Say hello to Zero-Click Search and why E-E-A-T might still be your best friend.
Hello there.
Welcome to Far From Shore.
Looks like we’re back after a longer than expected break.
What’s been happening out there in digital marketing since we last spoke?
AI is clicking your ads, users aren’t clicking your content, and your traditional strategies don’t work anymore.
Say hello to the mid-point of 2025, I guess.
Let’s take a closer look and see what we can get out of this mess.
Be sure to stick around for the coffee break at the end. Everyone needs a few minutes to themselves from time to time, don’t they?
👀 Seen, Not Clicked – Welcome to Zero-Click Search
Once upon a time, in the good old days, users searched, scrolled, and maybe — just maybe — landed on your site because it was optimized enough to land on the first page of the SERPs.
Not anymore.
Today, it is estimated that over 60% of Google queries end without a click.
The culprits?
Featured snippets, knowledge panels, and (most notable of all) AI Overviews.
Folks have been scrambling to figure out how to not just get clicks in this new environment, but also how to fill in the acronym gap (I’ve seen both Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)).
Regardless of what you call it, the reality is that people don’t search and interact the same way they used to – even just a few months back. Simply ranking first isn’t the end-all-be-all of SEO.
The more important struggle now is to be visible – at all.
Fortunately, there’s a few content and technical SEO fundamentals which do seem to be making a difference in whether your content gets picked for the overviews or snippets:
- Always remembering to support content with Q&As
- Leaning into schema markup for relevant pages
- Using plain, readable language wherever possible
- Speeding up your site like you mean it
- Relying on E-E-A-T (more on this below)
Will this solve your declining click share (in some cases for both ads and organic) and reverse all your fortunes in one fell swoop?
No.
But it will help ensure your brand and content remains visible and competitive in a changing landscape.
Honestly, we might be getting to a point where that’s the best we can hope for out of search – impressions and top of mind, with clicks being just a nice bonus.
Probably one more reason to invest in a multi-channel strategy, and not trust that Google will solve all our problems anymore.
🧠 E-E-A-T – The Most Important Acronym of the Week
Even outside of AI overviews, you’ve likely noticed that search algorithms have evolved – whether it’s on Google or other platforms.
Outside of the mass AI copy-pasted pages, the other type of content that comes up has a tendency to speak from experience, have data to back it up, and generally sounds well-written and, well, human.
There’s a good chance that those creators are following E‑E‑A‑T.
E‑E‑A‑T isn’t a content type but more like a framework or approach to content.
Standing for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness, here’s what high-E‑E‑A‑T content often includes:
- A real human voice — often written in the first person or with a clear authorial tone.
- First-hand testimonials or experiences — not scraped reviews, but authentic reflections from users or clients.
- Case studies and lived examples — proof that you’ve done the work, not just read about it.
- Named authors with bios — because anonymous advice doesn’t build trust.
- Relevant visuals and original charts — unique content that adds value, not stock fluff.
References to other high quality material — as proof that your content is well-researched and taking stock of what’s out there.
Google has been quite vocal that E‑E‑A‑T isn’t something you can just sprinkle onto your website and voila MAGIC.
They’ve even mentioned that it’s not a direct ranking factor of any sort.
So why bring it up?
Because by following this framework, you have a better chance at producing quality content and quality is what gets noticed – by human readers, bot scrappers, and our AI overviews.
We’ve seen this first-hand where lengthy (but valuable) pages that incorporate multiple factors from this framework have a good chance of popping up as sources or even getting name dropped in AI overviews.
It doesn’t mean that every page should be a major tentpole, evergreen, mega guide content piece, but rather that even your blogs and regular output will benefit from it.
So the next time you’re thinking of having Chat GPT write all your content, maybe consider giving it an expert read through and revision first before publishing.
Coffee Break
Banner Ads.
Love them or hate them, they’ve been around on the internet for over 30 years.
Any idea what the first banner ad ever was?
Unless you’re a trivia aficionado, you probably don’t have that info rattling around in your head.
I certainly didn’t, and my guess was WAY off the mark (“some bullshit, probably about shoes”).
Instead, behold, in all its low resolution glory, what is widely reported to have been the world’s first banner ad:
Launched by AT&T’s as part of a campaign called “You Will”, this ad came out way back in 1994.
Rumour has it, the banner had a 44% clickthrough rate (with today’s mean for banners more like 0.44%).
More importantly, while clicks are nice, I’d love to see the conversion rates on whatever passed for a landing page back then.
