80% of Our AI Search Traffic Goes to Our Homepage, Product Pages, and Free Tools

06/16/25

TL;DR Summary of AI Search Traffic Insights and SEO Strategy

AI search currently drives a small fraction of overall website traffic, with most referrals going to product pages, the homepage, and free tools. Many AI-generated referrals lead to non-existent pages due to hallucinations by AI assistants like ChatGPT. Although AI search reduces click volume compared to traditional organic search, investing in high-quality content and free tools remains valuable for lead generation and brand visibility. International pages receive significantly less AI search traffic, indicating potential underrepresentation in AI training data or usage patterns.

Optimixed’s Overview: Understanding the Impact of AI Search on Website Traffic and SEO Priorities

Current AI Search Traffic Landscape

Analysis of Ahrefs Web Analytics data reveals that AI search accounts for about 0.5% of total traffic, a modest yet growing segment. This traffic is primarily directed toward a few page types:

  • Product pages and the homepage, which benefit from brand strength and product recognition.
  • Free tools, though these receive a smaller share of AI search traffic compared to organic search.

Notably, AI assistants often generate referrals to pages that do not actually exist, a result of AI hallucinations. This misattribution suggests the need for monitoring and redirecting traffic from such URLs to relevant content.

Effect on SEO and Content Strategy

Even though AI search diminishes click volumes—Google AI Mode alone reduces clicks by over 34%—the recommendation to create unique, user-focused, and insightful content still holds. However, the changing traffic dynamics imply a tougher environment for justifying resource-intensive content if it no longer yields proportional brand visibility or revenue.

Free tools remain a worthwhile investment due to their lead generation potential, despite a relative decline in AI search referrals. Conversely, international pages currently receive very limited AI search traffic, which may reflect either low usage of AI chats in other languages or a gap in AI data training.

Strategic Recommendations

  • Continue building and optimizing strong product pages and free tools to maintain AI and organic search traffic.
  • Monitor AI-generated referrals for hallucinated URLs and implement redirects to capture lost traffic.
  • Maintain focus on quality content but adjust cost-benefit expectations given reduced AI search visibility.
  • Watch for international AI search trends to adjust global SEO strategy accordingly.

Overall, AI search traffic is currently a small but emerging channel that requires continual observation without drastic strategic pivots.

Source: Data & Studies – SEO Blog by Ahrefs by Patrick Stox. Read original article.