What is a zero-click search, and what does it mean for a service business?
A zero-click search is one where the person gets what they need on the results page and never clicks through to a website. AI summaries can make that more common: in a 2025 Pew Research Center study, Google users clicked a traditional result on 8% of visits to pages with an AI summary, against 15% without one. For a local service business, a zero-click search can still end in a call, straight from the Google profile.
What the term means
Marketers use "zero-click" for a search that ends on the results page: the person reads the opening hours, a phone number, a short answer or an AI-written summary, and leaves without visiting any site. For a website owner it can mean fewer visits from the same number of searches.
What the evidence shows
Pew Research Center analyzed the March 2025 browsing of 900 U.S. adults. Users who saw an AI summary clicked a traditional search result on 8% of visits, and those who did not see one clicked on 15% of visits. The related answer on whether AI answers are taking clicks from Google covers what the study did and did not show.
Google's own guide for site owners puts it differently: it says that when people click from results pages with AI Overviews, "these clicks are higher quality", meaning people are more likely to spend more time on the site.
Why it is different for a local business
A local search can end without a website visit and still bring a customer. Google's help page on profile performance counts actions taken on the profile itself: calls (the times a customer clicked the call button), direction requests, message conversations, bookings and website clicks. A person who searches, reads your profile and taps call never reaches your site, yet that call can be the job.
So treat the calls and messages that come from the profile as inquiries, not as lost traffic; a tap on the call button is not yet a lead. The related answer on counting leads from your Google Business Profile shows how to log them, with search as the source.
What to do about it
- Keep the profile complete and correct. Google says businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to show up in local search results, and the profile may be all a person reads.
- Write the answers customers want in plain words on your own site, so a summary has something correct to draw on.
- Judge the work by inquiries and jobs won from search, not by visits alone; the related answer on Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode explains where those summaries appear.
Sources
- Pew Research Center, "Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results" (July 22, 2025)
- Google Search Central, "AI features and your website"
- Google Business Profile Help, "Understand your Business Profile performance & insights"
- Google Business Profile Help, "Tips to improve your local ranking on Google"
Related answers
- Are AI answers taking clicks away from Google search results?
- What are Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode?
- How do you know how many leads come from your Google Business Profile?
GEO: recommended in AI answers
When a customer asks ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google's AI who to call, the answer names a few businesses. GEO is the work of making yours one of them.