Katie Morton, editor-in-chief of Search Engine Journal, and I recorded the first episode of Search Engine Journal’s advanced podcast, focusing on a recurring theme we’re having. We’ve discussed how clicks on the open web are decreasing, which is the trend most searchers are seeing. We argue that much of this attention has not disappeared but has shifted to areas that are more easily tracked by standard statistics. Listen to the full episode here.
[04 : 28] – Introduction: The Disappearing Click[05 : 09] — Where Can You Invest Your Marketing Resources?
[09 : 14] – How to measure performance beyond clicks
[13 : 49] — Where is the Search Traffic?
[16 : 41] — What Does It Mean to See Now?
[21 : 11] – Resetting the Goals for Content Leaders
Where Search Comes Now
Most searches these days don’t usually lead directly to open web clicks. According to Rand Fishkin’s analysis of Similarweb clickstream data, about 68% of Google searches in the US in the first four months of the end of 2026 without a click at all. Only about a quarter take users to an external website. Some will end without a click, lead to another Google search, or direct users to a Google-owned site or paid result.
That attention is concentrated in several areas. More never leaves Google, which is powered by AI Overviews, Business Profiles, Maps listings, and new places like Ask Maps that target people to specific businesses. Community forums show up in the results more often, too.
After the main May update, SE Ranking tracking showed Reddit getting top three positions in all 20 niches it follows. The cooperation of Google and Reddit has been going on for a long time, and Google is very dependent on the results of the forum, although I would not say that the agreement alone explains the movement.
Then there is a small set of sites that still reliably attract organic traffic. Organic, local, and keyword searches always send clicks. The biggest hits are health content, mobile journalism, and useful pages like weather and TV listings, which is the kind of thing AI Overview can answer without sending a click anywhere.
Katie added that much of the open web is leaving the world for social media and video, where AI can replicate formats easily. Younger audiences, in particular, spend more time there than on traditional sites, and YouTube captures their attention across age groups.
Paid Content Bets
Many blogs try to cover all related topics with generic content, which worked when Google indexed them all and drove traffic. Now, they face stiff competition from similar pages and AI snippets that respond directly to search results. Focusing on volume alone no longer works.
Google’s Danny Sullivan drew that line at Search Central Live Toronto this spring, separating material content from the type of work only your business and experience can produce. A listicle that can appear anywhere stays on one side. What you say depends on the other. The title is less important than which side of that line your content falls.
John Mueller made a related point on Reddit. On a new site, audience activity comes first, and search visibility may follow once you’ve built something worth discovering. Starting with “how do I rank” is the wrong place to start.
Katie tied this to business equity. SEJ doesn’t take all streaming clients, because off-topic or low-quality sponsors can cost your audience trust. For him, it was always simple:
It always comes down to authenticity. You want to provide value, you want to serve your audience. It should be something that benefits both of them.
Old-school SEO principles never die, and first-hand experience is one thing AI can’t replicate.
Measuring Visibility When Clicks Are Not Coming
The challenge now is that the numbers you relied on are difficult to interpret. Raw traffic used to be a clear indicator, but today, your product can appear in all search results and not show up in your statistics, especially if it didn’t lead to a click.
Branded search is a sign of caution next to citation tracking. Repeated exposure to AI responses may lead to more marked questions. Search Console’s branded query filter makes these changes easy to spot.
Another change involves a shift from links to references. Unlinked communication can be important in ways that a typical link report can’t see. For example, a product may be referenced in a Reddit thread, which the chatbot later relies on for a recommendation, even though there is no link to the thread. If you are only counting links, you can ignore this.
Katie explained the student side of buying merino wool travel clothes:
I see product names, but I don’t always click through the research process. I see brand names mentioned and on SERP and Reddit and Claude, my favorite AI chatbot … eventually it will trigger a keyword search, and I’ll go directly to someone’s website, and they probably won’t know how to find them.
That’s the attribute gap that most ecommerce lives in: Direct traffic they can’t link to a source. His advice was to track your citations, maintain a brand presence on Reddit, and optimize your content with AI.
No clicks means no profit. Our argument for this episode was that if your content helped shape the response someone received, you may be in the consideration set even if there is no subsequent referral.
Resetting the Scoreboard as a Content Leader
Katie stressed that proving your worth as a content leader starts with identifying your “north star”. He pointed out that revenue and bottom line are important, but it is equally important that planning and marketing work in tandem with business strategy while putting the audience first. Ultimately, it involves keeping the content relevant to the business model, which also means being selective by customers to maintain the respect of the audience.
Part of the strategy involves downsizing. SEJ has improved its contributor program by being more selective about writers, prioritizing real expertise over ego.
My version of this is the scoreboard. When clicks stop being the main number, you make the clicks you do count more. If the only metric you’re reporting is live times, and Google is sending a small portion of searches to the open web, that line will continue to slide. Keep the down times visible and position them around the growing signals, such as keyword search queries and mentions.
Catch the Full Interview
This leaves content teams with a difficult, and highly reliable, measurement task.
A comprehensive scoreboard can highlight value that only a periodic report might miss. While it won’t reverse the loss of revenue caused by bounced traffic, managing both factors together is really the key to success now.
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Featured image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal
