# Zero-click: planning content despite fewer clicks

German title: Zero-Click: Inhalte trotz weniger Klicks planen

> On 19 February 2024 Gartner forecast a 25 percent lower search engine volume by 2026. Whether and how strongly clicks decline must be checked for your own website with your own data. The following planning is a recommendation: provide answers where the questions are asked and strengthen conversion on your own website.

Manfred Sulzmann: “When the click is missing, the brand must sit in the answer—or you are invisible and unpaid at once.”

## Facts

- **Gartner forecast:** −25% search volume by 2026 (19 Feb 2024)
- **Status:** Forecast, not reviewed

## What is verified

Gartner published the forecast (25 percent less search engine volume by 2026 because AI chatbots and virtual agents take over queries). This is a forecast; the underlying research is paywalled and was not reviewed. Google reports AI Overviews traffic in the Search Console Performance report.

## Planning (recommendation)

- Analyze your own data: compare impressions, clicks and brand searches in Search Console over time.
- Top of funnel: definitions and explanations with sources, useful even without a click.
- Middle: comparisons and specifications.
- Bottom: enquiry and purchase paths on your own website.

## Not verified

This report describes a working model of the author. There is no primary source from Google, OpenAI, Perplexity or Anthropic for the individual steps; read them as recommendations, not as verified effects.

## Sources

- Gartner: Predicts search engine volume will drop 25% by 2026 (Press release, 19 Feb 2024) (primary source)
- Google Search Central: AI features and your website (primary source)

Checked on: 24 October 2026.

## Questions

### Should we opt out of AI Overviews?

That is a business decision. Google names nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet and noindex as controls; they limit display in Search overall.

### Do SoM and brand search tracking compensate for falling clicks?

That is not verified.

### Which content should be prioritized?

That follows from your own data and customer questions. No verified rule exists.

## Related

- [AEO tracking: metrics, tools and limits](https://munichmedia.com/reports/aeo-tracking-kpis.md)
- [SEO vs. AEO: difference and context](https://munichmedia.com/reports/aeo-vs-seo-unterschied.md)
- [Positioning: consistent statements about a brand](https://munichmedia.com/reports/aeo-positioning-llm.md)

Canonical HTML: https://munichmedia.com/reports/aeo-zero-click-strategie