Zero-Click Search
A search that ends on the results page without a click to any website, because the answer is shown directly or the user refines the query.
As more queries are answered on the results page, rankings and impressions no longer turn into traffic at past rates, so reporting and content plans must value visibility and brand mentions as well as clicks.
A publisher sees impressions for definition queries rise 20% year over year while clicks fall, segments those queries in Search Console, shifts effort to in-depth comparison pages and tracks branded search as a visibility signal.
Zero-click rates come from clickstream panels and samples with different methods, so figures vary between studies and are not directly comparable. A search without a click can still build brand awareness.
Clickstream studies classify each search by what follows: a click to the open web, a click to a Google property, a new search or the end of the session. SparkToro's 2024 study of Datos panel data estimated that 58.5% of US Google searches ended without a click. Pew Research found users clicked a standard result on 8% of visits to pages with an AI summary versus 15% without one, showing how AI Overviews reduce Click-Through Rate (CTR).
Performance Advertising
SparkToro — 2024 Zero-Click Search Study — https://sparktoro.com/blog/2024-zero-click-search-study-for-every-1000-us-google-searches-only-374-clicks-go-to-the-open-web-in-the-eu-its-360/; Pew Research Center — Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results — https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/07/22/google-users-are-less-likely-to-click-on-links-when-an-ai-summary-appears-in-the-results/