Zero-Click Search Engine Result Pros and Cons
What does Zero clicks Mean?
Zero query searches are queries made on Google search engine with a no click result display.
What this means is that the answer to the query is returned directly to the search engine users without having to visit any website on the SERP to get the answer to the query.
Zero click SERP is getting popular in Google search engine since more queries are returned with a no-click search engine result page (SERP).
Any Problem with Zero Click Marketing?
Before now, the relationship between search engine operators and webmasters is mutual.
Search engines like Google crawls and index contents from websites and displays it in her search results.
This helps to satisfy the search engine users while the users also click websites from the SERP, and become potential customers for webmasters.
With zero click search engine result page, the relationship is no more mutual but commensal in nature.
This means that Google crawls and index hard-produced contents from webmasters without returning her search engine users to the webmasters’ sites.
Google uses webmasters’ contents as her own content without giving anything back, in some cases it may even be that a source is not even given.
Are 0 Click Searches Good or Bad?
Let’s imagine that the Google search engine users no longer click on any website from the search engine result pages (SERPs) because they can find all the information in SERP already.
This zero click also means that Google would not be able to track new website visitors, bounce rate and duel time on websites. This is bad for Google herself.
No click search result also means no positive user signals for webmasters from the organic search traffic, and it’s basically bad for SEO.
So, do SEOs need to adjust their strategy to continue to grow in the future?
Zero Query Search Result Advantages and Disadvantages
First of all, not all metrics, like website visitors and click-through rate should go into extinction.
While zero click search results may improve Google search engine users, bloggers would not continue to give permission to the Google bot to crawl and index their contents without compensation (returning traffic to the webmasters)
Therefore, no click search result display has both advantages and disadvantages to Google, but not likely an advantage to content marketers.
Pros of Zero Click Search Result
There are 4 types of zero click search result, and not all types are damaging to bloggers’ traffic or revenue.
One of it is the position 0 featured snippet. Featured snippet would appear right below the paid search results, making it the first result to appear organically.
Studies have shown that featured snippets, direct answers that appear first in a box in SERP ( usually date, number or place), or the knowledge graph are actually clicked less than the first organic result.
The display of your website’s content in the position 0 on Google’s SERP can still be an advantage – keyword brand awareness.
Even when search engine users have not clicked through to your website from the SERP because his question has already been answered, your brand name is still noticed and stays in mind of the users.
Your brand and website receives more attention due to the prominent placement your content receives in the result page. This builds trust in search engine users towards your website.
Google expects this type of search result to become more popular in the future. Especially for smaller and unknown brands, the Zero Click Search is a good way to gain brand awareness with high-quality content and to position yourself as an expert in the industry.
Cons of Zero Click Search Result
There are a few advantages of zero click search result for content creators like the brand awareness, however, the traffic content creators should get to their websites is already sacrificed for this brand awareness.
The sacrifice can be heavy for affiliate marketers, bloggers that make money from ads display and other content marketers since zero click SERP leads to lower conversions for them.
How to Optimize Zero Click Searches?
Website operators have to weigh up what is more important to them: traffic or branding.
Although there is no guarantee that a specific result will be played out in the No Click Search, the page can be specially optimized for this – so the SEOs have it in their own hands to a certain extent.
If the traffic on your website decreases, there are some measures to optimise your website for zero click search.
Expand your online presence, for example your social media channels, and other new traffic sources.
In this way, you can minimize or compensate for any “damage” caused by Zero Click Search by promoting your social channels to attract more traffic.
Not all search queries can be answered with Zero Click Search. If your website is optimized for keywords that can not be answered with a sentence or a number, the user will click through to your website anyway.
You can also bury an answer to a query down in your article, and use call to action keywords to motivate the reader to read more about the topic.
Plan your SEO strategy for the long term, taking into account changes like No Click Search.
Conclusion
Whether you like it or not, Google would likely continue to return more zero-click search results for queries.
For your long-term planning of SEO strategy, you should definitely be familiar with the zero click search.
In order to remain competitive, SEOs should continue to optimize their site and, above all, be able to correctly classify a possible drop in clicks.