Article by Camila Oliva, edited by Rafael Baquedano. Updated on July 2, 2024.
Changing Search Habits
In recent years, platforms like TikTok and Instagram have gained significant ground with their innovative tools and the type of content shared by daily users. However, they have also encroached on one of Google's primary functions: discovery-oriented searches.
This was confirmed by Prabhakar Raghavan, Google's Senior Vice President of Search, emphasizing that it is younger people who turn to social media apps instead of Google Search or Maps to, for example, discover a new place to visit.
Google has tried to implement novel tools like YouTube Shorts to compete with TikTok, a functionality also copied by Instagram and Facebook. Likewise, it has been incorporating more direct search results where people often don't need to click to enter a website: zero-click searches.
The rise of visual content
Raghavan recommended focusing on visual content, as its demand has increased among young people and has begun to change Google search. They went from complete sentences to keywords, and now we need to focus on positioning images.
This has led to photographs being prioritized in Google searches, increasing zero-click and even zero-read searches.
What are zero-click searches?
Google, like social media, is also interested in keeping us on Google. That's why it chose to display the content most related to the user's search automatically and prominently, without them having to click and enter a website to see the information they need.
This information shortcut usually results from very specific or concrete Google searches, such as the location and rating of a place, the meaning of a word, or song lyrics. These types of searches are called closed searches.
However, when performing open searches, Google looks for the most accurate summarized answer and displays it prominently, suggesting similar questions and answer boxes. An example would be a lasagna recipe, where there are different answers for its preparation, and it suggests the ones it deems most appropriate.
To avoid a drop in customers visiting our websites, we must write about novel topics, creating deeper and more expert content that cannot be answered in a Rich Snippet.
Specifically, according to data from the 2024 Zero-Click Search Study:
- In the United States, 58.5% of searches are Zero-click.
- In Europe, 59.7% of searches are Zero-click.
Which means that for every 1000 Google searches:
- Only 360 go to the open web in the United States and
- only 374 go to the open web in Europe.
Rich Snippets
They are known as descriptions, SERP Features, or enriched snippets. As explained above, this is summarized information found in search engine results. Their purpose is to provide the most relevant data to people in their Google searches, covering a large part of web traffic.
Among the most common Rich Snippets we can find are:
- User reviews.
- Recipes.
- Product ratings and prices.
- Music.
- Essential organization information.
- Videos.
- Events.
