What are zero-click searches?
Research shows that zero-click searches are becoming more common. For instance, in March 2024, these accounted for roughly 24.4% of searches in the United States. In March 2025, that number had gone up to 27.2%. Although this may seem like a relatively small increase, it does show that this is becoming more common, so it’s important for people to understand exactly what it will mean for the future of search engines.
Essentially, a zero-click search is when someone conducts a search but doesn’t click on any of the provided links. They just navigate to the search results page, but they don’t go any further. For years, companies have been trying to make sure that they rank at the top of a search engine results page (SERP), or at least on the first page of results, which is where most users find the links they want to click. But with zero-click searches, even being in the top spot doesn’t make a difference because the user isn’t going to click on anything at all.
Why does this happen?
There are a few potential reasons why this could happen. In some cases, it’s just because the user doesn’t think any of the links actually look helpful. This could mean that their search term doesn’t connect as perfectly to their intended target as they thought. Looking at the search engine results page shows them that none of the answers are necessarily relevant, so they try another search.
But the reason why this is becoming more common is because SERPs are changing. For instance, Google will now use site previews and snippets, which provide a small amount of information pulled from the site. For some users, the answer they’re looking for is in the snippet, so they don’t actually need to click on the site link at all.
In other cases, it’s because search engines are offering AI overviews. These essentially conglomerate information from multiple sources. There’s no guarantee that the information provided is necessarily accurate, but many users will read the AI overview to get the information they want without actually navigating to the site where that information was found.
Focusing on specific information
There are some things you can do to address this with your website. For instance, putting relevant information at the top that can be entered into the snippet can be beneficial. If this is what people are reading, you want to have that information as high as you can. While you may lose some users, you will also gain traffic from those who read the snippet, appreciate what it offers, and decide to dig further for more information.
A focus on specific information can also be helpful. Many users will just use the snippet and AI overviews as a way to get a general sense of the information they’re looking for, but they still want to navigate to your site to find more specific details. It can be helpful to use longtail keywords or entire keyword phrases. Someone who is looking for more detailed information than they’re going to find on the SERP is still going to navigate through to your site.
That said, search engine optimization is always evolving, and this is just one area to consider. Contact us at Content Customs to learn more.
