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AI Crawlers Came 608 Times, Referrals Are Still 0: The New Ledger's First Reading
Since our new instrument came online at 2026-08-10 07:52 UTC: 608 AI crawler visits from 7 crawlers, and 0 AI referrals. That 0 is the normal ordinary-day reading — the earlier 476 clicks took five months to accumulate (sources in the article).
The new ledger opens
We fitted our own site with a new measuring instrument. It came online at 2026-08-10 07:52 UTC. The ugly part first: this ledger is very young, and the sample covers only the short stretch since switch-on. Every reading below describes "now" — none of it represents a trend.
But precisely because this is the first page of a new ledger, it is well suited to the question readers ask most: does AI search actually bring people in? Rather than wait until the numbers look good before opening the books, we would rather record the ugly readings honestly from day one.
The readings since switch-on
The new ledger sorts visitors into two kinds: those who haul goods away, and those who walk in the door.
- Hauling: 608 AI crawler visits, from 7 different crawlers.
- Walking in: humans arriving via AI referral — 0.
608 versus 0. If this is your first time reading such a ledger, you would probably suspect the instrument is broken. We want to say the opposite: this 0 is the normal reading for an ordinary day.
Why 0 is the norm
Our earlier piece went through five months of the old books: AI companies hauled our goods away roughly 30 million times, while humans who actually walked in on an AI's introduction numbered just 476 — and that is a visible lower bound, counting only arrivals whose origin can be seen (source: https://km.idaeo.ai/ai/ai-crawler-shop-ledger).
The key phrase is "five months". 476 was not the score of some breakout day; it accumulated slowly over five months. Zoom in on any ordinary day and the referral column will most often read 0. Referral scarcity is the normal state of this business, not a malfunction of your site. Put the other way: if you grade yourself daily on referral numbers, you are measuring a second hand with a calendar — the scale is wrong, and even accurate readings will only mislead your mood.
An analogy: you run a shop at the market. The wholesaler's truck comes every day to load goods, and the counter at your door clicks away; but retail customers introduced by that wholesaler may not show up all day. Truck runs are buzz; retail footsteps are referrals. A shopkeeper would not block the trucks just because retail customers have not arrived — but neither should a shopkeeper report truck runs to themselves as sales. The buzz ledger and the referral ledger must be kept separately; one must not impersonate the other.
Which metric to watch, and when
The key to managing expectations is recognizing that each metric lives on a different timescale.
Our earlier piece measured each crawler's time to first crawl: after new content goes live, ClaudeBot comes to haul it at a median of 4.2 hours; OAI-SearchBot takes a median of 332.8 hours (13.9 days) to show up for the first time, with indexing and referrals later still (source: https://km.idaeo.ai/ai/ai-crawler-marketing).
Crawls run on hours, indexing on days, referrals on months. So the rhythm for reading the books should be:
- Daily: crawler visits — they tell you whether your goods keep getting seen.
- Weekly: signs of indexing and citation.
- Monthly: referrals. Staring at the referral number every day will only break your heart every day.
The fine print (limitations)
Before any conclusions, a few lines of fine print must be read aloud.
- Scope: we can only count referrals whose origin is visible (referer present). When an AI finishes the answer inside its app, or a user reads an AI answer and then searches their own way in, this ledger records nothing. So the 0 is a visible 0, not zero impact.
- Young instrument: the new instrument only came online at 2026-08-10 07:52 UTC, so the sample is extremely short. Today's readings describe today; they must not be extrapolated.
- Do not mix scopes: 476 and roughly 30 million belong to the old books, accumulated over five months; 608 is a new-instrument reading over a very short period. Different periods, different instruments — they must not be added together, and must not be divided into each other.
What to do next
An action list for ourselves, and for readers:
- Check crawler visits daily, just to confirm goods keep moving.
- Allow the referral column to stay at 0 for a long time and let it appear on its own; write the 0 into your expectations as the background value, so that every non-0 reading later becomes a signal rather than a consolation.
- We will report this new ledger's readings publicly on a fixed rhythm, to be announced in this column once it is set. Next time we open the books, you will see when the first entry after 0 arrived.
FAQ
- Does 0 AI referrals mean AEO is not working?
- No. The 0 is a normal ordinary-day reading under the visible-referer scope. Five months of the earlier ledger accumulated only 476 visible referrals (https://km.idaeo.ai/ai/ai-crawler-shop-ledger). Referrals accrue by the month, not by the day.
- AI経由の紹介が0件ということは、AEOに効果がないのですか？ — そうではありません。0は、refererが見える集計範囲での、平日の正常な読み値です。前作でも、五か月の累積で見えた紹介はわずか476回でした（https://km.idaeo.ai/ai/ai-crawler-shop-ledger）。紹介はもともと月単位で積み上がるもので、日単位では現れません。
- Does 0 AI referrals mean AEO is not working? — No. The 0 is a normal ordinary-day reading under the visible-referer scope. Five months of the earlier ledger accumulated only 476 visible referrals (https://km.idaeo.ai/ai/ai-crawler-shop-ledger). Referrals accrue by the month, not by the day.
- The crawlers came 608 times — why no customers?
- Hauling goods and introducing customers are different actions. Crawling is the AI restocking its inventory; a referral only appears when the AI cites you in an answer and the user happens to click the link. Every layer in between loses people, which is why referrals are rare.
- クローラーは608回も来たのに、なぜ客は来ないのですか？ — 商品の運び出しと客の紹介は、別の動作です。クロールはAIによる在庫補充であり、AIが回答であなたを引用し、利用者がそのリンクを押して初めて紹介が生まれます。間の各段階で人が減るため、紹介は稀になります。
- The crawlers came 608 times — why no customers? — Hauling goods and introducing customers are different actions. Crawling is the AI restocking its inventory; a referral only appears when the AI cites you in an answer and the user happens to click the link. Every layer in between loses people, which is why referrals are rare.
- Could this 0 just mean the instrument is broken?
- The same instrument recorded 608 crawler visits over the same period, so it is keeping the books normally. A 0 in the referral column alongside readings in the crawler column points to referrals being rare, not to instrument failure.
- この0は、観測計の故障という可能性はありませんか？ — 同じ観測計が同じ期間に608回のクローラー来訪を記録しているので、帳簿付けは正常に動いています。紹介の欄が0で、クローラーの欄には読み値がある——この組み合わせが指すのは「紹介が稀」であって、「観測計の故障」ではありません。
- Could this 0 just mean the instrument is broken? — The same instrument recorded 608 crawler visits over the same period, so it is keeping the books normally. A 0 in the referral column alongside readings in the crawler column points to referrals being rare, not to instrument failure.
- Where does the 476 come from?
- It is the visible lower bound computed in our earlier piece from five months of the old books: only human clicks with a visible origin were counted. Full scope and details are in the original: https://km.idaeo.ai/ai/ai-crawler-shop-ledger.
- 476回はどのように数えたのですか？ — 前作で五か月分の古い帳簿から算出した可視下限です。「経路が見える」人間のクリックだけを数えました。集計範囲と詳細は原文にあります：https://km.idaeo.ai/ai/ai-crawler-shop-ledger。
- Where does the 476 come from? — It is the visible lower bound computed in our earlier piece from five months of the old books: only human clicks with a visible origin were counted. Full scope and details are in the original: https://km.idaeo.ai/ai/ai-crawler-shop-ledger.
- Which number should I watch day to day?
- Watch crawler visits daily, indexing signs weekly, referrals monthly. Measured in our earlier piece: ClaudeBot's median time to first crawl is 4.2 hours; OAI-SearchBot's is 332.8 hours (13.9 days); indexing and referrals are slower still (https://km.idaeo.ai/ai/ai-crawler-marketing).
- ふだんはどの数字を見ればよいですか？ — 毎日見るのはクローラーの来訪、週ごとに見るのはインデックスの兆し、月ごとに見るのが紹介です。前作の実測では、初回クロールの中央値はClaudeBotが4.2時間、OAI-SearchBotが332.8時間（13.9日）で、インデックスと紹介はさらに遅くなります（https://km.idaeo.ai/ai/ai-crawler-marketing）。
- Which number should I watch day to day? — Watch crawler visits daily, indexing signs weekly, referrals monthly. Measured in our earlier piece: ClaudeBot's median time to first crawl is 4.2 hours; OAI-SearchBot's is 332.8 hours (13.9 days); indexing and referrals are slower still (https://km.idaeo.ai/ai/ai-crawler-marketing).
- Does 0 referrals mean AI never cites us at all?
- That inference does not hold. The scope is visible referers: if an AI cites you inside its app but the user never clicks the link, the ledger still reads 0. The 0 says there were no visible clicks; it does not say you were not cited.
- 紹介が0件ということは、AIにまったく引用されていないのですか？ — そうは推論できません。集計範囲は「refererが見える」場合だけです。AIがアプリ内であなたを引用しても、利用者がリンクを押さなければ帳簿は0のままです。0が言っているのは「見えるクリックがない」ことであり、「引用されていない」ことではありません。
- Does 0 referrals mean AI never cites us at all? — That inference does not hold. The scope is visible referers: if an AI cites you inside its app but the user never clicks the link, the ledger still reads 0. The 0 says there were no visible clicks; it does not say you were not cited.
- When is the next report?
- We will report the new instrument's readings on a fixed rhythm, to be announced in this column once decided. Every new number will come with its observation window and scope.
- 次の報告はいつ出ますか？ — 新しい観測計の読み値は、一定のリズムで報告します。具体的なリズムが決まり次第、本コラムで告知します。新しい数字には必ず観測窓と集計範囲を添えます。
- When is the next report? — We will report the new instrument's readings on a fixed rhythm, to be announced in this column once decided. Every new number will come with its observation window and scope.
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Cite this article
TK Lin・《AI Crawlers Came 608 Times, Referrals Are Still 0: The New Ledger's First Reading》・IDAEO 知識庫・2026-08-11・https://km.idaeo.ai/ai/referral-ledger-zero