There is a popular theory about online content among internet surfers that states, “What goes on the internet, Stays on the internet.” However, the fact that blogs, videos, or web pages will perhaps remain online forever does not mean that they will maintain their relevance. Evergreen content, on the other hand, will still be as useful many years from now as it is today.
The idea that all those blogs you have worked so hard on will one day become yesterday’s news can be enough to put someone off blogging for good. It does not have to be the case though, because, with a few tweaks and a bit of foresight, your content can become a timeless product.
These days, you cannot even consider writing an effective blog post without first thinking about search engine optimizations (SEO) and devising a good content strategy. While these are effective ways to boost visibility and improve your search rankings, if you do not make efforts to make the content evergreen, eventually they will become out of date.
As the name implies, evergreen blog posts remain unchanged in their usefulness even as the world revolves around them. With such evergreen articles, you can forgo the need to write constant updates, which saves a lot of time and money down the line. This guide will hopefully open your eyes to a whole new world of possibilities and change the way you handle digital marketing.
What Is Evergreen Content?
In order for content to be called evergreen, it has to have that unique staying power that comes from having a high level of sustained interest that is not easily diminished by the passage of time. Reading evergreen content today should provide readers with the same amount of information, relevance, usefulness, and entertainment as it did years ago when the article was first written.
A pine tree is just as green in summer as it is in the dead of winter, and that is what evergreen content emulates. The reason for creating evergreen content is to provide the audience with a product that does not expire easily or lose its value after a short period.
It is important to mention that evergreen content is not just confined to text only but can also be in the form of infographics, videos, and images. What matters most is that it is high-quality content with the potential of having perpetual life.
Benefits of Evergreen Content
To the untrained eye, evergreen content might seem to have no advantages whatsoever over regular content, but that is far from true. The true value of evergreen posts lies in their ability to stand the test of time. Reading those same posts years from now will show just how wide the rift is between the two variants.
Taking the time to create evergreen content can have a lot of benefits in the long run, some of which are listed below.
Continual Lead Generation
Any leads that you can generate when you create content that is evergreen should continue to be replicated over and over again because the impact evergreen content has on its audience will not diminish.
Better Ranking on Search Engines
Evergreen content is easily recognized as having genuinely helpful and relevant content by search engine software and is immediately moved up the ladder, where it will attract organic traffic.
Higher Website Traffic
Writing evergreen content is the best content marketing strategy you can employ to boost your article’s SEO ranking. The more up-to-date the articles are, the more likely they are to find their way onto social media platforms where the lies some high volumes of website traffic.
Types of Evergreen Content
Chances are that you already have some long-lasting evergreen posts on your websites without even knowing it. If that is not the case, then maybe it’s high time you added some evergreen pieces with a longer shelf life. The following are some good examples of the type of content that is continually relevant for you to consider:
- How to guides
- Lists
- Product reviews
- Top tips
- Interviews
- Buying guides
- Glossaries
- Case studies
- Checklist
- Testimonials
What Type of Content Is Not Evergreen?
Although it would be nice if there was a way to make all content evergreen, unfortunately, that is not the case. Some content may not be able to achieve the evergreen status and, therefore, will not be expected to be continually relevant.
Such articles are called topical articles, and, even though they will never achieve the longevity of long-lasting evergreen posts, they nonetheless have real importance within their timeframe.
Non-evergreen content examples include:
News articles
The value of a piece of news is linked to the date on which this news is relevant. After that period passes, the news becomes almost worthless and anyone who bothers to read it will be doing so purely for academic reasons such as wanting to know the significance of a certain date in history.
Statistical articles
Like news articles, statistics have a very short life expectancy because statistics are prone to change over time. Looking up old stats is only done for comparative reasons, and the amount of traffic generated by such searches is hardly significant.
Trend pieces
The world of fashion, design, and marketing is ruled by trend-setting, and the pressure to be ahead of the pack is tremendous. Most articles in these genres come with a timestamp, and their value depreciates rapidly as soon as the next big trend hits the streets.
Examples of Evergreen Content Ideas
Now that you have a detailed understanding of what evergreen content is, and its significance to content marketing, we shall look at some specific examples of content that is typically considered evergreen articles.
While this is not an exhaustive list of common evergreen formats, it should, nevertheless, give you a better idea of what type of content to consider using to boost the search volume from your target audience. Without further ado, here are some examples of evergreen content:
How-To Guides
Nothing says evergreen content like a good old-fashioned how-to article. Think of an article that teaches the reader how to create a website in easy-to-follow steps. The key here is taking a complex topic such as website construction, and then breaking it down into a simple step-by-step guide that is understandable even by beginners.
This particular topic focuses on something that will not go out of date and the audience is quite broad. We can all agree that websites will continue to be of great significance in the future, so it qualifies as evergreen because people will always need this information
Typical instructions for website creation will remain the same as time goes by, so reading these articles years from now will still have the same helpful information as it does today. The number of people wanting to learn how to make websites is actually rising.
Frequently Asked Questions
The very nature of this content speaks to a wide audience because it is dealing with responding to what the majority of people want to know. In this sense, it immediately becomes an article of significant importance because of its wide appeal.
If a lot of people are asking about a particular thing, chances are that a lot more will still be asking in the future. Take, for example, health-related questions such as how to treat diabetes. An article that tackles this problem head-on will not easily lose its appeal due to the importance of the subject matter and the general prevalence of diabetes cases worldwide.
There will not likely come a time when people will just stop caring about how to treat diabetes, so you can be guaranteed that the traffic on this evergreen article will be constant. This is also a good content marketing strategy because it appeals to the tendency of people to search for information online by posing a direct question.
Checklists
The beauty of a checklist article lies in its simplicity to read and write, while at the same time effectively dealing with a common problem using practical solutions. A good checklist can be a great social media marketing tool because it stands out as a one-stop-shop for a common issue among users.
If one is moving, for example, they might turn to social media channels to help identify the important things one needs to do in preparation. If the instructions come in checklist format, then it becomes easier to apply to real-life scenarios.
A checklist of instructions on what to remember before moving out can easily be downloaded in PDF format and distributed, or otherwise shared with a larger audience in the form of a presentation. It foregoes the need to delve deeply into each point, and much rather prefer to highlight the important points only.
A Common Mistakes Article
One major reason people will go online in the first place is when dealing with an unfamiliar situation and they wish to avoid making a mistake. The best way to do this is usually by learning from people who have done the same thing before.
An example is an article addressing mistakes relating to social issues, such as mistakes to avoid on the first date. For as long as human beings have been around, building relationships has been the foundation of societal development. Everyone wants to be able to connect with other people and dating is an important part of that.
It is difficult to imagine a future where people will no longer care about how to handle a date properly. In fact, research shows that more and more people are turning to the internet, particularly social media channels, to find answers related to dating and relationships. This is not likely to change any time soon if the popularity of social media is anything to go by.
Informative Case Studies
When people turn to the internet for information or help on a particular topic, trust can be an issue, especially with the prevalence of false online articles. What successful evergreen content does well is to relate whatever advice or instructions are being given, to a real-life scenario that readers can relate to.
Consider a pregnant woman who is preparing to be a first-time mother but is currently having problems with depression. There are a lot of articles that can be found online that deal with this issue and offer practical solutions. However, creating evergreen content will require going a step further and one way to do this is by attaching stories of women sharing their own experiences with pregnancy-related depression.
Readers will immediately be drawn to the article as they realize the shared experiences. This kind of issue will always be around and a well-written article combined with a compelling story is what evergreen content is all about.
In cases such as this, it is important to avoid overly technical language as this will more than likely serve to alienate your readers. Stick to presenting a practical solution that makes sense to the reader.
Useful Resources
As people around the world are getting more computer literate, a lot of times they prefer to do things on their own rather than hiring someone else. Seemingly complex projects like introducing SEO to your small local butchery business can now be done by anyone with access to the right tools.
Evergreen topics that can provide readers who want to learn about SEO with the right resources in an all-in-one format will generate a lot of constant traffic. As long as the content is kept up to date, readers will flock to such an evergreen article in droves.
At times, evergreen writing does not mean it has to be complex or particularly original research; it just has to be useful and relevant to the reader over a sustained period. With online resources, a couple of updates might be necessary as new versions of tools come into play.
Glossary Articles
Most evergreen content does not have to be in-depth articles crammed with long-tail keywords to generate organic traffic. Even something simple can achieve evergreen status by virtue of its long-lasting relevance to online readers.
As long as the search intent has been clearly identified, some industry-specific terms and definitions can prove to be quite popular among searchers, and the search volume such glossary pieces can generate might surprise you.
Let’s say a reader is interested in knowing more about the music industry, with particular emphasis on how it affects pop culture. They can opt to gather a lot of articles that discuss the subject matter or to make life easier, they can stick to one article which has a comprehensive glossary of terms and phrases unique to pop culture.
To increase the potency of evergreen articles that make use of glossaries, you can add a lot of backlinks to other articles that the reader might find useful. In this way, a glossary can be a good platform to gain a lot of knowledge on niche evergreen topics without delving into overly technical language.
A Historical Piece
Writing evergreen content that has historical significance might seem to be counterproductive, especially given what we discussed concerning the need for relevance in all evergreen content. However, that is not necessarily the case. With careful selection of the history topic, this kind of evergreen writing can account for a lot of search traffic.
A global event of historical importance such as World War II, for instance, is something people will always talk about and reference for years to come. With the right keyword research, items such as dates, places, names of people, and relevant statistics, can be included in the evergreen content to ensure that the article is linked to other broad topics that deal with the same subject matter.
Evergreen pieces written in such a way make it possible to include a lot of good evergreen content on the same URL, meaning people will keep coming back to it over and over again. Popular sites like Wikipedia have been doing this very well for years.
How To Write Evergreen Content
Now that you have an idea of which evergreen topics you wish to tackle, you might be wondering where to begin. It’s not as daunting as it might seem at first, and with a little bit of effort, you too can produce quality evergreen content.
If you are familiar with SEO then producing good quality evergreen content should come naturally. For those with no SEO knowledge, here are a few helpful hints to get you started.
1. Research the topic carefully
2. Identify any relevant keywords
3. Map out the structure of the article
4. Employ useful tools such as SEO on-page writing
5. Don’t forget to add relevant backlinks to your content
6. Make the evergreen content as interesting as possible for readers
Measuring Your Evergreen Content
As you go about the business of writing about your selected evergreen topics, an important evergreen marketing strategy is to keep track of how well the content is likely to be received and whether it will stand the test of time.
To do this you can calculate certain parameters and give your article an evergreen score that shows you how well your article is performing. Mind you, this can only be done in retrospect after the article has already been published.
Here is a great example of a few things you can look at after your evergreen content has had some time online:
- Backlinks to the article received
- Citations about the specific topic you are dealing with
- How often it is shared on social media outlets
- Positive peer to peer reviews your article receives
Conclusion
The importance of including evergreen content as the bulk of your website content cannot be understated. Evergreen marketing can be the key you need to beat your competitors, and the great thing is that it is not difficult to produce at all. Any one of the common evergreen formats discussed in this guide can greatly boost your website’s potential.
Used as a content marketing tool, writing evergreen content will result in the continued relevance and longevity of your articles, ensuring that you continue to reap the rewards of good quality content for years to come.
