If you didn’t already know, Evergreen content does matter. It’s also something that you can leverage within your marketing strategy. Because the best type of content is the type that stays relevant and drives traffic long after. And if you aren’t sure what “evergreen content” even is – we’re starting at the very beginning for you. We’re even going to share some of the best ways to approach content generation and how to make it work for your business.
Good evergreen content is chockful of SEO. It’s an approach that offers readers content that is continually relevant and current. The term “evergreen” might seem like a silly name when it comes to a type of content – just think of it this way… Evergreen trees are a symbol of perpetual life, much like the trees, evergreen content is sustainable and long-lasting. This type of content rarely needs to be updated and you can continue to use it in your social media marketing.
Here’s the thing, not all content online is sustainable. Even though those articles and blog posts don’t ever disappear, you still have one issue: longevity. When a piece of content is considered to be “evergreen” it means that it continues to be relevant long past its publication date. As a result, traffic to these types of post increase over time.
So why is evergreen content so powerful? First of all, you need to understand a little bit about how search engine optimization (SEO) works. Search engines work in three stages: crawling for new content, indexing keywords, and retrieval – where it fetches a list of relevant pages that match the indexed keywords. Search engines also use “spiders” to crawl existing web pages for keywords that best match a user’s search query
Like I said before, the best evergreen content uses keywords that can be searched over and over again. Depending on the query, search engines are more likely to pull up a particular piece of evergreen content over and over again. And since evergreen content doesn’t have an expiration date, articles like statistics/reports, news, and current trends aren’t evergreen.
Keep in mind that just because you create the types of content listed above, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your piece is evergreen. Granted, these types of content do lend themselves to evergreen content a lot more than other types of format. But if you opt for video content, one chock full of useful information, it will have more longevity than a less practical video.
Now that you know of some of the key formats to creating evergreen content, you can actually start making them.
Naturally, the goal is to make sure that whatever content you do create is relevant to your brand. If it’s not, it will definitely be out of place and won’t do as well. You also need to make sure that your content provides value to your specific audience. Unfortunately, most of the popular topics for evergreen content have already been covered (over and over) by most popular industries.
If that’s the case for your niche, you need to do your best to put your own spin on the topic. It also helps to search for long-tail keywords that have a good amount of traffic with less competition. It’s one of the best ways to make sure that your content more valuable. As a result, your content will move up in the search results.
Yes, evergreen content is awesome, but it isn’t something you need to rely on. Trust me, timely pieces are a great way to round out your article arsenal. Besides, they’re awesome for letting others know you’re an authority in your niche. In fact, these types of pieces are perfect for short-term marketing campaigns. Especially when you need to drive a lot of traffic and leads in a small amount of time. The real goal should be to have a mix of topical pieces and evergreen posts.
Once you have your evergreen content in place, you can’t just forget about it. If you do, it will definitely get buried on your blog. Instead, you need to make it a point to highlight all of your valuable content. It’s really the best way to get results. You always want to make sure that it’s immediately seen and easily accessible by your visitors. Luckily, there are a few ways that you can do just that:
When it comes down to it, the methods you choose don’t really matter as much as the act of actually highlighting the content.
In addition to highlighting your content, you need to make sure that it stays current. Now with evergreen content, there shouldn’t be too much that you have to update (especially with evergreen content) but there will be new findings and related articles. There’s another bonus to updating your content too! Updating the published data can actually help with SEO rankings. In fact, there are a lot of case studies on how updating evergreen content can skyrocket SEO rankings. Afterward, you can promote it as if it’s a new piece.
One of the easiest ways to see if your content has dropped in the search results over time is with the Ahrefs positions tracker. With this tool, you can check your weekly email to see which one of your pages need a little more effort. Remember there’s a lot of new content created every day. And some of it’s going to compete for the same keywords you’re already targeting. Therefore you need to keep your content fresh and comprehensive in order to stay on top.
Whenever you update your content, keep the following in mind:
Putting in the effort to create evergreen pieces your site while maintaining proper SEO can do wonders. It can help you provide your readers with useful content. One that they can refer to for years to come. Have you created evergreen content before? What articles work best for your niche? Let us know in the comments below, so we can discuss!
