Zero-click search.In plain English.

For local businesses, many zero-click searches still end in a call or directions from the profile shown in the answer.

That makes being named in the answer, and having the right phone number there, more important than the click itself.

How common is it? SparkToro's 2024 study of Google searches, based on Datos clickstream data, found that 58.5% of US searches ended without a click to any website.

Google says clicks from results pages with AI Overviews are higher quality, meaning people spend more time on the site, but it doesn't publish how many clicks AI Overviews send.

So measure what your Business Profile reports instead: calls, direction requests, website clicks and bookings, in its Performance view. Google says there are no extra requirements or special optimizations to appear in AI Overviews, so the basics still decide it: pages Google can crawl and index, and listings with the right details.

Example: someone asks for an emergency electrician near them, reads the AI answer, and taps the call button on the business it names. The business gets the job without a single website visit.