Has ChatGPT been sending traffic to external sites? Are people enabling the platform's SearchGPT feature? Does search intent tend to be different on ChatGPT compared with Google?
To find out, researchers at Semrush analyzed more than 80 million lines of global clickstream data from the second half of 2024.
The researchers found that the number of unique domains receiving traffic from ChatGPT jumped last year—increasing from 10,000 a day in early July to more than 30,000 in November.
Some 54% of the ChatGPT queries included in the analysis were conducted with the SearchGPT feature turned off. (When SearchGPT is enabled, the platform has the ability to access live Web data.)
The researchers were able to discern the search intent for only 30% of the ChatGPT prompts in the dataset. For the prompts where they could discern intent, the most common motivation was informational (i.e., learning about topics).
The researchers compared the 30% of ChatGPT prompts where they could discern intent with Google Search intent data and found that people on Google exhibited a higher proportion of navigational intent (i.e., finding specific sites), whereas informational intent was more prevalent on ChatGPT.
About the research: The report was based on an analysis of more than 80 million lines of global clickstream data from the second half of 2024.
