Zero-Click SERPs in 2025: How to Win Visibility Without the Click

Search is transforming. By 2025, zero-click search results have become a central battleground for visibility. More queries are answered directly on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) instead of being routed to external websites. Yet brands that adapt can still win attention, trust, and conversions. Let’s explore how zero-click SERPs work today, why they matter, and how marketers can thrive even when users don’t click.

“Zero-click doesn’t mean zero value. It’s about playing where attention lives, even if the click comes later in the customer journey.”
— Mr. Phalla Plang, Digital Marketing Specialist

What Are Zero-Click SERPs?

A zero-click search occurs when a user’s query is answered directly in the SERP—without them needing to click on a result and visit another site. Typical zero-click features include featured snippets (answer boxes), knowledge panels, People Also Ask (PAA) boxes, local packs, image packs, and AI overviews.

In 2024, SparkToro’s analysis of clickstream data from Datos (a Semrush company) found that 58.5 % of U.S. Google searches ended with zero clicks (i.e. no click to another web property) (SparkToro, 2024) (Search Engine Roundtable). That same study noted that roughly 21.4 % of searches triggered a new search, while 37.1 % of searches simply ended without further action (i.e., no click or follow-up search) (Search Engine Roundtable).

The rise of AI Overviews is further accelerating this trend. According to Semrush data shared in Digiday, AI Overviews appeared in about 20 % of U.S. desktop queries by mid-2025 (April/May) (Digiday, 2025) (Digiday). As AI summaries become more common, the share of clicks to external websites is under pressure.

Some reports suggest that since the rollout of AI Overviews in May 2024, zero-click share has grown sharply—one SimilarWeb-based analysis claimed zero-click share grew from 56 % to 69 % over a year (Seroundtable, 2025) (Search Engine Roundtable). While this figure is aggressive and should be treated with caution, it underscores the direction of the trend.

In short: zero-click is not a fringe phenomenon—it is a dominant one.

Why Zero-Click Visibility Matters in 2025

Zero-click does not equate to zero value. Visibility in SERP features can deliver impressions, brand authority, and downstream traffic even when users don’t click immediately. Here’s why this matters:

• Massive exposure at the top of the page. When your content appears in a featured snippet, AI Overview, or knowledge panel, it commands prime real estate—often above traditional organic results.
• Voice search and assistants. Many voice assistants (e.g., Google Assistant, Siri) draw from featured snippets and summary boxes. If you’re the source, your answer could be read aloud.
• Trust, authority & recall. Users seeing your brand as the “answer provider” builds perceptual authority—even if they don’t click that moment.
• Branded search lift. A study by Bain found that 80 % of consumers now rely on zero-click results in at least 40 % of their searches, and this has led to a 15–25 % drop in organic traffic in some sectors (Bain, 2025) (Bain). The implication: brands must capture value beyond raw clicks.
• Competitive advantage. Since fewer sites appear in these features, optimized content has a better chance to dominate.

As more searches are resolved in the SERP itself, visibility—not click volume—becomes the primary currency of SEO.

Key Zero-Click SERP Features in 2025

To succeed in this world, you must understand which features matter most:

Featured Snippets (Answer Boxes)

These are concise, pull-quoted answers that Google displays at the top. They may be paragraphs, lists, or tables. If your content is featured, you get a direct spotlight—even without a click.

People Also Ask (PAA)

Related questions displayed with expandable answers. Users often click through these questions, and many answers can be taken from your content.

Knowledge Panels

These are info boxes for entities (brands, people, places). They appear for well-known topics or brands; having a robust web presence (Wikipedia, schema markup) helps you qualify.

Local Packs / Map Packs

For location-based queries, these SERPs show business listings (with address, hours, reviews) directly on the SERP. Many users call or navigate without clicking through.

AI Overviews / Generative Summaries

Google’s generative summaries synthesize multiple sources to answer user questions. They sit above organic listings and may reduce clicks on deeper results (Digiday, 2025) (Digiday).

Video Carousels & Image Packs

Short video answers and high-quality images are also showing up. These often link to YouTube or media content but sometimes suffice to answer user intent.

Rich Answer Boxes & Direct Answers

For queries like definitions, conversions, or factual questions, Google directly displays the answer (e.g. “What is the capital of Cambodia?”).

Strategies to Win Zero-Click Visibility

Winning visibility in a no-click world means shifting strategy. Here are proven tactics:

1. Optimize for Featured Snippets

• Directly answer questions in your content, using headings like “What is …?”
• Use bulleted lists, numbered steps, tables, or definitions—formats that Google favors.
• Target long-tail question keywords (e.g. “how to optimize for zero click in 2025”).
• Use tools such as Ahrefs or SEMrush to find keywords currently triggering snippets.

2. Answer PAA questions in your content

• Monitor People Also Ask boxes for your topics.
• Create FAQ sections or Q&A pages with those exact questions.
• Use FAQ schema markup to help Google surface your answers.

3. Improve local/“near me” optimization

• Keep Google Business Profile (GBP) up to date with accurate hours, categories, photos.
• Encourage and respond to customer reviews.
• Maintain NAP (Name, Address, Phone) consistency across all directories.
• Use local keywords (city, district) in your content and metadata.

4. Develop knowledge panel & entity authority

• Create or maintain a Wikipedia page or Wikidata entry for your brand if eligible.
• Use schema.org markup (Organization, Person, Product) throughout your site.
• Ensure consistent mentions of your brand across authoritative sources—news, directories, industry sites.

5. Design content for AI Overviews (GEO optimization)

• Use clear, authoritative content with proper citations and verifiable data.
• Focus on E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness).
• Create content clusters around core topics—this helps generative AI draw on your domain as a trusted source.
• Monitor AI overviews (for your targeted queries) to see how your content is being summarized.

6. Optimize multimedia (video, images)

• Publish short-form video answers (30–60 seconds) that directly respond to common questions.
• Use captions, transcripts, timestamps, keyword-rich titles and descriptions.
• For images, use descriptive alt text and structured data (ImageObject schema).

7. Measure and shift KPIs

• Focus less on raw organic sessions, more on impressions, brand lift, query coverage.
• Use tools like Google Search Console, Rank Ranger, or Moz to monitor SERP features and their prevalence.
• Track branded search growth, as brand awareness often follows visibility in zero-click slots.

Business Impact & Use Cases

Case: Branded Search Uplift

SparkToro found that for every 1,000 U.S. Google searches, only about 360 clicks reached the open web (i.e. non-Google property) (SparkToro, 2024) (sparktoro.com). This means ~64 % of search queries stay within Google’s ecosystem without linking outward. Brands that earn zero-click slots are effectively inserting themselves into those no-click user journeys.

Case: Traffic declines from AI Overviews

In the news space, publishers reported heavy declines in referral traffic after Google introduced AI Overviews. A SimilarWeb-based report said that in May 2025, the share of news-related searches ending in zero-click reached 69 %, up from 56 % in May 2024, resulting in much lower organic visits to news sites (NY Post, 2025) (New York Post). While news is a special sector, this illustrates how zero-click can heavily disrupt referral models.

Insights from SERP feature research

A large study on SERP features and CTR (click-through rate) found that the presence or absence of certain SERP features (e.g. snippets, image packs, video) can significantly influence which organic results get clicks (Fubel, Groll, Gundlach et al., 2023) (arXiv). In other words, even if you rank #1, a snippet above you might siphon clicks away.

Thus, optimizing to appear in the snippet (or above organic results) often yields more value than chasing a pure rank.

Challenges & Risks

• Reduced direct traffic. Some users may never click through, increasing the “dark funnel” effect.
• Limited control over what Google shows. Google’s algorithms choose which snippet to display (and whether to use AI Overview).
• Attribution difficulties. Conversions may happen offline or later, making it harder to tie to specific zero-click exposures.
• Dependence on algorithm updates. Google may change how often or when it shows overviews, altering your visibility.

Yet, the risks are outweighed by opportunity, if you orient toward presence and influence rather than purely pageviews.

Future Trends to Watch

• Greater prevalence of AI Overviews. As of mid-2025, AI Overviews appear in ~20 % of desktop queries (Digiday, 2025) (Digiday). Expect this to grow, perhaps eventually covering 50 %+ of informational queries in some segments.
• Rise of multimodal overviews. AI that integrates text, image, video may answer questions using all formats in one slot.
• AI answer citation transparency. Google may begin showing which sources it used (improving attribution to publishers).
• Conversational and voice search dominance. More searches may start audit-style, with follow-up prompts—making having the right answer in the first turn even more critical.
• Diversification of traffic sources. Publishers and brands may shift to direct, app, email, social and AI platform channels to be less dependent on traditional web click traffic.

The new zero-click world is not just a passing phase—it’s the core of search in 2025 and beyond.

Conclusion

The “click era” is receding. In 2025, visibility — not clicks — will be the fulcrum of search success. Brands that adapt their content, structure, and measurement strategies to zero-click SERPs will lead in authority, recognition, and downstream conversion.

Key takeaways:

• Zero-click is pervasive—in 2024, ~58.5 % of U.S. searches ended with no click to an external website (SparkToro, 2024) (Search Engine Roundtable).
• AI Overviews are accelerating displacement of clicks, appearing in about 20 % of desktop queries by mid-2025 (Digiday, 2025) (Digiday).
• The path forward is optimizing for SERP features, structured content, and brand authority rather than treating search simply as a traffic funnel.
• Metrics must evolve—from session counts toward SERP impressions, query coverage, branded growth, and downstream conversions.

In the words of Mr. Phalla Plang:
“Zero-click doesn’t mean zero value. It’s about playing where attention lives, even if the click comes later in the customer journey.”

Adapt to 2025’s new search paradigm, and you’ll win visibility even when users don’t click.

References

Bain. (2025). Goodbye clicks, hello AI: Zero-click search redefines marketing. Bain & Company. (Bain)

Digiday. (2025, May). AI is driving more traffic, but not offsetting ‘zero-click’ search. https://digiday.com/media/in-graphic-detail-ai-platforms-are-driving-more-traffic-but-not-enough-to-offset-zero-click-search/ (Digiday)

Fubel, E., Groll, N. M., Gundlach, P., Han, Q., & Kaiser, M. (2023). Beyond rankings: Exploring the impact of SERP features on organic click-through rates. arXiv. https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.01785 (arXiv)

Seroundtable. (2025). No clicks from Google grew from 56% to 69% since AI Overviews. https://www.seroundtable.com/similarweb-google-zero-click-search-growth-39706.html (Search Engine Roundtable)

SparkToro. (2024). 2024 Zero-Click search study: For every 1,000 US Google searches, only 374 clicks go to the open web in the EU it’s 360. https://sparktoro.com/blog/2024-zero-click-search-study-for-every-1000-us-google-searches-only-374-clicks-go-to-the-open-web-in-the-eu-its-360/ (sparktoro.com)

SparkToro. (n.d.). Zero-clicks does not mean zero sales. https://sparktoro.com/blog/zero-clicks-does-not-mean-zero-sales/ (sparktoro.com)

SparkToro. (n.d.). Why do we need zero click marketing? https://sparktoro.com/blog/why-do-we-need-zero-click-marketing/ (sparktoro.com)

NY Post. (2025, July). Google AI summaries increase frequency of ‘zero clicks’ to search results, sinking traffic to news sites. https://nypost.com/2025/07/03/media/google-ai-tools-depressing-traffic-to-news-sites-report/ (New York Post)

Seroundtable. (2024). Google zero-click study now at 58.5% in 2024. https://www.seroundtable.com/google-zero-click-study-37660.html (Search Engine Roundtable)

Search Engine Land. (2024, January). Nearly 60% of Google searches end without a click in 2024. https://searchengineland.com/google-search-zero-click-study-2024-443869 (Search Engine Land)

Search Engine Journal. (2024). The shift to zero-click searches: Is traffic still king? https://www.searchenginejournal.com/the-shift-to-zero-click-searches-is-traffic-king/540847 (Search Engine Journal)

SearchEngineLand. (2025, April). Zero-click searches rise, organic clicks dip: Report. https://searchengineland.com/zero-click-searches-up-organic-clicks-down-456660 (Search Engine Land)