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news Over 50% of searches on Google result in zero clicks

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A report by Rand Fishkin was published yesterday that now 50% of Google searches end without a click, or what's known as Zero click searches. A zero-click search results in the answer being displayed directly at the top of a Google search result. The person initiating the search gets their answer and does not need to click any links to move further to another website. SearchEngineLand.com … [Read more...]
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
This is nothing new for google.

If I want to convert miles to km I just punch in 12km to miles into the search bar.

The answer comes up, same with math, currency, temperature etc etc.

Type in a medical condition and snippets tell you almost as much as the links.

So yes, search is functioning as google intended, virtually no clicks necessary, everything stays on google.

Just type in your business name without the .com. the results will tell you more about the business than the website. On the right side you see reviews, posts, map etc.

I remember reading an article years ago where google stated they wanted the vast majority of information to come up from the first time you hit enter.

It's working exactly as designed.
 
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From the article:

"this is another boost for one word premium .coms that don’t need someone to search for them due to them having a powerful memorable brand"

To my mind, two word EMD's aren't too shabby either!
 
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This is why I rarely watch TV for news. Prefer to pick and choose online news from varied sources and cut out the commentaries.
Somewhat related is how much I dislike the internet news pages that start immediately to load a video. If I wanted to watch the news I wouldn’t be trying to read it!
 
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That's great news! That means approximately 50% of searches end up on a domain. That means there is alot of traffic buzzing on developed sites that use a domain.
 
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You combine this with ad blockers and PPC revenue is suffocating. There really needs to be more competition in the search space. Google has 94% of US searches? That's insane. Probably in the 90th percentile in all of Latin-character world.

Let's start using and encouraging people to use Bing and DuckDuckGo.

Except DuckDuckGo uses the google engine

I like using the search engines from other countries to see what results I get.
That's the same way I look at the news, I look at cnn but I also look at the China Morning Post, and Sputnik English from Russia, As well as BBC from England, CBC from Canada.

Its amazing what you see when you look at things from the perspective of another country.
 
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The data indicates that most of the clicks before are definition, data or research-related rather than conversions-directed.

There are two ways to look at the zero-click (non clicking) action of the user:

1. The data did not answer the user's search query. Either it was not presented well or it was not the data the user was looking for in the first place.

2. The users can already see the data that they want in the featured snippets, they won't proceed to click because all they're after is information or research data and they no longer need to process or perform any action on the website featured on the snippet.

On the part of the user/researcher/web surfer, this helps them a lot since it lessens the time they'll need to read over/browse over irrelevant sites. Position ZERO or featured snippets results are given more character spaces to present their data so for the researchers who need but a definition or a gist of the info they're after, they save on time by not clicking anymore.

Google's primary purpose, that is: to help those who are looking for data on the net, is served in this case.

On the part of the SEO, it's a headache if the site being handled is of a blog-type or news-type site since the impressions will increase (if the site is included in the SERPs), BUT the clicks, ergo the Click-through Rate (CTR) will decrease.

However, NOTE that those who clicked ( your actual website visitors) are more conversions-directed since they have already been given the elevator pitch by your snippets and they proceeded to click. This results in a Good Conversion rate.


it serves only google

they take the data from 3rd webpages
means they are creating duplicate content en mass

they take away the rewards from webpages who created this information
for the original owner lower traffic is the result
traffic that is originally looking for information from their webpage

this doesn't server other webpages
as user has the information and goes away


don't do evil

unless you are g

as far as I know
g has stopped using that slogan
 
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You combine this with ad blockers and PPC revenue is suffocating. There really needs to be more competition in the search space. Google has 94% of US searches? That's insane. Probably in the 90th percentile in all of Latin-character world.

Let's start using and encouraging people to use Bing and DuckDuckGo.
 
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This is extremely bad news. For example, if you search for health wellness and disease conditions the google snippets are very well targeted and informative and may have both the top plus a large chunk of the right side of page occupied with it going into great detail with graphics too.

For most people there's now little if any need to go down and click on search results. It is having a huge impact on traffic, probably making website development of minisites and mid-size sites sadly a thing of the past and seriously harming sales and the domaining business in general.
 
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Very interesting how google penalize people for duplicating content but themselves duplicate website content in the answers to questions as op stated: "answer being displayed directly at the top of a Google search result"
 
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A report by Rand Fishkin was published yesterday that now 50% of Google searches end without a click, or what's known as Zero click searches. A zero-click search results in the answer being displayed directly at the top of a Google search result. The person initiating the search gets their answer and does not need to click any links to move further to another website. SearchEngineLand.com … [Read more...]


The data indicates that most of the clicks before (later cannibalized by Google) are definition, data or research-related rather than conversions-directed.

There are two ways to look at the zero-click (non clicking) action of the user:

1. The data did not answer the user's search query. Either it was not presented well or it was not the data the user was looking for in the first place.

2. The users can already see the data that they want in the featured snippets, they won't proceed to click because all they're after is information or research data and they no longer need to process or perform any action on the website featured on the snippet.

On the part of the user/researcher/web surfer, this helps them a lot since it lessens the time they'll need to read over/browse over irrelevant sites. Position ZERO or featured snippets results are given more character spaces to present their data so for the researchers who need but a definition or a gist of the info they're after, they save on time by not clicking anymore.

Google's primary purpose, that is: to help those who are looking for data on the net, is served in this case.

On the part of the SEO, it's a headache if the site being handled is of a blog-type or news-type site since the impressions will increase (if the site is included in the SERPs), BUT the clicks, ergo the Click-through Rate (CTR) will decrease.

However, NOTE that those who clicked ( your actual website visitors) are more conversions-directed since they have already been given the elevator pitch by your snippets and they proceeded to click. This results in a Good Conversion rate.
 
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Why would they want to do that, those authoritative websites are what gives Google credibility. IMO

Exactly. The only possible reason is revenue. They don't get anything from organic search results. And maybe revenue from traditional sponsored "ad" clicks is down, so they are trying to get people to stay longer on Google and get more clicks on ads.
 
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Just to give you a personal example. I am searching right now for certain Shell commands on G. It gives me the answer copied from the first search result right on G's first page above any organic results. So I don't even have to go to the site to get the answer. Sure it is more convenient for me since I am saved an extra click. But it is cheating the site in the first result out of organic traffic.

And who knows. If I went to that site, maybe some other content would catch my attention and I would continue browsing it. But by giving me the answer lifted from that site on the SERP itself, G discourages me from browsing it.
 
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Kinda. No Clicks = no money for Google. They get most of their money from ads. You can no click search
"How does Google get most of their money" :) So at some point they want you to click.

They don't get money unless you click an ad, so look at it this way....

Scenario #1

You type in your search and google serves you the proper #1 website and you click it.
No money for google.
Why?
Because you did not even look at the ads.

Scenario #2

You type in your search query and google does all the work, they show you full answers to questions, math problems, currency exchange rates, conversions, etc.

You are now fully engaged on the search page and are actively seeing content mixed with ads. The odds are much greater you will click an ad as opposed to a website in scenario #2.

I mean really... why else would google be doing this if not to keep you engaged on the search page as long as possible.

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These type of results work by asking for currency exchanges, temperatures, speeds etc.

Why not just click you trough to a website that does conversions?

Because they want to keep you on the search page longer so you will see the ads and click on them.

Clicking search results gets google no money, only clicking the ads does so these new types of interactions on the search pages are a big plus for google and a pain in the arse for website owners.
 
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Except DuckDuckGo uses the google engine

I like using the search engines from other countries to see what results I get.
That's the same way I look at the news, I look at cnn but I also look at the China Morning Post, and Sputnik English from Russia, As well as BBC from England, CBC from Canada.

Its amazing what you see when you look at things from the perspective of another country.

This is why I rarely watch TV for news. Prefer to pick and choose online news from varied sources and cut out the commentaries.

When it comes to search, in addition to the monopoly issue, there is too much bot activity and coded algorithms. I think there is once again space for human edited Web search. Instead of companies using human assets dedicated to weed out spam and misinformation, they should use those same assets to input vetted websites and sources. I would love to be able to block ALL bots. They account for more than 90% of Web traffic.
 
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That's great news! That means approximately 50% of searches end up on a domain. That means there is alot of traffic buzzing on developed sites that use a domain.

Maybe you are saying that either as a joke (its not funny), or to have a positive view on it but before Google started displaying the info on a subject along with some paid links it was basically 100% of search visitors who clicked on search results. So today that's only 1/2 of the traffic from search going to a lot of websites, a big negative and far from a good thing.
 
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Except DuckDuckGo uses the google engine

I like using the search engines from other countries to see what results I get.
That's the same way I look at the news, I look at cnn but I also look at the China Morning Post, and Sputnik English from Russia, As well as BBC from England, CBC from Canada.

Its amazing what you see when you look at things from the perspective of another country.

If I remember correctly, the only thing that DuckDuckGo uses from Google may be their Youtube videos, but outside of that, their search results get curated from mostly Bing and Yahoo, along with other things such as Yelp for local-centric searches. Must be easier to use their search results and filter out the tracking aspects in comparison to the big G.

What you are is definitely a good way to really get a good handle in looking how locals use their preferred media/search engines and what results they get, especially with Yandex, Baidu, Naver, etc.

Maybe you are saying that either as a joke (its not funny), or to have a positive view on it but before Google started displaying the info on a subject along with some paid links it was basically 100% of search visitors who clicked on search results. So today that's only 1/2 of the traffic from search going to a lot of websites, a big negative and far from a good thing.

Agreed. The ways they are effectively monopolizing their traffic for zero-click search results really hurt the webmasters that depend on the income they receive from Google. More of the smaller to medium websites will probably shut down over the next 5-10 years, as this may make it unattainable for them to keep up, while the bigger brands will most likely flourish as it seems like in my opinion that Google wants to just cater to big business.
 
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Featured snippets are like Organic Search Engine Results; Google just allocates more space for more data/information. The link to the source website is still there.

I agree, lower traffic is the result but that's from the perspective of SEOs, web developers, web owners.

What about the real people Google was originally meant for; the WEB USERS?

The increase in zero clicks just shows you the real intent of the web users. 50% of those who search may just be looking around for definitions, for the fast answers to the Whats , Whys, Whens, Wheres, Whos.

The key is to do the elevator pitch in the space allocated for Position Zero or Featured snippets results. Make the users interested enough to look for additional data in your source url.
 
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Featured snippets are like Organic Search Engine Results; Google just allocates more space for more data/information. The link to the source website is still there.

I agree, lower traffic is the result but that's from the perspective of SEOs, web developers, web owners.

What about the real people Google was originally meant for; the WEB USERS?

The increase in zero clicks just shows you the real intent of the web users. 50% of those who search may just be looking around for definitions, for the fast answers to the Whats , Whys, Whens, Wheres, Whos.

The key is to do the elevator pitch in the space allocated for Position Zero or Featured snippets results. Make the users interested enough to look for additional data in your source url.

I do agree that it does help the user find the information they are looking for, because some websites that are getting placed inside the zero-click search results would give an uplift in clicks to their website(leans more towards bigger brands and businesses more times than small-medium sized business IMO).

Where I do disagree is that with some of the zero-click results is that it hurts websites that are more informational in nature than commercial websites in most cases, especially the ones that generate income through Adsense/affiliate programs/their own products.

That example that was provided above with XE would be one that would suffer from the results. Granted, they are a bigger brand, so they must be targeted in other keyword areas, but the ones that are smaller with that same information would not get that same kind of love.

Google is really only to serve itself to whatever content it may find at the expense of everyone else.
 
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Google wants to get rid of URLs. I wonder what they are planning.

Voice, I addressed that in a number of topics, I will dig this up.

Go to business name

No url bar, no url, no address, just the business name. With ai going all to voice it is coming. Your little Google screen in the kitchen. Just say go to namrpros. Will not show address just site, eventually making premium domains redundant.

Now before someone says email... That is gone too with the new messenger coming. All attached to phone number and voice. No fraud or click bait.

I have close connections at Google in my hometown. We make Gmail here, it is known that some form of advanced messenger will eventually replace email.
 
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The novelty of 'speaking' your search will be a flash in the pan as the sheeple eventually realize their super cool devices are constantly listening and/or watching them 24/7 and what this REALLY means.

Remember the story of Alexa sending a private conversation between a couple to a friend because it confused a phrase for a command?

https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-alexa-records-private-conversation-2018-5

That’s creepy. FB, G, and A already store way too much personal data via Web searches, browsing, likes, follows, posts and purchases, etc. Why give them even more access to our personal life through devices. And will you use voice search when you are out in public?
 
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....now 50% of Google searches end without a click, or what's known as Zero click searches. A zero-click search results in the answer being displayed directly at the top of a Google search result. The person initiating the search gets their answer and does not need to click any links.....

That is very interesting but not surprising info. It is one more reason traffic to many small to mid-size websites (and ppc income) is down significantly over past several years and getting worse.
 
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Maybe you are saying that to have a positive view on it but before Google started displaying the info on a subject along with some paid links it was basically 100% of search visitors who clicked on search results. So today that's only 1/2 of the traffic from search going to a lot of websites, a big negative far from a good thing.
People search for quick answers to questions now, because of the quick answers given. Questions like "what is cholesterol" or "how many calories in sourdough bread?" That type of traffic is not quality for a website and is really no loss to websites.

My point is there are more searches done now, and if websites get near 50% of the traffic, that is still respectable numbers.
 
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