I talked briefly in my last blog about zero click searches. They’ve been around for a little while, but I wanted to expand on the topic and how it might affect your SEO performance in 2023.
What are Zero Click Searches?
A zero click or ‘no click’ search is when a search engine shows the answer to a user’s query, without them having to click a link to access the information. Essentially, they’ve been provided with the answer to their question and don’t need to visit your website to find out more.
For example, if I search ‘population of Chelmsford 2022’, I can see the answer upfront without having to take any further action.
In short, search engines have made their algorithm super effective at answering users searches through their FAQs results.
What does this mean for my SEO?
In recent times, Google has introduced a whole host of new Search Engine Results Page features and widgets such as featured snippets, knowledge panels, videos, carousels and answer boxes. This has led to an increase in the number of zero click searches.
A new report from SEMrush has found that zero click searches account for 25.6% of desktop searches on Google1. Companies are therefore losing traffic to Google through zero click searches.
Are Zero Click Searches bad for SEO?
It could be argued that Google are simply adapting to what users need. In the past, a user might have clicked on a paid or organic link and visited a website to get more information. Now Google shows these results in a more user-friendly way.
Companies therefore need to flex their SEO strategies to consider the needs of users and adapt to Google’s infrastructure.
If you go after a keyword that already has an instant answer at the top of the results page, it’s going to be difficult to get traffic. However, there is some benefit to obtaining zero click searches, in the form of brand visibility.
How can I ensure I get more clicks?
In terms of SEO, getting more clicks simply comes down to choosing your battles wisely.
Zero click searches are much more common in some types of searches (i.e. questions) but less common in others (i.e. photos or news), so there are still opportunities for marketers to obtain click through traffic.
If you want to continue to receive organic traffic, then a deep dive into your keywords and topics is a good start. By establishing which keywords SERPs already show an instant answer for, you can start to shape your strategy more towards longer tail keywords, and providing added value content, that will entice the user to click through.
There will still be keywords where the potential for clicks is higher than others. Ultimately this will lead to a better return on investment for your SEO spend.
The effect of zero click searches varies depending on your business or industry. If you’d like to discuss this in more detail and how it could affect your digital marketing strategy contact danny.hall@fsedigital.com.
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https://searchengineland.com/zero-click-study-semrush-389067
