Google is without end telling us that AI search is healthier high quality…
After they [users] get to a choice to click on out, it’s a extra extremely certified click on… What we hope to see over time—and we don’t have any information to share on this—is extra time spent on web site, which is what we see organically in a far more extremely certified customer for the web site.
“What you see with one thing like AI Overviews, once you carry the friction down for customers, is folks search extra and that opens up new alternatives for web sites, for creators, for publishers to entry. And so they get higher-quality clicks.
Sadly, we will’t even validate or dispute these claims, as a result of Google doesn’t give us the flexibility to distinguish between AI-powered search site visitors and conventional search site visitors in Search Console or analytics instruments.
However we can assess person clicks from different main AI platforms… and that’s precisely what we’ve achieved.
We’ve analyzed 81,947 websites to grasp the standard of AI site visitors and person habits, vs. search and general person averages.
Right here’s what we’ve discovered…
We studied the site visitors of ~82K web sites between Could and June 2025, to discover how person habits adjustments relying on the place guests come from—search, AI, or “all” channels.
By taking a look at person habits metrics like common web page visits, visits per session period, time on web site, and bounce charge, we have been capable of understand extra concerning the high quality of “AI site visitors”.
All through, I’ll consult with the channels as Search site visitors, AI site visitors, and General site visitors:
- Search site visitors is when the referral area is recognized by analytics platforms as a search engine—akin to Google, Bing, or Yahoo. This may additionally embrace visits from AI-powered search options like Google’s AI Overviews or AI Mode.
- AI site visitors refers to site visitors from conversational AI platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, and Gemini.
Guests from widespread AI platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity go to 4 pages on common. That’s 1.2 fewer pages than search guests, and 1.5 fewer than general guests.
AI customers additionally browse much less deeply.
We analyzed common session period divided by common web page period, and located that AI customers view considerably fewer pages per unit of session time (2.27) in comparison with Search (2.79) and General (2.99).
That mentioned, AI guests do spend barely longer on web site–eight seconds longer, to be exact—however as we’ve already seen, they browse fewer pages general.
This implies their time is extra targeting a choose few items of content material–their periods are longer in period however shallower in depth.
One interpretation of that is that AI customers have clearer intent.
They’ve already achieved their analysis through AI, so that they land with particular objectives and a greater thought of what they’re searching for–they don’t must click on round to search out it.
Our information additionally reveals that AI guests are 4.1% extra prone to bounce than a search person, and 5.4% extra prone to bounce than the common person general.
This reinforces the notion that AI customers have much less intent to navigate and discover.
If a person lands, spends 60–90 seconds and leaves, there are two attainable causes:
1. They obtained what they got here for
The person visited the location and it delivered properly on expectation.
We’ve seen this to be the case–our AI guests convert at a 23x larger charge than our natural search guests.
2. They have been dissatisfied with the reply and left
Alternatively, larger bounces can even, after all, sign dissatisfaction.
If what a person sees doesn’t instantly match their expectations, they bounce–particularly if the content material or on-site expertise isn’t but designed for these customers.
Wrapping up
So, is AI site visitors actually higher high quality? From a person habits perspective, not fairly.
The one metric AI customers received was time on web site–and never by a lot.
Excessive bounces, low pages per session, and excessive time on web site factors to data validation or “one-and-done” habits.
That mentioned, AI site visitors arguably drives extra “unplanned” discovery. If customers have interaction briefly and depart, that’s not essentially a poor sign, only a totally different context.
And, after all, there’s the matter of conversions.
As per our “anecdata” above, now we have seen larger conversion charges (~12%) from AI, and so have others.
Vercel is managing 10% CVRs from AI, and AI is Tally’s largest acquisition channel–serving to them increase ARR by $1M.
We’ve solely simply launched conversion monitoring in Ahrefs Net Analytics, however as quickly as now we have sufficient information, I’m hoping to dig into AI conversions.
Till then, I’ll preserve monitoring AI information and sharing what I discover.
