The Rise of LLM Traffic: An AI SEO Study About the Future of Search

Hey folks! Today we’re diving into an AI SEO study that’s revealing how artificial intelligence is reshaping search engine optimization. Watch our walkthrough below to see the full analysis:

LLM Traffic Study // Dec 2024 // Previsible – 16 December 2024 – Watch Video

Want to follow along with the data? Download our complete AI SEO Traffic Study PDF

The Current State of LLM Traffic

While Google still dominates search, how people search is changing. For the first time in years, Google’s market share of search has dropped below 90%. Meanwhile, we’re seeing the emergence of new players that are rapidly gaining ground – namely chatbots that do a better job of fulfilling user search intent.

In order to better understand how behavior is changing, we took a look at over 30 websites to review their referring traffic from language models. We wanted to know:

1. Are sites beginning to see traffic from LLMs? If so, how much and what’s the growth rate?
2. Which industries are impacted the most by this change in user behavior?
3. What content experiences are these LLMs prioritizing and driving users to?

Caveats: We understand this isn’t an exhaustive study and not all industries are perfectly represented. Smaller and local sites aren’t seeing hardly any traffic from LLMs (so far). But as my dad always said “you’ve got to ride the horse you’ve got!”

Let’s cut straight to the chase – the data tells an incredible story. Which AI Chatbot/LLM is sending the most traffic to websites today?

• Perplexity and ChatGPT are neck-and-neck, each commanding about 37% of LLM referral traffic
• CoPilot and Gemini follow at around 12-14% each
• Other players like Claude, Meta, and Mistral currently have minimal market share

LLM Traffic by Industry

But here’s where it gets really interesting: the industry breakdown.

The Finance Factor

Would you believe that 84% of all LLM referral traffic we analyzed went to finance-related websites? This isn’t just a minor trend – it’s a shift in how people are searching for financial information. The implications for SEO in the finance sector are enormous. Don’t believe me? It’s up across all models we reviewed:

Perplexity is the leader in the finance category and their recent data partner announcement shows their continued interest in the space [Link].

It’s also quite interesting to see that ChatGPT is the leader in traffic across all other industries we reviewed. SearchGPT is sending traffic to sites rather than just keeping everything to itself. That’s promising.

What should you do as a marketer to capture more ChatGPT traffic? *don’t freak out* You might want to actually open Bing.com. I know, I know – SEO heresy – burn me at the stake. But hold your horses, the results are pretty similar between ChatGPT and Bing. Let’s take a look at an example to see how similar ChatGPT and Bing are – Example ‘best thin waffle maker’.

Bing + ChatGPT like the Same Waffles

First up, ChatGPT with 4 product recommendations and a lot of citations. However, if you look at the citation ‘Waffle Maker Center’ it lists all the same 4 products as ChatGPT. Side note – Better go dust off your exact match domains!

Now how does that compare to Bing? Turns out the 4 recommended products are shown on page one of Bing, several listed multiple times in the top ranking content.

Ok, ok, ok why aren’t those two in in the middle featured in ChatGPT? Theory debunked Dave. Well, could be that ChatGPT is better at crawling than Bing. Because those two results ON PAGE 1 of Bing are marked noindex. Yikes.

All this to say, if you’re a brand in 2025, it might be time to adopt the Surround Sound SEO strategy and focus on getting brand mentions whether you rank or not. Being mentioned can be more powerful than ‘ranking #1 in Google’. Ok, more data…

Content Still Reigns Supreme

Here’s something that might not surprise you: in the age of AI, content is more important than ever. When we looked at the landing pages that had the most traffic from LLMs, our data shows:

• 77.35% of LLM referral traffic goes to blog posts
• 9.04% to homepages
• 8.23% to news content
• 2.35% to guides

But there’s a downside: product pages are barely registering, capturing less than 0.5% of LLM referral traffic. This has implications for how we think about conversion pathways. Time to improve CRO!

Let’s put this into perspective

When you compare traffic from LLMs to overall site traffic, it’s peanuts. BUT this time last year it was nonexistent.

Finance has the largest share of LLM traffic compared to other industries but it still only registers at .25%. However, that sliver of traffic could be tens of thousands of clicks per month. And it’s growing fast. But how fast?

The Growth Story

Here’s what keeps me up at night (in a good way): the growth rates we’re seeing for LLM referral traffic are astronomical. In just 90 days:

• Events industry: 900% growth in ChatGPT referrals
• E-commerce & Finance: 400%+ growth in ChatGPT traffic alone

These numbers are insane and growing across all models except CoPilot (sorry Microsoft).

Looking Ahead: The 2025 Perspective

If current growth rates hold, what’s currently 0.25% of total traffic from LLMs could become 10% of the overall traffic mix by the end of 2025. Keep in mind, this doesn’t include all the traffic that will come in via referral from other domains that are getting new traffic – Waffle Maker Center.

Will this come to pass? I’ll need my AI SEO crystal ball which is still being worked on by the wizards in Diagon Alley.

Large language models will soon become a major source of website traffic, potentially rivaling traditional channels like email, social media, and referral links. Organizations should prioritize this emerging channel accordingly.

I understand if this feels overwhelming or if you’re skeptical – both are valid. I believe we can turn these ‘what-if’ concerns into opportunities to innovate. Rather than playing catch-up later, let’s get ahead by experimenting now.

Strategic Implications for AI SEOs

Heads up: if you’re in SEO, congrats – you’re now an AI SEO (at least until someone comes up with a fancier buzzword and drops their ‘Ultimate Guide to LLM Visibility’ or whatever the next trendy term will be). But let’s talk about how to adapt:

1. Content Strategy Evolution

• Keep up the high quality comprehensive, informational content
• Build stronger blog-to-conversion pathways

2. Good SEOs Keep doing Good SEO

• Crawlable, fast sites still matter because LLMs have crawl bots (use our Robots.txt for ideas on how to handle AI bots)
• Schema is massively important because it helps these models quickly understand the relationship between entities
• Do the boring stuff – like image Alt text because LLMs are influenced by it

3. Build Authority

• Forums matter more today. LLMs need fresh, curated human-generated content and we need to be in the conversation.
• Review sites will play a role in how LLMs stack you against your competitors
• Outreach for brand mentions by authoritative sites matters

3. Black Hat SEO folks

JK – y’all are probably already scheming and don’t need any ideas from me.

The Bottom Line

While LLM referral traffic might seem small today (0.25% for even the most impacted sectors), the growth trajectory suggests we’re at the beginning of a major shift in search behavior. The smart play isn’t to wait and see – it’s to start adapting now.

This isn’t about abandoning traditional SEO strategies. SEOs have gotten lulled into complacency because Google monopolized search and we don’t have to think about other players. Start preparing for a future where AI-driven search plays an increasingly important role in how people find and interact with content online.

Remember: The best time to prepare for change is before it happens. The data suggests that change is already well underway. If you want to discuss strategies to prepare for the future – contact us.

I’ll do a ‘predictions for 2025’ post because no one wants to read that…

Here is my welcome meme for myself 😀 #seo #seomemes

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— Saritel Abbaszade (@saritel.bsky.social) December 12, 2024 at 10:11 PM