The Continuing Rise of Zero-Click Search (and What You Can Do About It)

“I like rice. Rice is great when you’re hungry and you want two thousand of something,” joked the late comedian Mitch Hedberg.  

Sometimes that joke reminds me of Google search because anytime I think of “two thousand” of anything, I think about Google search results. Because I’m weird like that.  

I think about how frustrating it has been over the years to ask a simple question, only to be met with 2,000+ semi-contextual answers, videos, and a group of sorta-kinda-related questions to “assist” in my search. Thanks, Google!  

To be fair, they have forever been strapped with a Sisyphean task, haunted by the specter of their longstanding mission statement: 

“To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” 

You feel inclined to forgive their algorithm for combining semi-related results then slapping its hands together and saying “There! Now enjoy our delicious rice!” 

However, over the years, Google has been shifting (albeit slowly) in a direction that indicates they were fully aware of the futility of attempting to shove all the world’s knowledge into digital takeout containers and call it “organized.”  

They began introducing features into search results that culled information from the most relevant and reputable websites and presented it prominently to users, reducing the need to click into any actual websites to find what they were looking for.  

Thus, the term “zero-click search” was born, defined as a search query where the answer is provided directly on the search results page, eliminating the need for users to click through to an external website. 

A Historical Timeline of Zero-Click Search Events 

Prior to 2019, the term “zero-click” was exclusively used in a completely unrelated context to describe cyberattacks that did not require user actions (or clicks) to infect devices or networks with malicious code. “Zero-click” as it relates to the internet search world, can be traced back to the ancient days of 2005. Here is a timeline:  

1. 2005: Google Local, now part of Google My Business, is introduced, showing local businesses directly in search results.  
2. 2007: Universal Search launches, integrating several types of content (images, news, videos, local listings) into the main search results to provide more “direct” answers – or further diluting results – whatever comes first! 
3. 2009: Google Suggest, now known as Autocomplete, is introduced, providing query suggestions in the search box, helping users refine searches while also providing terrifying insights into what the rest of humanity is searching.  
4. 2010: Google Instant is introduced, displaying search results as users type their queries. This feature speeds up the search process and causes thousands of users to wonder what the difference between it and Google Suggest is.  
5. 2011: The Panda algorithm update is launched, aimed at reducing the prevalence of low-quality content in search results.  
6. 2012: Knowledge Panels / Graphs are introduced, offering detailed information about entities like people, places, and things directly on the search page. We could finally learn very quickly if a specific celebrity was still alive! 
7. 2014: Featured Snippets are introduced, providing concise (and often uncredited) answers extracted from web pages, displayed at the top of search results. 
8. 2014: Quick Answers are introduced, presenting answers, wait for it... quickly... that included weather forecasts, sports scores, calculations, and conversions. Who needs to actually learn the metric system anyway?  
9. 2015: Local Map Packs are introduced, providing users with local business information, including maps, contact details, and reviews. Finally, people could rapidly find your scathing review of that barista who didn’t even know what pumpkin spice was. 
10. 2015: People Also Ask feature is introduced, offering related questions and answers directly in search results while simultaneously highlighting the failures of our public education system. 
11. 2017: Google enhances the Knowledge Panel and introduces Google Posts, allowing businesses to share updates (that no one would read) directly to search results.  
12. 2018: Featured snippets and People Also Ask features become more prominent, contributing to an increase in zero-click searches. 
13. 2019: A study by Jumpshot and SparkToro reports that zero-click searches have, for the first time, passed the 50% mark in browsers, making everyone collectively say, “Uh oh.” 
14. 2021: Google introduces Passages Ranking, improving the ability to find individual passages on web pages as answers. 
15. 2021: A report with data from SimilarWeb and presented by SparkToro showed that 64.82% of Google searches in 2020 were zero-click (desktop and mobile combined).  
16. 2022: Controversy! A Semrush study is published that sends ripples through Rand Fishkin’s pompadour and challenges the high zero-click statistics previously reported, suggesting a lower rate of 17.3% for mobile and 25% for desktop zero-click searches.  
17. 2023: Google continues to refine and expand zero-click features, integrating more direct answers, featured snippets, and knowledge panels into the search results. 
18. 2024: AI Overviews are (unintentionally hilariously) introduced, intending to produce AI-generated summaries for immediate answers to user queries, further reducing the need for clicks to external websites while highlighting the health benefits of eating one small rock per day. 
19. 2024: SparkToro publishes a new zero-click study that illustrates how for every 1,000 Google searches in the U.S., only 360 of them go to the open web. Also notable is the statistic that almost 30% of ALL clicks go to platforms that Google owns.  

Is Google the Greatest / Worst Bond Villain Ever?  

There are two things that you should know immediately about all this zero-click commotion and the scary reports that have been published. The first is that all this alarming data comes with a slew of caveats. Things like data sets that may not perfectly represent the world of Googlers as a whole, ad blockers putting a kink in the data, limited access to data, and plenty of educated guesstimates.  

The second thing you should know is that it is also still true that zero-click searches are a threat if you do not take action. Like Joseph Heller once wrote and Kurt Cobain sang - “Just because you’re paranoid, don’t mean Google’s not after your clicks.”  

What Google has effectively presented to the world is a master class on weaponizing UGC (User Generated Content) against its creators on the grandest scale possible. Over the years, they fed SEO professionals, content creators, and marketers the blueprints they desired for creating high-value content that Google could then take, not credit, and deny its creators the organic traffic. This sort of brilliant, arguably evil ingenuity should make any Bond villain tremble in their presence. 

If you doubt the villainy, consider this:  

Google processes 3.1 trillion searches per year. And if 30% of all clicks are going to properties they own, we’re looking at billions of organic pageviews that are being siphoned away from content creators. With the value of organic pageviews combined with clicks from ads, we’re talking about billions of dollars in revenue. Which begs the question – is Google staying true to its mission of “organizing the world’s information,” or is it manipulating algorithms in a way that makes them more profitable? Well, this is a reason among many that they seem to be eternally wrapped up in litigation and controversies. 

Creating and Optimizing Zero-Click Content 

The truth is that zero-click search isn’t going anywhere. In fact, you should buckle up and prepare to add zero-click strategies as a part of your content plan.  Because, as with any technological development, adaptation is the only way to make sure you are relevant in the current digital landscape.  

Luckily, since Google would not exist without a universe of informative websites, they have provided plenty of documentation on creating content that is helpful, reliable, and people-first. But as we all know, content that doesn’t suck is not enough. We also need to employ SEO strategies that incorporate zero-click footwork. 

Elements of Zero-Click Content Optimization 

Writing for Featured Snippets 

• Answer Boxes: Create concise answers to frequent questions. 
• Tables: Use structured tables to present data. Who doesn’t love a good table? 
• Lists: Format content in ordered lists.  

People Also Ask (PAA) 

• FAQ Pages: Create FAQ sections on your site. 
• Question-Based Headings: Use H2 and H3 tags for questions that people commonly ask. 

Rich Snippets and Structured Data 

• Schema Markup: Implement schema markup (e.g., FAQ schema, How-To schema).
• Review Snippets: Include review and rating schema. 

Technical SEO 

• Page Speed Optimization 
  • Asynchronous Loading: Use asynchronous loading for CSS and JavaScript files. 
  • Optimize Images: Compress and resize images for faster load times. 
• Mobile Optimization 
  • Responsive Design: Ensure your site is mobile-friendly.  
  • Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP): Implement AMP for faster mobile pages. 
• URL Structure
  • Short URLs: Use concise, descriptive URLs
  • Canonical Tags: Use canonical tags to avoid duplicate content issues.

User Experience 

• Engaging Content 
  • Interactive Elements: Add quizzes, surveys, and interactive content. 
  • Video Content: Use videos to engage users. 
• Internal Linking 
  • Contextual Links: Add links within your content to other relevant pages. 
  • Breadcrumbs: Breadcrumb navigation, not actual pieces of bread. 

Local SEO 

• Google My Business (GMB) 
  • Optimize GMB Profile: Complete and update your GMB profile regularly. 
  • Local Keywords: Use location-based keywords whenever possible. 
• Local Listings and Citations 
  • Consistency: Ensure NAP (Name, Address, Phone) consistency across all listings. 
  • Local Reviews: Encourage and respond to local reviews. 

Content Marketing 

• Voice Search Optimization 
  • Natural Language: Write content in a conversational tone. 
  • Long-Tail Keywords: Use long-tail keywords that mimic spoken queries. 
• Long-Form Content 
  • In-Depth Articles: Create comprehensive guides and articles that Google can pillage. 
  • Topic Clusters: Use pillar pages and cluster content strategy. 

Social Media Integration 

• Social Sharing 
  • Share Buttons: Add social sharing buttons to your content. 
  • Engagement: Actively engage with your audience on social media. 

Advanced Strategies 

• Content Repurposing 
  • Multiple Formats: Convert blog posts into videos, infographics, etc. 
  • Guest Blogging: Write guest posts on reputable, relevant sites. Your Game of Thrones fan fiction won’t count (unless it is relevant to your own website). 
• Influencer Partnerships 
  • Collaborations: Partner with influencers to create and share content. 
  • User-Generated Content: Encourage users to create content about your brand. 
• E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) 
  • Author Bios: Include detailed author bios for your content. 
  • Citations: Cite reputable sources and research. (Do as Google says, not as they historically have done!) 

Three Things on the Immediate Zero-Click Search Horizon 

First, it is important to note that Google is astutely aware of their Bond villain status. They have spent just as much time sitting in courtrooms defending themselves as they have spent introducing new products and search features. 

Google Might Be Broken Up

With the recent court ruling that Google's online search monopoly is illegal, there is a chance that the giant will be busted and splintered into different companies. It's too soon to tell how this ruling will affect the world of internet search but without a doubt, some semblance of change is on the way. 

More Source Attribution  

We are likely to see Google make stronger efforts to provide attribution in their search results, such as the recent announcement that they are testing link icons in AI Overviews to cite their sources. With any luck, these types of tweaks and modifications to existing search features can give some Site Authority (and traffic) back to the content creators who deserve the credit.  

Even ChatGPT got into the attribution game earlier this year, rolling out citation links for paid user accounts. Despite the fact that their attributions are often flawed, as the Oxford Review, The Atlantic, and many others have pointed out, it’s at least a great start and strengthens the ethical precedent. 

Artificial Intelligence and Personalized Search 

It is important to note that Google is not alone. As Artificial Intelligence search tools such as OpenAI’s upcoming  SearchGPT continue to enter the search arena, we have no idea how much of the pie will be swiped off Google’s table. SearchGPT, for example, is powered only in- part by Google, as it also relies on Bing, Yahoo, and DuckDuckGo. 

Additionally, as we inch closer to everyone having their own AI assistants that will get to know us far more than we are comfortable with, personalized search will become increasingly prominent as well. Our algorithmic overlords will play the part of internet butchers, trimming off the fat and serving up the cuts of content juuuuust the way we like them. 

Further Decline of Organic Traffic and the Introduction of New Metrics 

Even with website attribution applied to search results, organic traffic is likely to continue to drop, which will leave us eager to track whatever meaningful new metrics emerge in the analytics space to help us best understand the fruits of our content labor. 

It makes sense that if we are optimizing our websites to appear in places like rich and featured snippets and voice search, we are going to want numbers for all associated engagements. And currently, only algorithms have access to such meaningful data.  

Prepare for a Life of Pivoting 

As ChatGPT likes to tell you, this is a “fast paced, evolving digital landscape.” 

To keep your website fresh and relevant and showing up in the search results the way you want it to, you will need to do a lot of pivoting and leveraging and circling back and closing loops and deep diving!  

All that matters is that you keep creating powerful content. Because no matter how Google search features evolve or how many new players enter the search arena, valuable content will always be prioritized and presented to those who are seeking answers, knowledge, and killer recipes for rice dishes.  

Recommended Reading

Interested to learn more about zero-click search? Check out the following articles:

2024 Zero-Click Search Study by Sparktoro

What is a Zero-Click Search? by Semrush