What if the most engaged users weren’t coming from Google?
Organic search has been the undisputed champion of high-quality traffic.
Our study, which used 304 properties from past and current clients who provided permission, reveals that things are shifting.
While SEO remains the bedrock of a stable traffic strategy, the sources of high-intent, highly engaged users are diversifying, with channels like ChatGPT seeing an average engagement rate of 63.42%.
This doesn’t mean SEO is dead; it still has a healthy average engagement rate of 61.64%. However, it does signal a shift in user behavior and the start of a new chapter for content strategy.
The future isn’t about choosing one channel over another—it’s about building a hybrid strategy that masters the entire user journey from organic search to LLM-based queries.
Key Takeaways
- High-Intent Channels are Diversifying. While Organic Search remains a cornerstone, channels like paid shopping, affiliates, and ChatGPT are now leading in user engagement.
- ChatGPT is a Strong Contender. Traffic from AI search remains highly qualified. Across the full study, users from ChatGPT were 2.90% more engaged than those from Organic Search.
- Organic Search is Your Foundation. SEO provides the predictable, high-volume traffic you can build a long-term strategy on.
- A Hybrid Strategy is Essential. Focus on traditional SEO for stability and optimize your content to capture high-intent users from a variety of referral sources, including AI.
Organic Search: High Volume Stability
While not the highest in engagement, organic search remains the most reliable source of visitors. Its value lies in its stability.
Organic search predictability is a strategic advantage.
This stability stands in contrast to newer channels like ChatGPT, which our data shows is far more volatile.
ChatGPT can deliver high engagement, but its performance fluctuates wildly from month to month. The volatility is likely impacted by several factors, including a smaller overall sample size compared to organic search and the rapid growth of AI models.
The lower volume of visits, especially earlier in the study, contributes to the fluctuations, highlighting the importance of organic search as a predictable foundation for your content strategy.
Organic search allows you to forecast traffic, plan content calendars, and allocate your marketing budget with confidence. Knowing you can expect a dip in summer traffic, for example, helps you manage expectations and plan campaigns accordingly.
This stability is the result of a solid SEO strategy.
High-Intent Traffic: ChatGPT
Users who arrive from ChatGPT are on a mission.
They aren’t just browsing—they are actively seeking specific, expert-level information that a high-level AI summary alone cannot provide.
Consider the user journey: users ask a question, receive a general overview from the AI, and then click a link for the crucial details, data, or context. By the time they land on your site, they are already highly qualified and deep into the consideration phase.
This is why traffic from ‘ChatGPT Source’ remains one of the most engaged channels, outperforming traditional heavyweights like Organic Search.
While ChatGPT is a powerful source of this new, high-intent audience, other channels like Paid Shopping and Affiliates also deliver highly motivated users. The modern user is leveraging multiple platforms to find precisely what they need.
| Channel | Average Engagement | Change Since Study Start |
|---|---|---|
| Paid Shopping | 72.50% | -8.11% |
| Cross-network | 67.75% | -1.90% |
| Affiliates | 66.31% | -0.95% |
| ChatGPT | 63.42% | -11.43% |
| Blog Pages | 63.41% | +15.87% |
| Paid Search | 63.03% | -3.51% |
| Mobile Push Notifications | 62.98% | -10.96% |
| Organic Video | 62.48% | -2.29% |
| Organic Shopping | 62.35% | -1.95% |
| Organic Search | 61.64% | +4.71% |
| SMS | 60.23% | -1.16% |
| Referral | 58.00% | +2.06% |
| 56.52% | -4.49% | |
| Organic Social | 53.75% | +9.98% |
| Paid Video | 52.64% | -11.21% |
| Direct | 49.01% | +0.80% |
| Display | 43.76% | -4.99% |
| Paid Social | 42.62% | -6.53% |
However, the trend is clear: optimizing for AI-driven traffic is no longer optional. These users have specific questions, and your content needs to be the definitive answer.
To Do: Design a Hybrid SEO Strategy
The goal: build a content marketing strategy that serves the reach of traditional search and the high-intent nature of AI-driven traffic.
Your organic strategy is what gives you long-term stability and authority. Your SEO playbook:
-
- Build a Strong Internal Linking Structure. Guide users and search engines to your most important pages. A logical site architecture helps spread authority and improves user experience.
- Focus on E-E-A-T. Double down on creating authoritative content that demonstrates genuine expertise, experience, and trust. This is the foundation for ranking in traditional search and being cited by AI.
- Invest in High-Value Content. Go beyond basic articles. Prioritize original research, proprietary data, detailed case studies, and expert interviews that establish your site as the definitive source.
To capture engaged users from AI, your content needs to be the best possible answer to their next question. Ranking in AI search engine results and LLMs requires you:
- Answer the “Why” and “How.” AI is great at answering “what.” Your content should excel at explaining the “why” and the “how,” providing the expert context that AI summaries often lack.
- Provide “Next-Step” Content. Create pages that deliver the data, statistics, and in-depth analysis a user would look for after getting a general overview from an AI.
- Structure Content for AI. Use clear, question-based headings (H2s, H3s) and FAQ schema. This makes it easy for AI models to parse your content and feature it as a direct answer.
The Future of Search is a Hybrid Approach
The rise of AI isn’t a threat to traditional SEO. Sources like ChatGPT are creating a new type of search user who is more informed and has a higher intent than ever before.
Furthermore, our data shows that these channels behave independently, with no real correlation in their performance.
This makes a hybrid strategy even more critical, as mastering both allows you to benefit from different user behaviors and traffic patterns.
Organic search builds the foundation, while optimizing for AI captures this new, highly-qualified audience. The brands that win will be the ones that master both, creating a hybrid strategy.
Need a content marketing approach that thrives in the new era of search?
Reach out to Siege Media, and let’s create something amazing.
Our Methodology
Siege Media conducted this study using analytics data obtained from 304 past and current client properties, with permission provided to share their data. We collected engagement data between July 1, 2023, and July 31, 2025.