According to a new study published by Scrunch, direct AI referrals—traffic arriving at news publishers' sites following conversations with AI assistants—account for just 1.1% of total visits. The study, which tracked millions of searches, AI chats, and website visits, found that readers predominantly reach news sites through direct browser navigation or traditional searches.
Key Data and Traffic Dynamics of the Study
The study conducted by Scrunch revealed that readers are 20.5 percentage points more likely to visit news publishers within the week following a news-focused AI chat compared to a non-news chat. However, the study shows that AI usage does not create entirely new demand from scratch, but rather progresses in parallel with existing news-reading habits.
Other notable findings include:
- Approximately three-quarters of post-chat visits occurred via direct navigation (typing the URL directly or using bookmarks).
- The share of traditional searches hovered around 9%, while visits with direct AI referral links remained at 1.1%.
- Major publishers accounted for 82% of the sources recommended by AI assistants and single-handedly captured 97% of subsequent follow-up visits. In contrast, mid-tier publishers secured a much smaller share of visits despite receiving 17% of total mentions.
Google AI Overviews and Click-Through Rates
The study also closely examined the role of Google AI Overviews in news searches. Accordingly, AI Overviews appeared in approximately one out of every four news searches during the analyzed period. While these summaries appeared most frequently on service-oriented topics such as weather, market prices, and explainers, they were rarely triggered during sports searches, which yield the highest click-through rates.
News searches featuring AI Overviews generated an average click-through rate of around 20% to publisher sites, compared to roughly 30% for searches without these summaries. However, when comparing identical queries, this gap narrowed to about 2 percentage points, and it was found that AI Overviews appear more frequently in news searches that already generate relatively low clicks.
Sectoral Implications and Measurement Strategies
Evaluating the impact of AI on content creators and media solely through direct referral traffic can cause the bigger picture to be overlooked. The study results show that being featured in AI responses or gaining visibility on these platforms lays the groundwork for users to search for the brand directly or arrive at the site via traditional search engines at later stages. Therefore, digital publishers and SEO experts need to track their brand visibility in AI responses rather than focusing solely on traditional traffic metrics.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does a publisher mentioned in AI assistants, but not directly linked, gain traffic in the days that follow?
According to the study data, visits to publishers that were mentioned in an AI response but not included in the user's initial query increased by 10.6 percentage points the next day and by approximately 20 percentage points within the following week. This reveals that being visible on AI platforms creates a powerful "routing signal" that triggers users to search for the brand directly at a later stage.
Which metrics should publishers monitor in the age of AI to prevent traffic losses?
Relying solely on last-click referral data fails to reflect the true impact of AI. Publishers should holistically measure how often they are cited as sources in AI chats, increases in brand awareness, and changes in direct traffic and traditional search volumes following AI responses.
*This news was prepared based on data published by Search Engine Land.
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