Your ChatGPT traffic didn't drop. Your tracking did.

Did your ChatGPT traffic fall off a cliff around 9 October?

Before you rewrite your AI strategy, open the Direct channel.

After GPT-6 rolled out, the links inside ChatGPT answers stopped carrying utm_source=chatgpt.com and the referrer. The visits still came. They just landed in Direct.

Cedric Huesler from Adobe looked at about 500 pages where ChatGPT brings at least 5% of visits. ChatGPT visits down about 31,000 a day. Direct up about 26,000 a day. Same people, different label.

He says OpenAI confirmed to him it was a bug, and a fix started rolling out on 15 October. Matt Southern pulled all the numbers together for SEJ, including the parts that are still unclear: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/chatgpt-traffic-drop-appears-to-be-a-tracking-problem/593157/

Two things I take from this.

First, put a note on 8 to 15 October in your reports. Otherwise in three months somebody looks at that dip and makes a decision on it.

Second, most ChatGPT clicks still arrive without a referrer. One small tag is holding your whole AI attribution together, and it can disappear with one release.

So check ChatGPT and Direct side by side. Especially your homepage.

The channel everybody wants to measure is the one I trust the least.