Recent data reveals that users engage more extensively within Google’s ecosystem, averaging 10 interactions before navigating away to an external site. These insights are drawn from a 13-month comparative analysis of traffic behavior across Google and ChatGPT platforms.
Google Retains Users, While ChatGPT Don’t
Tyler Einberger of Momentic analyzed Similarweb data revealing that Google’s average ‘pages per visit’ rose to 10 as of March, marking a significant increase in user engagement compared to previous metrics.
Implication: Users are engaging more with Google’s search interface—making more clicks within Google’s ecosystem than on external websites.
According to the report:
The rising ‘Pages per Visit’ metric for Google.com suggests that users are increasingly interacting with elements within the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Many of these interactions—such as refining queries, engaging with SERP features, navigating between result pages, or clicking on image results—trigger URL changes while keeping users within Google’s domain.
Google generated 175.5 million outbound visits in March, significantly more than ChatGPT’s 57.6 million. This reflects a 66.4% year-over-year increase in external traffic from Google.
The Efficiency Gap Between Google and ChatGPT
ChatGPT outperforms Google in driving traffic to external websites.
Here’s the data:
- ChatGPT generates 1.4 external visits per user
- Google generates only 0.6 visits per user
This means ChatGPT users are 2.3 times more likely to visit external websites compared to Google users, even though Google’s user base is approximately 6.8 times larger.
The SERP Retention Strategy
Google’s growing number of in-platform clicks reflects its strategy of enhancing search features that provide instant answers, reducing the need for users to visit external websites.
Google is achieving two key objectives:
- Maintaining its position as the web’s primary traffic source
- Increasing the time users spend on Google’s platforms
Despite sending more outbound traffic in early 2025, Google’s audience saw minimal growth. This highlights the complex balance between retaining users and directing them to other sites.
What This Means for SEO and Marketers
For SEO pros and marketers, this shift presents both challenges and opportunities:
- As users spend more time on Google’s platforms, it’s crucial to capture attention within the first screen view.
- Focus on securing spots in featured snippets, knowledge panels, and other prominent SERP elements to stay visible, as traditional organic clicks become harder to achieve.
- Explore ChatGPT and other AI platforms as additional traffic sources, since they generate more referrals per user.
- Users now engage with various SERP features before clicking a website, requiring improved attribution models and content strategies.
The Expanding AI Search Ecosystem
While Google and ChatGPT dominate the conversation, other AI search platforms are rapidly gaining traction. In March, Perplexity saw a 110.7% month-over-month growth, Grok grew by 48.1%, and Claude increased by 23%.
As these newer platforms attract more users, they could influence traffic patterns, although the report doesn’t dive deeply into their referral efficiency.
Google still holds the title of the largest traffic source overall. However, its expanding “walled garden” approach signals the need for marketers to monitor these trends and diversify their traffic sources.
