Is SEO Dead? What Still Works After Zero-Click Search

The short answer: SEO still works for advisory firms, but the easy version built on definitional posts is over, because most simple questions now end without a click. The searches that still send clicks are commercial and transactional, so put your effort into comparison, decision-stage and opinionated content.

Saying we’ve entered the “post-SEO era” is the kind of phrase that gets clicks but doesn’t really tell the whole story.

So allow me to dispel the notion that SEO is dead (despite what AI experts on LinkedIn may be shoving down your throat).

SEO as an organic growth strategy is not dead. But the version of it we’ve come to know and love as marketers is definitely toast.

You used to be able to publish a steady drip of “what is a Roth conversion” type posts and watch your traffic accumulate. Those days are done, but that’s OK, because there’s more value to be found elsewhere.

The truth of zero click

The 68% zero-click figure everyone started quoting in summer 2026 is an average.

When you look at searches by intent, the data reveals some interesting differences:

• Simple questions (who, what, when, where): 76% end without a click
• Informational (what is, how does): 74%
• Commercial (best, compare, review): 46%
• Transactional (hire, buy, book): 31%, nearly the direct opposite of simple questions

Those numbers reveal your new SEO strategy, in all its glory. And it’s better than the old model.

AI has scraped the bottom-of-the-barrel searches. The definitional, encyclopedic, “any rando could have written this” content that was always a commodity and only ever ranked because Google needed something to put on the page when someone searched for it.

That was the low-hanging fruit, and I’d argue all the firms who built an entire content program on it were borrowing against a loan that was going to come due anyway. (Tale as old as time in business, right?)

But now, no one needs to click into your blog and read 900 words just to learn what a Roth conversion is. Google can tell them in a snippet or an AI overview in 2 seconds, and they’ll be happy.

They’ll be happy because 9 out of 10 times, that’s all they wanted. A quick answer, not a relationship.

This is where the industry has had its content strategy backwards for years. Most firms put the bulk of their effort into top-of-funnel explainers because those are easy to produce (especially for outsourced marketing agencies that don’t specialize in the industry), easy to measure, and because they gave a false sense of providing value through “educational” content.

The fact that most of that traffic never converted? Most firms just stopped at the raw visit numbers.

The opportunity is now

If you’re going to pivot your strategy toward more bottom-of-funnel content, though, I can see there may be a tight window of opportunity.

Semrush’s data from October 2025 shows AI Overviews expanding fastest where the money is going. Informational queries still account for most AI Overview appearances, but their share fell 34 points over the year while commercial more than doubled and transactional multiplied several times over.

In short, Google is working its way down the funnel.

The play is to get content ranking and cited now, because you want to be the featured brand in those AI overviews whenever you can.

Seer Interactive found that pages cited inside an AI Overview see a roughly 35% lift in click-through. It’s the new #1 ranking position.

Where to focus your efforts

Move the budget around. Take it out of the part of the funnel where you’ve already lost and put it where clicks still happen and business converts.

What’s that look like?

• Comparison content
• Decision-stage content
• Specific, opinionated, “this is how I see it” work that takes longer and that you probably can’t hand off entirely

You’re going to have to come to terms with something: The new way is probably going to require more work than the old way.

But, at the same time, that work when done well can result in more of the right people finding you, and better chances to convert the traffic you’re getting.

The real change here is that true strategy is taking the front-row seat it deserves, and low-quality strategies built on impressions are being relegated to the back where they belong.

This first ran in Last Call #21 on October 2, 2026.

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