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  • Dofollow Digest #41: LLM traffic isn't the golden ticket

Dofollow Digest #41: LLM traffic isn't the golden ticket

Author

Eric Carrell
September 05, 2025

Hey, it's Eric 👋

Everyone's been saying LLM traffic is the future - more qualified visitors, better conversions, the death of traditional SEO. New research from 54 websites says that's wrong.

Here's what the data actually shows, and why organic search just became an even bigger opportunity for SaaS companies.

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🔍 DEEP DIVE: LLM Traffic Isn't The Golden Ticket

The study analyzed 54 B2B and B2C websites over six months, looking at conversion rates from both organic and LLM traffic. Here's what they found:

The conversion rates are basically identical. LLM traffic: 4.87%. Organic: 4.60%. That 0.27 percentage point difference? Not statistically significant (p = 0.794). When they looked at individual sites, it was a coin flip – 56% saw LLM convert better, 41% saw it convert worse.

Volume is the real story. LLM traffic represents less than 1% of total sessions for 90% of sites. Organic drives about one-third of all traffic and conversions. Even if LLM traffic converted at double the rate (which it doesn't), organic would still deliver 30x more conversions.

Business model doesn't change the equation. The researchers segmented by B2B vs B2C. B2B sites saw LLM convert slightly higher (2.03% vs 1.68%). B2C was reversed (10.31% vs 8.50%). Neither difference was significant.

They even filtered for only high-traffic sites with meaningful LLM volumes. The gap widened to 1.24 percentage points but still wasn't statistically significant.

Why This Matters for SaaS

I've been watching SaaS companies panic about AI search. They're restructuring entire content strategies, hiring "AI SEO specialists," worried they'll miss the boat on this new traffic source.

This data says: relax.

LLM traffic isn't some magical source of ultra-qualified visitors. It's just another referral channel, and a small one at that. The visitors aren't more likely to convert. They're not further down the funnel. They're just... visitors.

But here's what's actually interesting: 44% of buyers now use both AI and traditional search for complex purchases. They're not replacing Google with ChatGPT – they're using both. Your content needs to work across multiple discovery methods.

This is good news for link building. The same authority signals that help you rank in Google influence whether AI tools reference your content. High-quality backlinks aren't becoming less important – they're working double duty.

The Practical Reality

Look at your analytics. How much traffic are you actually getting from LLMs? For most SaaS companies, it's negligible. You'd get better ROI improving organic conversion by 0.1% than doubling your LLM traffic.

Does this mean ignore AI search? No. But it means being realistic about resource allocation. Optimize for AI when it makes sense – clear content structure, comprehensive answers, good schema markup. These improvements help organic performance too.

The companies winning right now aren't the ones chasing every new channel. They're the ones doing the basics exceptionally well: creating helpful content, building real authority through quality links, and focusing on channels that actually drive revenue.

While everyone else is distracted by the "future of search," there's less competition for traditional SEO. We're seeing faster ranking improvements and easier link building because half the market is looking elsewhere.

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Til next time,

Eric