ChatGPT has stopped passing referral information on some outbound links, meaning visits from ChatGPT are potentially being recorded as Direct traffic in Google Analytics.
Cedric Huesler from Adobe investigated 500 pages where ChatGPT previously accounted for at least 5% of visits. Comparing October 9-13 with the previous week, he found:
ChatGPT-attributed traffic fell by 31,000 visits per day.
Direct traffic increased by 26,000 visits per day on those same pages.
Two-thirds of pages losing ChatGPT referrals also experienced an increase in Direct traffic.
Organic Search declined 7%, consistent with the wider trend.
Huesler also found that the proportion of mobile Direct visitors receiving a consent banner increased from 36% to 44%. For identifiable ChatGPT visitors, it was 55%.
The findings, suggest ChatGPT is still sending traffic, but analytics platforms are no longer able to attribute it.
This is what’s going on.