Zero-Click: How perception is shaped before anyone visits your website

The location brand used to live prominently on your website. It was the front door and the one place where you could tell the story properly as a source of truth with nuance, proof, context, the whole package.

That model is no longer where most journeys start. Today, executives often form their first impression in a search result or via an info box on the Google result page, an AI summary, or a comparison list on another platform. They get an answer that feels complete, and they don’t click. This is the zero-click location-decision era.

Investors have a behavioural shift: less browsing, more rapid validation where they’re trying to reduce uncertainty faster. What’s changed is the early stage. The start is now a fast scan to see what’s worth a meeting and what’s credible, comparing locations at speed and ask questions like:

• “Pros/cons of location A vs B”

• “How hard is it to hire, set up, scale in location X”

• “What are the real constraints in location X”

  
  

And increasingly, the platform answers directly. Your website may come later, after the shortlist is already formed. Or not at all. AI doesn’t distribute your message; it distils your digital footprint into a summary. This is the key shift for place branding in an FDI context. AI synthesises what’s publicly available and compresses it into a neat, executive-sounding narrative. It prioritises what’s repeated, has high domain authority, and is easy to verify.

Once that framing lands, it becomes the lens through which everything else is interpreted. The risk of zero-click isn’t just fewer website visits. It’s premature simplification of your narrative.

The new objective: make your story survive summarisation

This doesn’t require a technical playbook. It requires strategic pivoting. In FDI, trust accelerates decisions. And trust is built with proof, for example adding clear facts, company examples, third-party validation, and honest descriptions of constraints paired with mitigation paths. Honesty matters here. Investors assume every place has constraints. They’re choosing where constraints are manageable. If your public story avoids the hard questions, other sources will answer them. AI will stitch those answers together, in ways you may not like.

How the location shortlist forms now

An expansion strategy lead at a company is being asked for roughly three location options by the management team or board. They don’t open ten place websites in their search and first desk analysis. They ask AI-style questions, get summaries, then verify a few sources. The first view is built in an hour. The shortlist begins there. Your website becomes a library for later, useful when you’re already being considered. That’s why the first layer matters. It’s the gatekeeper.

What place brand and investment promotion teams should do

Keep the website, of course, and strengthen it. But manage what your website used to monopolise: the public proof layer that feeds zero-click answers. That means making sure your strongest proof points are:

• Clear enough to be summarised without turning generic

• Consistent across your ecosystem (partners, institutions, cluster actors)

• Updated and specific information

The goal is simple: when AI compresses your place, it should compress the right story.

5 practical tips for place branders & FDI marketers to stay competitive in zero-click

1) Build answer assets, not just campaigns.

Take your top investor questions (talent, speed to operate, cost drivers, space, ecosystem depth, risk) and create short, plain language answers that can be used anywhere: on your site, partner sites, PDFs, FAQs, and thought leadership. Make each answer quotable.

2) Upgrade your proof points so they withstand summarisation.

Replace soft claims, i.e. world-class talent, with proof that survives summarisation: named examples, simple stats, credible benchmarks, short case stories. If an AI tool compresses it, the proof should still be there.

3) Align the ecosystem narrative and avoid fragmentation.

AI rewards consistency. If your IPA says one thing, the cluster organisation says another, and the university page tells a third story, the synthesis becomes mush. Do a message alignment with key stakeholders so the basics match and reinforce each other.

4) Publish your constraints with mitigation options.

Investors don’t expect perfection. They expect competence. If housing is tight, say so and explain the realistic options. If permitting is complex, explain the pathway and who supports it. This is how you convert “risk” into “managed risk,” which is what decision-makers can approve.

5) Measure the quality of inbound, not just traffic.

In zero-click, less traffic can still mean better outcomes. Track whether inquiries arrive better informed, with clearer intent, and closer to decision. Track how often your proof points are repeated back to you in conversations. That’s a strong signal that your story is surviving the compression layer.

Zero-click is a shift in how decisions start. AI is turning early-stage FDI evaluation into rapid synthesis that is fast, comparative, quietly decisive. Places that win will be the ones whose story survives compression.

This article appeared at CityNationPlace in January 2026 Zero-click: How perception is shaped before anyone visits your website | City Nation Place