Organizations pay marketers and content teams to write and publish words on their websites.

If that work is high quality and relevant to some user’s search engine query, that search engine will serve that website to the user. The website gets traffic and eventually, maybe, a sale. That’s how it works, right?

That’s a lot of activity for a “maybe” sale in the future. But it does work, because those user pools are enormous. The benefit of all that activity is real, it’s thin but it works over time.

Make sense for big brands. But what if you’re a small shop? Or what if you’re a single writer? Why bother writing and publishing for the web?

For individual writers, the benefit of publishing on a blog or platform — as I see it — are twofold.

1. You’ll find others who care about your subject matter.

You may not buy from one another, ever, but you will connect and in that way you’ll walk into the deeper waters of your subject.

You’ll learn, you’ll teach, you’ll create more potential for you to be found and connected to opportunities that would otherwise not find you.

Soft but real benefit.

2. You’ll build a list.

Capture emails because that list you’ll build matters. It’s yours, solely yours, and you can take it from platform to platform, or just own it and send to it through your website.

You’ll be able to message (and sell) directly to that list. As your list and visibility grows, you’ll be further associated with (and wield authority over) your topic. Harder benefit.

It’s all a lot of work. And it feels very silly. But if you’re an individual writer, the alternative — as I see it — is to toil in privacy and hope for that call that changes everything.

In marketing (and in many other fields), aggressors win.

My recommendation is to be an aggressor in writing. Write and submit your material for publication with the right markets, but in parallel, publish your own material to network and build your list.

Now. Zero Click.

Over the last decade, search engines have increasingly provided answers to queries on the SERPs themselves. Now, those search engine results pages are serving up synthesized answers to queries on the search engine results pages themselves.

The zero in “zero click” quantifies the action the user is likely to take next. None. They got their answer. They’re not going to your page. Cool, cool. All that work to drive traffic is, what do they say, sunk cost?

As far back as 2020, 65% of search queries ended without a click to a website. That was 2020.

So if we’re not getting traffic to our website now, what benefit are we getting?

Tough to say. One answer would be the association of our brand with the answer to the query.

If the answer we published on our site was the best answer (determined algorithmically by the search engine), then the user will be exposed to our brand in the zero-click snippet, like this:

So we may establish an association between our brand or name with the topic. That’s pretty soft. Undeniably, monetizable opportunity has been lost.

So what’s an independent writer to do in a zero-click world? What’s the best route toward exposure and sales?

Build a brand.

Think of it like this: You’re going to a football game. You drive to the stadium, park, scan your ticket, enter the arena and walk to find your seat.

As you’re passing through the giant hall, packed with fans, you’ll see dozens of ads everywhere: the walls, the television monitors, even the back of the seat in front of you. Will you stop to read those ads? Generally no. But you’ll notice the Nike ads, particularly the simplest ones. You’ll recognize the swoosh.

That symbol — that fluent device — reminds you of the brand that you already know. You’ll pay more attention. An ad for a brand you recognize will also make you more predisposed to process the ads message. Nike has achieved memorability with you, and their persistent brand ads constantly refresh that memory. (See How Brands Grow by Byron Sharp for the blood and guts of this.)

As a result, we award Nike more credibility, our resistance to persuasion is eroded, we like the brand more, and become more likely to buy from them now and in the future.

Writers can achieve a similar feat by thinking of their zero click content as brand advertising.

Endeavor to make your work more likely to show up in the snippets and graphs on SERPs by clearly emphasizing the most important information in your web writing.

1. The first rule is always to write well

Quality is rare and that’s why it’s rewarded. Invest the time, energy and human brain power and judgement necessary to furnish your audience truly meaningful work.

2. Use formal structures

Lists, graphs, FAQs, and other formal vehicles will help you spotlight the most valuable details; making it more likely for your work to show up on the SERP.

3. Boil long work down to essential social posts

Next, make your social posts valuable. Distill blog posts into concise and meaningful social posts. Win trust from your audience by giving away value. That is how you’ll build memorability.

Think, if this post is the only work of mine someone sees, will they get something from it? Will it be valuable enough that it causes them to remember me?

4. Don’t stop

Then be consistent. Our audiences need to continually be reminded of us. Post on your blog weekly if you can. And daily on social.

Independent writers can build their brands by creating “zero-click” web and social writing. That is, writing designed to spotlight the most essential elements, answers, or data points within the work. It’s more likely to be featured on a SERP or achieve memorability with a social audience.

As always, make sure the writing is of the highest quality you can produce. Quality will always win out. Quality — fortunately enough — will always be rare, and what is rare will get rewarded.

Be distinct consistently in both long and short form web writing.