'none';bluetooth 'none';browsing-topics 'none';camera 'none';clipboard-read 'none';clipboard-write;display-capture 'none';encrypted-media 'none';gamepad 'none';geolocation 'none';gyroscope 'none';hid 'none';identity-credentials-get 'none';idle-detection 'none';keyboard-map 'none';local-fonts;magnetometer 'none';microphone 'none';midi 'none';otp-credentials 'none';payment 'none';picture-in-picture;publickey-credentials-create 'none';publickey-credentials-get 'none';screen-wake-lock 'none';serial 'none';summarizer 'none';sync-xhr;usb 'none';web-share;window-management 'none';xr-spatial-tracking 'none';\" allowfullscreen class=\"arve-iframe fitvidsignore\" credentialless data-arve=\"arve-youtube-o49rwqzcino\" data-lenis-prevent data-src-no-ap=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/O49RwqZCINo?feature=oembed&amp;iv_load_policy=3&amp;modestbranding=1&amp;rel=0&amp;autohide=1&amp;playsinline=0&amp;autoplay=0\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"505.8\" loading=\"lazy\" name referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-presentation allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/O49RwqZCINo?feature=oembed&amp;iv_load_policy=3&amp;modestbranding=1&amp;rel=0&amp;autohide=1&amp;playsinline=0&amp;autoplay=0\" title=\"How to track AI search traffic in Ahrefs\" width=\"900\"><\/iframe>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n<\/div>\n<p>\u2026and optimize pages that are earning actual visits.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-186656\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-16.png\" alt=\"A screenshot of Ahrefs Web Analytics showing a trended line chart comparison of URLs\/content receiving traffic from LLMs\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1577\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-16.png 2048w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-16-552x425.png 552w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-16-768x591.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-16-1536x1183.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\"><\/p>\n<h3><a id=\"post-186640-_4zb8wt5gvb8m\"><\/a>Track AI conversions<\/h3>\n<p>Improve your conversion tracking to better attribute any AI-assisted conversions.<\/p>\n<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-186657\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-17.jpg\" alt=\"A screenshot of Ahrefs' Slack channel, highlighting 14k &quot;Where did you learn about Ahrefs&quot; messages referencing Chatgpt\" width=\"1208\" height=\"874\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-17.jpg 1208w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-17-587x425.jpg 587w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-186640-17-768x556.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1208px) 100vw, 1208px\"><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>AI traffic is modest, and while it\u2019s not something to ignore, you need to be smart about how you approach it.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As it stands AI traffic isn\u2019t making much of a dent, so is it worth pursuing? Here\u2019s what we know so&nbsp;far\u2026 We studied the traffic makeup of ~35K websites, and found that AI sends just 0.1% of total referral traffic\u2014far<span class=\"ellipsis\">\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\">Read more \u203a<\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[469,414],"tags":[],"coauthors":[464,467],"class_list":["post-186640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ai-search","category-data-studies","odd"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>AI Makes Up 0.1% of Traffic, but Clicks Aren\u2019t Everything<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"AI drives significant brand awareness, creates more informed audiences, and delivers more qualified leads\u2014but it\u2019s not just about traffic.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/ai-traffic-research\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AI Makes Up 0.1% of Traffic, but Clicks Aren\u2019t Everything\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"AI drives significant brand awareness, creates more informed audiences, and delivers more qualified leads\u2014but it\u2019s not just about traffic.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/ai-traffic-research\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SEO Blog by Ahrefs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Ahrefs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-26T09:42:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-26T14:54:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/1-ai-traffic-blog-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1592\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Louise Linehan, Xibeijia Guan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ahrefs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ahrefs\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/ai-traffic-research\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/ai-traffic-research\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Louise Linehan\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/444b3643c35b16b94b763446c5562388\"},\"headline\":\"AI Makes Up 0.1% of Traffic, but Clicks Aren\u2019t Everything\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-26T09:42:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-26T14:54:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/ai-traffic-research\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1163,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/ai-traffic-research\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/ai-makes-up-0.1-of-traffic-by-louise-linehan-data-studies.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"AI Search\",\"Data &amp; 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