If you have noticed your rankings look “fine,” but traffic feels softer than it used to, you are not imagining it. Search behavior has shifted. Google is showing more answers directly on the search results page in featured snippets, local packs, knowledge panels, and AI summaries, so more searches end without a click to any website.
That sounds like bad news for SEO. It is not great news for traffic, sure. But for service businesses (contractors, home services, legal, medical, local pros), it is also an opportunity because your best leads often do not need a long blog post. They need a fast next step.
And that is exactly what we can control.
If you want a team to help you build a “visibility-to-lead” system across Google, your website, and follow-up, start with our digital marketing services and see what a full-funnel setup looks like.
“Zero-click” means the search ends without the user clicking through to a third-party website.
A SparkToro clickstream analysis found that in the U.S., the open web received only 360 clicks per 1,000 Google searches, meaning the majority of searches either end without a click or stay within Google-owned properties.
AI Overviews have intensified that trend for many query types. Multiple industry analyses have reported click-through rate declines when AI Overviews appear, including Ahrefs’ analysis suggesting the presence of AI Overviews can reduce clicks for top results on affected queries.
So yes: you may “rank” and still see fewer visits.
The adjustment is to stop treating a click as the only win.
Here is the mindset shift that helps service businesses immediately:
If Google is trying to keep users on Google, your job is to make sure the next step happens there (or happens fast once they land).
That means you optimize for:
This is what “beating the algorithm” actually looks like now: visibility + frictionless action.
For local service businesses, your Google Business Profile (GBP) is often the first—and sometimes only—thing people see.
Google’s own guidance says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance, and prominence, and there is no way to “request or pay” for better rankings.
If you are a service business and your GBP is thin or outdated, you are leaving leads on the table in a zero-click world.
Reviews do two important jobs:
In 2026, people do not “research later.” They decide in minutes. Reviews are one of the strongest decision accelerators you can control.
Old SEO playbooks assumed:
Rank → click → read → convert
Now, a chunk of your visibility happens without the click. So your content has to do two things at once:
Then make sure every high-intent page has:
Want examples of how we structure service content to convert? You can browse the Diamond Group blog.
Structured data is not a magic ranking button, but it can help your content become eligible for richer results that improve clarity on the results page.
For service businesses, this often means:
The point is not “more markup.” The point is: help Google understand your page cleanly so the result is more useful.
In a zero-click world, the winners are often the businesses that respond first and follow up consistently.
If someone finds you on Google and calls:
This is where marketing and operations overlap. But the payoff is huge. Better response systems turn the same visibility into more booked jobs.
If you want help connecting lead capture + tracking + follow-up, our team builds this into full-funnel systems through our digital marketing services.
If you only report on sessions, you will think SEO is “dying,” even when Google is still sending you leads through:
This is why our reporting focuses on what businesses actually care about: actions that turn into revenue, not vanity metrics. You can see how we approach strategy and accountability on our Why The Diamond Group page.
This is the long game that makes everything easier. When people search your business name, Google is not choosing between 10 competitors. They are trying to help the user find you.
So while we still care about “roof repair near me” and “HVAC service [city],” we also want:
How do you create that?
Bain has also pointed out that AI summaries and zero-click behaviors are changing discovery patterns, and brands need to rethink how they stay visible in that environment.
Translation: do not build your whole growth plan around “free clicks.” Build it around demand and conversion.
It is not outsmarting Google.
It is building a system where:
That is how service businesses still grow, even when clicks shrink.
If your service business is showing up on Google but results feel inconsistent, you do not need “more SEO tricks.” You need tighter local signals, clearer service pages, better conversion paths, and better tracking.
If you want help building that system, reach out through our contact page . We will help you turn Google visibility into qualified leads whether the click happens or not.