A growing trend amongst younger people is to find what they are looking for in Snippets and Knowledge Panels without every clicking through to any links. Yet, this ‘Position Zero’ is not always a winner according to survey that reveals somewhat astute users.

Path Interactive recently performed a detail survey about Google SERP Engagement. According to results of the survey, organic search results still reign supreme but younger searchers tend to look towards content in Featured Snippets and Knowledge Panels to find information they are looking for without ever clicking through to any third-party websites at all.

The “No-Click” Search Results Phenomenon

This phenomenon where younger or any aged users don’t click on any particular website results in searches is termed as “No-Click” Search Results. It is easy to see why publishers and bloggers might be worrying seeing these results as well. This survey had results taken from multiple countries with USA (72%) being a major contributor. The major purpose was to identify how modern users and consumers interact with so many numerous components or parts of the Google SERP.

Besides, the survey reached out to regular users and not only people from the SEO or Google search literate community. Yet, findings of this thorough survey are still not clear enough to decide one winner and highlight Google’s reasons for having all these different options. Depending on who is reading these results, these can be both reassuring and alarming. Here are some findings from the survey that took results from users aged between 13 and 70 years old:

Source: Path Interactive (2019)

Still Good Results for Publishers – Organic Results Strongly Favored

From the results of the survey, 72% people answered saying that they primarily click on ads, organic search results or websites appearing in search results. This of course is still good news for publishers and bloggers. However, a 47% number was of opinion that they never or rarely click on ads. This puts the highlight back on organic results. Another 19% responded saying they click on both ads and organic links in search results equally.

These results also highlighted the fact that older searchers are more likely to dig deeper into the search results. Yet, making it somewhat of a paradox, older searchers are also a lot less likely to discriminate between ads and organic website links. On the flip side, younger searchers highlighted their “no-click” behavior when they had the option of a Featured Snippet instead. Where around 72.5% of all respondents were found to be engaging with Featured Snippets in one way or the other, older users tended to look past them and get more information from organic website links in search results.

Source: Path Interactive (2019)

Same Response for Knowledge Panels and Rich Results

Similar kinds of responses emerged for Knowledge Panels content as well. In fact, an overwhelming majority with no less than 92.1% of the respondents answered that they got what they were looking for from Knowledge Panels. Within that percentage group, a sub 55% continued their search past knowledge panel content and into other links and sites but the remaining 37% satisfactorily stopped searching after they had read the Knowledge Panel content. This makes it another “no-click” scenario.

Source: Path Interactive (2019)

Similar sort of responses was derived for rich results or answer boxes in searches. Only this time, a small portion of about 14% felt the need to keep on searching and looking into other links as their investigation was incomplete. A total of 43% used rich results with other information on the page. Yet, to some people’s surprise, 33% said they ignored these answers and focused on other links instead.

Source: Path Interactive (2019)

People Also Do Their Bit of Criticizing Google

As improved and error-free (supposedly) Google has become, there is still no shortage of criticism for the platform. When asked about if they have any complaints about Google, the same group of respondents from different parts of the world were overwhelmingly of the point that they had a complaint or another.

To Google’s not so nice surprise, only 25% were of the view that they had no complaint at all. With the remaining 75% putting in at least one complaint against the search engine giant. From all the multiple provided choices, there were the picks:

• Out of the 75% that had complaints, 24.1% agreed that Google shows too many ads on their various channels
• Another 20.8% highlighted their complaint to be that Google prioritizes on large business corporations making it hard for SMBs to operate
• 17.3% were of the view that Google shows too many Google-Owned assets or information where they would rather prefer the regular blue links instead
• Additional 7.5% highlighted their complaint to be about Google’s content and how users may have to interact with it across different channels
• To many people’s surprise, 5.5% also highlighted the complaint to be about the low-quality or inaccurate and also sometimes biased search results shown

Why Does It All Matter?

Although these survey results are based on age groups and their behaviors, these are all very important findings in terms of Google SERP. If younger people are more biased towards snippets and knowledge panel content, this can become a problem for publishers and content specialists in the times to come.

However, for the time being and probably many foreseeable years, it is safe to say that organic search results for website results and pages is here to stay. This survey also tilted towards information on Google and not product or service-based websites. As far as raw information is concerned, Featured Snippets might be the way to go. If there comes a day when there would be useful links placed inside Featured Snippets, things can get more interesting.

“No-Click” phenomenon might surpass organic results for information related questions or queries, but when it comes to businesses and publishers, they might still be in the green. These results also provide solid bases for proof for people who praise Featured Snippets and Knowledge Panels more than they deserve. Click-Through is still the reigning champ for publishers and will continue to show the way towards future strategies. Yet, it is easy to spot the variations in people’s behaviors and the need for more evolving strategies across the board.

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