By the numbers. ChatGPT shows links, but almost no one clicks on them. For one top performing page, the OpenAI file reports:
- 610,775 total link impressions
- 4,238 total clicks
- 0.69% overall CTR
- Best CTR of individual pages: 1.68%
- Most other pages: 0.01%, 0.1%, 0%
ChatGPT statistics. The leaked file lists every place ChatGPT displays links and how users interact with them. It follows:
- Date range (date partition, report month, min/max report dates)
- Publisher and URL information (publisher name, base URL, host, URL ranking)
- Impressions and clicks about:
- Answer
- Sidebar
- Citations
- Search results
- TL; DR
- Quick navigation
- CTR calculations for each display area
- Total impressions and total clicks over all surfaces
Where the links appear. Interestingly, the most visible placements generate the fewest clicks. The document broke down performance by zone:
- Main response: Huge impressions, small CTR
- Sidebar and quotes: Fewer impressions, higher CTR (6–10%)
- Search results: Almost no impressions, zero clicks
Why we care. Are you hoping ChatGPT visibility can replace your lost organic search traffic in Google? This data says no. AI-powered traffic is increasing, but it is still a part of the total traffic – and it’s unlikely it will ever behave like traditional organic search traffic.
About the data. It was shared on LinkedIn by Vincent TerrasiCTO and co-founder of Draft & Goal, which bills itself as “a multi-step workflow to scale your content production.”
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Danny Goodwin is editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land & Search Marketing Expo – SMX. He joined Search Engine Land in 2022 as Senior Editor. In addition to reporting on the latest news in search marketing, he manages Search Engine Land’s SME (Subject Matter Expert) program. He also helps program US SMX events.Goodwin has been editing and writing about the latest developments and trends in search and digital marketing since 2007. Previously, he was Executive Editor of Search Engine Journal (from 2017 to 2022), managing editor of Momentology (from 2014-2016) and editor of Search Engine Watch (from 2007 to 2014). He has spoken at many major search conferences and virtual events, and is involved in a wide range of publications and podcasts for his expertise.
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