We recently observed that one of our clients’ top referral traffic sources is ChatGPT, and it got us thinking – how much traffic are AI (Artificial Intelligence) generators like ChatGPT contributing, and could this be positively impacting website conversions?
Referral Traffic
‘Referrals’ are websites or platforms that send visitors to your website, typically through clickable links. These referrals are beneficial as they guide users from relevant or similar sites, attracting high-quality traffic from your target audience, which ultimately helps boost conversions.
Internet users are increasingly utilising ChatGPT and Google Gemini for research, with 36% of generative AI users now preferring these AI assistants over traditional search methods.1 AI-generated responses frequently cite external websites as sources, which users then follow.
Technical Sites
AI search engines (such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini) prioritise valuable and user-focused content that answers search queries. This means that you will want to prioritise expertise, authority and trustworthiness on your website and in your content, to establish your site as a credible source of information.
Our client’s website is a highly technical and topical site, with regular posting – all factors that AI generators favour.
Benefitting from AI
With more and more people now using AI searches compared to traditional Google search, it’s good to know that websites can benefit from this, despite previous worries in the industry that the need for new website content would be made redundant. However, recently revealed data indicates that clicks from ChatGPT are low, with only a 0.69% click-through rate. This further demonstrates that if your website is creating high-quality content, like our client above, then getting referral traffic from OpenAI is even more impressive.
It is still important to optimise your content for search engines using traditional SEO practices, to signal to search engines that your site is trusted.
The Importance of Content
We’ve been drilling it into you for a long time that you need to add content to your website, and this is another reason why your website needs to be updated regularly. High-quality content is vital for your website visibility, building organic growth and authority in search engine rankings, and helping you to be discovered by your target audience.
Here at Ballyhoo, we create high-quality SEO-friendly content for your blog posts, key pages, product descriptions, social posts, email marketing, and more. Our copywriting strategy involves thorough keyword and competitor research to understand where best to position your company as an industry leader. We work with you to nail brand voice and get an insight into what you really do.
1 Adobe
