If generative AI chatbots are the next big thing in the world of virtual assistants, then the new form of search engine optimization involves referrals from those programs. That statistic is the subject of the latest AI-related research published by the digital marketing firm eMarketer, which noted the most common destinations for chatbot referrals.
eMarketer’s report uses data sourced from Similarweb, which tracked “The Top 50 Sites Getting Traffic From AI Chatbots” as part of a June 2025 report. The findings are clear: YouTube is outpacing its competitors in this particular area. Google’s video hub received 37.9 million chatbot referrals during May 2025. No other platform received even one-third as much outbound traffic. Facebook (10.9 million referrals) and Wikipedia (10.1 million) ranked second and third on the list, respectively.
YouTube’s dominance of this particular metric underscores its status as a long-trusted source for contextual searches — and its recent push into the world of generative AI. In its write-up of the data, eMarketer notes that 41% of U.S. adults use AI chatbots for “deeper, clearer answers.” For questions that require factual answers, 57% of U.S. consumers prefer a traditional Google search to an AI chatbot query.
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That preference can be chalked up to the questionable veracity of AI-generated responses. Chatbots have made some high-profile errors since becoming common, and the list of platforms chosen for referrals reveals the magnitude of those accuracy issues. Of the top ten AI referral platforms cited by eMarketer, only one — the National Institute of Health — offers information that is guaranteed to be rigorously fact-checked. NIH links accounted for 5.4 million of the referrals tracked by Similarweb.
Generative AI’s version of SEO looks less like a quest for truth and more like a hack-a-thon. Most major platforms have found ways to increase their search engine relevancy through technological updates. TikTok, for example, has encouraged users to add more words to their video descriptions, while YouTube has experimented with conversational, Reddit-style comments. Instagram recently informed users that their public posts will be freely indexed, leading to more hits on results pages.
With Meta looking to make even bigger moves in the world of search, the referral arms race is only going to heat up from here. It’s not just the search engines that are changing — the pages they link back to are evolving as well.
