Absolute Traffic Trend
Absolute traffic trend shows the monthly total traffic of 74,752 sites that joined Ahrefs Web Analytics by June 2025, tracking the same fixed cohort each month to show overall traffic changes over time.
Absolute Traffic by Channel
All Traffic Sources Comparison
Comprehensive comparison of all traffic sources showing traffic share and growth trends
Latest month's absolute traffic volumes and month-over-month percentage point changes for all tracked sources.
No traffic data available
Traffic Share by Category
Aggregated view of traffic sources grouped into major categories: Traditional Search, AI Search, and channel types
Traffic distribution across major categories over time.
No category data available
Traffic Mix by Site Volume
Sites bucketed by total monthly visitors. For each band we average the per-site channel mix (Organic / Direct / Paid / AI / Other) so each bar still sums to 100%.
How the channel mix shifts as sites grow from a few hundred to millions of monthly visitors.
Coming soon — waiting on the next data refresh to surface the per-band channel mix.
Traffic Share by Source
All traffic sources displayed on the same percentage scale for direct comparison
Traffic share percentages on the same scale
Month-over-Month Growth Comparison
% change in visitors sent by each source: (This month − Last month) / Last month. Indicates how fast traffic is growing or declining.
% change in visitors sent by each source: (This month − Last month) / Last month. Indicates how fast traffic is growing or declining.
No growth data available
| Period | ||
|---|---|---|
| No growth data available | ||
Key Insights from the Data
Important observations and trends extracted from the traffic data analysis
ChatGPT breaks out with a 0.0% surge while the market slides
AI-powered search platforms are reshaping how users find information online.
Content-rich industries dominate referral traffic
News, Entertainment, and Finance sectors show the highest search referral volumes.
Traditional search keeps sliding in May
Privacy-conscious users are driving adoption of alternative search engines.
AI search climbs to 0.00% on ChatGPT's surge
ChatGPT leads AI-powered search with 0.00% share after a 0.0% jump, lifting AI's combined share even as Perplexity (0.0%), Gemini (0.0%), and Copilot (0.0%) all retreat. The gains are concentrated almost entirely in ChatGPT.
Google slips to 0.0% traffic share
Google holds 0.0% share with a 0.0% visitor decline in May, down from 0.00% in April. The steady erosion from 35.11% in June 2025 continues, with Google now below 27% for the first time since tracking began.
ChatGPT is the only AI platform to grow in May
ChatGPT's 0.0% surge stands alone: every other AI assistant fell, with Gemini (0.0%), Copilot (0.0%), and Perplexity (0.0%) posting double-digit declines and Claude nearly flat at 0.0%. The divergence suggests users are consolidating around ChatGPT rather than spreading across AI tools.
Strategic Marketing Implications:
May 2026 marks a turning point — ChatGPT breaks out with a 0.0% surge, nearly doubling its share, while Google and every other AI assistant decline. Key strategic priorities for marketers:
- • Prioritize ChatGPT Optimization: ChatGPT's 0.0% jump and share doubling to 0.00% make it the clear destination for AI-referred traffic. Ensure your content is structured, citable, and accessible to ChatGPT's crawler
- • Google's Erosion Continues: Google fell 0.0% to 0.0% share — below 27% for the first time since June 2025's 35.11%. Keep investing in SEO, but expand beyond Google for resilience
- • AI Traffic Is Consolidating, Not Fragmenting: While ChatGPT surged, Perplexity (0.0%), Gemini (0.0%), and Copilot (0.0%) all declined. Across 0 sites, optimizing for ChatGPT first delivers the most reach
- • Don't Abandon Multi-Channel: DuckDuckGo's 0.0% gain and stable direct and social channels show traffic still flows through many doors. Diversify rather than chase a single source
May 2026 signals that AI search is consolidating around ChatGPT even as traditional search erodes. The platforms winning attention are diverging sharply — optimize for ChatGPT now, but keep Google and your owned channels in the mix.