Clickless majority

Googleplex. © iStock.

Less than half of Google searches now result in a click, according to a report by Rand Fishkin of digital marketing company SparkToro. And the figure for mobile searches is even worse, with two-thirds of all searches coming up clickless. In the second half of 2019, for mobile and desktop searches combined, 49.76% of searches were clickless, 5.98% led to other Google sites like Google Maps or YouTube, 3.83% resulted in a click on sponsored links and just 40.42% led to the “Rest of the Web”. This means that Google is turning into a closed ecosystem and that most users find the answer to their request without having to visit any third-party websites. All told, 94% of all searches are performed on Google-owned sites. Its biggest competitor, Microsoft’s Bing, garners just 1.18% of all clicks.

⇨ SparkToro, Rand Fishkin, “Less than half of Google searches now result in a click.”