68% of Google searches end without a click.

In June 2026, Rand Fishkin’s SparkToro published its latest zero-click study, built on Similarweb clickstream data: in the first four months of 2026, 68.01% of US Google searches ended without a single click to any website. In 2024 the figure was 60.45%. The share of searches producing at least one click fell by 9.5 percentage points in two years — a decline of roughly 23% — while the share of searches that led only to another search rose. Google answers; people ask again; the click never happens.

What is driving it

AI Overviews now appear on more than a fifth of queries, and when one appears, the click-through collapses further — Bain & Company measured zero-click rates around 83% on queries with an AI answer, and roughly 93% inside Google’s fully generative AI Mode. And the next wave has barely started: Google says AI Mode passed a billion monthly users, yet it still accounts for a fraction of one percent of searches. The mechanism that suppresses clicks is only beginning its rollout.

The wrong conclusion

The tempting read is ‘SEO is dead’. The data says something more precise: the click is dying as the unit of value, while search itself — as the place where people form decisions — is bigger than ever. The buyers did not vanish; they are being served on Google’s surfaces and in AI answers, and they arrive at a brand later, already decided. A business that only measures sessions will conclude it is shrinking while its market share in the answers may be growing — or quietly going to a competitor.

Optimise for the mention, not the visit

In a zero-click market, the asset is presence at the point of answer: being the brand named in the AI Overview, cited by the assistant, shown in the knowledge panel — with content structured so machines can lift it accurately. That is why we build answer pages, why structured data matters more than ever, and why GEO sits directly after strategy in our order of work. Measurement changes with it: impressions, branded-search volume, AI citations, and assisted conversions tell the story that raw clicks no longer can.

How FIB approaches it

We treat the 68% not as lost traffic but as a relocated market: the decision now happens on surfaces you do not own, and the work is to be present there — measurably. The FIB AI Visibility Check is where we start. If your traffic is flat while your market moves into the answers, get in touch.

Sources

SparkToro (Rand Fishkin), zero-click study, June 2026, on Similarweb clickstream data · Search Engine Land, June 2026 · Similarweb, June 2026 · Bain & Company, 2025 · Google I/O 2026 (AI Mode usage).