Zero-click Google searches are growing
If you find yourself clicking less often on google searches, you are not alone. A fan of the St. Louis ice hockey team need only search the term "St. Louis Blues" to get a panel showing a schedule of upcoming games and has no need to click the Blues website. A traveler need only search for "convert dollars" to directly get a form to convert dollars to Euros, Rupees, Mexican Pesos, or any other currency he might want. Google's search is becoming more like a walled garden and less like a gateway. If your business is in certain fields, Google is certainly shrinking your marketing opportunities.
In summer 2019, we passed the 50% point for zero-click searches and that point was passed even earlier on mobile search.
Read More.Your business in the zero-click world
If you are measuring your website's success by the number of clicks, you may be underestimating the value of your online presence. A Google search of "auto repair", for example, will give maps, addresses and phone numbers in the search results, and will likely result in a zero-click. However, if the search user just needed your phone number, then the click was not that important to your business.
On the other hand, if your business model includes web ads, for example, then you may be experiencing a significant loss without the click. Indeed, even without direct revenue from clicks, clicks are needed in order to introduce customers to your products and services, to build confidence in your company, to possibly capture newsletter subscriptions, and for many other reasons.
As the Google search model changes, internet marketing can become more like a print ad or a billboard where businesses don't have the luxury of presenting as much information about their companies as they would like. We need to be sure to get our most important information where it will be picked up by Google and shown to the search user, even without a click.
