AI search

What is a zero-click search, and what does it do to your traffic?

A zero-click search is a search that ends without the searcher clicking any result, because the results page answered them, they searched again, or they gave up.

Also calledZero-click searches

Worked example with the 2024 US average

1A phrase is searched 1,000 times a month.
2At the US average of 58.5%, about 585 of those searches end with no click.
3About 415 searches produce at least one click.
4Those clicks are shared between every result, ad and Google property on the page.

An average across all searches, applied to one phrase as an illustration. A single phrase can sit far above or below it.

How many searches end without a click

SparkToro's 2024 study of Datos clickstream data found that 58.5% of US Google searches and 59.7% of EU searches ended with zero clicks. For every 1,000 US Google searches, 360 clicks went to a site that is not owned by Google and is not a Google ad. The data is from before Google widened AI Overviews and launched AI Mode, which answer more questions on the results page.

What counts as zero-click

SparkToro counts a search as zero-click when it ends without a click on any result, whether the searcher was satisfied, frustrated, or changed their search. In the 2024 data, about 37% of searches ended the session and about 22% led to another search.

What it changes for your pages

Search volume overstates the traffic a phrase can send. Judge a phrase by the clicks it can realistically send, and by whether being named in the answer is worth something to you on its own. For questions that get answered on the results page, a brand that is quoted in the answer still gets seen.

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Zero-click search: questions people ask

Are zero-click searches bad for SEO?

They lower the clicks a phrase can send, not the value of ranking. Being the source an answer quotes still puts your name in front of the searcher.

Where do the numbers come from?

SparkToro's 2024 zero-click study, using Datos' clickstream panel of millions of US and EU devices, published on sparktoro.com.

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