Zero Click Searches Hits 68%

[newcustomeroffer]

This report into 'zero click' searches was interesting I thought: https://searchengineland.com/google-...6-study-479717

The growth in zero click searches since 2024 puts into context the impact of AI Overviews and I guess snippets that basically present the user with the answer doesn't help either. Clearly from an affiliate perspective, fewer visits = fewer clicks which isn't good for business.

[chosenman]

Looking at the bigger picture, Google has always nudged users toward answers that keep them on the results page — zero-click searches hit 68% in 2026, up from 49% in 2019.

2026 — 68%
2024 — 58.5%
2020 — 64.82%
2019 — 49%

But here's the irony: decades of people manually publishing information have now been distilled into LLMs that don't work like the old web. They pass no backlinks, transfer no authority — they're just "instant knowledge" built on the work of millions, with no credit to the people who taught them. Watching how many sites have been devalued, I'm realizing that giving credit was the whole mechanism that let the web "value" anything in the first place.

[invinciblepoker]

looks like if u ain't got a brand, you're f**ed

[newcustomeroffer]

But here's the irony: decades of people manually publishing information have now been distilled into LLMs that don't work like the old web. They pass no backlinks, transfer no authority — they're just "instant knowledge" built on the work of millions, with no credit to the people who taught them. Watching how many sites have been devalued, I'm realizing that giving credit was the whole mechanism that let the web "value" anything in the first place.

Something has to give as publishers will stop publishing if they aren't getting any reward for their work, so over time the resources that these LLMs use will deteriorate, the information will become aged or inaccurate, or they will simply wither and die.

[universal4]

I think this becomes far more complicated than that.

AI bots (as well as bad actors) are clearly involved in the cases of website owners being approached to remove content based on usually false claims about breaking fair use.

Then google's own ai bots and scrapers take the same data they tell site owners to remove, and use such data to answers a searchers questions so they never leave google.

Shouldn't google be filing the same paperwork against themselves? "I know will never happen, but it is a bit of a conundrum they will certainly never admit to."

Rick
Universal4

[PaulEchere]

I'm realizing that giving credit was the whole mechanism that let the web "value" anything in the first place.

This is actually a great point, and in fact, this was one of the main incentives (that indirectly translates to $$) that pushed people to create useful content.
Without that incentive - the rate at which people are creating content will drastically decrease. Although that seems just like another problem that needs a solution in the future.

[chosenman]

Something has to give as publishers will stop publishing if they aren't getting any reward for their work, so over time the resources that these LLMs use will deteriorate, the information will become aged or inaccurate, or they will simply wither and die.

This is actually a great point, and in fact, this was one of the main incentives (that indirectly translates to $$) that pushed people to create useful content.
Without that incentive - the rate at which people are creating content will drastically decrease. Although that seems just like another problem that needs a solution in the future.

Interesting fact: Google first got big in the search market because of a new way of ranking websites — it counted links between sites as "votes" (not the only thing, but a key one), which gave people more relevant results that matched what they were actually looking for. And now they've basically "harvested the crops while making sure no crops will ever grow again."

[traffickitty]

Im experiencing the same issue over different verticals, not just gambling...
And I was wondering how do you guys feel about it. Are you sticking to the affiliate business model or thinking about some alternatives?

[chosenman]

Im experiencing the same issue over different verticals, not just gambling...
And I was wondering how do you guys feel about it. Are you sticking to the affiliate business model or thinking about some alternatives?

I'm thinking about sticking to a piece of land and building a fully autonomous, self-sustaining supply loop. With a bunker ideally.

[betscale]

The 68% headline hides the more useful split: informational queries are getting eaten by AI overviews, transactional/commercial-intent ones far less so. "What is a parlay" loses to the AI box. "Best [x] bonus [geo] 2026" still sends a click because the user wants to act and compare.

So the adaptation isn't "SEO is dead", it's a shift in what content earns its keep:

- Pure definitional/explainer content is now a loss leader, it feeds the model and gets no click.
- Money-page, comparison and freshly-updated transactional content holds up because the intent is to act, not to learn.
- Being the cited source inside the AI answer is the new game: structured data, clear entity definitions, and original data/stats the model has to attribute.
- Channel mix shifts too: if Google gives fewer clicks, owned audience (email, community, brand search) gets disproportionately more valuable. The sites that survive aren't 100% dependent on the SERP click.

[VantageWin]

There is a significant decrease in CTR rates if this continues there will continue to be enormous revenue losses

[chosenman]

The 68% headline hides the more useful split: informational queries are getting eaten by AI overviews, transactional/commercial-intent ones far less so. "What is a parlay" loses to the AI box. "Best [x] bonus [geo] 2026" still sends a click because the user wants to act and compare.

So the adaptation isn't "SEO is dead", it's a shift in what content earns its keep:

- Pure definitional/explainer content is now a loss leader, it feeds the model and gets no click.
- Money-page, comparison and freshly-updated transactional content holds up because the intent is to act, not to learn.
- Being the cited source inside the AI answer is the new game: structured data, clear entity definitions, and original data/stats the model has to attribute.
- Channel mix shifts too: if Google gives fewer clicks, owned audience (email, community, brand search) gets disproportionately more valuable. The sites that survive aren't 100% dependent on the SERP click.

Well said.

Regarding being the cited source — I'm not convinced the models even read pages reliably. Bit of backstory: my no-name site recently got hit with a DDoS attack, and while building defenses on my VPS I got curious how the big players handle this stuff. So I poked at one of the major review portals to see their setup — and noticed something interesting. When I had GPT pull data from it, the figures came back wrong: wrong numbers, wrong founding year, even though I knew the real values. There's no scraping defense visible to a human visitor, so my guess is they're doing it at the bot level — detecting the AI agent and feeding it poisoned data. Anti-AI data poisoning has become common in 2026, so I doubt it's a coincidence. Either way, "be the cited source" assumes the source gets read correctly — and that's looking shaky.

[topcaz]

Looks like the path to the authority in our niche is becoming longer, which means the ones who will be patient enough will be rewarded eventually. So yes, all of us needs to build and automated supply of content, at the same time, each automation should be unique enough to survive.

[Alexey_WritersHub]

In my experience, Google only pulls featured snippets when you answer the question straight up. One definition = one micro-paragraph. Zero fluff, no philosophical ramblings, no warm-up intros. Just pure facts

Tailor your text blocks to razor-sharp intent: "what is it", "how much is it", "how to set it up". Stop beating around the bush. Always bake in a micro-FAQ. The format is dead simple: a popular question and a tight 2–3 sentence answer. This will massively boost your chances of grabbing those quick answer boxes

Feed the algorithm and the user that dry answer upfront, and then hit them with the good stuff: "Now here's where we break down a real case study with screenshots and hidden pitfalls." They get the basics right on the SERP, but they still have to click through for the full story

[NoDepositCasinos]

I'm thinking about sticking to a piece of land and building a fully autonomous, self-sustaining supply loop. With a bunker ideally.

I am considering that idea too (minus the bunker), not to such an extreme, but rather exploring ways to diversify into something more traditional. That being said, I intend to stick with this business for as long as it remains viable. We have weathered bad periods before, and I would rather not make hasty decisions if we can find a way to adapt to this new reality.

[Emiliana Rostowicz]

I think zero-click searches will continue to reduce organic traffic for many affiliate websites. It makes creating original, high-value content more important than ever if you want to stand out.

[NoDepositCasinos]

I think zero-click searches will continue to reduce organic traffic for many affiliate websites. It makes creating original, high-value content more important than ever if you want to stand out.

I'm afraid that is not enough anymore. You don't just need to create good content; you also need to present it in a way that AI uses to increase the chances of readers coming to your website to get more information/value. But I think something has to change: people won't keep building websites and creating content if there is no incentive, and AI needs those websites/content to stay relevant.

[eenzoo]

I'm afraid u underestimate the real capacity of "AI" if we would call it like this. Yes ChatGPT was in need of input of content to restructure it and "invent" something new from it. But we are loooong long grow out of this "Neandertaler" mode. You have to stop to see this as a content engine.

[Karri]

Something that get's very little attention in these discussion is the fact that Google/Gemini doesn't always allow direct link to casinos or casino affiliates. At other times it does (perhaps because it gets confused). Asking for direct links to Finnish casinos is met with a no-no. Links to Finnish casino affiliates seem to go through at times, though with the law banning them in the future that might change.

SERP doesn't suggest anything, AI does. That adds a whole lot of headache with laws and regulations for the chatbots. A proper brand is the only answer really.

[chosenman]

...You don't just need to create good content; you also need to present it in a way that AI uses to increase the chances of readers coming to your website to get more information/value.

Funnily enough, when I compared the data GPT fetched from one of the biggest review platforms with the data I see with my own eyes, the data was not the same. I suspect this is a "content poisoning" tactic, to prevent scrapers and AI agents from stealing somebody's decades-long work.