“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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
