An evergreen tree stands vibrant and lively no matter the weather. Its green foliage never wavers against the frigid temperatures of winter.
Every business should aim to create content that will weather the changing seasons too. While time-sensitive content can be a great addition to your website, it won’t provide the same quality of traffic as a piece of evergreen content. So what exactly is evergreen content and why is it such an important tool in digital marketing?
Let’s break it down.
What is Evergreen Content?
When implemented correctly, evergreen content can drive traffic to your site long after you publish it. It’s the gift that keeps on giving! The beauty of this kind of content is that once you dedicate the initial time to building it out, publishing, and promoting it, it requires little to no upkeep to continue benefiting your website and business for years to come unless your competitors are outperforming you.
Evergreen content doesn’t always need to be a blog post. There are plenty of other resources that can stand the test of time as well. Here are a few other assets you can create to drive limitless traffic:
- Infographics
- Listicles
- Images
- Videos
- Frequently Asked Questions
Qualities of Evergreen Content
The hallmark of a good piece of evergreen content is value retention. Even years after it was initially published it stays “fresh” and relevant to your audience. It is in no way, shape, or form time-sensitive. It does this by tackling an issue your potential customers will continually encounter – something with that “bookmarkable” factor. Evergreen content will be something your audience will return to again and again for valuable information.
This is the content piece that you want to bookmark for later.
Ask yourself, will this subject still be important a year from now? How about a year after that? No matter the season, no matter the weather, evergreen content is useful. If a piece of content has any sort of expiration date, it is not evergreen. Time-sensitive material such as breaking news, seasonal content, statistics, or other capricious subject matters won’t be useful to your audience forever.
Evergreen content also features the following qualities:
- The topic draws in continuous traffic
- Written evergreen content is robust (1000+ words) yet scannable
- Users will want to return to it for future reference
- The subject matter is relevant at any time of the year
Example of Non-Evergreen Content
This is an example of non-evergreen content. It contains time-sensitive (although true 🤠 🍦) information that will only be relevant to an audience for one season out of the year. Someone likely won’t look to this content in the dead of winter.
It simply wouldn’t be relevant.
The title is a dead giveaway for the time-dependent status of this graphic. If there is any indication of the time in the title of a piece of content (i.e. Top 10 SEO Tactics for 20XX or Ultimate Spring Cleaning Checklist) you can guarantee it isn’t evergreen.
Example of Evergreen Content
Now, this piece of content is relevant to an audience member year-round. This infographic we created for our own blog post, How to Optimize Your Digital Marketing Budget, can be considered evergreen.
It details different digital marketing strategies a business might use to promote itself and some relevant information on what one should keep in mind when pursuing a given strategy. The information is timeless and can be referenced back to over and over again.
Why is Evergreen Content Valuable?
So what’s the point of dedicating so much time and effort to creating evergreen content? Well, there are a lot of benefits to producing high-quality content your audience can come back to again and again.
Evergreen content naturally bolsters your long-term SEO goals and overall credibility. This type of content can get the SEO juice flowing your way for years to come. As it continues to receive attention, your piece will rank higher and might attract the attention of other sites. Eventually, you’ll garner backlinks which will only increase your authority.
A well-done piece of evergreen content will reward you with consistent traffic and new opportunities to collect leads with little to no effort beyond the initial publication and promotion.
With the caveat that your competitors don’t create better content than you that will outperform yours.
Tips on Creating Your Own Evergreen Content
Every business should take the time to craft out evergreen content if they’re serious about their digital marketing efforts. But if you’ve never set out on such an undertaking, it can be daunting. But rest assured, you are the expert in your own field and you have valuable knowledge that can translate to a solid evergreen piece. Follow these tips to jumpstart your efforts.
Start by selecting relevant keywords with high search volume. Be sure the topic you select has consistent traffic. You can study up on keywords using tools such as Google Trends, Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, Keyword Generator, and Answer the Public.
Use the 10x content rule. This framework states that evergreen content should be 10 times better than the highest-ranking result for your selected keyword. In order to achieve that, you must produce a trustworthy, highly detailed piece of content. It should offer all the information on the topic a viewer or reader might need.
It should be an accurate representation of your brand. Since this piece will hopefully drive consistent traffic to your site for an extended period of time, it should capture the essence of your brand to a T.
Don’t add any sort of time indicator. So the title shouldn’t read like Evergreen Tips For [Insert Year Here]. It should be a title that is relevant any time of year, in any year; with the exception of changing your title on a yearly basis.
Repurpose your content. Do you have a successful evergreen blog? Turn it into a sharable infographic or a video. These are great ways to get even more value out of your efforts.
Pillar Content
When you take the time to plot out evergreen content, you will have the chance to establish pillar content also known as cornerstone content. This is essentially an evergreen piece that becomes a centerpiece for your website. It includes in-depth information explored from a number of angles. It can be presented in a long-form article, e-book, or some other sort of digital asset. Piller content is important because you can continually link back to it instead of referencing external sources. Eventually, other sites will too. This will signal its significance to the search engines and help it to rank on the SERP.
So I Have My Evergreen Content. Now What?
Now that you have your evergreen content it’s time to promote, promote, promote. Share it to your social channels, and include it in your newsletters – whatever will get it out to your audience. The more initial attention it gets, the easier it will be to solidify its authority as a true piece of evergreen content.
The beauty of an evergreen piece is that once you post it and promote it, you won’t have to revisit it often. The amount of upkeep your evergreen content will require will largely depend on your industry. If you work in a fairly stable, straightforward field, your content will likely not require many updates. But more fast-paced, ever-changing industries might have to tweak their evergreen content regularly as updates roll out.
Updating Evergreen Content
If you are in a steady industry, you technically might not ever have to update your content. But more dynamic industries that change at a faster rate might need to be refreshed every year or two to account for new information.
What might be an industry standard today might be obsolete tomorrow so in order to keep your evergreen status you’ll need to keep up with the times.
Information isn’t the only thing you’ll need to update as time goes on. You also might want to bolster your content with new keywords. You should also adjust any information about your business or adjust landing page links if need be. Be sure to check any external links (links to other websites) to make sure they still work as well, pages can end up becoming 404s or outdated, which is not ideal for your visitors.
TL;DR: Get Your Evergreen Content to Work For You
Evergreen content is a vital piece of digital marketing. Just like a blue spruce or ponderosa pine, evergreen content never loses its color. It remains relevant year after year, season to season. Whether it’s a blog post, video, or infographic this type of content packs granular details into one convenient package for your audience to easily reference back to. Without much upkeep on your part, a piece of evergreen content drives traffic to your website for years to come.
Need Help Crafting Evergreen Content? Call Beyond Blue Media Today!
