Imagine walking into a newsagents, skimming through all the newspapers and magazines, and then walking about without buying anything. That’s kind of like zero-click searches. You’ve now got all the information you wanted out of the media you’ve just flicked through, but the business owner has seen no benefits because you didn’t pay for anything.
Imagine walking into a newsagents, skimming through all the newspapers and magazines, and then walking about without buying anything.
That’s kind of like zero-click searches. You’ve now got all the information you wanted out of the media you’ve just flicked through, but the business owner has seen no benefits because you didn’t pay for anything.
In this blog, we’ll go through what zero-click searches are, why they’re becoming an even bigger issue for businesses and publishers trying to get an audience online and how you can deal with them.
A zero-click search is any search where the user gets the answer they want directly on the search engine results page (SERP) without needing to click through to a website. They’re not a new thing (Google has been trying for years to make it so users never have to leave their platform), but the rise of AI overviews has brought zero-click back into the conversation in a bigger way.
Here are a couple of examples of how it works below:
As you can see, you’d never have to leave Google and would still have found the answer to the question.
These zero-click searches aren’t a completely new thing, but they’re becoming a bigger issue because of AI overviews and the launch of Google’s AI mode.
Traditionally, these types of searches would occur with these features:
Featured snippets
Source: SERanking
Knowledge panels
Source: Google
Google tools like weather, calculator or currency converter
Local business packs
More than a quarter of Google searches in the UK and EU now result in a zero-click search (according to stats published by Search Engine Land)
For businesses, it means more than 1 in 4 online searches (minimum) never make it to a webpage, but the user still has the information they need.
As I’ve said, zero-click searches aren’t a completely new thing, and many SEOs have spent years trying to figure out how to appear in the “special” search results, like featured snippets, because it was usually a guaranteed way of getting onto page 1.
But, the emergence of AI overviews has made zero-click searches a much bigger issue that has plenty of implications for websites and SEO work.
The main problem with zero-click searches is that fewer people are clicking through to websites to get answers, even for those websites that rank in the top positions.
For lead gen, this can have implications for grabbing buyers early in their journey because they now no longer need to come to your website (and find out about your brand) to get information.
That means you’re potentially missing out on leads coming to your website in the research phase.
This also puts increasing pressure on ranking highly (or spending on ads) for commercial keywords, so users find you when they’re closer to buying.
For affiliate marketing, this is having a massive impact, as lower traffic means less ad revenue that can be charged (because audience numbers are lower), and fewer people are landing on pages to click affiliate links.
It’s been widely reported what impact zero-click searches are having on news publishers, resulting in a legal complaint over the use of content in AI overviews without permission.
The reason so many SEOs spent so long chasing zero-click features like featured snippets is that it meant a spot on page one of a SERP for your brand (with a brand mention), so even if you didn’t get the click, you still got the brand awareness.
And there’s still some merit to this.
Getting into a featured snippet or knowledge panel can still be a valuable thing to do (although they are becoming less prominent in many searches because of AI overviews).
And it’s AI overviews that are creating the biggest challenge when it comes to zero-click searches.
That’s because AI overviews present a much wider variety of information to a user without always making it clear where that information came from.
Using the example search below “how to start a blog”, the user could now get all the information they need (including information from your site), and they’d never even know it came from you unless they click one of the many links in the overview (which there’s no need to because they already have the information they need).
The biggest risk to web traffic from zero-click searches comes from informational searches.
Typically, these have been blog posts or guides written on websites that provide answers to questions, outline how to do something or give information relating to a question.
AI overviews now present that information to the user quickly (without ever needing to click out of Google to get it).
For SEO, that means a strict reliance on broad blog topics isn’t going to bring in the traffic it once did.
That’s not to say content and SEO copywriting are dead.
Far from it.
AI overviews need authoritative, reliable information to give to users, and there’s still more chance the user will find your brand if you’re creating content that educates or interests them.
It might just mean your traffic graphs look slightly anaemic compared to the past.
As you can see here, the user is presented with a complete answer to the question being asked (including two videos that play natively in the SERP) without ever needing to click on a website link.
Google pulls information from well-structured content that meets its requirements for expertise, experience, authority and trustworthiness (EEAT).
You can improve your chances of getting these features by improving how you structure content:
You can still go into more detail under the answer, but for search features (and AI), you should provide answers quickly and concisely.
AI overviews have changed how to deal with zero-click searches by pulling complete information directly at the top of SERPs, so now the goal is to be referenced as a source in AI overviews (as well as ranking)
Focus on queries that require expertise or context and target search intents where the user is looking for information or trying to complete a task:
“How to do…”
“Why does…”
“Best software for…”
By understanding what users are searching for and being able to provide trusted information, you’ll have a better chance of being cited by AI and getting in front of users.
Structured data (schema markup) is essential for helping search engines understand what your page is about, or to help it pull out elements of a page for search features.
And the same goes for AI overviews.
While it’s not a ranking factor in SERPs, structured data is used by AI crawlers to understand your content, and you need this to happen for your content to be cited by AI overviews.
With AI overviews putting information directly in front of users, many GA4 and Search Console charts are reporting higher impressions (websites showing up for more searches) but fewer clicks (because users are getting the info they
need in the SERP).
But many are also seeing traffic from AI rise as they appear for a broader range of sources.
If you’re seeing pages with high impressions but a low CTR, there’s a good chance you’re appearing in AI overviews for that search and missing out on the clicks.
One thing it could be time to do is to put more focus on commercial pages rather than long-tail informational queries.
Someone looking for a product or service is always going to want to check out the company they’re buying from before handing over any money.
So improving your search visibility for these pages could be what balances out the rise of zero-click searches for other content.
Google is still looking for websites with authoritative content and topical authority to rank pages for product and service keywords, it’s just you might no longer see the traffic increases from producing all this informational content.
If you’re seeing a drop in organic traffic from zero-click searches and are worried about the impact it’s having on your commercial SEO results, get in touch with our expert SEO agency.
Our team are already helping clients in all kinds of industries adjust their content strategies to get over the challenges of AI overviews and more zero-click searches, ensuring they continue to see a return on their SEO investment.
If you want to find out more or get a free strategy session, get in touch.
Otherwise, check out our blog for more SEO tips and news.
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