Is This The End For Referral Traffic From ChatGPT?

Referral traffic from AI tools was once seen as a promising new stream for publishers and brands. The thinking was that if people were not clicking through from Google, perhaps they would arrive via ChatGPT. But that optimism has been shaken: in July 2025, referrals from ChatGPT fell by 52% in just one month, according to data reported by Search Engine Land.

At the same time, Google’s AI Overviews continue to redefine how people engage with search results, providing direct answers without requiring visits to websites. These shifts are fundamentally rewiring web traffic flows, and for content publishers, the stakes have never been higher.
Are we seeing a summer seasonal trend or the start of the dominance of zero click search?

Let’s take a look at what we know so far.

AI Overviews: The silent click stealer

Zero-click searches are surging. Forbes reports that roughly 60% of Google searches now result in no clicks because users get the information they need without ever leaving the results page.
Multiple studies confirm this trend:

• Some sites lose up to 79% of their traffic when their results appear below AI Overviews.
• A Pew Research Center analysis found click-through rates (CTRs) drop from 15% (no AI summary) to just 8% (with an AI Overview), almost a 50% reduction.
• The Authoritas report, central to a legal complaint in the UK, observed CTR declines of 47.5% on desktop and 37.7% on mobile when AI Overviews appear.
• For publishers, the fallout is severe. Studies show that click-throughs from search to news content have plunged by up to 80%.
• A SimilarWeb report shows news site traffic fell from 2.3 billion visits in mid-2024 to under 1.7 billion by May 2025, with zero-click searches for news jumping from 56% to 69%.
• Some publishers report up to 70% reductions in site traffic, with CTRs as low as 1% when AI summaries are present.

ChatGPT now relies heavily on Wikipedia and Reddit

New analysis of over one billion ChatGPT citations reveals a sharp concentration: as of late July, Reddit citations rose 87%, accounting for about 10% of all ChatGPT citations, while Wikipedia citations increased 62%, now making up nearly 13% (searchengineland.com). Together with TechRadar, these top three sources now make up 22% of all citations, a climb of 53% in one month.

Further research from AI analytics firm Profound confirms this pattern: between August 2024 and June 2025, nearly 47.9% of ChatGPT’s top 10 citations came from Wikipedia, followed by Reddit at 11.3% (searchengineland.com). This underscores ChatGPT’s reliance on these two platforms as answer-first authorities, and why they’re your strongest competition when aiming for AI visibility.

Why this matters beyond the numbers

Pretty much every business runs a website, and traditionally these websites were the source of information used to decide rank in search engines, as well as the destination for searchers. With zero click searches possibly becoming more and more prominent, and more information being pulled from a few sources, the landscape of the web is becoming harder to forecast.

Here’s how the landscape looks as of 2025:

1. ChatGPT referrals might be collapsing, and now AI Overviews are redirecting even more attention away from websites. If your site is not cited directly, you lose out.
2. Zero-click searches are no longer rare, they are the norm. 60% of searches having no clicks means attention lives on the results page, not your site.
3. Publishers are under fire. Major outlets like Business Insider, HuffPost and The Washington Post have seen traffic declines of 50–55%, with business models strained and newsroom cuts underway (wsj.com).
4. The problem has sparked regulatory and strategic responses. AI Overviews are now being scrutinised for how they displace traffic without compensating content creators (wsj.com, barrons.com).

Is SEO finally dead, then?

Not at all. In fact, SEO’s core principles are still currently vital for AI visibility. The same tactics that help websites rank in traditional search results also increase the chances of being featured in AI and LLM-generated answers:

• Structured, scannable content helps both Google and AI systems parse and reference your content.
• Authority and trust signals—like backlinks and domain strength—guide AI platforms when choosing citation sources.
• Answer-first formatting—think concise explanations, FAQs and clear headers—boosts your chances of being quoted.
• Topical depth and consistency build semantic authority, key for both traditional SEO and AI retrieval models.

So, while “SEO is dead” may catch attention, the reality is quite the opposite. SEO has not only survived, but it’s also part of what helps you show up in AI-driven environments as well.

The new reality for content strategy

However, as much as it pains me to say it, SEO has to flex a little to maintain its position in the various modern SERPs. For years, the goal was to appear on page one (ideally position one, if you could!), but now we find ourselves once again in the position of knowing that position one (or position zero, if we’re being pedantic) is potentially worse than being in position two.

Of course, we’ve been here before. Featured snippets threatened everything SEO stood for when they were introduced, but AI is the bigger, meaner brother and it means business. So, what’s the answer? Based on what we’ve seen recently, it’s probably just a little bit of a tweak:

• Audit for ChatGPT-friendly format: Clarity, bullet points and direct answers boost your chances of being cited.
• Optimise for AI Overviews: Use structured data, concise headers and inline answers to improve being the selected source.
• Strengthen Wikipedia presence: Since Wikipedia accounts for nearly 48% of ChatGPT’s top citations, ensure relevant entries are accurate and well-maintained.
• Engage within Reddit strategically: Reddit contributes over 11% of ChatGPT’s top citations. Focus on genuinely helpful participation, not promotion.
• Focus on branded and long-tail queries: AI summaries impact generic content the hardest. Owning the niche protects visibility.
• Diversify traffic and revenue streams: The more digital channels you embrace, the less likely you are to be hit by changes in the landscape of one.

We’re here to help

The search and content landscape isn’t standing still, and neither should your strategy. If you’re rethinking how to stay visible in the age of AI, we can help you find the right next steps.

Contact us today to start the conversation.

TL;DR recap

• ChatGPT referrals fell 52% in a single month.
• Google’s AI Overviews are reducing clicks by up to 80% through zero-click behaviour.
• Wikipedia and Reddit now dominate ChatGPT citations, together accounting for around 59% of top-10 citation real estate.
• Publishers are struggling, and regulatory attention is increasing.
• SEO isn’t dead, but it has adapted. Those same strategies now determine your visibility in AI-driven ecosystems too.