Many of the queries made on Google are resolved without leaving the search engine. Has a new moment of crisis arrived for SEO?
After so many years in digital marketing, we have concluded that SEO is a cat: it has (at least) seven lives. And it has been a few spent, or so many gurus have made us believe in recent times. Their decline and death have been predicted on numerous occasions by all high and have created first alarm, then scepticism and, finally (and luckily) an efficient reaction of all professionals in the sector. And here we continue.
The last of these bad omens points to searches without click (Zero-Click searches) as responsible for the rapid disappearance of SEO as we know it. It also takes the opportunity to blame Google for wanting to become the center of the online universe. If we are objective and analyse the data well, deep down, this premonition does nothing but make visible an increasingly palpable trend: the decline of visits to a website after a query on Google. Will it have the ability to jeopardize organic visits to pages?
Let’s start at the beginning: what are searches without click?
The searches without click or zero-click searches are all those queries that are made in Google and that obtain the appropriate response in the search engine itself, without having to visit an external page. The most recurring cases, the ones that have probably already solved the ballot on more than one occasion, are those related to weather queries, song lyrics, recipes, word definitions etc.
They appear in the top positions of the search results page and respond with such accuracy to the question that you do not need to look at anything else, or even scroll. As a consequence, the organic traffic of many websites has decreased significantly (especially in recent months) and those responsible for SEO and content have already begun to shake.
How much truth and how much legend is there in this terror towards zero-click searches?
We are not going to deny that something really does hide. And the figures prove it. According to the report, in June of this year, click-free searches exceeded the 50% psychological barrier, compared to 45% of clicks from organic searches.
The trend has stabilized in recent years, at least in the United States, but click-to-web searches outside the Google environment still dominate the statistics. In addition to the consolidation of the queries resolved without leaving the search engine, its predominance is perceived in searches made from mobile devices.
So far so good, but how does google get the answers for the zero-clicks searches?
In its desire to simplify the life of users and solve their doubts in a simple and immediate way, Google has relegated its search function to become the “supreme encyclopedia”. This is the basis on which the growing triumph of the Zero-Clicks searches is based. The internet giant feeds on all the information provided by indexed websites, classifies it and offers it perfectly organized so that the Internet user does not have to do anything else.
Becoming part of the Google references for those searches without a click (although they harm organic traffic in the short term), it is also SEO. How can we search and get our hole? Through different strategies, such as the use and implementation of the so-called structured data, the use of the rise of voice searches or the improvement of the contents of the site.
From the point of view of SEO, what can be done before the boom in search without click?
There are two options:
- Get carried away by defeat and allow the results of payment or those selected by Google to take the attention of users.
- Join the change and trace the numbers of organic clicks to the web with increased efforts in the SEO strategy.
As we refuse to take anything for dead, we opt for the second option. Do not lose sight of the quality of the contents of your website, improve link building with quality links, take care of structured data in detail, and get clicks from other sources such as social networks. In short, do not let your guard down in SEO and remember that you can lose this battle [momentarily] and, in the end, end up winning the war.
Zero-clicks: google searches without visits
Why should you take it into account?
You should always keep in mind to improve your SEO and try to have your web pages appear in the Google response box for several reasons.
A. They occupy the best natural position
As we have already mentioned, this natural location is the best because you are even more visible than the first natural result. It is therefore an undeniable advantage for your URL because by occupying this privileged place, it attracts the attention of Internet users.
B. Their format strongly impacts the CTR
By being before the first SEO result, the number of your visitors will change. You can therefore record an increase in your organic traffic from 100 to 500% (according to SearchEngineLand and Hubspot) with the advantage of being qualified.
What future for these results?
As a web professional, we can ask ourselves the question if position 0 is really a new goal to reach? For our part, the answer is obviously yes. Ranking 0 meets the expectations of Internet users by offering the most precise and adequate information according to their requests.
Given that Google’s objective is to always offer its users an appropriate response and satisfy them as much as possible, we can estimate that answer boxes and others have a bright future ahead of them. Certainly, in the coming years, these results will evolve and experience new evolutions in their displays.
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