Zero-Click Marketing: What is it? And Adding it to Your Marketing Strategy

In terms of digital marketing, Zero-click isn’t a new concept, but with users continuing to want answers at the speed of lightning, coupled with LLMs making increasing headway, it’s something that digital marketers can no longer ignore.

In this blog post, we cover zero-click search, how it affects SEO, why it’s even a thing, and what you can do to optimize for it.

What is Zero-Click Search?

In a nutshell, zero-click marketing is the concept of offering stand-alone helpful content without the goal of compelling the user to click a link. This may seem counterintuitive. It did to me years ago when the idea first gained some traction. Those were the days when you’d write a little teaser accompanied by a link that users felt compelled to click. They visited your website, took action, and everything was marvelous.

How Zero-Clicks Affect SEO?

Zero-clicks can decrease click-through rates and overall web traffic, especially if your SEO strategy has relied heavily on informational keywords that are now answered without a click. Informational keywords are searches that people to find information on a given topic. “What’s the best time to plant a cherry tree in Minnesota?” “What are the benefits of meditation?” “How long should I let my car warm up before driving?”

Consider zero-clicks when you’re choosing your targeted keywords by not relying solely on informational keywords.

Why Do We Need Zero-Click Marketing?

Search Behavior is Unpredictable – i.e. People are Weird

Of course, we all know that search behaviors aren’t so nice and neat. I used to work with a really smart consultant, and she would regularly say, “People’s search behavior is weird and unpredictable.” She’s right. One thing we do know, however, is that people want answers instantly. We’ve grown increasingly impatient.

Google Answers Our Questions without Links

According to a study by Spark Toro, nearly 60% of all Google Searches end without a click. That’s the case for me as I think about my search behavior from the past week – Pesos to USD, how old Billy Bob Thorton is, and when Easter is this year. All of these searches had something in common. They were answered without a click.

What about those other 40%? According to the same study, most of those were branded and navigational terms indicating that users are already familiar with you. Again, like I said earlier, make sure to account for this shift in behavior by selecting your keywords carefully.

Social Media Platforms Don’t Like Links

Some of the most popular social media platforms (I’m looking at you, Instagram, and TikTok) don’t allow links in the content. Others de-incentivize content that includes links, so dropping a link into a post to get increased traffic is no longer viable.

LLMs Don’t Care About Links

Large language models don’t give a rip about links. They are trained on vast amounts of content from diverse text sources. During the training preprocessing phase, the text (the important stuff) is isolated from the extraneous, superfluous noise – like metadata, URLs, and other structural elements. Like Google, LLMs like ChatGPT and Gemini are motivated to answer your questions immediately.

We’re Just Plain Tired of Links

Yes, we’ve finally cried “Uncle” to links. Over the past almost thirty years, we’ve grown tired of link builders asking, wrangling, and bargaining for links. Link building was a thankless job years ago, but now it’s even worse.

Are you catching a theme here? We’re all a little done with links right now. Like most things on the internet, this will likely change soon.

Are We Measuring the Wrong Thing?

Every month, marketers review KPIs. One metric typically at the top of the list is traffic. Some digital marketers, like Rand Fishkin, suggest that traffic is just a vanity metric. It doesn’t really mean success; it’s not even a leading indicator. I’m not sure if I’d go that far, but I do agree that we’ve placed too much emphasis on traffic alone.

“But influence has always been better than traffic. Traffic was always a vanity metric. ” – Rand Fishkin

Maybe traffic numbers boil down to something that we could measure? After so many years of advertisers talking about brand lift and overall awareness, with digital marketing, there was/is actual data. We were/are proud of that.

So, what should we care about traffic and user sessions if we no longer care (as much, let’s face it, we’ll always care)? Of course, it depends on your organization, goals, and purpose. It may translate to overall impressions and improving your brand recognition, or let’s face it; it’s probably still centered around increasing donations.

Okay, let’s get back to zero-click content. Now that we agree that most people want answers without clicking on a blog or a website, what can you do?

Making Zero-Click Content

Yes, you can make content that’s optimized for zero-click scenarios. Here are some best practices for creating good zero-click content:

• Create no-click content: Focus on creating valuable, stand-alone content that requires no clicking. For example, instead of focusing on getting users to click on your link via social media (which we all know is really hard), try providing a complete, compelling idea in 200 words or 2 minutes or less.
• Keep it easy for people: Make it easy for anyone to consume by scrolling their feed, and keep it native to the platform.
• Don’t measure with clicks solely. In this situation, change your mindset to optimize for brand awareness and loyalty, not clicks.
• Try something old with a new lens. Digital marketing constantly evolves, and the adage “what’s old is new again” definitely applies. Sometimes, examining what worked in the past is a good idea, and brushing those ideas off for a fresh approach.

Contact us today if you’d like help with your digital marketing strategy.