All sites / United States / #84 / Government and public services / State of California

ca.gov kept its Google rankings and lost 35% of its search traffic.

estimated monthly search visits, Oct 2024: 13.3M; estimated monthly search visits, Oct 2024
estimated monthly search visits, Oct 2026: 8.6M; estimated monthly search visits, Oct 2026
change in estimated search traffic: −35%; change in estimated search traffic
change in keywords ranking top 3: +4%; change in keywords ranking top 3

Estimated search traffic

ca.gov, Ahrefs estimated monthly organic search traffic, United States. Dotted line marks the Oct 2024 level. Vertical marks are Google results page changes.

Keywords ranking in Google's top three

ca.gov, keywords ranking positions 1 to 3, United States. Dotted line marks the Oct 2024 level. Vertical marks are Google results page changes.

Points are Ahrefs Site Explorer estimates for the first of each month shown. Months in between are being collected. All 715,694 ranking keywords in Oct 2026, against 7,131,040 in Oct 2024.

How often AI answers cite ca.gov

Engine	Citations in the Ahrefs index
ChatGPT	withheld, failed consistency check
Google AI Mode	4,586
Gemini	1,819

Ahrefs AI responses index, captured 28 October 2026, United States, including subdomains.

Five questions we ask the AI engines about ca.gov

Written from the site's own top Google keywords, keeping the intent of the search.

Engine	Named	Linked
ChatGPT	3 of 5	3 of 5
Google AI Mode	2 of 5	2 of 5
Gemini	2 of 5	2 of 5

Give me an overview of “calpers”, with links to reliable sources.from the keyword “calpers”
Give me an overview of “ca dmv”, with links to reliable sources.from the keyword “ca dmv”
Where can I check official product recall notices and the products they cover?from the keyword “product recall”
Give me an overview of “disability insurance”, with links to reliable sources.from the keyword “disability insurance”
Which places use the 213 telephone area code?from the keyword “213 area code”

Visits since ChatGPT launched

all visits, Nov 2022: 62.0M; all visits, Nov 2022
all visits, Oct 2026: 95.4M; all visits, Oct 2026
organic search visits, Oct 2026: 22.8M; organic search visits, Oct 2026
visits from AI assistants, Oct 2026: 216K; visits from AI assistants, Oct 2026

Semrush Traffic Analytics modelled visits, United States, a separate source from the Ahrefs estimates above. Semrush restates this data on 9 November 2026.