Increased Engagement: Zero-Click Searches Are Falling … and Publishers Have Reason to Celebrate

AI may continue tightening its grip on search — with AI tools a part of a growing share of desktop events, according to recent Datos and SparkToro research — but even as AI-generated results are seemingly harder for searchers to avoid, how they ultimately interact with those results seems to be trending in ways publishers shouldn’t ignore.

“In the US, traditional search remained the largest driver of desktop search activity,” says the State of Search Q1 2026 report. “However, its trajectory was broadly flat to slightly declining. … AI tools continued their upward trajectory, showing both consistent and accelerating growth over time. Their share of desktop events increased from approximately 0.41% in January 2025 to 0.93% by March 2026.”

Looking at Google clicks since the beginning of 2025, zero-click searches fell from a high of 28.1% in April 2025 to a low of 22.4% in March 2026. Along with organic click-through numbers bouncing back, it’s clear engagement in general is improving as those who are searching are demanding more meaningful results.

(Photo Source: Datos)

“There’s a rare spot of hope here for publishers and creators on the web,” says Rand Fishkin, SparkToro co-founder and CEO. “It’s been a long time since the trend moved in this direction (and, granted, this is desktop only, so we’re missing the 2/3rds of searches that happen on mobile), but hopefully it means a bit more stability and less of the traffic-shrinking apocalypse we’ve seen the last five years.”

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FAST FAQ

What does a drop in zero-click searches actually mean for a site’s traffic?

A lower zero-click rate means more people who search on Google are clicking through to external websites instead of getting their answer directly from the search results page. That’s more searchers who could potentially land on your content, making this a meaningful shift for publishers who rely on organic traffic.