Zero click results in a domino effect that could substantially suppress sales because shoppers don’t see the tools used by businesses to bring them back. About 80% of consumers rely on zero-click results in at least 40% of their searches, according to a recent report from Bain & Co. This reduces organic traffic to their websites by 15% to 25%. With fewer actual visits to their websites, companies — especially SMBs — lose access to customer data and engagement opportunities. Brand visibility increasingly depends on being included in AI‑generated answers, rather than ranking well in search listings. Intuit Mailchimp offsets the drop in online traffic by updating its sites to better serve web crawlers. These are bots that “read” websites to see if they can answer queries users ask the AI. What Mailchimp also discovered: For AI chatbots, the speed at which the pages load and the code used to track user activity are more important for AI-driven searches than traditional search engines. AI chatbots have been optimized for machines than human readers, Mailchimp told. Companies, especially SMBs, should shift focus from clicks to visibility, authority and conversions. That involves structured data like FAQs or “How‑To” schemas, concise answer formats, and monitoring impressions and brand mentions as key metrics. Techniques include improving AI-readability — such as short paragraphs, clear headings and tables lists — and diversifying presence across platforms where AI sources draw from. There’s a silver lining. Zero‑click doesn’t have to mean vanish. Cited content still builds awareness, and AI recommendations can drive intent, even without click‑through.