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ChatGPT is the smallest source of visitors we have. In the last six months it sent us 17 people. Gemini and Perplexity sent one each.
That is one visit a week. We would not normally write about it. But the pages those visitors landed on told us something our keyword posts never did, so we pulled the numbers and then asked ChatGPT ourselves.
What the numbers say
Google Analytics now groups these visits under a channel called AI Assistant. Here is passionindesign.com from 25 April to 21 October 2026, compared with the two channels we trust. We leave out Direct, which on our site is mostly bots.
| Channel | Sessions | Engaged |
|---|---|---|
| Organic Search | 252 | 71 % |
| Organic Social | 119 | 54 % |
| AI Assistant | 19 | 74 % |
Nineteen sessions is a tiny sample. Treat the engaged rate as a hint, not a finding. The landing pages are the part worth reading.
- 12 of the 19 landed on a client case study, and one more on the portfolio index. One healthcare case study took 6. A logo project for a studio that does not even have a website yet took 2. Four other case studies took one each.
- 2 landed on blog posts: one on colour psychology, one on our post editor tutorial.
- 2 landed on our About page. Both left at once.
- 1 landed on the homepage and 1 on a service page.
- 0 landed on any of our keyword posts. “Top 10 Web Design Trends Shaping Singapore Businesses in 2026”, “Brand Identity Singapore”, “CRO Singapore”: nothing. Google search sent those pages one or two visitors each in the same six months.
What ChatGPT actually said
On 22 October 2026 we asked ChatGPT three questions, logged out, each in a fresh chat. We asked it to cite its pages. The full transcripts are in our notes; here is what matters.
“Recommend a web design agency in Singapore for a medical clinic.” It named three agencies. We were second, labelled “Best for bespoke design”. It linked exactly two of our pages: two healthcare case studies, one for a general clinic and one for an orthopaedic practice. Its reason was that the portfolio shows actual work for a healthcare provider and an orthopaedic practice, which gives a clinic something concrete to judge. It did not link our services page, our homepage or any blog post.
“Who designed this clinic’s website?” We asked by the clinic’s name. It answered in one sentence: Passion In Design. It cited our case study and the clinic’s own site, and cross-checked one against the other. Then it read the testimonial on our page, checked who had written it, and pointed out that the page thanks our designer by first name only. It fact-checked us. Fairly.
“What are the web design trends in Singapore for 2026?” It gave eight trends and cited six Singapore agencies. We were not one of them. Our own trends post went up in January and lists ten of the same trends. It was not cited, and we think it should not have been. Nothing on that page is checkable. A dozen agencies published the same list.
Why the case studies and not the posts
An AI assistant answering a question needs two things from a page: a fact it can quote, and a reason to trust it. A case study gives it both. A named client. A scope. A testimonial with a name and a title. A live site it can open to confirm the work exists. That is why “who designed this clinic’s website” has a one-sentence answer and our page is the source.
A trends list gives it neither. The assistant can summarise it, but it can summarise anyone’s. When it needs a specific fact, it goes to the page that holds that fact and nowhere else.
Last year we wrote that ChatGPT writes invisible copy: professional, polished, and the same as everyone else’s. This is the same lesson from the other side. Invisible copy cannot be cited either.
What this means for your site
You do not need an AI strategy. You need pages a machine can quote.
- Name real clients and real numbers where you are allowed to. “A leading healthcare provider” cannot be looked up. A registered company name can. We keep our clients’ names on the case studies themselves, where they approved them, and out of articles like this one.
- Keep one topic per page. A question gets one page as its answer. A page that covers five things answers none of them.
- State facts plainly. Year, scope, location, who did what. ChatGPT repeated our scope line almost word for word because it was one sentence and it was true.
- Make the About page specific. Ours got two AI visits and lost both. Point taken.
One more thing to check. Google Search Console now has a report for visits from Google’s own generative AI features, next to the usual search report. Open it. It will show you whether this is already happening to you.
See what AI assistants say about you
We will ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity about your business the way a customer would, and send you what they say and which of your pages they cite. It takes us an hour and costs you nothing. WhatsApp us your URL.
