Is ChatGPT really sending traffic? Here’s the data 📉

Hello, my friend!

How was your week? 😊

I just wrapped up my second week in a new role as an SEO Content Specialist ✍️.

I’m working with dozens of small businesses across the U.S. (and beyond!) to help them grow with local SEO. In one of my next emails, I’ll share what I’ve learned about local SEO, and trust me, it’s not what you think. 😉 

This week, I came across something interesting. Ahrefs’ CMO, Tim Soulo, shared that traffic from ChatGPT to websites is actually slowing down. 📉

The Ahrefs team looked at over 50,000 sites and found that, at this pace, it would take ChatGPT more than 3 years to reach even 1% of overall web traffic.

For context, traffic from ChatGPT to my own site over the past 12 months hasn’t even hit 1% 🤷‍♀️.

Have you noticed anything?

I agree with Tim Soulo that beating traffic from Google is completely out of the question now.

Google is still king 👑 when it comes to traffic.

Even with the introduction of AI, organic traffic coming from Google and other search engines remains the most substantial traffic generation source!

On my site alone, 71.82% of traffic in the past 12 months came straight from Google search. 🔎 (see the screenshot above).

That’s why I’m keeping my focus there, instead of worrying too much about AI search results—at least for now.

Google is experimenting a lot with AI Overviews. At first, they mostly showed up for informational searches, but that’s changing…

In one of my previous newsletters, I summarized the podcast with Kevin Indig, who’s worked with companies like Reddit, Dropbox, and Shopify.

He talked about Google’s never-ending changes to the AI Overviews algorithms and what might help to rank in AI-generated search results.

However, the ultimate point is that the environment changes so rapidly that tracking rankings in AI-generated search results becomes a challenge.

If you are currently searching for an SEO tool to analyze and track your performance in AI-generated search results, I’ve recently shared my thoughts after testing Semrush’s AI SEO Toolkit.

The tool definitely has potential and offers quite a few helpful reports, but with nearly zero traffic coming from AI, I personally do not track the performance of my site across different AI search results.

If you want to give it a try, my review could be a great starting point.

August Affiliate report is live 💰

This week, I’ve published my August affiliate marketing report, sharing how I earned $4,199.25 in August from my website.

My site has already passed $20,000 in revenue this year, even though that was my yearly goal. Proof that affiliate marketing is far from dead if you’ve got a site that performs well. 🚀

In the report, I share exactly which partners brought in revenue, what’s working right now, and what isn’t.

If you are already a Premium member, you can access the report via the link below. But if you aren’t part of the community yet, check it here.

For the Premium members:

Here’s what’s new in the content library:

• Google hit my site … then I doubled my traffic, where I show the impact of the Google Core Update on various websites (including mine), and highlight common characteristics of the top-performing sites.

• August Affiliate report, where I break down exactly how my website made $4,199.25.

• $12,000+ from my website in 5 months: I’m sharing my top-performing affiliate programs and landing pages that generate the most revenue.

• Optimize like a Pro: Here's what I do: I use these 9 content optimization strategies to rank on page one.

• April Affiliate Report, where I break down exactly how my website made $4,465.53.

• My Approach to Affiliate Marketing: Mistakes, learnings & new strategy

• How I ranked #8 on Google in just 6 days: The SEO strategy that got me on Google in a few days.

Want in?

You can become a Premium member for just $7 one-time payment. You’ll get behind-the-scenes tips, real strategies I use to grow my site, and answers to your questions. 🧠💡

Have a great weekend!

Victoria

P.S. If you missed my previous newsletter, you can check it out here: August 2025 monthly recap.