The study showed that in the first quarter of this year, 48.96% of Google searches in the The US have been without any click, which is 12% more non-click searches than it was in the first quarter of 2016.
Data collected revealed that during the first quarter of 2019, organic clicks on sites other then owned by Google had been 41.45%, whereas, for 5.9% searches, users directed to other Google-owned sites. Overall, 12% of search clicks were on the Google-owned sites.
said that people who belong to the same industry where Google has entered or thinking of entering can have a hard timing in generating revenue or finding opportunities.
According to Jumpshot’s study, in Q1 2016 there had been 75.6 billion organic clicks on browser-based searches. Whereas in Q1 2019, there has been a decrease of around 20% and there were almost 61.5 billion organic clicks only.
There has been a 13% decrease in click-through rate on organic searches that is now 47.4%, on the other side click-through rate of search ads have witnessed an increase of 75%, and was 3.69% in Q1 2019.
The increased zero-clicks and paid search ads were majorly from mobiles and because of its search traffic opportunities have decreased on mobile phones, more than desktop computers. Features that shows content right in search results pages and quick answers are the reason for it. Also, most of the space on a mobile screen is taken up by search ads therefore, users click it anyway, said Fishkin. He further added:
“In Q1 2019, Google directed nearly 12% of all search clicks back to Alphabet-owned properties, an absolutely mammoth amount.”
The increased zero-click could also be because Google shows the results of a searched query on the search page and thus users do not proceed further unless they require a detailed answer. This shows that Google is turning more of a portal than just being a search engine and companies should look into it.