ChatGPT is increasingly sending real referral traffic to websites because its answers now include clickable links. This creates a new acquisition channel where users can discover and visit your site without using Google.
What to do now:
Measure current AI referrals (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity) and track monthly
Make key pages easy for AI to read and cite (HTML, clear structure, Q&A, schema)
Test how your brand appears for high-intent prompts
ChatGPT is quietly rewriting the rules of website traffic origination.
I have written about the ongoing “SEO Bloodbath“ and the stunning rise of ChatGPT’s usage, now the fifth most visited website globally, with 5.2 billion visits in May and surpassing Twitter, Reddit, and Wikipedia.
At GAI Insights, we are experiencing these changes firsthand.
Most people know ChatGPT as a tool that delivers text results to help with writing, coding or research. Increasingly, ChatGPT’s responses now include direct web links. After asking ChatGPT about top AI conferences, some users clicked directly from ChatGPT to our event site—bypassing Google search entirely.
While SEO for traditional search engines is well understood, optimizing for Answer Engines (AEO) or Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) like ChatGPT and Gemini is a rapidly evolving field. There are many theories, but little is definitively known about best practices.
Find how many visitors the “Answer Engines” are currently generating to your company’s website (and track this monthly going forward)
Ensure your marketing team is tracking emerging tactics in AEO/GEO. (Examples: Do not block LLMs from indexing your site, unlock content from PDFs, and add Q&A sections to your homepage.)
Ask ChatGPT questions about how to find your product or service. Instead of using AI as a writing companion, use it like a traditional search engine as your customer would. Does it present direct URLs to your website?
Use tools like Chathub.gg to compare results for the same prompt across multiple AI engines. Examples include “what is the best sustainable baby diaper? name one and explain your reasoning.” Notice that the answers differ by “Answer Engine”; some recommend Bambo Nature Diapers, other Dyper diapers and still others Thirsties.
AI is fundamentally transforming how customers find and engage with your website. Ignoring this shift puts your business at risk.
“AI will double everyone’s productivity”— Eric Schmidt
Yes. ChatGPT responses increasingly include direct web links, and users can click through to sources and recommended pages.
AEO is making your content easy for AI systems to understand, trust, and cite so your brand appears in answers and recommendations.
Use your analytics platform (GA4 or server logs) to filter by referral source/referrer (for example, chatgpt.com and other AI domains) and track it monthly.
Start with high-intent pages: homepage, pricing, product/category pages, comparisons, “best for,” and 1–2 authoritative explainers that answer common buyer questions.
Clear headings, direct answers near the top, Q&A sections, consistent facts (names, features, pricing), and structured data where relevant.
Each engine uses different retrieval methods, ranking logic, and source preferences, so results can vary even for the same prompt.
Onward,
Paul