Zero-Click Search in 2026: The Data and How to Plan Around It

In the first four months of 2026, 68% of US Google searches ended without a click to any result, according to SparkToro research based on Similarweb clickstream data ¹. Two years earlier, a SparkToro and Datos study put the figure at 58.5% in the US and 59.7% in the EU ². Zero-click search is no longer an edge case for marketers to monitor. It is the most common outcome of a Google search.

This article pulls together the most reliable recent data on zero-click behaviour, explains what is driving it, and sets out how to plan content, brand and measurement around a search engine that increasingly answers questions itself.

What the data says

Zero-click figures vary with method, so it helps to look at several studies side by side.

Study	Period	Finding
SparkToro and Datos	2024	58.5% of US and 59.7% of EU Google searches ended without a click; only 360 of every 1,000 US searches led to a click on the open web 2
Similarweb (news searches)	May 2025	Share of news searches with no click to a news site rose from 56% to nearly 69% in the year after AI Overviews launched 3
Pew Research Center	March 2025	Users ended their browsing session on 26% of pages with an AI summary vs 16% without 4
Agarwal and Sen field experiment	January-February 2026	Zero-click searches rose from 54% to 72% when AI Overviews were present 5
SparkToro (Similarweb data)	January-April 2026	68.01% of US Google searches ended without a click 1

The 2026 SparkToro analysis, on its updated method, recalculated the 2024 rate at 60.45%, meaning the zero-click share rose by about 7.6 percentage points in two years ¹. It also found that searches leading to a further Google search rose by 7.2 points, so more journeys now loop within Google rather than leaving it ¹. Note that the analysis excluded Google's mobile app, where SparkToro said zero-click behaviour may be even higher ¹.

Even when a click does happen, it does not always leave Google. The 2024 study found that nearly 30% of all US clicks went to Google-owned properties such as YouTube, Google Images and Google Maps ².

What is driving it

Zero-click search predates generative AI. Featured snippets, knowledge panels, local packs and instant answers have resolved simple queries on the results page for years. What changed from 2024 is the scale of AI-written answers.

The strongest evidence comes from a randomised field study by Saharsh Agarwal and Ananya Sen of the Indian School of Business and Carnegie Mellon University. They gave 1,065 US participants a Chrome extension that either left Google untouched, hid AI Overviews or redirected users to AI Mode, over two weeks in early 2026 ⁵. Key results:

• AI Overviews appeared on 42% of queries ⁵.
• On those queries, outbound organic clicks fell 38% when AI Overviews were shown ⁵.
• Removing AI Overviews raised outbound clicks from 0.38 to 0.61 per search ⁵.
• Sponsored clicks and how often people searched stayed steady, and satisfaction scores were nearly identical with or without AI Overviews ⁵.
• Users sent to AI Mode clicked out even less, though the authors describe that arm as exploratory ⁵.

The paper is an unreviewed working paper ⁵, but because it is randomised it isolates the effect of AI Overviews more cleanly than observational studies. The finding that users were equally satisfied either way matters: from Google's perspective, answering on the page is not a worse experience, so there is little reason to expect a reversal.

Similarweb's news data shows the same pattern for publishers: organic visits to news sites fell from over 2.3 billion at the mid-2024 peak to under 1.7 billion by May 2025, while ChatGPT referrals to news sites grew from under 1 million to over 25 million, not nearly enough to fill the gap ³.

Planning content for a zero-click world

Not all queries are equally affected. A useful exercise is to sort your keyword portfolio into three groups:

1. Answerable queries. Definitions, quick facts, conversions and simple how-tos. These are the most likely to be resolved on the results page. Keep pages accurate so you are the cited source, but do not count on them for traffic.
2. Considered queries. Comparisons, pricing, detailed guides and anything requiring judgement. These still earn clicks when the content goes deeper than a summary can.
3. Action queries. Branded, transactional and local searches. These are where clicks, calls and conversions happen and where most of the protection effort should go.

For answerable topics, the content's job changes from earning a visit to earning a mention. Write so that the key facts, your brand name and your point of view appear clearly in the opening lines, which is what an AI summary or snippet will lift.

Building brand demand beyond the click

If fewer searches send traffic, the searches that do need to be for you. SparkToro's Rand Fishkin argues that earning the same referral volume from organic search alone is becoming unrealistic for many publishers, and recommends investing in brand presence on the platforms where audiences already spend time, whether or not that sends visits to your site ¹.

In practice that means:

• Publishing native content on YouTube, LinkedIn and other platforms that also feed Google's own results.
• Earning coverage, reviews and expert mentions that AI summaries draw on.
• Using paid media to build memory, not only to capture demand, so more people search for your brand by name.

Measuring what you cannot click

Measurement needs to shift from sessions alone to visibility and demand. Google has added two useful tools:

• Branded queries filter. Search Console's Performance report can now split branded and non-branded queries automatically, and Google announced it was available to all eligible sites in early 2026 ⁶. Branded impressions are one of the clearest signals of whether brand-building is working.
• Generative AI performance reports. Since 31 August 2026, all sites can see impressions from AI Overviews, AI Mode and Discover's AI features in Search Console, broken down by page, country and date ⁷. Click data is not included ⁷.

Pair these with analytics data on AI referrals. Adobe found that AI-sourced visits to US retail sites converted 42% better than non-AI traffic in March 2026 ⁸, so a small volume of those visits can still matter commercially. A sensible zero-click dashboard tracks impressions, AI visibility, branded search volume, conversions and revenue per visit, rather than organic sessions in isolation.

Key takeaways

• About two-thirds of US Google searches now end without a click, up from under 60% in 2024 ¹².
• A randomised study found AI Overviews were associated with a rise in zero-click searches from 54% to 72% ⁵.
• Answerable queries are the most exposed; considered and action queries still earn clicks.
• Brand demand and off-site presence matter more when the results page answers for you ¹.
• Search Console now reports branded queries and AI impressions, giving marketers better ways to measure visibility ⁶⁷.

What this means for your brand

Review your organic traffic by query type and stop forecasting informational traffic on historical click-through rates. Move effort towards pages that support decisions and conversions, and make sure your brand is named in the answers for the questions you cannot win clicks on. Report branded search, AI impressions and conversions alongside sessions so that falling traffic is read in context. We would treat brand-building as part of the search plan, not a separate line item.

Sources

1. 68% of U.S. Google Searches Ended Without a Click in Early 2026, SparkToro Data Shows - TechWyse, June 2026
2. Nearly 60% of Google searches end without a click in 2024 - Search Engine Land, July 2024
3. ChatGPT referrals to news sites are growing, but not enough to offset search declines - TechCrunch, July 2025
4. Pew Research Confirms Google AI Overviews Is Eroding Web Ecosystem - Search Engine Journal, July 2025
5. Study Confirms Google AI Overviews Cut Organic Clicks 38% - Search Engine Journal, April 2026
6. Google Answers Questions About Search Console's Branded Queries Filter - Search Engine Journal, March 2026
7. Google Search Console AI Reports Rolled Out Worldwide - Search Engine Journal, August 2026
8. AI traffic grows but retail sites lag in AI search visibility - Adobe, April 2026

Figures and product details are as reported by the sources listed, at the time of writing. Platforms change quickly, so check the latest documentation before acting on any single number.