Editor's take: Google is arguably one of the most recognizable Internet-related brands in the world. In fact, the Mountain View-based tech giant's name itself has become a verb to describe the act of searching for information on the Internet. But have you ever wondered just how many searches end as quickly as they begin?
According to data from SimilarWeb, nearly 65 percent of Google searches end without the user clicking on a link in the results. Rand Fishkin with SparkToro believes the figure might even be undercounting some mobile results and nearly all voice searches. Factoring in those results, Fishkin said it is probable that more than two-thirds of all Google searches are "zero-click searches."
SimilarWeb's data consisted of around 5.1 trillion Google searches conducted worldwide between January 2020 and December 2020. Of those, 33.59 percent resulted in clicks on organic search results while 1.59 percent were clicks on paid search results.
Data also revealed that zero-click searches are far more common on mobile devices than desktops, at 77.22 percent versus just 50.75 percent.
To put the figures into perspective, we turn to StatCounter. The web analytics firm notes that in February 2021, Google's worldwide search engine market share sat at 92.05 percent. Bing, the next closest competitor, captured just 2.69 percent of the market during the same period while Yahoo claimed only 1.47 percent.
In the US, Google's search engine market share reached 88.1 percent last month.
Masthead courtesy Natee Meepian