A Similarweb study shows users are 2.5 times more likely to visit a brand's website after ChatGPT recommends it. Here's what that means for your traffic strategy.
Similarweb tracked U.S. desktop users across finance, travel, and beauty. The methodology was straightforward: they identified users who asked ChatGPT an industry-relevant question, received a specific brand recommendation, and then visited either that brand's website or a competitor's site within seven days. The result was clear. Users were 2.5 times more likely, on average, to visit the AI-recommended brand.
This isn't a small shift. It suggests that when an AI assistant tells a user to visit your business, the conversion intent is significantly higher than when they find you through traditional search or word-of-mouth.
For years, being found on Google Search was the primary goal. Rank for the right keywords, and customers would find you. Now there's a new gatekeeper: AI assistants like ChatGPT. Users are asking questions directly to AI before they search Google. If your brand isn't in that recommendation, you're losing traffic to whoever is.
The 2.5x multiplier matters because it shows strong intent. An AI recommendation is a warm endorsement, not a cold search result. The user has already been told your business is worth visiting. They're more likely to act on it.
This study reflects a larger shift in how customers find businesses. Search engines are no longer the only path to discovery. AI assistants are becoming conversational research tools. The brands that win will be the ones that show up in both places: Google Search and AI recommendations.
For industrial, commercial, and small business owners, this is actionable right now. Your customer base is already using ChatGPT. The question is whether your business shows up when they ask.
Users who saw a brand recommended by ChatGPT were 2.5 times more likely, on average, to visit that brand's website than a direct competitor, based on Similarweb's study of U.S. desktop behavior.
Similarweb, via Search Engine Land, June 2026
How WebKing runs this
WebKing helps industrial, commercial, and small business owners get recommended by ChatGPT and other AI assistants by ensuring your brand, location data, reviews, and core value propositions are findable and trustworthy to AI models. We audit your visibility in AI answer engines, optimize your web presence for AI discovery, and track whether ChatGPT, Copilot, and Perplexity are steering traffic your way.
ChatGPT pulls from its training data and the web to answer user questions about products, services, and industries. If your brand is well-known, reviewed, and mentioned in authoritative sources online, it's more likely to appear in ChatGPT's recommendations. Similarweb's study tracked users who asked industry-relevant questions and received a specific brand recommendation.
Similarweb's study focused on finance, travel, and beauty, so those results are confirmed. However, any industry where customers ask questions before buying, whether it's plumbing, HVAC, manufacturing, or commercial services, is likely to see similar AI recommendation effects.
Google Search returns links and rankings you can optimize with keywords and backlinks. ChatGPT gives a direct recommendation: 'Use this brand.' The user doesn't have to compare multiple options, which is why Similarweb found a 2.5x higher visit rate. It's a warmer lead.
ChatGPT learns from publicly available web content, reviews, news mentions, and business data. Having a complete, accurate business profile on Google and industry directories, building genuine customer reviews, earning local and industry press, and making sure your website answers the questions your customers ask all help. There's no paid ad option in ChatGPT yet, so earned visibility matters most.
Sources
The Lab is original analysis by WebKing. We summarize and interpret developments from the sources above for industrial, commercial, and small business owners. Figures are reported as published by their sources.
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