Over 27% of Google searches no longer generate external clicks, survey indicates

The way people consume information on the internet goes through a silent transformation. If before the click was the starting point for any digital journey, today it is no longer a guarantee. Increasingly, users find answers directly on the Google results page, either through knowledge panels, featured excerpts or answers generated by artificial intelligence. The behavior reflects a new stage of the search experience: more immediate, more centralized and less dependent on external sites.

A survey made by Kipiai, based on Search Engine Land data, shows the scale of this change. In the first quarter of 2025, only 40.3% of searches conducted in the United States resulted in organic clicks, compared to 44.2% in the same period of the previous year.In the United Kingdom and Europe, the movement is similar, with a decrease of 47.1% to 43.5%.At the same time, the so-called zero-click searches, searches that do not generate visits to other sites, advanced from 24.4%P3T to 27.2T1T13T1,2T13T13T13T13T2T13T.2T13T13T13T.

The result is a scenario in which Google consolidates itself as the end point of the search, and not just its intermediary.“O Google has evolved from a discovery mechanism to a response platform. The user wants to solve his doubt right there, without having to open other”, explains Bruno Cunha Lima, founder of Kipiai. “This change directly impacts the way brands, vehicles and creators plan their digital presence. Being at the top is no longer synonymous with being seen, it needs to appear within the search environment itself.”

Another fact that reinforces the concentration is the increase in searches that end in Google properties, such as YouTube and Maps. In March 2025, they represented 14.3% of searches, compared to 12.1% in the same month of the previous year. The trend increases competition for user attention and requires a more sophisticated visibility strategy, especially for brands that rely heavily on organic traffic to generate business.

For Cunha, the phenomenon does not represent an SEO crisis, but a paradigm shift. “People keep researching, in fact, they research even more. What changes is the fate of this attention.Click is no longer the only success metric: visibility, authority and context come to have as much weight as the traffic itself”, he analyzes.

This transition forces the market to look at SEO in a more integrated way. It is not just about optimizing pages, but building a distributed presence between different formats and channels, taking advantage of the new spaces offered by the SERP itself.“O algorithm is rewarding those who deliver immediate value, whether in text, video or direct response.This requires brands to master not only the content, but the search intention of the user”, adds the expert.

The consolidation of zero-click searches reflects a greater trend towards centralizing the digital experience.The user seeks convenience; google, retention.Between the two, brands and publishers need to find new ways to maintain relevance and audience in an environment where attention is the scarcest asset.

“Today, it is not enough to dispute the click. It is necessary to dispute the memory. Companies that can position themselves as a reliable source within the search itself will have competitive advantage, even without the click happen”, concludes Cunha.