I’ve repeatedly made the declare that AI chatbot site visitors converts higher than search engine site visitors.
My pondering was that ChatGPT or Perplexity customers undergo analysis and exploration cycles (keep in mind the Messy Center) quicker and are nearer to a purchase order intent once they click on on an outgoing hyperlink.*
However I couldn’t show it at scale. Till now.
*After all, there should be an affect of seeing manufacturers talked about in AI chatbots even and not using a hyperlink, however that’s not the main target of this examine.
To show this psychological mannequin proper or improper, Similarweb supplied me with a big dataset of over 7 million referral classes from ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, and Perplexity with Google Search throughout September, October, and November within the U.S.
The information focuses on transactional referral site visitors. As a result of its trade measurement, I discover a heavy bias towards ecommerce, however the information additionally covers conversions like software program sign-ups.
Due to the Similarweb crew, particularly Lewis and Adelle, for supporting me with the information and your time.
Earlier than leaping in, I wish to level out an enormous caveat: AI chatbot referral site visitors remains to be tiny in comparison with Google.
In How important is AI chatbot site visitors in B2B?, I discovered AI chatbot site visitors to make up lower than a % of natural site visitors at this time.
It’s rising at a speedy charge and will catch up over the subsequent years, however actuality is that it’s nonetheless small.
AI chatbot site visitors (in SaaS) – Picture Credit score: Kevin IndigIdentical ‘Ol, Identical ‘Ol
I wish to begin with a have a look at the highest 10 touchdown pages as a result of it’s consultant of how to consider the remainder of the information on this examine.
About 80% of (transactional) site visitors to prime the highest 10 touchdown pages goes to ecommerce websites.
And, it’s largely to the identical gamers you already know from (Google) Search as a result of AI chatbot solutions use search outcomes to floor (assume: weight) their solutions.
High 10 touchdown pages by site visitors from referrer (Picture Credit score: Kevin Indig)Amazon, eBay, and Walmart dominate in Google Search simply as a lot as in AI chatbots.
Microsoft seems surprisingly typically within the prime 10 touchdown pages, apparently as a result of searchers are searching for software program like Copilot or Groups.
Considering one step additional, if search outcomes decide who’s seen in LLMs, the websites that dominate proper now may even dominate the AI world.
I’m skeptical that that is the way it will truly play out as a result of customers ask longer queries and have a conversational expertise in AI chatbots, which ought to enable LLMs to develop their very own “rating elements.” What we’re seeing is the very first iteration.
AI Chatbot Visitors Is Extra Engaged
The large query I’m making an attempt to reply is whether or not AI chatbot referrals convert higher than search site visitors.
I checked out two metrics to check the site visitors high quality of every referral supply: session length and the variety of web page views per session.
Excessive session length together with a excessive variety of (non-bounced) web page views means customers consider a product for longer and usually tend to purchase when taking a look at transactional site visitors.
Avg session length by referrer (Picture Credit score: Kevin Indig)The pattern is crystal clear: AI chatbot referrals keep greater than a minute longer than Google site visitors.
The entrance runner is Copilot, with a mean of 11.6 minutes per session. On common, AI chatbot site visitors stays for 10.4 minutes, in comparison with Google’s 8.1 minutes.
Avg session length and variety of non-bounced pageviews by referrer (Picture Credit score: Kevin Indig)To place session length into perspective, I needed to see if customers who keep longer additionally go to extra pages on a website. The reply is “sure.”
AI chatbot referrals go to 12.4 pages on common, in comparison with Google’s 11.8.
Once more, extra pageviews inside the identical session correlate with a better probability of conversion when taking a look at transactional site visitors, so this implies AI chatbot site visitors has a better high quality.
The common may not appear massive, however fortunately, Similarweb despatched me information by month as properly, so I used to be in a position to have a look at the pattern over time.
I discovered that the variety of non-bounced web page views from Copilot and Perplexity grew quicker than from Google between September and October: 15% and 22%, in comparison with Google’s 5%.
Gemini’s non-bounced web page views shrunk by -11% over the identical time and ChatGPT by -5%, which is affordable given its speedy site visitors progress.
Session length vs. visits on chatgpt.com (Picture Credit score: Kevin Indig)Normally, it’s spectacular that ChatGPT’s session length grows whereas site visitors is exploding. It implies that the fashions are getting higher at answering questions whereas extra persons are utilizing them.
Google’s session length and site visitors are flat as compared, however with the context that Google is a matured channel and magnitudes bigger than ChatGPT.
Whole site visitors to Copilot vs. Perplexity (Picture Credit score: Kevin Indig)To my shock, Microsoft Copilot site visitors reveals higher engagement than Perplexity, which has larger adoption and launched a selected ecommerce function (Store with Professional).
Copilot just isn’t as far-off from Perplexity as you may assume (14 vs. 21 million visits in December 2024), and each noticed massive site visitors features in October 2024.
I clarify this pattern with Microsoft’s roll-out of Copilot on all of its units and software program merchandise.
AI Chatbots Ship Extra And Higher Visitors To Homepages Than Google
To know the place AI chatbot referrals land and evaluate it to Google, I checked out folder depth as outlined by the variety of slashes in a URL after the area identify.
Increased folder depth = extra folders within the URL = “deeper” within the website structure.
A seek for a transactional key phrase on Copilot (Picture Credit score: Kevin Indig)For instance, a seek for “greatest low cost fridge magnets” in Copilot leads you to www.amazon.com/Greatest-Sellers-Fridge-Magnets/zgbs/kitchen/3737161?type=MG0AV3, which has a folder depth of 4.
Discover how Copilot references solely Amazon outcomes, regardless that Bing ranks Amazon No. 3 and No. 4 for the question.
The primary (Printrunner) and second outcomes (Uprinting) don’t can help you purchase fridge magnets however to design them. It appears that evidently Copilot understands that.
My principle was {that a} larger folder depth means extra site visitors goes to particular merchandise (ecommerce) and touchdown pages (B2B).
If customers soar off of AI chatbots once they’re able to convert, touchdown on pages with a better folder depth ought to be a greater consequence than a class web page they should discover once more.
Needless to say most websites have a comparatively flat structure.
Think about the homepage stage 0, a weblog folder (/weblog) or class web page stage 1, and merchandise/sub-categories/touchdown pages on stage 2 or 3. After all, giant retailers like Amazon may considerably skew the outcomes as a result of it has so many sub-categories.
Folder depth of referral site visitors (Picture Credit score: Kevin Indig)Folder depth for referral site visitors varies considerably between the distinction referral sources, even amongst AI chatbots.
For instance, ChatGPT sends over 50% extra site visitors to homepages than Copilot or Perplexity and over thrice greater than Google Search.
You must also observe that solely AI chatbots ship referrals to a folder stage of 8, which is the results of most websites not having as many ranges, extra so than desire.
I ponder in the event that they’d ship much more site visitors deeper into web sites if extra websites had larger folder depth, which could not be excellent for (Google) Search however possibly for AI Search. We’ll want extra information to reply this query.
Avg folder depth with and with out Google (Picture Credit score: Kevin Indig)On common, AI chatbots ship extra site visitors to the homepage than Google, which sends extra site visitors to the second and third folder ranges.
Perplexity sends site visitors the deepest with a mean folder depth of two.45 in comparison with Gemini with 2.00 and Google Search with 2.33.
Proportion of site visitors going to the homepage by referrer (Picture Credit score: Kevin Indig)ChatGPT sends most customers to the homepage with 30%, in comparison with the opposite referral sources, whereas Google sends the least with 10%. The common for Gen AI referrals is 22%.
Nevertheless, it really works properly for ChatGPT: Session length is larger than Google’s for referrals to non-homepages, and each web page views + session length are larger for homepage referrals than for Google Search.
Avg. pageviews and session length of homepage referral site visitors (Picture Credit score: Kevin Indig)The information signifies that homepages are extra essential within the “AI future” and that AI chatbots qualify customers higher earlier than sending them out.
This is a crucial distinction to (Google) Search, the place homepages are sometimes not the most effective consequence aside from model searches.
To make this level even clearer, our information about transactional site visitors within the previous Search world is that customers are impatient.
As Adelle from Similarweb identified to me, AI appears to go counter to the age-old examine of “each second a web page masses quicker, it converts extra individuals.”
As an alternative, it pre-qualifies customers earlier than they go to a website, which ends up in these customers being joyful to spend extra time.
Consequently, search engine optimization specialists, UX designers, and product managers must rethink the position of homepages within the person journey and website structure.
Deeper Content material Appears To Resonate Higher
Subsequent, I requested myself if we will see a relationship between the variety of phrases in a search question and the place customers land.
Sadly, we will solely measure the variety of phrases per question for Google Search, so I’m making an enormous leap right here.
I strongly assume AI chatbot customers ask longer questions as a result of the expertise is extra “conversational,” which Sundar Pichai, Alphabet’s CEO, confirmed on a number of earnings calls:
Previously yr, we’ve answered billions of queries as a part of our Search Generative Expertise. Individuals are utilizing it to Search in totally new methods, and asking new forms of questions, longer and extra complicated queries, even looking out with pictures, and getting again the most effective the net has to supply.1
With the idea that AI chatbots and outcomes “immediate” customers to seek for longer queries, I in contrast the variety of phrases per question with session length in relation to folder depth for Google Searches.
% site visitors and session length by folder depth (Picture Credit score: Kevin Indig)Session length shrinks till a folder depth of 4, which is when it flattens out.
In different phrases, customers spend the identical time on a website regardless of whether or not they go to a web page on stage 4 or stage 10.
That pattern leads me to imagine that they discover what they’re searching for on deeper ranges of a website (when coming from Search).
Google referral site visitors to the homepage vs. different pages (Picture Credit score: Kevin Indig)The identical just isn’t true after we have a look at the variety of phrases for referral classes to the homepage: Session length doesn’t flatten out however retains dropping with larger ranges of folder depth.
So, how can we deliver this again to AI chatbots? The information for Google Search raises the query of whether or not AI chatbot site visitors would have interaction even higher if much less went to the homepage.
Since AI chatbots perceive context so significantly better than (Google) Search, at the very least exterior of AI Overviews, sending customers to extra particular pages ought to be a greater expertise.
The explanation this isn’t taking place but might be that AI chatbots haven’t crawled sufficient of the net but and that search performance remains to be very nascent.
Conclusion: What It All Means
The adoption of AI chatbots goes extremely properly.
ChatGPT has over 300 million weekly customers, Bing Chat appears to assist the forever-second search engine lastly acquire market share, and we’ve hit a staggering 72% of corporations that use AI in at the very least one enterprise perform.2
Over 7 million referral classes from AI chatbots and Google Search reveal that:
- About 80% of transactional site visitors goes to ecommerce websites, and the identical gamers (Amazon, eBay, Walmart) dominate each in search and AI chatbots.
- AI chatbot referrals present larger engagement: They keep 2.3 minutes longer on common (10.4 vs. 8.1 minutes) and think about extra pages (12.4 vs. 11.8 pages on common).
- AI chatbots ship considerably extra site visitors to homepages (22% common) in comparison with Google (10%) however nonetheless present larger engagement.
- Copilot and Perplexity confirmed quicker progress in web page views (15% and 22%) in comparison with Google (5%).
The large query is whether or not corporations are prepared to make an funding in AI chatbot visibility at this level with the potential reward of building themselves as a first-mover however at the price of decrease short-term affect.
The early outcomes are promising, however lots can change till AI as a “channel” reaches vital mass.
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1 Google I/O 2024: An I/O for a brand new technology
2 ChatGPT now has over 300 million weekly customers; Supply; The state of AI in early 2024
Featured Picture: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal