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.
As it stands AI traffic isn’t making much of a dent, so is it worth pursuing?
Here’s what we know so far…
Sidenote.
Thanks to our data scientist Xibeijia Guan for aggregating all of the data behind this research.
But traffic isn’t the only thing that matters.
It’s also about awareness and conversions, and we’re seeing signs that AI can deliver on both fronts.
For instance, approximately 3% of our own conversions have come from AI over the last year, based on registration data, and qualitative “how did you hear about us?” responses.
Our new research shows that Perplexity has overtaken Gemini as a traffic referral source.
According to data from Kevin Indig, Perplexity is the AI most likely to cite a brand in its responses, which does a lot to explain this growth.
In the same study, Kevin reveals that brand mentions in ChatGPT correlate most with a site’s domain rating, while Perplexity and AI overview mentions correlate with deep content.
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.
Smaller sites also tend to attract more traffic from AI than they do from email, while the opposite is true of larger sites.
One possible explanation for this discrepancy is that smaller sites and brands are less familiar to the user, resulting in more research-geared clicks.
But, even without tracking anomalies, AI traffic would be modest, because users are able to do more of their research without clicking.
The reality is AI drives significant brand awareness, creates more informed audiences, and delivers more qualified leads—it’s not just about traffic.
Wrapping up
AI is the shiny new thing. Everyone wants to get involved. But AI traffic is still minimal compared to more established channels—you risk over-investing if you get carried away by the hype.
Like social media keeps you on-platform sharing interesting content, AI keeps you on-platform having interesting conversations—sending out external traffic is not the goal.
For that reason, AI will never be one of the top referrers in your site analytics.
Its main benefits are increased brand awareness and positive brand sentiment, through on-platform mentions.
Trackable AI traffic and conversions are a happy byproduct—treat them as your secondary KPIs.
Before you commit to building your AI traffic, ask yourself: are my audience actually using AI to find my business?
Make a judgement call based on regional and vertical AI traffic usage, and your own customer data.
Once you’re confident your audience is there, track AI broadly and regularly.
Track brand mentions in AI
Use a tool like Ahrefs Brand Radar to monitor the growth of your brand mentions, and track brand sentiment in AI.
Track AI traffic
Set up AI traffic reports to track chatbot referral trends…
…and optimize pages that are earning actual visits.
Track AI conversions
Improve your conversion tracking to better attribute any AI-assisted conversions.
AI traffic is modest, and while it’s not something to ignore, you need to be smart about how you approach it.
Similar Posts
How to Do an Actually Useful PPC Competitive Analysis Using AI
A competitive PPC (Pay Per Click) analysis is all about seeing what your competitors are doing with their paid ads on platforms like Google Ads, so you can do it better. It helps you uncover which keywords they’re spending money on, what their ads and landing pages look like, and how much budget they might…
35 Post-Event Survey Questions From Our Sold-Out Conference
In October 2024, we organized a sold-out, 500-person conference called Ahrefs Evolve in Singapore. We’ve already covered how we planned the event from start to finish and how we promoted the event. This time round, it’s about how our events can be better next time. Like any good event organizer, we sent out post-event surveys to…
13 Technical Marketing Skills You Can Learn (Even If You’re Not Technical)
Many marketers hit limits not because they lack ideas, but because they can’t execute or scale them. Not everyone has the luxury of developers, designers, or analysts who can help turn big ideas into reality. Even if you do, you still need to compete for time and help with the rest of your organisation. But times…
AI Visitors Visit Fewer Pages and Bounce More Often Than Traditional Search Visitors
Google is forever telling us that AI search is better quality… When they [users] get to a decision to click out, it’s a more highly qualified click… What we hope to see over time—and we don’t have any data to share on this—is more time spent on site, which is what we see organically in…
How Much Does an SSL Certificate Cost in 2025? Your Comprehensive Guide to Prices
So, what’s the price of an SSL certificate in 2025? Our handy guide to prices and what you get for your money has you covered. Table of Contents So, you’ve finally decided to get an SSL certificate to make sure your website is secure and gives your visitors confidence. But how much does an SSL…
Leverage, Not Luck: Why Most Marketers Stay Stuck
Generally, companies don’t like to give promotions. They are expensive and risky. The company has to spend extra money to put a known entity into an unknown situation. There is a risk of failure that didn’t exist before. This is a sweeping generalisation, but it’s a useful one. You probably deserve a promotion, but on…