I was looking at my analytics and felt that familiar frustration: you do all the right SEO things, but traffic just keeps dipping. It’s not just you. A new report from Similarweb confirms our worst fears: AI is completely changing the traffic game.
Since Google rolled out its AI Overviews, the number of news searches that result in zero clicks to a website has jumped to almost 69%. Ouch. Organic traffic to news sites has cratered, dropping by hundreds of millions of visits since its peak.
But here’s the twist. While Google search referrals are tanking, referrals from ChatGPT are absolutely exploding; we’re talking a 25x increase in the last year!
Now, before you pop the champagne, this new traffic is still just a fraction of what’s been lost from search. It’s not a replacement… yet. But it shows where things are heading. The game isn’t just about ranking on Google anymore; it’s about getting cited by AI.
So, who’s actually winning in this new world?
Some sites are getting way more ChatGPT love than others:
- Reuters: Up 8.9% in AI referrals
- NY Post: Up 7.1%
- Business Insider: Up 6.5%
Interestingly, The New York Times, which is suing OpenAI, is seeing much smaller gains.
And what are people asking ChatGPT about?
- The big ones are stocks, finance, and sports.
- But deeper topics like politics, the economy, and weather are growing fast.
This tells me people are starting to use AI for more than just quick facts; they’re using it for real research. The takeaway is clear: your visibility inside AI models is the next frontier. It’s time to start thinking about how your content can become a trusted source for them.