This week, one number has been shared all over the internet: AI tools like ChatGPT send websites less than 1% of the visitors that Google sends. Some of the people sharing it have decided that AI visibility, meaning whether AI tools mention your business when someone asks them a question, is a waste of time.
The number is real. I went back to each study and checked it myself. But it only counts one thing: people who clicked a link inside an AI answer and landed on a website. Those clicks are not the reason I do this work.
Below, I walk through what the studies found, what they could not see, what nobody knows yet, and what I would do in your place.
What did the new AI traffic studies actually find?
In three separate studies published this fall, AI tools sent websites only a tiny number of visitors compared with Google, and Google still brought in most of the sales. The people who did arrive from AI were more likely to buy or get in touch, but there were so few of them that it barely moved the total.
A quick note on one word you will see a lot. When a visit ends in a sale or an inquiry, people in my field call that a conversion. "Converted better" just means a bigger share of those visitors bought or got in touch. It says nothing about how much they spent.
Marie Haynes, a well-known search consultant, looked at a full year of data from Google Analytics, the free tool many websites use to see where their visitors come from, across 100 websites. For every 1,000 visitors who came from Google's regular search results (not ads), ChatGPT sent about 6. Adding every other AI tool brought that up to about 7.
For every 1,000 visitors from Google, AI tools sent about 7
A full year of visitor data from 100 websites. The pink bars are not missing. That sliver is the actual size.
Source: Marie Haynes, “GEO is a distraction”, October 21, 2026. 100 websites, 12 months of Google Analytics data. ChatGPT visits equaled 0.62% of Google search visits; all AI tools, 0.73%.
The visitors ChatGPT did send were much more likely to act. About 14 out of every 100 bought or got in touch, compared with about 3 out of every 100 Google visitors. But because Google sent so many more people, Google still came out far ahead: for every one sale or inquiry that came from all the AI tools combined, Google brought in 27.
AI visitors were more likely to buy. Google still brought far more buyers.
Both things are true at once, because Google sends so many more people in the first place.
Out of every 100 visitors, how many bought or got in touch
Where the sales and inquiries came from
For every 1 sale or inquiry from AI tools, Google brought in 27.
Source: Marie Haynes, “GEO is a distraction”, October 21, 2026. ChatGPT visitors converted at 13.8% versus 3.02% for Google search. Only 55 of the 100 sites tracked sales or inquiries.
Did other studies find the same thing?
Yes. A second, separate study of 95 websites found the same pattern, and added a useful lesson about where to spend your effort. A UK marketing agency, The SEO Works, tracked those websites for a full year. For every 1 visitor who came from an AI tool, search engines like Google sent 39. About 7 out of every 100 AI visitors bought or got in touch, compared with about 6 out of every 100 search visitors. That is a small edge, and it did not hold everywhere: on 23 of the 63 sites where they could compare, AI visitors were actually less likely to buy.
Here is that lesson. Because search sends so many more people, getting just 5% more from search would have brought in more extra sales than doubling the number of AI visitors.
A small gain on Google beats doubling your AI visitors
Extra sales or inquiries each website would gain per month.
Source: The SEO Works, “AI Referral Traffic 2026: How Much, And Does It Convert?”, 95 websites, September 2025 to August 2026 (10.3 versus 6.6 per site per month). The SEO Works sells search and AI search services.
I have no quarrel with any of this. The numbers are solid.
Did those studies measure what AI visibility is for?
No. They counted visits from people who clicked a link inside an AI answer. The moment I care about happens earlier, and it leaves no trace. An AI tool names a business, and the person acts on that later without ever clicking a link. No visitor report on your website can see that moment, because it happened inside someone else's app.
Here is a real one, from yesterday. I was working out how to connect my Google Analytics to a tool I use. The answer I got was confident and neatly laid out, and it said the easiest route was to sign up for a paid connector service. It named four companies. One charges $150 a year per account, which across my two brands and six client sites would have come to roughly $1,200 a year.
It was the wrong answer for me, but it nearly got me before I verified what my situation actually required. My research revealed that Google's own free connector was already installed on my laptop. All it needed was a login refresh. It’s a good thing I’ve been burned by subscriptions I didn’t need before because the free option never appeared in the answer at all.
I did not buy anything. But a paid recommendation reached me as a sensible next step while I was deciding how to spend money, and I never clicked a link. If I had bought, that company's visitor report would have shown me as someone who typed in their web address, with no record that an AI answer sent me. That is exactly the kind of moment these studies cannot see. So when someone reads them as proof that AI visibility is a waste of time, they are treating a gap in the measuring tools as if it were an answer. Nobody can close that gap with the tools we have today: not me, not the researchers, not anyone selling you a dashboard.
Why don't Google's own AI answers show up in these numbers?
Because website visitor reports count them as ordinary Google visits, so all three studies did too. That means the AI answers your buyers may see most often, the ones on Google itself, are not in the "AI" numbers at all.
Here is what that looks like. When you search on Google now, you often get a short written answer at the very top of the page, above the list of websites. Google's AI writes that answer, and Google calls it an AI Overview. It can name businesses and link to their websites.
If someone reads that answer, sees your name, and clicks through to your site, your visitor report records that person as coming from Google. It has no way to know they came from the AI answer rather than the regular list of websites below it. The studies all used those same visitor reports, so they had the same blind spot.
So when you see a chart this week comparing "Google" with "AI," remember that some of what it calls Google is actually AI.
Is the missing AI influence hiding in my direct traffic?
Probably not in any way anyone can measure yet, and I want to be straight with you about that. Direct traffic is the label your visitor report uses when it cannot tell where someone came from, for example when a person types your web address in themselves. Many people in my field have assumed that AI's unseen influence shows up there. So far, the best tests have not found proof of that.
Kevin Indig, an independent search researcher, checked visitor data for 12 websites. At first, direct traffic looked like it was booming. Then he filtered out bots, which are automated programs that visit websites without a person behind them. On one site, 409,000 recorded direct visits included only 198 where a real person actually stayed and looked around.
He then ran 632 tests on four brands. Each one asked a version of the same question: when AI tools mentioned a brand more often, did more people later type in that brand's web address or search for it by name? His answer: "We also can't yet find a reliable relationship between AI Visibility and branded search or direct traffic." Branded search simply means people searching for a business by its name.
He used a small number of sites, and he says so himself. Not finding a link is not the same as proving there is no link. But it does mean that anyone who tells you your AI results are "showing up in your direct traffic" is guessing. That would include me, if I ever said it without evidence. My own story above is one person, not proof of a pattern.
So here is the honest picture. AI tools send very few clicks. What nobody can do yet is count the moments when an AI names a business and someone acts on it later. That is a gap in our measuring tools, not proof that those moments do not happen. My own story is one of them. And notice who lost in it: not a business that got clicked, but Google's free tool, which was never mentioned at all. Being left out of the answer has a cost, even when no report can show it.
So what should a jewelry designer actually do?
Not one more thing. The work that gets you named in AI answers is the same work that helps you show up on Google, and Google is proven: it is where nearly all of your sales come from today. If you run a one-person studio with too much on your plate already, that is the good news in this week's studies. You are not being asked to bet on AI. You are being asked to make your website clear enough that whatever tool your buyer uses can understand what you make.
The SEO Works found something that gets lost in the headlines: the websites getting more AI visitors were the same websites doing better on Google. That suggests both come from the same place. The same basics drive both: pages that answer your buyers' real questions in plain words, headings written the way a buyer would ask, and the same clear description of you everywhere you appear online. If you only have an hour this month, start with these three things:
- Ask every new inquiry "How did you find me?" It is a small edit to your contact form, and I explain how below.
- Search your business name on Google and in ChatGPT, and read how each one describes you. Write down anything that is wrong, out of date or missing.
- Pick your most important page and rewrite one heading, one of the bold titles that break up the page, as the question a buyer would actually ask. For example: "How long does a custom ring take?"
Each of those pays off on Google whether or not an AI tool ever sends you a single click. I wrote more about why in SEO Isn't Dead. It's Evolving Into AI Visibility.
It is also, almost word for word, where Marie Haynes ends up. Her closing advice is to "really study how Google Search and its AI surfaces are representing your brand." In plain terms: look at how Google, including its AI answers, describes your business. That is AI visibility. The argument this week is less about the work itself than about which number to judge it by.
This is why I build my process around search first, with AI as a layer on top, and why I have argued before that this work is about being present in the answer, not about getting more visitors. If anyone sells you AI visibility as a way to get more website traffic, show them these studies.
How do I find out whether AI is sending me buyers?
Ask them. It sounds almost too simple, but for a small studio it is the most reliable way to know. Big studies have to rely on visitor reports because there is no way to ask millions of people how they found a website. You do not have that problem. You can ask the handful of people who contact you this month.
Add one question to your inquiry form or checkout: "How did you find me?" Give people a short list to pick from, and give AI tools their own option so they do not get lumped in with "other":
- Google search
- ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or another AI assistant
- Instagram or Pinterest
- A friend or another maker
- Something else
One buyer writing "ChatGPT suggested you" tells you more than any visitor report can, because it names the reason instead of guessing at it. People do misremember, so treat the answers as a helpful signal rather than an exact count. I added this question to my own inquiry forms this week, and I will share what comes back.
So "not proven" does not mean "nothing to do." It means do the work that pays off either way. The question worth carrying away is not "how much traffic does AI send me?" It is this: when a buyer asks for someone who makes what I make, is my work clear enough to be the answer, on Google or anywhere else?
Sources
- Marie Haynes, "GEO is a distraction," October 21, 2026. 12 months of Google Analytics data, 100 websites, more than 145 million sessions; 55 of the 100 tracked conversions. mariehaynes.com
- The SEO Works, "AI Referral Traffic 2026: How Much, And Does It Convert?", published September 7, 2026, updated October 14, 2026. 95 websites, September 2025 to August 2026. The SEO Works sells search and AI search services. seoworks.co.uk
- Kevin Indig, "Does AI drive more direct traffic?", Growth Memo, October 19, 2026. 12 sites; 632 tests across four brands. growth-memo.com
- Andrea Li, first-party: the connector recommendation described above, October 21, 2026. One instance, not a study.
Continue Learning
- Is AI Visibility Worth It? What the Numbers Actually Say: the August piece on why this is a presence question, not a traffic one, and why I treat AI as a layer on top of search.
- How to Spot a Fake AI-Visibility Expert or Tool: what to ask anyone who promises you AI traffic, now that the traffic numbers are public.
- Score your own store on the free AI Visibility Score: eight questions on whether your pages are clear enough to be named in an answer, which is the part you can actually control.
- Subscribe to the Red Pin Geek Substack (free): weekly inside-view content for jewelry designers building visibility on their own. The Premium tier includes the Convergence Scorecard, which checks the work that moves Google and AI answers at the same time.
- Work with me on your specific store (Readiness Audit $37 / Snapshot $97 / Full Audit $597 / Full Audit + 1:1 call $997): I look at how Google and AI tools currently describe your store, and tell you what to fix first.
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