SEO & digital marketing
Zero-Click Searches and AI Overviews: What They Mean for Dealers
What zero-click searches and Google AI Overviews mean for powersports dealers, what Google and independent studies say, and how to measure calls and directions.
Quick answer
A zero-click search ends without a click to any result. For a dealer, many of those searches still end in a call, a direction request or a later visit, straight from your Business Profile. Google says AI Overviews need no special optimization, so the work is accurate, crawlable facts on your site and profile, measured in profile performance.
This article first ran in August 2019 under the headline "Google Hits a Record High in Zero-Click Searches", reporting a SparkToro analysis of 2016 to 2019 clickstream data. Those figures are now seven years old, and Google has since added AI Overviews. This is a current guide for dealer principals, general managers and marketing managers: what zero-click means, what Google and newer independent studies actually say, and how to measure and win the searches that never reach your website.
The short answer
A zero-click search is one where the searcher does not click any result. Independent studies find this is common and that it happens more when Google shows an AI Overview. For a powersports dealer, that is only half the story. A shopper who taps Call or Directions on your Business Profile never visits your website, yet that is often the best outcome a search can have. So the job is twofold: be the accurate source Google shows, and measure the actions that happen on Google itself.
What "zero-click" means, and the newest numbers
SparkToro's 2024 zero-click study (published 1 July 2024, using clickstream data from Datos) defines it this way: "Zero-click searches are defined as those that end without clicking on any of the results presented. It includes searches that end with the searcher satisfied, frustrated, or changing their search to perform a new one."
That study reported that in the United States "just under 60% of mobile web and desktop searches in Datos' panel ended this way", that "almost 30% of all clicks go to platforms Google owns", with Google Maps among them, and that "for every 1,000 searches on Google in the United States, 360 clicks make it to a non-Google-owned, non-Google-ad-paying property". SparkToro's page now carries a notice that it includes data from an earlier study and may be out of date, so treat it as a 2024 snapshot.
The most useful study on AI Overviews comes from Pew Research Center. Its July 2025 analysis tracked the browsing of 900 U.S. adults in March 2025, covering 68,879 Google searches.
| Finding (Pew Research Center, March 2025 data, published 22 July 2025) | Result |
|---|---|
| Searches that produced an AI summary | 18% |
| Visits with an AI summary where the user clicked a traditional result | 8% |
| Visits without an AI summary where the user clicked a traditional result | 15% |
| Visits where the user clicked a link inside the AI summary | 1% |
| Sessions ended after a page with an AI summary | 26% |
| Sessions ended after a page with traditional results only | 16% |
| One- or two-word searches that produced an AI summary | 8% |
| Searches of 10 words or more that produced an AI summary | 53% |
| Searches starting with "who", "what", "when" or "why" that produced an AI summary | 60% |
Pew also found that Wikipedia, YouTube and Reddit were the most frequently cited sources in both AI summaries and standard results. Neither study looked at dealership searches specifically, and we found no independent study that has.
What Google says about AI Overviews and websites
Google's page AI features and your website (last updated 10 December 2025) is the primary source. These lines are quoted exactly:
- "There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary."
- "AI Overviews are only shown when our systems determine that it is additive to classic Search, and as such, often don't trigger."
- "To be eligible to be shown as a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet, fulfilling the Search technical requirements."
- "You don't need to create new machine readable files, AI text files, or markup to appear in these features. There's also no special schema.org structured data that you need to add."
- "We've seen that when people click from search results pages with AI Overviews, these clicks are higher quality (meaning, users are more likely to spend more time on the site)."
Google also says traffic from AI features is counted with the rest of your search traffic in Search Console, in the Performance report "within the "Web" search type". You cannot separate it out there.
Read the Pew and Google statements side by side and they do not conflict. Pew measured how often people click; Google describes the quality of the clicks that do happen. Both can be true at once.
Why many dealer searches still end in a call or a visit
This is what the zero-click studies were not built to show. They count whether a search produced a click to a website. For a news site or a recipe blog, no click means no visit and no revenue. For a dealership, a search that ends on Google can still produce a customer.
Look at what a shopper can do from your Business Profile without touching your website: call the store, get directions, send a message, read reviews, check hours. In SparkToro's method, a tap into Google Maps counts as a click to a Google property, not to the open web. In your showroom, it can be a person walking in an hour later.
Dealer searches also split by type, and the type predicts the risk:
| Search type | Example | Zero-click risk | The outcome you want | Where you measure it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local, short | "Polaris dealer near me" | High, but often good | Call, directions, website visit | Business Profile performance |
| Branded | "[your store name] hours" | High, and fine | Correct hours, then a visit or call | Business Profile performance |
| Model shopping | "2026 [model] for sale" | Lower | A visit to your unit page | Search Console, website analytics |
| Research question | "what size UTV do I need for hunting" | Highest; AI summaries most likely | Being cited, and remembered | Search Console impressions; branded searches later |
The first two rows are short searches. Pew found only 8% of one- or two-word searches produced an AI summary, against 60% of question searches. Local and branded dealer searches tend to be short, so the bigger change for them is the profile itself answering the question, not the AI summary. The research questions in the last row are where AI Overviews are most likely, and where your clicks will fall the most.
This is the angle the 2019 version missed and most current guides still miss: a falling click-through rate on your website does not, by itself, mean fewer customers. You have to count the actions that happen on Google before you decide.
How to measure Business Profile actions
Google's help page Understand your Business Profile performance & insights lists what you can see. Performance data is available only for verified profiles.
- Open your profile's Performance view. On Google Search, go to your Business Profile and click Performance, then pick a time period. On the Google Maps app, tap Business, then See more next to Performance.
- Record the action metrics monthly: Calls ("the number of times a customer clicked on the call button"), Directions, Website clicks, Messages and Bookings where they apply, plus Views and Interactions.
- Know what is mixed in. Google says "Performance data includes views, searches, and actions from both organic search results and Google Ads." If you run ads, profile numbers include paid activity.
- Read the Searches report for the terms people used to find you. Google updates it "at the start of each month" and says "It might take up to 5 days to show up."
- Download for multiple locations. In Business Profile Manager you can download a spreadsheet to compare stores side by side.
- Match profile calls to real calls. A tap on Call is not a conversation. Compare profile call counts with your phone system or call tracking for powersports dealerships, so you know how many were answered and what they asked for.
- Tag the profile's website link. Our recommendation: add campaign tags to the website link on your profile so your analytics separate profile visits from organic ones.
- Watch Search Console alongside. Falling clicks with steady or rising impressions on research queries is the AI Overview pattern. Our guide to tracking SEO results with Google Search Console shows where to look.
How to be the source AI answers cite
Google lists the SEO basics it says "continue to be worthwhile" for AI features. Here is each one, with what it means at a dealership.
| Google's best practice (quoted) | What it means for a dealer |
|---|---|
| "Ensuring that crawling is allowed in robots.txt, and by any CDN or hosting infrastructure" | Check that bot protection on your host is not blocking Googlebot from inventory and service pages |
| "Making your content easily findable through internal links on your website" | Link brand, model and service pages to each other, not only from a search box |
| "Making sure that important content is available in textual form" | Hours, brands sold, service capabilities and trade-in steps written as text, not baked into banner images |
| "Supporting your textual content with high-quality images and videos" | Real photos and walkaround videos on the matching pages |
| "Making sure your structured data matches the visible text on the page" | Markup that says what the page says, never more |
| "Checking that your Merchant Center and Business Profile information is up-to-date" | Profile hours, phone and categories reviewed after every change |
The practical test is simple. Pick the five questions your sales and service staff hear most ("do you service [brand]?", "can I trade in a bike I still owe on?", "do you have [model] in stock?"). Search each one. If the answer on your own site is missing, vague or contradicts your profile, fix the page first. An AI summary can only repeat a fact that is clear somewhere.
Two cautions. Do not buy "AI text files" or special AI markup on the strength of a sales pitch; Google says you do not need them. And do not chase every research question with thin pages; one clear, accurate answer page beats ten near-copies. For the wider plan, see our guide to what SEO is for powersports dealers, and for how each element of the results page is fed, the companion guide on how Google search results look for dealership searches.
Where PSX Ascend fits
Two things decide whether a zero-click search becomes a customer: the facts Google shows, and what happens when the shopper calls. PSX Ascend's certified powersports dealer websites are described on the product page as connecting with inventory so "current vehicle details, pricing, photos, and merchandising" support the site, and as including "built-in local SEO, relevant keyword targeting, and manufacturer-specific landing pages". On the call side, the PSX Ascend CRM records and tags every inbound call, and keeps the recording in the customer record, so a manager can hear how a shopper who tapped Call on your profile was handled. We do not promise a citation in an AI Overview; nobody can.
You can also see the same certified dealership websites on our sister site, PSXDigital's certified dealership websites page.
Sources
- Google Search Central, AI features and your website, last updated 10 December 2025.
- Google Business Profile Help, Understand your Business Profile performance & insights.
- Pew Research Center, Athena Chapekis and Anna Lieb, Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results, 22 July 2025.
- SparkToro, Rand Fishkin, 2024 Zero-Click Search Study, 1 July 2024 (Datos clickstream panel).