ChatGPT, LLM referrals convert worse than Google Search: Study

Search Engine Land features research by Maximilian Kaiser and Christian Schulze analyzing 973 ecommerce sites, revealing that ChatGPT referral traffic converts worse than Google Search. The study found ChatGPT referrals represented only ~0.2% of total sessions, with over 90% of LLM ecommerce traffic coming from ChatGPT. While affiliate and organic search showed higher conversion rates, ChatGPT demonstrated lower revenue per session compared to traditional search channels. The findings suggest that despite the hype around AI assistants, they haven’t disrupted Google Search and likely won’t in the near term, though AI referral traffic continues to grow.