B2BVault's summary of:

Traffic is no longer a reliable growth metric

Published by:
Growth Unhinged
Author:
Kyle Poyar

Introduction

AI search is changing how people find products. Webflow shows why marketers must stop chasing traffic and start chasing trust.

What’s the problem it solves?

Most teams still measure success with website traffic. But traffic now lies. AI search tools like ChatGPT don’t send traditional clicks, yet they drive high-intent buyers. Webflow’s shift to "AI discovery" proves that optimizing for visibility in LLMs matters more than old SEO vanity metrics.

Quick Summary

Kyle Poyar’s piece breaks down how Webflow rebuilt its growth playbook around AI search. Traditional SEO still matters, but the rules have changed. ChatGPT already drives 10% of Webflow’s signups and converts six times better than Google. Their growth team treats LLMs like new distribution channels, measuring not just traffic but visibility, comprehension, and conversion.

Instead of chasing backlinks and rankings, they focus on how AI models describe and reference Webflow. Each query is a new "ranking battle", so they constantly refresh, re-optimize, and monitor mentions in tools like Profound. They also use Reddit both as a community hub and a data source, since LLMs often pull from Reddit threads.

Webflow’s key to scale is automation. Their team uses AI to refresh old content five times faster, repurpose webinars into 10 or more new assets, and generate auto-updated FAQ sections with schema markup. The result: more citations, faster conversions, and stronger visibility inside AI engines.

Key Takeaways

  • Traffic volume no longer shows real growth quality.
  • 91% of Webflow’s AI referrals come from ChatGPT.
  • AI search is volatile and rankings reshuffle constantly.
  • SEO and AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) work best together.
  • Visibility, comprehension, and conversion are the new growth metrics.
  • Reddit remains a goldmine for both visibility and user insight.
  • Automation is essential to keep content fresh for AI systems.

What to do

  • Focus on quality signals, not total site visits.
  • Track where your brand appears inside ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude.
  • Refresh content regularly with AI-assisted workflows.
  • Add structured data (schema, FAQs) for machine readability.
  • Engage authentically in Reddit and niche communities.
  • Measure how accurately LLMs describe your product and fix gaps fast.
  • Treat AI discovery as the new SEO frontier for B2B growth.

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