A new study by Previsible reveals significant changes in search behavior, with AI language models (LLMs) gaining traction as referral traffic sources.
The analysis of over 30 websites shows Perplexity and ChatGPT emerging as alternatives to traditional search engines.
David Bell, co-founder of Previsible, believes this indicates Google’s growth is at a standstill:
“Google is basically plateaued and has begun to have its search dominance degraded. The reason being is that people are starting to use ChatGPT, Claude, Co-pilot, Bing, all these different experiences to better solve their search intent.”
Here are some key points from the study. While it doesn’t provide a complete picture, it offers the best information available right now.
Key Findings
Referral Traffic
The study found that Perplexity and ChatGPT command approximately 37% of LLM referral traffic, while CoPilot and Gemini follow with 12-14% each.
Notably, the finance sector dominates LLM-driven traffic, accounting for 84% of all referrals analyzed.
In a video walkthrough of the study, Bell explains:
“Finance, in particular, has an outsized increase in traffic from language models. This could be due to Perplexity and other language models having integrations or relationships with different platforms that allow more direct access to users.”
Content Distribution
The study reveals that blog posts receive 77.35% of LLM referral traffic, followed by:
- Homepage visits (9.04%)
- News content (8.23%)
- Guides (2.35%)
“Informational content still matters in the age of AI search,” Bell noted. However, he advises focusing on conversion rate optimization (CRO) and user journey, as product pages do not surface prominently in language models.
According to the study, product pages receive less than 0.5% of LLM referral traffic, suggesting challenges for ecommerce strategies.
Looking Ahead
LLM referral traffic currently represents 0.25% of total traffic for the most impacted sectors, though the study notes significant growth rates.
In the last 90 days of the study, Previsible found:
- 900% growth in ChatGPT referrals for the events industry
- 400%+ growth in ChatGPT traffic for e-commerce and finance sectors
- Consistent growth across all models except CoPilot
Bell explains what this could mean for websites:
“If you extrapolate out, if you average all of these out, let’s say roughly 200% growth in organic or AI traffic every 90 days for the next 12 months, it can be up to 20% of overall traffic to a website.”
🚨 Free Tool Alert 🚨
Previsible has created a free Looker Studio dashboard to help businesses track website traffic from Language Learning Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Co-pilot, Gemini, and Claude.
You can select your Google Analytics 4 (GA4) account and a date range to view data.
The dashboard shows:
- Organic Sessions: Total organic sessions during the selected time.
- Total LLM Sessions: Number of sessions from LLMs, with percentage breakdowns.
- LLM Traffic Over Time: A line graph showing LLM traffic trends, with separate lines for each LLM.
- LLM Traffic by Landing Page: A table of top landing pages from LLM traffic, including sessions, percentages, average time on page, and comparison to site averages.
How This Helps
By analyzing this data, you can:
- Assess the impact of LLMs on your traffic compared to organic traffic.
- Identify which LLMs drive the most traffic and adjust your content.
- Track LLM traffic growth over time and adapt your strategies.
- Discover popular landing pages among LLM users and improve them for engagement.
- Compare time spent by LLM users on each page to the site average to identify areas for improvement.
In Summary
Here are three key takeaways from the study:
- Finance websites are seeing the strongest LLM referral activity, with blog content receiving the majority of visits
- Product pages rarely surface in LLM results, suggesting the need for adjusted e-commerce strategies
- Growth rates are significant, potentially reaching 20% of total traffic within a year if current trends continue
When looking at these trends, it’s important to keep a balanced approach to getting traffic and optimizing your strategies.
Don’t pursue AI traffic if it could hurt your sales.
AI language models are becoming new sources of website traffic. However, they currently make up only about 0.25% of overall traffic in the sectors that are most affected.
It will be interesting to see how this number changes by next year.
Featured Image: Koshiro K/Shutterstock