By May 2025, nearly 69% of all Google searches ended without a single click to a website (Similarweb). For online shops and businesses that rely on organic traffic, this is an alarming development. Google's AI Overviews answer more and more queries directly in the search results, displacing traditional organic results. But there are strategies to secure visibility, traffic, and conversions regardless. This guide shows what has changed and how your shop can respond.
What Are Zero-Click Searches?
Zero-click searches are queries where users find their answer directly on the Google results page without clicking on any search result. This includes knowledge panels, featured snippets, weather widgets, and most importantly: AI Overviews. The latter are AI-generated summaries that pull information from multiple sources and display it as a compact answer at the top of search results.
While traditional zero-click searches (weather, calculators, time zones) had a limited scope, AI Overviews expand this principle to virtually every informational and increasingly commercial query. The result: zero-click becomes the rule rather than the exception.
The Numbers: How AI Overviews Impact Search
The data is clear and concerning for website operators. According to Similarweb, zero-click searches for news-related queries rose from 56% to 69% between May 2024 and May 2025 – a 13 percentage point increase in just one year (Similarweb). For 2024, SparkToro/Datos reported 58.5% of US searches and 59.7% of EU searches as zero-click searches.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Zero-click rate overall (May 2025) | nearly 69% | Similarweb |
| Zero-click rate with AI Overview | nearly 80% | Similarweb |
| Zero-click rate Google AI Mode | around 93% | Semrush |
| CTR decline position 1 | -58% | Ahrefs |
Particularly notable: Google's experimental AI Mode produces a zero-click rate of around 93% (Semrush) – higher still than the rate for regular AI Overviews.
Traditional search engine volume is declining – primarily due to AI chatbots and virtual agents. According to Press Gazette/Chartbeat, publisher traffic from Google has already declined by a third in 2025.
Impact on E-Commerce and Online Shops
E-commerce shops are affected in different ways. Informational product queries like "best running shoes for flat feet" are increasingly answered by AI Overviews that summarize product recommendations without the user visiting any individual shop.
At the same time, purely transactional searches ("buy Nike Air Max size 10") remain relatively protected. But the boundary is shifting: In January 2025, 91.3% of AI Overview queries were informational; by October, this share dropped to 57.1%, while the share of commercial and transactional queries rose (Semrush).
Higher Conversion
In e-commerce, AI referral traffic converted at 11.4% versus 5.3% for organic search – more than double the rate (Similarweb)
Better Engagement
Users from ChatGPT view more pages per session on average and stay longer than visitors from traditional organic search (Similarweb)
Citation Advantage
Pages appearing as rich results see an 82% higher click-through rate than pages without rich results (Google Search Central)
The good news: remaining traffic becomes more valuable. According to Similarweb, visitors arriving through AI search results convert more than twice as often as organic visitors. The challenge lies in maintaining visibility within these AI-generated answers.
GEO: Generative Engine Optimization as a New Discipline
Alongside traditional SEO, a second discipline is emerging in 2026: Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). While SEO ensures that AI systems can find and index your content, GEO optimizes for AI systems to cite and reference your content. Brands will need to optimize for both traditional and AI-driven search and invest more heavily in visibility across AI platforms.
GEO is built on three pillars:
Semantic Footprint
Cover broader topic clusters, build topical authority. The more expertise you demonstrate, the more likely you are to be cited.
Fact Density
Every page delivers unique, verifiable information: original statistics, citations, proprietary data. AI systems preferentially cite content with verifiable added value.
Structured Data
Schema.org markup, merchant feeds, entity data. JSON-LD is the format Google recommends in its documentation.
Stage 1 – Retrieval: Can the AI find and parse your content? This is where technical foundations like schema markup, crawlability, and clean page structure matter. Stage 2 – Generation: Does the AI choose your content for citation? Here, trust, authority, and brand signals are decisive.
Structured Data for E-Commerce 2026
Structured data describes a page's content in a machine-readable way and can make it eligible for certain search features and rich results (Google Search Central). Google documents measurable effects: Nestlé recorded an 82% higher click-through rate for pages appearing as rich results compared to pages without; Rotten Tomatoes measured a 25% higher click-through rate across 100,000 pages marked up with structured data (Google Search Central).
- Product Schema (JSON-LD): Name, description, price, availability, reviews, images, SKU, brand
- Organization Schema: Company information, logo, contact details
- Offer with shipping and returns (shippingDetails, hasMerchantReturnPolicy): details for merchant listings in Google Search
- BreadcrumbList: Navigation structure for AI comprehension
- AggregateRating and Review: Customer reviews with structured markup
- Article: Author, date, and image for guides in your shop blog
FAQ and HowTo schema are deliberately missing from this list: Google has not shown How-to rich results since September 13, 2023, and stopped showing FAQ rich results as of May 7, 2026 (Google Search Central). For AI Overviews and AI Mode, Google names no additional requirements; if you use structured data, though, all content in your markup should also be visible on the page (Google Search Central). As the format, Google recommends JSON-LD in most cases. For Shopware shops and other e-commerce platforms, complete markup that matches the visible content is therefore a solid foundation.
Content Strategies That Work in 2026
In a world where AI summarizes and condenses content, you need to create content that provides value beyond a simple summary. E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust) becomes the decisive factor when AI systems select which sources to cite.
- Answer-first structure: The direct answer goes in the first paragraph. Clear H2/H3 headings, numbered lists, concise paragraphs of 40–60 words for optimal extraction.
- Original data and proprietary research: Unique statistics, original tests, case studies – content that AI cannot summarize from elsewhere.
- Expert content with authorship: Named authors with verifiable expertise. Anonymous content is rarely cited in 2026.
- Video and multimedia: YouTube content is heavily cited by AI. Videos cannot be fully summarized in an AI Overview.
- Interactive tools and configurators: Product configurators, calculators, comparison tools – experiences that AI cannot replicate in a text response.
- Community content and reviews: Authentic discussions and user experiences. Reddit and Quora are disproportionately cited by AI systems.
The AI Search Landscape: More Than Just Google
The search landscape has fragmented significantly in 2025/2026. Beyond Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, there is a growing ecosystem of AI search platforms all competing for user attention. Additional potential lies in Google Discover, which surfaces content without any active search query.
| Platform | Market Share/Usage | Relevance |
|---|---|---|
| Google AI Overviews | over 2 billion users/month | Broad reach |
| ChatGPT | around 53% of gen-AI visits | Declining share |
| Google Gemini | around 27–28% of gen-AI visits | Growing share |
| Perplexity AI | 780 million queries (May 2025) | AI-native search |
| Bing Copilot | Integrated in Windows/Edge | Enterprise-relevant |
The distribution of gen-AI website visits shifted markedly within twelve months: according to Similarweb, ChatGPT's share fell from around 76% in June 2025 to roughly 53% by May 2026, while Gemini rose from under 9% to around 27–28% over the same period (Similarweb). For online shops, this means visibility must be thought of cross-platform. Optimizing only for Google leaves visibility in AI search on the table.
Practical Steps for Shop Owners
Based on current data and developments, we recommend the following measures for e-commerce operators:
Immediate Actions
- Audit Product Schema: Every product page needs complete JSON-LD Product schema with name, description, price, availability, reviews, images, SKU, and brand.
- Check robots.txt: Decide deliberately which AI crawlers your robots.txt allows. According to Google, the Google-Extended token only controls training and grounding of Gemini models and does not impact a site's inclusion in Google Search (Google Search Central). More in our article on controlling AI crawlers.
- Align markup with visible content: Only mark up information that also appears on the page. For AI Overviews, Google names no additional requirements; all content in your markup should, however, be visible on the page (Google Search Central).
Short-Term (1–3 Months)
- Restructure product content for AI citation: Move the most important product information (specs, USPs) to the top of each page. Use clear headers, bullet points, and concise paragraphs.
- Create original comparison content: Product comparisons with original test data, photos, and expertise. AI heavily cites this type of content.
- Measure AI visibility: Deploy tools that track whether your products appear in AI-generated answers across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews.
- Optimize page speed: Fast loading times remain a prerequisite. Content that is not indexed cannot appear in AI results.
Strategic (3–12 Months)
- Intensify brand building: Pages with rich results earn up to an 82% higher click-through rate than pages without (Google Search Central). Digital PR, expert content, and media presence are direct levers for AI visibility.
- Diversify traffic sources: Build email lists, social media presence, YouTube product content, community engagement. Do not depend on a single channel.
- Prepare for agentic commerce: Make product data machine-readable and API-accessible. AI shopping agents need structured data to recommend and sell your products.
- Develop GEO strategy alongside SEO: Track citations, not just rankings. Monitor which AI platforms mention your brand.
We analyze your current visibility in AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity, review your schema markup, and develop a tailored GEO strategy. Contact us for a no-obligation initial assessment.
Technical SEO Adaptations for AI Search
The technical foundation determines whether AI systems can find and process your content at all. Beyond established SEO fundamentals, there are several specific requirements in 2026:
- JSON-LD Structured Data: the format Google recommends in most cases. Cleanly separated from HTML and easy to maintain.
- Semantic HTML: Clean heading hierarchy, proper use of lists, tables, and definition elements.
- Internal linking and topic clustering: Strengthens topical authority signals that AI models rely on. Thoughtful site architecture is essential.
- Machine-readable product feeds: For agentic commerce, AI agents need API-accessible inventory, pricing, and availability data.
- Core Web Vitals and page speed: Still fundamental. Content that is not indexed will not appear in AI results.
- XML sitemaps: Keep them comprehensive and up-to-date for AI crawler discovery.
- Robots.txt management: Treat search crawlers and training crawlers separately. According to OpenAI, OAI-SearchBot can be allowed so a site appears in search results while GPTBot is disallowed for training (OpenAI); according to Perplexity, PerplexityBot surfaces websites in its search results and is not used to train AI foundation models (Perplexity).
From Clicks to Citations
The era of zero-click search forces online shops and businesses to rethink their approach. A sole focus on rankings and organic clicks is no longer sufficient in 2026. The new currency is citation – is your brand mentioned, recommended, and linked in AI-generated answers?
But the data also shows: pages with rich results draw substantially more clicks at an up to 82% higher click-through rate than pages without (Google Search Central), and the remaining AI traffic converts at 11.4% – more than double the organic search rate (Similarweb). The challenge is not to resist the change but to leverage it.
Investments in structured data, content quality, and brand authority pay off twice: they strengthen both traditional SEO and the new GEO discipline. Those who act now secure a decisive advantage over competitors who are still waiting.
Here is how your optimized online shop could look:
Farm Shop with Subscription Box
Specialist Practice
Estate Agency
Not necessarily. Zero-click searches primarily affect informational queries. Transactional searches with clear purchase intent are less impacted. What matters is a strong presence with structured data – because according to Google's own case studies, pages with rich results achieve a substantially higher click-through rate (82% higher for Nestlé than pages without rich results, Google Search Central). Additionally, in June 2025 visits referred by AI converted to sales at 11.4%, more than twice the 5.3% of organic search (Similarweb). We can help you adjust your SEO strategy accordingly.
GEO covers measures that prepare content for AI-powered search systems such as Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT or Perplexity. The goal is for these systems to find, correctly understand and cite the content as a source. It typically covers three areas: expanding the semantic footprint, increasing fact density and enhancing structured data – for example through an llms.txt file and quotable content blocks. GEO does not replace traditional SEO but complements it.
That depends on what a crawler collects for. The operators separate search crawlers from training crawlers: according to OpenAI, sites that block OAI-SearchBot are no longer shown in ChatGPT search answers, apart from navigational links, while blocking GPTBot only opts out of training (OpenAI). According to Perplexity, PerplexityBot surfaces websites in its search results and is not used for model training (Perplexity). CCBot collects for the open web archive of the non-profit Common Crawl Foundation (Common Crawl). If you want to stay visible in AI answers without feeding training data, allow the search crawlers and block the training crawlers. Our article on controlling AI crawlers shows how to set the opt-out in machine-readable form; reach out to us for an individual assessment.
At minimum: Product Schema (JSON-LD) with name, description, price, availability, reviews, images, and SKU. Plus Organization Schema and BreadcrumbList. Pages with rich results achieve a substantially higher click-through rate according to Google's own case studies (82% higher for Nestlé, 25% higher across 100,000 pages for Rotten Tomatoes, Google Search Central). For Shopware shops and other systems, we implement this as part of our SEO services.
This depends heavily on your industry and content mix. Search volume is declining. Publishers report a decline of roughly one-third according to Chartbeat/Press Gazette. For e-commerce, the picture is more nuanced: informational content is more heavily impacted than transactional purchase pages. The remaining traffic can be more valuable: in June 2025, visits referred by AI converted to sales at 11.4%, more than twice the 5.3% of organic search (Similarweb).
Agentic commerce is the logical evolution: AI agents do not just search for answers but autonomously complete entire purchase processes. For this, they need machine-readable product data, structured feeds, and API access. Online shops that are not prepared will simply not be considered by AI shopping agents. Read our agentic commerce guide and learn about our AI data enrichment services.
This article is based on data from Similarweb (zero-click data May 2025, Gen AI Stats May 2026, AI referral analysis 2025), Semrush (AI Overviews study 2025, AI Mode analysis July 2025), Ahrefs (AI Overviews CTR study, as of February 2026), Chartbeat/Press Gazette/Reuters Institute (Publisher Traffic 2025), SparkToro/Datos (zero-click study 2024), and Google Search Central (Nestlé/Rotten Tomatoes rich-result click-through case studies). The cited figures may vary depending on the survey period and methodology.