The Rise of No-Click Searches

These days, nearly every customer or client you earn starts as a web visitor. It’s why businesses big and small alike invest in search engine optimization (SEO) tactics to find the best leads and drive them to your site with every search. But what happens when those leads find what they’re looking for without visiting your site? This is called no-click searches and they account for 61% of all mobile searches. Here’s what they mean for your business.

How are Searchers Finding What They Need Without a Click?

Search engines are everyone’s go-to source for information on virtually any topic. This pushes Google, Bing and others to pull data more efficiently and deliver the best answer as quickly as possible. For common information, like weather and movie times, search engines are bumping down websites in favor of their own data-rich content snippets. Search “movie times today” and you’ll see Google’s information before you see a local theater’s website.

As search engines continue to refine their algorithms, more searchers have realized that the snippets answer their questions and move on without ever clicking through to a website. Convenient for them, but challenging for your business. Luckily, we are here to help.

How Do We Continue to Convert Searchers?

Despite what we think, Google doesn’t have all the answers. What it does have is the ability to find answers. The information you see in search results and rich snippets is pulled from websites just like yours. So in reality, you have the answers. The goal now becomes: how do you get your name featured in those snippets and become the definitive authority on these questions?

It’s easier said than done, especially when all your competitors are trying to reach the same coveted ranking. Here are our recommendations for how to best position your site to feed these snippet spots.

Structured Data

Structured data is coded information you place in your site that better identifies the attributes of your business. These are things like: your name, type of business, address, online reviews, product listings and services offered. Adding this data will help search engines read your site more easily and find the information they need for snippets. Sounds boring, but makes a serious difference.

Tailored Content

Content production is the key to higher search rankings, thought leadership and web traffic. Tailoring this content to the most common questions in your industry will help your chances of having that content featured in a rich snippet. Keep in mind, Google prefers video content to standard written blog content, so never hesitate to go the extra mile in your content strategy. Not only does it make you seem like a superstar in the industry, but it will also pave the way to obtaining a rich snippet.

Digestible Answers

Although we know that Google likes articles and pages that are wordy and content heavy, we also have to provide the answers in a concise manner. Featured snippets are pretty limited, and will only show about 40-50 words from your article. Keep your articles skimmable and approachable. No one wants to read a term paper, especially not a busy Google crawl bot.

SERP-Friendly Answers

Lastly, you should ensure your search listing itself is concise. Our approach here is always quality over quantity. Keep the title tag under 60 characters and the meta description under 255 characters. You can say enough in that space to establish yourself a credible source to both the search engine and the user.

Practicing these tactics will improve your site’s chances at landing the top spot in the search engine ranks. So even as no-click searches continue to rise, your business will still gain valuable exposure. You will also be positioning yourself as a thought leader in your industry, which can lead to bigger and better opportunities online. Contact us today and learn how we can expand your influence and improve your bottom line through SEO.