Website visitors who arrive from AI assistant platforms — ChatGPT (with browsing), Perplexity, Claude.ai, Google AI Overviews, and similar generative AI systems — after the AI cited or linked to the site in a generated answer. An emerging traffic source that is growing as AI assistant usage expands. Measurement: in Google Analytics 4, AI referral traffic appears under the Referral traffic source with referring domains including perplexity.ai, chat.openai.com, claude.ai, and similar AI platform domains; Google SGE/AI Overviews traffic may appear as organic search rather than referral. GEO performance indicator: growth in AI referral traffic month-over-month is a signal that GEO optimization efforts are increasing AI system citation of your content. Characteristics: often higher-intent than average organic traffic because AI systems generate citations in the context of answering a specific question — visitors arriving from AI citations have a clearly defined question that matched your content.
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