More than two-thirds (68%) of all health-related searches on Google produce no clicks, with Travel-related searches being the most likely to produce organic clicks (47%), per new analysis of click types across 4 verticals provided by Searchmetrics.
In 3 out of the 4 verticals measured, no-click activity accounted for the largest share of desktop searches on Google. For marketers, a gradual rise in this no-click activity inevitably poses a challenge to traffic-related targets. However, according to Searchmetrics, there are a few contributing factors to keep in mind:
- Increasingly, search engine response page (SERP) integrations including featured snippets, direct answers and video carousels allow searchers to find what they are looking for without a click.
- More generally, searchers might need to search multiple times with more refined queries to find what they are looking for.
For Health marketers – those facing the largest majority of no-click searches (68%) – direct answer integrations are likely allowing searchers to find answers to medical queries. This vertical also produced the lowest share of organic clicks (28%), and paid clicks (4%, joint-lowest with media).
Similarly, featured headlines appear to have an impact on Media-related searches, 63% of which resulted in zero clicks during the period of analysis in Q4 2019. Though one-third of desktop searches in the Media category resulted in an organic click, marketers in this industry may feel increased pressure to generate click-bait headlines to keep up traffic.
E-commerce fares slightly better, slightly fewer than half of results resulting in no clicks. This industry is more dependent on paid search than media or health, with 1 in 5 searches resulting in paid clicks, including via Product Listing Ads. One-third (32%) of searches resulted in organic clicks.
Finally, Travel/OTA-related searches came out on top with the largest share of searches resulting in organic clicks (47%) among the four verticals as well as the lowest share (27%) resulting in no clicks.
It goes without saying that these figures may have moved considerably since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic (the Searchmetrics analysis was conducted in Q4 2019), with each of these verticals likely impacted in some way as consumers search out health questions, increase their use of e-commerce, watch more streaming video, and cancel travel plans.
About the Data: Analysis is based on clickstream data from top domains in four vertical sectors (e-commerce, media, travel and healthcare) for Q4 2019. The study focuses on US desktop searches only.
