So where have those searchers gone? And can you get them back to your website? For this article we’ll take a look at two sources: SERP Features (which includes AI Overview) and AI Chatbots and how you can determine if they are in fact delivering some of those lost views to your site.
SERP Features
Examples of SERP (search engine results page) features include AI overviews, people also ask, knowledge panel, local pack and more. Although Google started showing some of these features as long ago as the early 2000s, AI overviews were rolled out in 2024 and have expanded from there – adding a new element to the search results for users and new questions from marketers.
To show in the SERP features, optimization such as structured data matters. But getting a coveted spot is only part of the battle. Because as we know, many of these features were created to provide information on the spot – otherwise known as a zero click experience, whereby a searcher needn’t click to a website at all to get answers – they are provided right there in the SERP for a faster, easier user experience.
But what about the users who do click through on SERP features? Could you be get clicks from here to your website? Yes, you can and it’s very likely that you already are.
Where To Find SERP Feature Data
There is good news and bad news here. The bad news is that Google Analytics has yet to integrate SERP features into reporting which would make it so very easy to see traffic, engagement and even conversions to specific pages. There is a workaround, but it’s not simple and you’ll need a developer. I’m hopeful we will see an update soon from GA4 adding this in so that we all have free and easy access to this data. In the meantime, the easiest way to take a look at what’s going on is by using a (paid) SEO tool. At Solid Digital, we use SEMrush. As you can see in the screenshot below – there is an option to choose “SERP Features” and view the keywords showing, what type of feature they are showing for, and the amount of traffic that feature resulted in.
However, the big caveat here is that tools like SEMrush are not giving actual traffic – they are showing estimated traffic. To put this into perspective, when I look at organic traffic in SEMrush vs. Google Analytics, I tend to see about 2.5x the real number presented in GA4 so if we use that same formula, the traffic from the SERP Features may also be inflated here, but this data still gives us some idea of what keywords are showing and compares them to one another.
A second issue with pulling data from a tool like this is that it gives us a benchmark for keywords, however, it doesn’t connect this information to the quality of that traffic – that is we can’t see engagement rate or conversions like we can in GA4.
What the SERP Feature Data Tells Us
In spite of these shortcomings, there are learnings to be had by looking at this data. If I estimate down the traffic number similar to the 2.5x rate that I see for organic traffic, what I notice for many B2B clients is that SERP feature traffic would add about an additional 5% more visitors on top of organic traffic. Whether this will go up or down depends much on what Google decides to do, so it’s something to keep an eye on. Any relevant traffic going to your website could mean more potential conversions. And as we expect AI overviews to continue to grow, focusing on generative search optimization should help you at least get some visibility here – and hopefully some clicks.
AI Chatbots
I won’t spend time here explaining what AI chatbots are. Love them or hate, use them or snub them, it’s where more and more users are going instead of turning to traditional search engines – and that includes your target audience of potential customers.
Right now, there are various AI chatbot options and there isn’t one behemoth such as Google is to search. ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude are some of the the most popular and recognizable at the moment, but as AI continues to grow its reach, it’s possible that one of these sources will become the fan favorite for certain audiences or that a new chatbot could surface.
Where To Find AI Chatbot Data
Fortunately, it’s easy to track traffic coming from chatbots. It’s right there in basic GA4 reports. Though I can easily imagine AI chatbot traffic getting its own category (similar to organic search and paid), it’s currently showing as referral traffic and you can separate it out by viewing your data by souce/medium where you can see the exact AI chatbot visitors came from.
What the AI Chatbot Data Tells Us
Currently, I see about 1 – 3% of traffic coming from chatbots for B2B organizations. However, based on the adoption rates of AI chatbot users, it’s easy to see how this number will continue to rise, making it a larger percentage of your website visitors and a more important place to capture your target audience.
Because this data is in GA4, it allows you to analyze these website visits compared to other traffic sources and get a better understanding of how valuable and qualified these visitors are. By checking engagement rates, time spent on site and key event conversions, you can easily tell how each AI chatbot channel is performing for you. In addition, you can segment by landing page to how users are entering the site and what pages are doing best in brining that traffic.
In Conclusion
As AI continues its meteoric rise, it has the potential to bring more traffic to your site. As always, before strategy, I recommend pulling data to get a better understanding of where your website currently stands and using this as a benchmark as you optimize for visibility in SERP features and AI chatbot responses.
