Why AI Traffic Converts Better than Traditional Search (Even When There’s Less of It)

AI Search Series: Article 1: Did AI Kill SEO? | Article 3: How AI Search is Changing Visibility

If AI is answering everyone’s questions before they click through to our site, what’s the point of even having a website? That’s a fair question. After all, Google AI Overviews serve over 2 billion users monthly, and ChatGPT has 700 million weekly active users getting answers without ever landing on a brand’s homepage. And yeah, click-through rates are taking a hit across the board as AI-powered search handles more of the heavy lifting upfront.

That said, panicking might be premature. AI traffic is up 527% year-over-year, according to recent studies. Some of our clients? They’re seeing increases of 1,700%. When their audience members actually land on a website, they’re converting at rates equal to or higher than top-performing traditional channels. It’s less overall traffic, sure — but it’s higher intent, better qualified, and more likely to convert.

So, what’s actually happening here? We sat down with Erica Gregory, our senior manager of web performance, and Brandon Godwin, our VP of client strategy, to break it down.

Here’s what we learned:

• Trust is built through credibility AND clarity — you need both. Being smart doesn’t matter if people can’t understand what you’re saying. AI has commoditized information, which makes trust the new competitive advantage.
• AI traffic is exploding, and it’s converting better. Specifically, it’s up 527% year over year across the industry, with some brands seeing 1,700%+ growth. These users arrive with higher intent and convert at premium rates.
• Your website shifted from destination to validation layer. AI handles curiosity; your website handles confirmation. Users are checking whether what they learned in AI search is actually true.
• “AI eats UI” oversimplifies the story. The better way to think of it is: AI eats friction, not feeling. Real users still engage with websites, and those experiences still drive belief and conversion.
• Brand narrative consistency across LLMs is critical. If an LLM is going to recommend a company, you want it to be yours. And if that LLM is talking about your brand, you need it saying what you want it to say.

Interview Highlights: Erica Gregory and Brandon Godwin on the impact of AI traffic

[This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.]

Brandon: You’ve said, in this sort of new evolution and new version of this SEO world, we’re really not optimizing for clicks as much anymore. So what are we optimizing for?

Erica: Yeah, I mean, ultimately, I think trust becomes the metric that is really influential and impactful in an information world where AI is now commoditizing information. Trust is the metric that we are going to think about building from both a tactical level and a strategic level. Now obviously, trust is a little harder to measure, but that is what we’re optimizing for. We’re optimizing for clarity, credibility, and ultimately trust.

Some of the ways that we’re optimizing for trust are very similar to the ways that we’ve optimized our content before, but it’s building in that credibility. But it’s also building in clarity as well. So you’ve got to optimize for both — both credibility and clarity.

Brandon: How has AI changed, shifted, adjusted how you think about the website piece?

Erica: Yeah, I mean, it’s a great question. I think what we’re seeing now is that, whereas the website might have been a destination layer in the past, it’s really a validation layer now.

So we believe that AI handles curiosity, but your website handles confirmation. And what I mean by this is that users are going to get answers in AI search, and they’re going to see these in LLMs. But a lot of that behavior is still going to come over to your website with high intent, but they’re going to be looking to validate the information that they saw on AI.

So it becomes really important to make sure that you’re consistent and clear both on your website for the AI, but also for the human, who is looking to make sure that what they saw somewhere else is actually true.

Brandon: I want to ask you about a statement — I think it’s attributed to Naval Ravikant — he says that AI eats UI.

Erica: I think it probably oversimplifies it. But our belief is that AI eats friction, not feeling. And users are still engaging with your website today, so we don’t really know what’s going to happen far off in the future.

There could be the potential that generic models take over, and they are having more actions on behalf of us right now. But today, real users are going onto your website, and it is those experiences that help them believe the answer they found in AI.

So I think we should have different expectations for what we’re producing with our optimization efforts. Some of those outcomes really are moving a little more upper funnel, as you think about that presence or brand mention that may not be creating that click. But what’s exciting is that we are really seeing a lot of interesting activity happening at the bottom of the funnel, as well, that is coming from AI traffic.

There are studies that show AI traffic is up 527% year over year. We’re seeing a client that has it up 1,700% year over year. So we’re still producing users to the website. And what’s even more exciting is that when they get there, they’re converting at least equal to or above the rate of what we’re seeing at some of our top-converting channels.

Brandon: And I think even from research, right, people are kind of inherently trusting what LLMs recommend. So again, asking the simple fundamental questions: If an LLM is going to make a recommendation, right, do you want them to recommend your company, your service, your brand?

Erica: That’s absolutely right. And then if they’re asking specifically about your brand, what are they saying about your brand? You know, is the LLM representing your brand narrative in the same way that you would want it to be? So there’s the brand narrative that you have to think about, that brand reputation, and making sure that you’re ensuring that consistency across the LLM platforms.

Putting these ideas into play for your strategy

Overall clicks are down, yes. But the traffic coming through to websites is higher quality, better informed, and ready to act. AI platforms are filtering out tire-kickers and answering basic questions upfront, so by the time someone lands on your site, they’re not browsing — they’re validating. And validation-stage traffic converts.

This is why trust built through both credibility and clarity matters so much, and why showing up consistently in AI responses isn’t optional anymore. AI eats friction, not feeling. Websites that were built to drive conversions still work; they’re just doing it later in the journey with users who arrive with context and intent.

Bottom line: The brands winning right now are the ones ensuring their narrative is accurate across LLMs, optimizing their sites as validation layers instead of discovery engines, and tracking the right signals. If you’re ready to start doing the same, let’s talk.

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