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Traffic Attribution tracks visitors who arrive at your website from AI search engines. It identifies which AI platforms send you traffic, how much you receive, and how those visitors engage with your content.

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How PromptAlpha Detects AI-Referred Traffic

When a user clicks a link in an AI search engine and lands on your site, the browser sends a Referer header containing the originating domain. PromptAlpha’s tracking snippet reads this referrer and matches it against known AI search engine domains. This detection is automatic. Once you have the tracking snippet installed, AI-referred traffic is identified and attributed without any additional configuration.
AI traffic detection requires the JavaScript tracking snippet to be running on the destination page. Crawler detection is separate and does not depend on the snippet. See Tracking Snippet for installation instructions.

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Supported AI Sources

PromptAlpha detects and attributes traffic from the following AI search engines and assistants:
AI SourceReferrer DomainsDescription
ChatGPTchatgpt.com, chat.openai.comOpenAI’s conversational AI with web browsing and search
Perplexityperplexity.aiAI-powered answer engine with cited web sources
Claudeclaude.aiAnthropic’s AI assistant with web search capabilities
Geminigemini.google.comGoogle’s AI assistant and search experience
Grokgrok.com, x.comxAI’s AI assistant integrated with X (formerly Twitter)
Google AI Overviewsgoogle.com (with AI Overview parameters)AI-generated summaries at the top of Google search results
Google AI Overviews are detected using a combination of referrer analysis and URL parameter inspection, since they originate from the same google.com domain as standard organic search results. PromptAlpha separates AI Overview clicks from regular organic traffic.

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Traffic Metrics

The Traffic Attribution dashboard displays the following metrics for AI-referred visits:
MetricDefinition
VisitsTotal number of sessions originating from AI search engines
Unique VisitorsDistinct visitors based on anonymized browser fingerprinting
Page ViewsTotal pages viewed during AI-referred sessions
Avg. Time on SiteAverage session duration for AI-referred visitors
Bounce RatePercentage of AI-referred visits that view only one page
Top Landing PagesThe pages where AI-referred visitors most frequently arrive
All metrics can be filtered by date range, AI source, and landing page.

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Per-Platform Traffic Breakdown

The By Source view breaks down your AI traffic by platform. For each AI source, you can see:
  • Total visits and unique visitors over time
  • Trend line showing traffic growth or decline
  • Top landing pages for that specific source
  • Engagement metrics (time on site, pages per session)
This breakdown helps you understand which AI platforms drive the most valuable traffic to your site.
Use the per-platform breakdown to prioritize your AI search optimization efforts. If Perplexity sends you the most traffic, focus on understanding how Perplexity cites your content and optimize accordingly.

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UTM Parameter Detection

In addition to referrer-based detection, PromptAlpha recognizes UTM parameters that indicate AI-referred traffic. This serves as a fallback when the referrer header is stripped or unavailable. If you share links in AI contexts with UTM parameters, PromptAlpha detects the following patterns: 
https://example.com/page?utm_source=chatgpt&utm_medium=ai-search
https://example.com/page?utm_source=perplexity&utm_medium=referral
Recognized utm_source values include: chatgpt, openai, perplexity, claude, anthropic, gemini, grok, and ai-overview.
Referrer-based detection takes priority over UTM parameters. UTM attribution is only used when no AI referrer is detected. This prevents double-counting.

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Comparing AI Traffic to Organic Search Traffic

The Traffic Comparison view lets you evaluate AI-referred traffic alongside your traditional organic search traffic. This comparison shows:
  • Volume trends — how AI traffic is growing relative to organic search
  • Engagement differences — whether AI-referred visitors spend more or less time on your site compared to organic visitors
  • Landing page overlap — which pages attract both AI and organic traffic, and which are unique to one channel
  • Conversion rate comparison — how AI-referred visitors convert compared to organic visitors (requires Conversion Tracking)
This view helps you quantify the growing impact of AI search on your overall traffic mix and make informed decisions about where to invest your optimization efforts.
Export the comparison data as a CSV from the Traffic Comparison view to include in stakeholder reports or presentations. Click the Export button in the top-right corner of the chart.