Zero-Click Search: The Numbers Are Now In

10 December 2025

A year of studies on AI's effect on search traffic has now piled up, and the picture is consistent enough to plan around:

• Research from Ahrefs finds that virtually all informational searches now trigger an AI Overview, and that the top organic result loses more than half its clicks when one appears.
• Semrush data suggests the overwhelming majority of AI Mode sessions end without any click to an external website.
• Similarweb tracked US zero-click searches rising from around 56% to nearly 70% in the year after AI Overviews launched.

Before you panic, read the small print

The damage is heavily concentrated in informational content — the "what is / how to" traffic that rarely paid the bills anyway. Commercial searches, local searches and brand-name searches are holding up far better; some studies even show branded queries gaining clicks. When people want a supplier rather than a definition, they still click.

The 2026 playbook, in one paragraph

Be the answer machines cite (clear, factual, well-structured pages). Be the name people type deliberately (brand-building, reviews, community presence, offline visibility). And own your channels — email list, customer data, direct mail — so that your business doesn't rise and fall with a results page you don't control. Traffic was always a means. Enquiries are the end. Measure accordingly.