More site builders are using real domains, and LLM traffic remains small but growing
Wix, the website building platform, has published its inaugural State of Websites report, drawing on data from its global user base. With over 300 million users in 2026, Wix offers a detailed snapshot of how websites are created, published and discovered online. The findings reveal clear trends in traffic sources, domain adoption, publishing speed and early impacts from large language models (LLMs) and AI tools.
One notable takeaway is the current share of traffic attributable to LLMs such as ChatGPT and Claude. According to the report, LLM-driven visits account for less than 1% of traffic across Wix sites today. However, Wix emphasizes that this segment is expanding rapidly. More importantly, the report suggests that the real influence of LLMs could be larger than the raw percentage indicates: some consumers learn about brands through AI-powered search or conversational agents, then visit websites directly to verify details, explore offerings and make purchasing decisions. In other words, LLMs can act as a discovery mechanism that indirectly increases direct site visits and conversions.
Search remains the dominant source of website traffic. Wix reports that search drives 42% of visits to sites on its platform, making it the primary acquisition channel for most publishers. Direct traffic follows closely at 40%, reflecting strong brand recognition and users navigating straight to site URLs. Social networks contribute 13% of overall traffic, but the share from social varies significantly by site type. For instance, sites focused on consumer-facing activities such as online stores, events, blogs, portfolios and photography see a higher proportion of social-driven visits—about 18% compared to the platform average.
Industry-specific patterns also stand out. Healthcare provider websites receive a substantial majority of their traffic from search, with 54% coming from search engines. Professional services—consultants, lawyers and other business professionals—record a disproportionately higher share of LLM-sourced traffic, roughly twice the platform average. These differences underline how audience intent and discovery channels vary by sector, and why tailoring search and AI strategies to your niche matters.
Another clear shift is the increasing use of custom domains. In 2022, only about 26% of published Wix sites were connected to a custom domain; by last year that share rose to 66%. This reflects a broader move toward professionalization and brand ownership among site builders. Wix itself is an ICANN-accredited registrar for .com and .net domains and ranked among the larger registrars for .com domains, reinforcing its role in helping users secure and manage real domain names.
Publishing speed has improved noticeably, driven in part by AI-assisted tools. The median time required to publish a new site dropped from eight days in 2025 to four days in 2026. These gains are attributed to streamlined workflows and generative tools that accelerate content creation, layout design and site setup. Fast publishing matters for entrepreneurs and small businesses that need to iterate quickly and get online without long delays.
Wix also highlights growing engagement with its AI-powered site editing environment, which allows users to update and customize sites using natural language prompts and integrations like ChatGPT. The platform’s Master Control Panel (MCP) reported 102 million sessions last year, indicating widespread adoption of conversational and AI-assisted editing features. These tools help users make quick changes, optimize content for search and maintain an active web presence with less technical friction.
Overall, the State of Websites report paints a picture of a maturing ecosystem: search remains central, social drives stronger traffic for visually oriented and consumer-focused sites, and direct visits reflect brand trust. At the same time, domain adoption and AI-driven workflows are rising, shortening time-to-publish and changing how creators manage their sites. While LLM traffic is still a small slice of current visits, its indirect impact on discovery and the rapid pace of growth make it a trend worth monitoring for site owners and marketers.