The most recent version of Rand Fishkin’s SparkToro Google zero click study is out now. According to the research, 58.5% of US users will click nothing in 2024. The findings of the study in 2021 were 65%, therefore this is an upgrade.
Additionally, the survey found that while 21.4% of Google searches result in another Google search, approximately 37% of searches do not lead to any action. Nearly half result in a click.
Those are the main points. To help you see what happens when Americans search, we have included a chart.
There was no change in the EU findings, while the number of clicks was 1.2% higher…
Quite a few queries (360 in the US and 374 in the EU, or 36.6% and 37.4%, respectively) ended up on the open web.
These three points stood out the most …
1. Search behavior in both regions is quite similar except for paid ads (EU mobile searchers are almost 50% more likely to click a Google paid search ad) and clicks to Google properties (where US searchers are considerably more likely to find themselves back in Google’s ecosystem after a query).
2. Almost half of mobile searches in both the US and EU end the browsing session entirely; more than 2 times the percent of such searches are on desktop devices.
3. Universally, ~22% of searches result in another search. A future study to categorize this by searchers who refine their existing search (using a similar term/phrase) vs. search for something entirely new would likely be interesting to marketers.
Another noteworthy statistic was that paid search accounted for only 1% of hits, which seems quite low. Rand explained away the seeming discrepancy by saying…
1% of all clicks include billions of Google searches in which no paid ad was present. In fact, in 2023, Google itself stated that less than 20% of search queries contain a paid ad. If we assume that number remains accurate in 2024, then paid ad CTR is at least 5%, on average, when paid/sponsored ads are visible in a Google SERP. My guess is that, when paid ads appear, especially when they’re on top of all other search results, the paid ad CTR is between 5-10%.
Preciseness? “— Just so we’re clear, Google contested the findings of the 2021 study and will probably do the same with these. Rand is well recognized as an authority in search engine optimization (SEO), so we have faith that he has done his homework and that the study is worth perusing for all of its intriguing aspects.