In 2024, nearly 60% of Google searches end without any clicks. Specifically, 58.5% of searches in the U.S. and 59.7% in the EU don’t lead to users clicking on any results. This phenomenon, known as zero-click searches, occurs when users either find their answers directly on the search page or leave without clicking any links.
A new study by Rand Fishkin, CEO and co-founder of SparkToro, using clickstream data from Datos (owned by Semrush), reveals these insights. Here are some key points from the study:
- Zero-Click Searches: The majority of searches end without any clicks, meaning users find what they need directly on Google without visiting other websites.
- Clicks to Google Properties: About 30% of all clicks in the U.S. go to Google-owned properties like YouTube, Google Images, and Google Maps.
- Traffic to the Open Web: For every 1,000 Google searches, 360 clicks in the U.S. and 374 clicks in the EU go to websites outside Google’s ecosystem. This translates to over 3 billion clicks per day going to the open web, despite the dominance of zero-click searches.
- Impact on SEO: Clicks influence Google Search rankings. It’s crucial to optimize for various platforms beyond traditional search results, as searcher behavior continues to evolve.
- AI Overviews: There was a slight increase in desktop searches and a notable decrease in mobile searches, influenced by the launch and subsequent quality issues of Google’s AI Overviews.
Understanding these trends helps in adapting SEO strategies to align with changing user behaviors and Google’s evolving role as an answer engine.