Zero-click searches and the future of your marketing funnel
By rsukhraj@hubspot.com (Ramona Sukhraj)
Search results used to be a doorway. You ranked, someone clicked, and they landed on your site. But today, that model is eroding faster than most marketing teams are equipped to move.
Bain & Company research found that about 80% of consumers now rely on “zero-click” results in at least 40% of their searches. For some businesses, this means more impressions, but across the board, it’s reducing organic web traffic by an estimated 15% to 25%.
What does this mean for your team and how it measures and achieves success?
This guide breaks it all down, including what zero-click searches are, why they matter, and how to turn zero-click visibility into conversions using answer engine optimization (AEO).
Table of Contents
- TLDR Executive Summary
- What are zero-click searches?
- How Zero-Click Disrupts the Marketing Funnel
- How to Adapt SEO in a Zero-Click World
- When to Pursue or Avoid Zero-Click Keywords
- How to Measure Zero-Click Impact
- Zero-Click Searches Playbook by Funnel Stage
- FAQs About Zero-Click Searches
- AEO is SEO Evolved
TLDR Executive Summary
Zero-click searches occur when a user gets their answer on the search results page through an AI overview or other rich results, without clicking on a website. AI Overviews increase the likelihood of zero-click behavior for informational queries, while featured snippets satisfy simple question intent directly on the SERP, and People Also Ask (PAA) boxes expand answer paths without requiring a click.
Answer engine optimization focuses on earning citations, summaries, answer placements, and even voice mentions for your website and brand, in ways traditional SEO does not. AEO includes, but is not limited to, creating answer-first content to improve eligibility for featured snippets, AI Overviews, and other answer surfaces.
HubSpot’s free AEO grader can help you see how you’re currently doing in AI engines and understand what you need to do to improve your visibility.
What are zero-click searches?
A zero-click search occurs when a search engine query is answered directly on the search results page via a featured snippet, knowledge panel, People Also Ask (PAA) box, local pack, AI Overview, or other rich results rather than having a user visit a separate website.
AI-powered rich results include:
- Featured snippets, which return a direct answer in a boxed format at the top of the SERP
- Knowledge panels, which provide quick overviews of entities like companies, people, and places
- People Also Ask, which boxes surface-related questions with expandable answers
- AI Overviews, which synthesize multi-source answers directly in the SERP
- Local Pack, which displays a map and three local business listings based on your location or search.
Here’s an example of one from the very on-brand search of: “What is Bollywood?”
As consumers, these results can be convenient and helpful, but for businesses, they’re taking their toll on the organic website traffic that was once a golden metric.
Source:: HubSpot Blog
