SEO for Law Firms: Zero Click Searches

Have you ever looked up a question on Google? Perhaps you have Googled information on a celebrity or thought leader and found the answer without having to click on anything. In that case, you have conducted a zero-click search. More searches than ever before are terminating without a click-through to a website, mostly due to SERP features that provide useful information directly on the results page. But what impact does that have on your law firm’s SEO plan?

In this blog, we cover how to both steer clear of and benefit from zero-click searches.

What Are Zero-click Searches?

When a user types a search query into a search engine and doesn’t click on any of the results, this is known as a zero-click search. When Google displays information at the top of a search results page, for instance, the user is not prompted to scroll down and view any of the other organic results. According to recent research, zero-click study, roughly 25% of desktop searches and 17% of mobile searches end without a click.

For SEO, what does this mean?

• Not all traffic comes from being near the top of the SERP. Search queries with zero 
• Clicks reduce the click-through rate (CTR) of your SEO rankings.
• To determine a keyword’s actual potential to help your approach, you should be analyzing its SERP characteristics.

How to Spot and Avoid Zero-click Searches

Let’s talk about how to spot zero-click searches so that you can avoid them in your SEO strategy.

A SERP may have extremely little or no click potential for organic results for many reasons:

• Prompt responses 
• A significant number of sponsored advertisements 
• An abundance of SERP elements, particularly those lacking linkages
• If a single domain dominates the majority of the SERP

You may keep an eye out for these indicators of poor click potential when you perform a SERP study of a possible target keyword. 

Instant responses are one SERP feature that will influence your click-through rate more than others. Thus, you should start by searching for keywords that don’t have an immediate response. You can also use Semrush to verify if each keyword has SERP properties.

Look For Long-tail Keywords

Another strategy for “picking your battles” and avoiding extremely competitive phrases that might result in zero-click searches is to use long-tail keywords. 

Compared to more well-known “head” terms, these keywords are frequently far less competitive, which could make it simpler for you to get to the top of the SERP. The aim behind long-tail keywords is very specific. This implies that you may provide your target audience with the information they require by focusing on them with extremely targeted, in-depth content.

Getting Value from Zero-click Searches

What happens if a keyword that is related to your law firm is probably a zero-click search?

While it’s not something you should ignore, you also can’t expect to leverage it for traffic. What then are your options? You can change your objective from getting traffic to increasing brand awareness because it’s unlikely that you’ll receive any organic traffic from this keyword.

This indicates:

• Making original graphics and infographics to follow image packs 
• Producing original videos (with a catchy thumbnail) for video carousels
• Including FAQs to maximize the number of people who ask inquiries.
• Organizing your content to be optimized for highlighted excerpts and immediate responses

Takeaways:

For lawyers, the emergence of zero-click search need not be concerning. Because search is constantly changing, marketers may still meet their key performance indicators (KPIs) by becoming adept at navigating a world without clicks.

Contact us today if you need assistance developing a comprehensive SEO strategy that will improve your search visibility and increase the number of visitors to your firm’s website.