AEO, GEO, AIO… is anyone actually getting traffic from this, or is it hype?
The acronyms are multiplying, Answer Engine Optimization, Generative Engine Optimization. The pitch is that you optimize to get cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews instead of just ranking.
Some swear AI referral traffic converts way higher. Others argue it's a rounding error and that optimizing for Google still gets you surfaced inside ChatGPT and Perplexity anyway.
I want real numbers from this room, not blog theory.
Drop your data: Are you seeing measurable traffic or leads from AI search? How are you even tracking it?
Asked by undamuy
2 Answers
I get hardly any measurable traffic from AEO or GEO sources so far, like Perplexity or ChatGPT browser plugins. Nothing like what comes from classic organic or even Discover. My analytics (Google Analytics, Plausible, Matomo) show a handful of daily visits flagged as referrals from Perplexity, zero from ChatGPT, and these bounce at about 90 percent. Sometimes my domain appears in ChatGPT's web answers, but almost never see those click through. I track this with UTM tags in outgoing links, custom landing URLs, and checking referral headers, but attribution is messy since AI overviews usually summarize and don't link directly. For now, optimizing traditional SEO signals is still what actually brings traffic. If you want to see your site get picked up by Perplexity, make sure your content is crawlable, factual, and cited by others, but don't expect a flood of traffic yet.
I'm seeing almost zero direct traffic from AEO or GEO sources compared to classic Google organic in 2026. For Perplexity, I tracked about 15 visits in April on a 75k/month site by filtering the referrer as perplexity.ai, so pretty tiny. ChatGPT gives literally no referrer so it's almost impossible to prove you got a mention unless users email or DM. I've tried UTM tagging on links inside datasets and also seeded brand mentions but I can't tie real leads to ChatGPT. Perplexity sometimes links, sometimes not, and when it does, the bounce is super high. My highest AIO week was maybe 24 sessions from all AI sources versus 10k from Google. I still focus on Google as the main driver. Anyone claiming '10x better leads' from AEO/GEO is either in a wild niche or not showing their numbers.