Rose says: “My additional insight is that, in 2025, SEO isn't just about ranking. It's about being seen and remembered, even when users don't click.

Imagine this: you've done everything right. Your website is fully optimized. Your backlink profile is solid, and you've landed that number 1 spot on Google. But then, when you check your analytics, the traffic just isn't there. That's the reality of zero-click search.

In many ways, Google has evolved from a search engine to an answer engine; a kind of competitor for user attention that delivers instant responses through featured snippets, AI overviews, and knowledge panels – answering more queries directly on the search results page and reducing traditional website traffic.

In fact, more than 65% of all searches now end without a click, and that number is only going to rise.

What does this mean for SEO in 2025? It means that ranking alone isn't enough anymore. Winning in search now requires a shift in mindset from driving clicks to owning visibility and authority across the SERP.

To do this and to stay ahead, SEOs need to optimize for featured snippets, they need to leverage structured data, and they need to strengthen entity-based authority so that their brand remains a trusted source, whether users click through or not.

The reality is that, in a world where Google is a gatekeeper, the real victory isn't just in traffic. It's in recognition, credibility, and long-term brand presence.”

Why do you think no-click is such a thing now? Obviously, we used to be able to rely on traffic to our websites. You would have thought that it would be in Google's interest to keep website owners fairly happy.

If they try and keep users on search engines, is there any point in websites optimizing for search engines?

“Well, no-click benefits Google in two ways. The first is that they want to make the user experience as easy and efficient as possible. One way to do that is to answer the question immediately through SERP features without the user having to click around. They want the user to come to them, get their answer, and for that to be it.

Also, we need to remember that 70% of Google's revenue comes from Google Ads, so it's very much in their interest to keep users on their platform – but it has initiated a shift. For a long time, SEO has been about getting clicks: we optimise, we rank, and we expect users to land on our sites, but now that's all changing.

This shift is affecting businesses across industries, from hospitality and finance to e-commerce and healthcare – anywhere that Google can surface information directly. That's why this is so important.”

How do we win on the new SERP? How do we take advantage of what Google is currently offering, and how do we measure success now?

“That's a good question because, if people aren't clicking, how do you still make an impact?

First off, you have to start thinking beyond just clicks. When Google pulls an answer from your site into a featured snippet or an AI overview, that's still visibility. It's still brand exposure. If your business keeps showing up in these zero-click spots, over time, you become the authority in your space.

One big way to do this is to optimize for featured snippets. Google really loves clear, structured answers, so things like concise definitions, bullet points, tables, step-by-step guides, and FAQs are all going to work. It means making full use of H2 and H3 subheadings, using the active voice where possible, and then building this content out into topical clusters that will grow authority and help Google see you as a credible voice in your industry.

You can then support these content improvements with structured data, so implementing review schema, product schema, how-to schema, etc. This is all going to help Google better understand and highlight your content, and pull it into SERP features where possible.

For local businesses, focus on Google Business Profile: your hours, reviews, updates, etc. Those are now the first things people are going to see, and often they're not going to need to click through to your site. In a way, these profiles are almost as important as your website. That means keeping your profile fresh and optimized is just as important as your actual site.”

Why is it important to use the active voice instead of the passive voice?

“When people search, they're looking for answers to specific queries. If you can provide a direct answer that isn't, for want of a better word, ‘fluffy’, then Google is going to prioritise those answers because it wants to have rich snippets that it can show to the user to say, ‘Here's a question. Here's the answer.’ Nice and easy.”

Is that maybe only suitable for pages where you'd like to solicit a direct action, like sales-type pages?

Here’s an example of active voice from the web: ‘I bought bananas at the store today’, and then the passive voice would be, ‘bananas were bought by me at the store today.’ I would have thought that most websites were generally written in the active voice but maybe academic, research-type websites might not be.

Are you suggesting that research should perhaps be written in the active voice as well?

“I think it very much depends on what the featured snippet is that you're targeting. As part of your keyword plan, you need to know which SERP features are attached to the terms that you're targeting and how relevant each one is.

This is where schema comes in because you can have product schema, you can have FAQ schema, you can have how-to schema, and all these different types of things that tell Google, ‘Here is an opportunity for a featured snippet if you want to pull this information out.’

The active voice would only be really useful if your keyword is attached to a featured snippet and you're targeting that. It's not always essential, but it's something to consider.”

You also mentioned including certain elements within your web page, perhaps tables, to give you a better chance of appearing in featured snippets.

How do you know what type of content to feature in your content, to give you a better opportunity of actually appearing for your target featured snippet?

“There are no exact guarantees. Anything that makes your information easy to digest, Google is going to prioritise. It prioritises readability and simplicity, so things like bullet points, numbered lists, and tables are all things that it's going to pull out.

It's also worth mentioning other media. Google is prioritising YouTube more than ever; pulling in answers right into search results. In fact, YouTube is now the second biggest search engine in the world. Including video as another type of information is going to give a high chance that you're going to get into search results.

This is also media that AI doesn't yet know how to inexpensively reproduce like it does with text content, for example. I'd say, as well as adding the schema, add other elements such as images and video where possible, and infographics, because these are things that Google can't yet effectively create itself, so it's going be more likely to pick from your content.”

How does optimizing for featured snippets versus optimizing for search generative experience differ?

“It is essentially different. I mean, a featured snippet is generally more concise, and more brief. It's a direct answer to a direct question.

Whereas, SGE usually includes more context, and includes longer replies when needed. I mean, if you're optimizing for featured snippets, that is also going to be useful for SGE, but I think a featured snippet is definitely a distinct thing, so it's definitely worth considering.”

Something else you also advocate is optimizing for People Also Ask. How do you go about doing that?

“With FAQ schema, that's going to help. A really good way of optimizing for that is the way you structure your on-page content.

For example, it's always a good idea to structure H2 and H3. Maybe if you ask the question with the heading and then, directly after the heading (that’s either H2 or H3), provide a concise and efficient answer, then Google is going to be able to easily pick up that you're providing an answer there. That's one way to get into People Also Ask – and the FAQ schema.

Using the code on your page to show Google that this is a question and answer is going to also make sure that it reads your content correctly and pulls out anything that it believes is a direct answer, or valuable to its audience.”

I guess the holy grail is to get users to search for your brand as opposed to search for generic queries.

Can you think of actionable strategies that you can recommend, that encourage users to search for a brand directly instead of just doing a generic search and hoping that your brand turns up?

“That's what I think the bigger picture is here, with zero-click search. It's not a death sentence. I think it does have a wider branding opportunity.

SEO in 2025 is so much bigger than just rankings. It's about visibility across platforms. People aren't just searching on Google anymore; they're using TikTok, Reddit, YouTube, and even ChatGPT and AI assistants like that. So, if you're only focusing on ranking number 1 on Google, you're missing out on where people actually are.

That's why embracing zero-click SEO is so powerful because it's not just an SEO strategy. It's a brand-building strategy.

Let's say someone searches for ‘best running shoes for beginners’. Maybe Google's AI overview pulls in your content, but the user doesn't click through. But later they see your brand in a YouTube video, and then they notice an Instagram post. Maybe a friend mentions your brand on Reddit, and then suddenly your brand is everywhere. That's essentially the bigger marketing picture, and that's what SEO, I think, needs to become.

It's about being visible, so moving from search engine optimization to a more holistic search experience optimization because the search landscape is broadening and evolving so fast, and we need to evolve with it.”

I guess one of the big challenges that SEOs face nowadays is demonstrating the impact of what they're doing. It used to be easy in the past to say, ‘We got X number of click-throughs from this particular search result that we were targeting, and we could perhaps even track that user through to making a purchase.’ So, what happens if people don't click on a web page?

They experience the brand, they interact with the results on the SERP, and they go ahead to do some kind of other brand search in the future. Is there some way of putting some measure of success on those activities that SEOs will be doing?

“Yeah, that's a tricky part, right? Because if zero people are clicking, how do you know if your SEO is actually working?

I think, first, we need to stop only measuring clicks. Impressions matter more than ever. If your pages are showing up in Google's summaries and other rich snippets, that's an exposure. Even if people aren't clicking, you're building trust and recognition every time they see your brand in search results.

Look beyond Google Analytics. Track things like brand mentions, check how often your content appears in rich results, and monitor engagement on other platforms like your socials – YouTube, even – and direct search volume for your brand name. Look at all the different micro touchpoints that users are having with your brand and find ways to better deliver value to them where they are.

Here's the key: if your direct traffic brand searches or email sign-ups are growing, even if your clicks are lower, you're winning. It means that people remembered you and sought you out later. It means people are investing time into you and what you have to offer, in whatever form that takes. That's the real success metric.

It's not just about immediate clicks anymore. It's about brand impact. No-click SEO is an evolution. It's not a death sentence. The fundamentals of SEO are still there, but the way we measure success is changing. Instead of just tracking rankings and CTR, we need to begin to think bigger about visibility and engagement beyond the click.”

The SEO landscape's changed significantly over the last year or so. It will continue to change, I'm sure.

How does an SEO future-proof what they're doing now so, hopefully, they won't have to react so much in the future?

“The common thing is that ‘SEO is always dead’, right? What's actually happening is that the Internet and the Google landscape evolve and change so quickly, but SEO has always managed to evolve along with it, and it needs to just continue to do that.

To do that, we need to have a shift in perspective from driving clicks to building visibility and smoothening the experience. It's a much more complex activity.”

It's a much more complex activity and you aren’t necessarily going to be able to future-proof everything, but I guess what you're saying is to just keep your ear to the ground, test and experiment, and ensure that's what you're doing is what works for the current search landscape.

“Yeah, and shifting from keywords to entity optimization.

I think entity optimization is the future of SEO, at least for the next few years. It's about helping Google to build up its understanding – its broader, wider understanding of your brand – through its knowledge graph, rather than focusing on these siloed activities of backlinks, keywords, etc. It's a much broader experience now.

So, to stay ahead in the changing landscape, SEOs need to think broader. They need to think of wider marketing rather than just the little activities that we've been doing for the past however many years. It's just a change in perspective, I think.”

If an SEO is struggling for time, what should they stop doing right now so they can spend more time doing what you suggest in 2025?

“Okay. I think SEOs need to move beyond vanity rankings. Too often, businesses chase the number 1 spot for high-traffic keywords without asking the important question: will this actually bring value to my business?

For example, rather than spending months trying to rank for ‘best hotel in London’ (which is a highly competitive term where Google dominates the SERPs with its own listings), businesses should focus on brand-led and long tail queries – something like ‘luxury stays near Covent Garden’.

This approach shifts the focus from competing for generic broad keywords, where Google is actively keeping users on the SERPs, to owning a unique search space that attracts the right audience.

The reality is that SEO is evolving from keyword-based ranking to entity authority, which I mentioned. Google's algorithms no longer just match keywords. They understand businesses, entities, and websites within a much broader context through the knowledge graph – a shift that's also driving the rise of zero-click searches because this is where Google is pulling its zero-click data from.

Rather than seeing this as a loss of traffic, businesses should view it as an opportunity. By demonstrating expertise and optimizing for multiple platforms, brands can make sure they stay discoverable, whether users find them through a zero-click result or another digital touchpoint.

In this way, no-click SEO isn't a threat. It's definitely an evolution. It's a chance to expand visibility, diversify digital reach, and thrive in a search landscape that prioritises authority and relevance over mere rankings. In many ways, this levels the playing field for smaller brands who don't necessarily have the resources to bid on those higher traffic terms.

As long as you're providing value, the chances are, you'll be found.”

Rose Tero is Senior SEO Strategist at Formula, and you can find Rose on LinkedIn.