ChatGPT typically hyperlinks to sources when answering prompts. Site visitors from these clicks is usually high-converting in my testing. Sadly, ChatGPT often hallucinates URLs and sends guests to nonexistent pages.
A research launched this month by Ahrefs discovered ChatGPT 5 hyperlinks to error pages practically 3 times greater than does Google Search.
To make certain, visitors thus removed from ChatGPT is lower than 5% for many websites. However it’s nonetheless a good suggestion to observe ChatGPT-generated 404 errors and alter the pages accordingly. With declining Google Search visitors, “saving” visits is paramount.
Deal with the issue in three steps:
- Monitor 404 “web page not discovered” URLs in Google Analytics 4.
- Create useful 404 pages for guests from hallucinated URLs.
- Arrange 301 redirects just for damaged URLs that generate visitors.
I’ll clarify step one on this article.
Monitor in Google Analytics
Filter Google Analytics reviews to URLs with visitors from ChatGPT:
- Go to “Engagement” > “Pages and screens” to view all pages with visitors for the designated interval.
- Choose “Web page titles and display screen class” above the record of pages.
- Click on “Add filter” above the graph.
- Choose “Session supply/medium” because the dimension.
- Choose “Comprises” and kind “ChatGPT.”
- Click on “Apply.”
Now your record is filtered to pages with visitors from ChatGPT.
Subsequent, slender the record to error pages:
- Go to your website and open all of the ChatGPT-filtered pages above.
- Notice the title of pages with 404 errors (Ctrl+D on Home windows; Command+D on Mac). In my case, the title was “404 Response Error Web page.”
Then return to Google Analytics:
- Sort the error web page title within the search bar above the record of pages with visitors from ChatGPT. Add “Web page path and display screen” class as a secondary dimension to view the hallucinated URLs.
- Bookmark the URL of this report and examine on occasion.