This month it feels like the news from the world of SEO is all about zero clicks searches and the impact of AI.
If you are not familiar with a zero click search, this is when a search does not result in the user clicking through to a website.
It might be that the searcher, after looking at the results, decides to refine their search. Or it could be because your query is answered for you on the search results page. An example of this is if you asked ‘when was the film Blade Runner released’.
Google gives you the answer at the start of the results page. There is no need to click through to another website, then scan the page for the information you are seeking, it is right there in front of you on the results page.
A number of recent studies have tried to determine what percentage of Google searches are zero click. The general consensus is that between 58% and 60% of searches do not result in a click.
The addition of featured snippets, knowledge panels and now AI overviews has resulted in an increase in zero click searches. These search features are designed to give you the answer without you needing to click through to another website.
Google is taking your content, using it to answer queries without sending users to your website.
This is a major change to how we expect search engines to work and not everybody is happy about it.
Chegg suing Google over AI search summaries
In the US, Chegg, an online education company, is suing Google over this. They are claiming that AI summaries, which scrape content from their site to show in their answers, have resulted in Google retaining traffic which would normally have gone to their website, resulting in lost revenue which is now threatening their business.
In their statement, they note that ‘Google has moved from being a “search engine” into an “answer engine”.
Chegg is not the first company to sue Google over this, they will most likely not be the last. Other companies may decide to join them. This is an issue that is impacting a lot of online businesses who are going to see their revenue decrease as a direct result of zero click searches. It will be worth monitoring this case as it progresses through the courts, it will be interesting to see if search engines are either forced into making changes or decide to do so voluntarily.
Google AI Overviews sending more traffic to YouTube
Businesses and SEOs are worried about the rise of zero click searches. How do you adapt to it?
A study by Brightedge has found an increase in links to YouTube videos being shown in Google AI Overviews. The study notes that there has been a 25% increase in YouTube listings in AI Overviews since January 2024.
YouTube videos can be a better format for answering complex queries, the kind that organic search results can sometimes struggle to adequately answer. The videos that were found to benefit from increased visibility were visual demonstrations, step by step tutorials, product comparisons and real world examples. The type where video content is more suited than textual content.
Interestingly their research found that the increased showing of YouTube videos in AI Overviews is related to verticals.
This provides us with one possible response to the increase in AI overviews and other zero click search features. Google is still sending users through to another Google owned property, but it could be a way to get users to a part of the internet that you control. It is worth noting that it is videos on YouTube and not hosted on on-site.
Travel and Google AI Overview
Search Engine Journal is reporting that a paper shared with them by Brightedge, but not yet published elsewhere, shows how Google AI Overviews are impacting on travel searches.
In May 2024, Google AI overviews did not appear for travel related searches. Now they estimate that they appear for between 20 to 30% of travel searches. This trend is being repeated across multiple verticals.
They are still most common for E-E-A-T queries. The study claims that they appear for 84% of healthcare related queries.
Bing now showing the sources it uses to generate its AI results
Bing has started to show the sources that it is using to generate the AI-based section of its organic search results. Clicking on the i icon allows you to see the sources that were used to generate the information.
Google does over 5 trillion searches a year
There are now over 5 trillion searches a year on Google. That is an astonishing 5,000,000,000,000 searches a year. In 2016, the last time Google shared a figure for the number of searches it was handling, that number was 2 trillion.
Search volumes are continuing to rise. Even with the rise of zero click searches, search still needs to be an integral element of your marketing strategy. SEO will need to evolve with the changing search landscape, if it is going to continue being an effective marketing channel.
Google revealed this information in a blog post about AI, personalization and the future of shopping.
Google’s market share
With these numbers, and growth since they previously released figures for how many searches they handle, it looks like everything is going right for Google.
Last month we discussed how Statcounter reported Google’s share of the global search market, after dropping below 90% in October for the first time since 2015, had remained below 90% for the fourth month in a row.
In February, it climbed back to 90.15%. That is down from February last year when it was 91.16%, or if go back another 12 months to February 2023, when it was 93.37%.
The decline has also been arrested in the UK search market. After dropping to its lowest share in over 12 months in January, February saw Google increase its share of the UK search market to 93.37%.
Google update on its way?
Is the first Google core algorithm update of the year coming? The last core update was in December, which followed the previous update which rolled out a month earlier.
If Google does decide to follow a similar pattern to previous years, in both 2023 and 2024 core updates were rolled out in March, then a major Google update could be just round the corner.
If your site is hit by a penalty, or you want to raise your organic visibility then get in touch with our SEO team.
And finally…
If you are interested in web crawlers then you might want to read this handy guide on Search Engine Land, written by James Allen, one of Adido’s SEO team.
