Case study · Canada · SEO and AI traffic · Dec 2024 to Sep 2026
Growing organic and AI-referred traffic for a Canadian cloud provider
Canadian organic sessions for a Canadian cloud service provider grew 68% from 2024 to 2025 (15,379 to 25,812), then another 41% in January to September 2026 compared with the same months of 2025. Weekly AI-referred sessions rose 8.5x in two weeks, from 15 to 128 in the week of January 25, 2026.
What were the results?
| Result | What changed | Source |
|---|---|---|
| +68% | Canadian organic sessions, 2024 to 2025 (15,379 to 25,812) | GA4, Organic Search, Country = Canada |
| +41% | Canadian organic sessions, Jan–Sep 2026 vs Jan–Sep 2025 | GA4, Organic Search, Country = Canada |
| 8.5x | Weekly AI-referred sessions in two weeks (15 to 128, week of Jan 25, 2026) | GA4, source = ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, Claude |
| 1,786 | AI-referred sessions in total | GA4 |
| #1 | The sovereign cloud page was the top landing page for AI-referred visitors | GA4, AI-referred sessions by landing page |
What was the challenge?
When I joined in December 2024, Canadian organic sessions had fallen to 751 a month, the lowest month since January 2024. AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Perplexity were sending almost no visitors.
What did I do?
- Built sovereignty and cloud content that answers buyer questions in full.
- Set up GA4 reporting that separates AI referrals (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot and Claude) from other traffic.
- Tracked which pages AI assistants send people to, and doubled down on those topics.
How was AI-referred traffic measured?
In GA4 I grouped sessions whose source was ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot or Claude, then reported them weekly and by landing page. This undercounts AI traffic: some AI visits arrive with no referrer and show up as Direct, and Google AI Overviews clicks can't be separated from organic search.
What should you know before reading too much into it?
- The January 2026 peak of 128 weekly AI-referred sessions was not sustained.
Who did this work?
I did this work in-house as the lead for AI search visibility and organic growth at a Canadian cloud service provider, 2024 to 2026. The client isn’t named. Numbers come from Google Analytics 4 and Semrush, with client details blurred in the screenshots. Download the slide deck (PowerPoint) for the charts.