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Googles Top Ten Zero Click Hit List – Are you In The Crosshairs?

By Brett Tabke on July 2, 2025 |

Google

Views: 153

This is not an obituary – this is your last and final call.

VC sharks are circling. They are putting together roll-up teams to acquire websites as they die. So as we are doing some consulting and we were making lists of sites we thought were are circling the drain. This article is a reflection of that process.

Lets look at website categories now under the gun as Google tightens its death grip on clicks. These publishers built their revenue models around organic search traffic and display ads – but Googles SOT (Slop on Top) model completely hijacks clicks for many sites. From how-to guides and recipe sites to budget-tech reviews and study aids, these content-heavy properties are losing their lifeblood – one AI snipe at a time.

  1. General “How-To” & DIY Website Publishers:
    • Focus: Step-by-step guides for common tasks (e.g., “how to fix a leaky faucet”, “how to grow tomatoes,” “how to change a tire”). From AIO to Youtube videos, these are going to be completely owned by Google going forward. The only way off these Serps will be through a Google property or an Ad.
    • Monetization: Display ads, some affiliate links for tools/materials.

    These sites have always been the brute workhorses of organic search and SEO.  Simple, utilitarian guides like “how to change a tire” or “how to reset a router” were once reliable traffic magnets.  But now, Google’s Zero Click SOT takes those questions directly at the top of the results, skipping the link.  Publishers don’t even get a chance to load an ad or earn an affiliate click. If a user sees a Gemini-generated answer with a YouTube overlay or a featured snippet, the organic click path is gone. The survival margin here is razor-thin.

     

    2. More on Reddit:

    “A mysterious algorithm update that completely wiped out my $250k/year business, forced me to fire my employees, and has me eating at a food bank.”

    An Open Letter to the Google Executives Who Killed My Business
    byu/tetonpassboarder inSEO

     

  2. Recipe & Food Blogs:
    • Focus: Providing recipes, cooking tips, ingredient lists. Often include lengthy personal stories before the recipe.
    • Monetization: Heavy reliance on display ads, some affiliate links for kitchen gadgets or ingredients.

    Food bloggers, once thriving by pairing personal storytelling with display ads and sponsored links, are seeing their audiences siphoned off. Google’s AI now pulls the recipe title, ingredients, cook time, and steps straight into the search interface. The long intro and context – which used to be a strategic part of monetization – gets stripped out or ignored. If you’re not a known brand or if you’re not inside Google’s walled garden (like YouTube or their recipe carousel), you’re getting boxed out.

     

  3. General Health & Wellness Blogs:
    • Focus: Explaining symptoms, providing basic health advice, defining medical terms, offering generic wellness tips (e.g., “what are the benefits of vitamin C,” “how to reduce stress”).
    • Monetization: Display ads, some affiliate links for supplements or health products.

    Low-authority sites offering generalized advice like “benefits of magnesium” or “how to sleep better” are nearly obsolete under AI search. These answers now surface instantly in Gemini, usually backed by whatever health source Google deems “trustworthy”. That leaves smaller blogs with no foothold. Even if their information is accurate or helpful, Google gives them no visibility, citing safety, credibility, or simplicity as justification.

     

  4. Basic Finance & Investing Explainer Sites:
    • Focus: Defining financial terms, explaining basic concepts (e.g., “what is a bond?“, “how does a 401k work?“), simple budgeting tips.
    • Monetization: Display ads, some affiliate links to financial products (banks, brokers, credit cards).

    Sites offering simple answers to “what is a 401k” or “how does compound interest work” are now just training data for AI summaries. Google’s AI regurgitates financial definitions in real time, making the original articles irrelevant. Affiliate models built on credit cards and bank offers are gutted, since there’s no user click to monetize. Unless you’re operating as a well-established brand or offering deep analysis, you’re invisible.

     

  5. Travel Blogs (General Information & Planning):
    • Focus: Articles like “best time to visit Paris,” “what to pack for a beach trip,” “things to do in [city].”
    • Monetization: Display ads, significant use of affiliate links for flights, hotels, tour bookings.

    Content like “things to do in Rome” or “best months to visit Japan” is now AI fodder. Google generates these answers in the Overview panel, skipping over individual voices or lived experiences. Since these blogs relied on informational search volume to drive bookings through affiliate links, the drop in visibility is existential. Unless the site has a cult following or offers hyper-local depth, they’re outgunned.

     

  6. Tech & Gadget Review Blogs (for commodity products):
    • Focus: Reviews and comparisons of widely available consumer electronics (e.g., “best budget headphones“, “laptops under $500“).
    • Monetization: Heavy on display ads and affiliate links to e-commerce sites (Amazon, Best Buy).

    General reviews like “best budget tablets” or “top wireless earbuds” have become fully commoditized. Google now lists product summaries, specs, and prices via Shopping integrations or Gemini responses. Many AI answers stitch together snippets from review sites without offering outbound clicks. Without unique testing or a proprietary angle, these blogs are just filler in someone else’s answer panel.

     

  7. Parenting & Lifestyle Blogs (for common questions):
    • Focus: Advice on common parenting issues (e.g., “how to get a baby to sleep” “potty training tips“), general lifestyle advice.
    • Monetization: Display ads, affiliate links for baby products, toys, home goods.

    Advice-based parenting blogs covering “how to deal with tantrums” or “getting toddlers to sleep” used to draw traffic from anxious parents late at night. Now, Google serves AI-generated bullet lists and tips that bypass nuance, sources, or personal voice. Display ad revenue disappears when there’s no visit. For common parenting questions, the AI is the new gatekeeper – and it doesn’t give out traffic.

     

  8. Educational/Study Guide Websites (for definitions and basic concepts):
    • Focus: Explaining academic concepts, providing definitions, basic study notes for general subjects (ex: “what is photosynthesis“, “summary of Hamlet plot“).
    • Monetization: Display ads, sometimes premium subscriptions for deeper content.

    Simple explanations like “what is photosynthesis” or “plot of Macbeth” are now handled directly by AI. These answers are generated instantly, with no need to click through to a study site or flashcard app. Unless the content goes deeper or provides a unique learning experience, these pages are just background noise to a machine-generated summary. Monetization via ads or subscriptions is increasingly harder to justify.

     

  9. Niche Hobby & Interest Blogs (for introductory information):
    • Focus: Guides for beginners in various hobbies (ex “getting started with knitting” “basic photography terms” “how to identify common birds“).
    • Monetization: Display ads, affiliate links for equipment, supplies, books.

    Beginner-friendly guides like “how to start knitting” or “birdwatching basics” face the same issue. Intro-level content is easy for LLMs to summarize, and Google’s AI does so without credit or clicks. Unless a creator is injecting originality, photos, or personal anecdotes that differentiate their work, they’re being bypassed. Passive monetization through affiliate links to gear or books is eroding fast.

     

  10. Product Comparison & “Best Of” Lists (without deep unique insights):
    • Focus: Curating lists like “10 best dishwashers” “top 5 vacuum cleaners” often without extensive original testing or unique user experience insights.
    • Monetization: Primarily affiliate commissions.

    Sites that churn out “top 10 [product]” articles without original testing or real insight are in serious trouble. These pages were once low-effort, high-ROI thanks to affiliate networks. But Gemini can now create better listicles in a second, pulling average ratings, specs, and bullet points from e-commerce APIs or scraped content. If the list isn’t hands-on or deeply comparative, it’s now just a shadow of a richer AI result.

  11.  General News & Media Sites (Non-Subscriber, High-Volume Stories):
    • Focus: Breaking news, trending topics, explainers, republished wire content, and general-interest reporting.
    • Monetization: Display ads, syndication, branded content, and limited paywall access.

    Major news outlets – especially those with ad-supported models or partial paywalls – are quietly getting downright abused, with some losing as much as 50% of their traffic. When Google’s AI summarization engines lift key takeaways, headlines, and quotes directly into Overviews, the need to click through is eliminated. Wire stories, re-reported coverage, and explainers like “What is NATO?” or “Who is winning the election?” are now AI-generated blurbs. Only the most original reporting survives – and even then, it’s often buried below AI recaps and content Google privileges from YouTube or its News Showcase partners. This shift is eroding the scale that made digital ad sales work. For large publishers who rely on pageviews to drive revenue and visibility, this is a full-blown traffic decapitation.

  • Business Insider laid off 21% of its workforce last month, citing huge traffic drops. Its organic search traffic has plummeted by 55% in the last three years, per Similarweb data.
  • The CEO of The Atlantic told the company that it should expect traffic from Google to drop to near zero.

–MorningBrew

The key thread among all these is that their core value proposition – providing readily available information – can now be fulfilled directly by the AI, short-circuiting the traditional user journey that led to an ad impression or affiliate click.

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