AI arrived before Google: ChatGPT is their top traffic source
Vending machines with nationwide coverage in Mexico. Site launched on July 29, 2026 with a priced catalog, llms.txt and structured data from day one: traffic came through AI assistants before it came through Google.
A new website has no authority, but it can have answers
VendingMex was starting from scratch: a new domain, no history on Google and up against vending-machine catalogs that had been indexed for years. Ranking that through classic SEO takes months. But more and more buyers don’t search: they ask an assistant “how much does a vending machine cost?” or “who rents them in Mexico City?”, and the assistant cites the websites it can read and understand. That was where they could get in first.
A priced catalog, llms.txt and explicit permission for AI crawlers
We launched the site ready for machines to read: an llms.txt file that sums up the business and points to the key pages, structured data across the whole catalog, a robots.txt that lets AI assistants’ crawlers straight in, and static HTML that hides nothing behind JavaScript.
The content was written to answer, not to sound good: the 16 machine pages carry the starting price, capacity, payment methods and dimensions; there is one page per way to acquire a machine (purchase, rent-to-own, financing and franchise) with its reference figures in plain sight, and city pages for the places where it operates. An assistant trying to answer “how much does it cost” finds the figure in plain text, with its source.
- A catalog of 16 machines with prices in plain text
- llms.txt, structured data and AI crawlers allowed
- One page per way to acquire a machine and per city
- WhatsApp quotes with the model already filled in
AI sends more people than Google
In September, its second full month, 347 of the site’s 644 users first arrived from an AI assistant, almost all of them from chatgpt.com: 54%, three times the 117 from Google and Bing organic search. The “AI Assistant” channel in Analytics accounted for 457 of the 823 sessions, 56%, and it is not passing traffic: users who came via AI generated 67 of the month’s 120 key events.
Google, meanwhile, is starting to catch up: 89 clicks in September, 62% more than in August, and in the week of September 28 to October 4 organic search (104 sessions) overtook AI assistants (98) for the first time. It is the reverse of the usual order (AI first, search engine second) and it is no accident: it is what happens when a website launches readable and citable from day one.
The traffic also comes from the right market: in the week to August 26, 123 users in Mexico (+73.2%), led by Mexico City (37, +146.7%), with Monterrey, Querétaro and Mérida behind. And it lands where the buying decision is made: the machine sales pages (107 views, +189.2%), the catalog (80) and the rental page (49).
Users by first medium
September 2026 · Google Analytics 4. AI assistants bring three times as many users as organic search.More data
Sessions by channel
September 2026 · Google Analytics 4. The AI Assistant channel is 56% of sessions.
Where they land
Views in the week to August 26 · Google Analytics 4.