When utilizing a search engine that uses zero-click technology, such as Google, Bing, or Yandex, it is not necessary to click on an organic search result in order to visit a third-party website. At this very moment, about half of all searches are abandoned before the user selects one of the organic search result links. Discover everything there is to know about “zero-click” investigations right here.
Because of searches that require no more action from the user, Google benefits.
The dominant search engine, Google, wants its customers to get relevant results as quickly as possible while spending as much time within the company’s ecosystem of products and services (the “Googleverse”). The benefits to both users and Google are clear. There are more drawbacks than benefits to this from a digital marketing and SEO perspective.
Google’s goal is to increase the percentage of users who continue to use the search engine after their initial trial period is up by providing them with the most relevant results as quickly as possible.
To Google’s benefit, users spend less time engaging with content from competitors and more time-consuming information within Google’s ecosystem. Conversely, Google loses these users and cannot target them with advertisements if they click through to organic third-party websites. Users who don’t venture far from the Google ecosystem are less likely to click on an ad, reducing revenue for Google. People who want an instant response to a search are more likely to input more inquiries, which could lead to a sponsored click on an ad or product in Google Shopping.
The rise of Google’s “zero-click” searches and how they work
The emergence of new features for the search engine results page (SERP) that give customers a choice of widgets in addition to organic results has coincided with the surge in the popularity of searches that require no clicks. Features Typical to a Search Engine Results Page (SERP) The Direct Answers and Knowledge Panel features on Google are two excellent examples.
- Expertise Group
The Google Knowledge Panel, a widely used search engine results page (SERP) feature, has evolved into more than just a “more details” button for specific entities like individuals, organizations, and enterprises. For example, research about health or entertainment is increasingly producing a Knowledge Panel, trying to look up “Italy’s capital” as an example.
- Instant Resolve
Google’s Direct Answer Box has the precise information that users are looking for, whether it be about a famous person, a geographical location, or a historical event. Google now directly responds to enquiries regarding the weather and stock prices. Google’s Direct Answers are purely factual compared to the few featured Snippets. This information is not sourced from external resources and comes straight from Google’s databases.
- schema.org
Markups for structured data can be added to websites with the help of schema.org, which is helpful for search engine optimizers and web admins. By doing so, they facilitate the process by which search engine crawlers convert information into data that computers can understand. Web admins help search engines provide more precise knowledge and improve the level of detail in what are already massive databases by defining which sentence is best suited as an answer for the Voice Assistant to read out in response to a search query or what are the most important questions and answers for a given topic.
- Search engine optimization and the concept of “no-click.”
The SEO community is somewhat divided in response to this rising trend toward zero-click searches. The increasing number of search engine results page (SERP) features used by Google and co. is stealing organic traffic from websites and allowing them to monetize it through advertising or direct conversions (such as hotel and airfare reservations).
Conclusion:
To keep getting organic traffic, digital marketers can check to see if the topics and keywords they are optimizing for already have a Google SERP feature, like a Direct Answer or large-format Knowledge Panel. If that’s the case, they should focus their SEO energy elsewhere, either by rewriting some content to cater to a different user goal or reorganizing the structure of an existing page. Long-term traffic can be secured by shifting your focus to more long-tail keywords and creating material with added value for search engine users.