Zero-click search: what content to produce when AI answers

Reading time: 11 minutes

Zero-click search is a search that ends with no click to any website, since Google or AI answers on screen. The content still worth producing for zero-click search earns a necessary click, becomes the answer’s source or converts visitors. This guide shows how to split your content plan and what to measure.

What is zero-click search and why did it grow with AI?

A zero-click search ends without a click on any result: people read the answer, search again or give up. It was already growing, but according to SparkToro, it sped up with Google’s AI Overviews. In addition, assistants like ChatGPT answer inside the conversation.

In the US, 68.01% of Google searches ended without a click from January to April 2026, according to SparkToro. The data comes from Similarweb’s panel. In 2024, the rate was 60.45%, but from a different panel, so the comparison calls for caution. In addition, the count leaves out the Google app, where the rate is probably higher, according to SparkToro itself. It’s worth knowing, however, that the company sells an audience research tool. Its co-founder, Rand Fishkin, also wrote a book about zero-click marketing with Amanda Natividad.

Using the same panel, SparkToro measured rates in five other countries, from 62.1% in Germany to 69.5% in the UK. In Brazil, however, we found no study with a published method that reports the country’s zero-click search rate. Even so, the topic is already on Brazilian marketers’ radar. In its Panorama de Marketing e Vendas 2026 (Marketing and Sales Panorama), RD Station asked 955 marketing professionals which trends mattered most. The option “SEO for AI (GEO) and zero-click search” (translated) ranked 4th. However, in another survey question, 36% said their company does nothing to show up in AI, and another 23% didn’t know. RD Station, by the way, sells marketing and sales software.

How many clicks do AI summaries take away?

According to SparkToro, AI Overviews already appear on more than 20% of searches. When they appear, they take clicks mainly from the top results. In December 2025, AI summaries correlated with a 58% lower desktop CTR for the top-ranking page, in an Ahrefs study. Ahrefs sells SEO tools and, in addition, doesn’t say which country the sample comes from. On the other hand, AI Mode still matters little: only 0.34% of searches went to it in the period SparkToro measured.

Google, for its part, disputes studies like these, as the guide to clicks in AI Mode and AI Overviews shows. The details of the Ahrefs study, by the way, are in the SEO and AI guide. These numbers feed the debate on whether SEO is still worth it, but this guide asks what content to produce.

Which types of search still get a click?

Searches still get a click when people want to do something, not just learn something. That means visiting a brand’s site, buying, hiring, booking or choosing a business nearby. In general, AI summaries rarely appear in these searches. On the other hand, “what is” and “why” questions get a ready-made answer much more often.

Ahrefs analyzed 146 million desktop search results pages from September 2025, without naming the country. AI Overviews appeared on 21.4% of informational searches, but only on 4.3% of commercial ones and 2.1% of transactional ones. In searches for a website’s name, the rate was even below 1%. In addition, branded searches got a summary about half as often as unbranded ones.

Search type	Example	With an AI Overview
Informational	“what is a CRM”	21.4%
Local	“dentist near me”	7.9%
Commercial	“best CRM for clinics”	4.3%
Transactional	“subscribe to a CRM”	2.1%
Navigational	“brand X website”	0.9%

The examples are ours, while the percentages come from Ahrefs.

In fact, the profile of sites that gained traffic points the same way. Cyrus Shepard, of the SEO consultancy Zyppy, compared more than 400 sites that gained or lost Google traffic over 12 months. Among the winners, 70.2% offered a product or service, compared with 34.6% of the losers. Similarly, 83.7% let users complete the task on the site itself, versus 50.2%. Still, this is correlation, not proof of cause. Shepard puts it this way:

“In short, Google has moved beyond simply ranking ‘good content’ to proactively rewarding what AI can’t replicate.”

Cyrus Shepard, Zyppy (2026)

Finally, SparkToro arrives at a similar list. In its view, branded searches, local businesses and high-intent transactional searches still benefit from SEO.

What content does AI answer on its own, and what does it cite as a source?

AI handles general knowledge on its own, the kind any source confirms: definitions, causes, short facts and generic how-tos. By contrast, some things only one company or person knows: original data, prices, return policies, tests or signed opinions. For those, AI needs a source. In zero-click search, that content carries the brand’s name and link into the answer.

The Ahrefs numbers, for example, show the pattern. AI Overviews appeared on 59.8% of searches asking for a reason, 47.3% of definitions and 35.1% of instructions, versus 20.5% on average. For questions, moreover, the rate reached 57.9%. In other words, the more a search looks like an encyclopedia question, the more likely it gets a ready-made answer.

Informational comparisons can also belong in this group. Seer Interactive, a search marketing agency, tracked 53 brands from January 2025 to February 2026, without naming the country. In informational comparison searches, the “X vs. Y” kind, AI Overviews appeared 95.4% of the time. However, the sample had only 280 of these searches, and in the Ahrefs data, comparisons came in at 26.2%. Even so, Seer itself recommends assuming the summary will appear and working to become a source in it.

Becoming a source, in fact, also goes along with more visits. In Seer’s data, a cited brand got 120% more clicks per impression than an uncited one. Still, it stayed 38% below informational searches with no summary. Seer warns that this is correlation, since strong brands also earn more citations. The formats AI cites most, from lists to product pages, are in the content marketing guide.

How do you split your content plan into traffic, citation and conversion?

First, classify each topic by the job it does. Traffic topics target searches that still need a click, while citation topics teach AI about the brand and market. Finally, conversion topics serve people who arrive ready to decide. Anything AI answers on its own, and nobody cites, leaves the queue or becomes part of another page.

Group	Search it serves	Topic examples
Traffic	Searches that still need a click	Tool, calculator, template, local page
Citation	Searches AI answers with sources	Original data, pricing, policy, comparison, FAQ
Conversion	Searches from people about to decide	Customer case, proposal, demo

To build the plan, follow five steps:

1. List the topics on your calendar and the main search for each one.
2. Run each search on Google and in an AI assistant, and note whether there’s a summary and who appears as a source.
3. Classify each topic as traffic, citation or conversion.
4. Cut or merge what AI summarizes without citing anyone.
5. Give each piece something of its own, such as data, a tool, a case or a price.

The citation group resembles zero-click content, a concept Amanda Natividad of SparkToro defined in 2022. These are posts that deliver value without requiring a click. In search, the logic is similar, since the page gives AI the answer and, in return, the brand shows up in it.

Before deciding whether a blog is still worth having, run this math on the topics the company already publishes. For agencies, the split also changes the proposal: what to charge for content production now covers research, updates and measurement.

What should you stop producing for zero-click search?

Drop the pieces that repeat what’s already on the web, such as generic definitions, glossaries and tip lists without first-hand experience. After all, AI Overviews answer those searches, and AI has no reason to cite one more version. Before cutting, however, check whether the page brings in leads. If it does, then update the text and add your own data.

What metrics should you use when search doesn’t bring a click?

In zero-click search, measure each content group by the job it does. For traffic, for example, clicks, CTR and conversions count. For citation, what counts is the brand’s presence in AI answers and impressions in Google’s AI features. As for conversion, look at leads, sales and branded searches, which signal people who saw the answer and came back later.

Group	Main metric	Where to measure
Traffic	Clicks, CTR and conversions	Search Console and GA4
Citation	Presence and citations in answers	Fixed prompts and Search Console
Conversion	Leads, sales and branded searches	CRM and Search Console

Rand Fishkin of SparkToro suggests replacing traffic as the main goal with a correlation dashboard that tracks these signals over time. Even so, he notes that the support article still has to exist, so Google’s AI Overview gets the brand answer right.

In Search Console, the generative AI report shows the site’s impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode, but without clicks or queries. That’s why it pays to learn how to read AI data in Search Console. When the Performance report shows many impressions and few clicks, the AI summary is one suspect, but not the only one.

You can measure presence in answers with fixed prompts, repeated every month, as in the protocol to measure brand mentions and citations in AI. The return math, with attribution and the question “How did you hear about us?”, is in the SEO and GEO ROI guide. Content marketing ROI follows the same logic, with cost, leads and AI presence in the same spreadsheet. If traffic has already dropped, diagnose the organic traffic drop before changing the plan, because not every loss comes from AI.

What we found when we analyzed 9 Portuguese-language pages about zero-click search

We analyzed 9 Brazilian Portuguese pages about zero-click search that came up in our searches. Five include 2026 data, but only three say the figure is from the US. One of them, in fact, attributes the 2026 study to a panel it didn’t use. Only three say which types of search still get a click, and four suggest measuring the brand’s presence in AI answers.

On the other hand, only one mentions Search Console’s AI reports, without saying what they show. In addition, none says what content to stop producing for zero-click search. Finally, none of the four that cite SparkToro mentions that it sells an audience research tool. None notes, either, that its co-founder wrote a book on the topic.

Frequently asked questions

Main sources

• SparkToro, zero-click Google searches in the US (2026).
• SparkToro, zero-click searches in five other countries (2026).
• Ahrefs, which types of search get an AI Overview, across 146 million results pages (2025).
• Ahrefs, update of the study on how AI Overviews affect CTR (2026).
• Seer Interactive, impact of AI Overviews on CTR, April update (2026).
• Zyppy, the five traits of websites that gained Google traffic (2026).
• RD Station, Panorama de Marketing e Vendas (Marketing and Sales Panorama), trends section (2026).
• SparkToro, the concept of zero-click content (2022).