Conversion rate of AI traffic
The conversion rate of AI traffic is the share of visits from AI assistants that end in a sale, a sign-up or another goal you've set.
The conversion rate of AI traffic is the share of visits from AI assistants that end in a sale, a sign-up or another goal you've set. If ChatGPT, Perplexity and the other assistants send you 400 visits in a month, and 12 of them place an order, your AI traffic converts at 3%.
It tells you what those visits are worth. A channel that sends few visitors can still matter a lot if the visitors are ready to buy.
Comparing it with other channels
The number is most useful next to the conversion rate of your other channels, like search, email or social. Someone who arrives from an AI answer has often already asked their questions and narrowed their options, so it's worth checking whether they behave differently from someone who clicked a search result.
For example, Harrow & Pine sees a 3% conversion rate from AI assistants and 1.8% from search. AI sends a tenth of the visits search does, but each visit is worth more. That's a reason to keep working on AI visibility, even while the visit count stays small.
Read it carefully
A few things make the number less precise than it looks:
- Small numbers swing. Ten orders one month and five the next isn't a trend.
- Some visits from AI assistants arrive with no referrer and land in direct traffic, so they're not in the count. See dark traffic.
- Many people read an answer, don't click, and come back later through search or by typing your address. Those sales happen, and none of them count here.
In AnswerOrbit
The AI traffic tab in Website shows the visits AI assistants sent to your site, from Google Analytics. If you've set up key events in Google Analytics, you'll also see an engagement rate, a conversion rate and revenue, broken down by assistant, landing page, country and device.