Adapting to Zero-Click SEO: What to Know Now | Friday SEO Tip

We’re Living in a Zero-Click World

In our Agentic AI for SEO webinar, I walked through a specific example from our site. Our SEO Pricing Guide now appears in AI Overviews with 170% more impressions year over year — yet clicks only rose 16%. That means the guide is being referenced, but users aren’t visiting the page directly.

Why? Google is pulling the information users want into the AI Overview itself. When someone searches for “SEO pricing,” they’re met with an AI-generated summary based on multiple sources—ours included—so there’s less reason to click through. We’re doing the work to be part of the conversation, but the traffic payoff isn’t as immediate.

This is what we call the zero-click effect. It’s a growing challenge for content creators and marketers alike. If your brand isn’t cited by name or linked in the overview, you may not get any traffic, even if your content was used to generate the result.

Check Your AI Exposure with SE Ranking

Tools like SE Ranking let you filter your rankings using the SERP feature. You can now track when your content appears in AI Overviews, which is key to understanding your accurate search visibility.

If your page gets impressions without clicks, it’s time to investigate what Google is doing with your content.

Don’t Just Appear. Get Cited.

To increase the chances of being cited by name, you need to boost your domain authority and author trust signals.

Start by claiming your Knowledge Panel when Google knows who wrote your content and sees consistent credibility signals, your chances of citation increase.

This shift doesn’t mean SEO is broken, but it does mean we have to adapt quickly. AI Overviews are changing what counts as a successful search appearance.