SEO is dead? 68% of Google searches now get zero clicks

21 Jun 2026 · 1 min

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This content was created by Eric Siu. This content was uploaded by Eric Siu. This is a YouTube video titled "SEO is dead? 68% of Google searches now get zero clicks" (uploaded June 21, 2026). The excerpt is a short English discussion between Eric Siu and another participant (labeled Speaker B) about zero‑click search trends using data from SimilarWeb/SparkToro and RustyBrick. Eric Siu references a chart showing the rise of Google zero‑click searches (noting figures like 45% in 2026 and 68% "today") and the drop in open‑web clicks, while Speaker B argues SEO should focus on becoming the cited answer rather than chasing raw traffic.

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So what I've seen here from Rusty Brick is, so this is from SimilarWeb, and I think it's a SparkToro and SimilarWeb collaboration. So it shows only 27% of clicks from Google go to the open web now. It used to be a lot more. So you might be referring to this. I'm showing you a chart over here. So you can see from 2016 to 2026, Google zero-click search growth, meaning that the number of clicks that don't land on a website from search. So in 2026, the number of searches with zero clicks was 45%. Today it's 68%, which is what you're talking about, which is crazy. You look at this, this is a decade out. It used to be 55% of searchers had at least one click. Now it's only 32%.
Google's also much more popular, so you can still get a lot of traffic. Optimizing solely for traffic, you're losing the game because the game now is to be the cited answer. It's not about ranking. When anyone types in a question, your company, your products, your services are mentioned. That is the new goal.