What if we told you there was a way to make your website a place that will always be relevant, no matter the season or the year? Two words—evergreen content. What does evergreen mean in marketing, and how do you make evergreen content? Let’s dive into it.
Battling the sea of content going live every day is not easy. Writing a clever headline will help you get the initial clicks, and structuring your post properly will make the visitors stay. But what can you do to have people return to your site time and again?
Writing content with no expiration date.
Dive into today’s blog post a little deeper to find out the definition of evergreen content, explore some evergreen content ideas, and ultimately learn how to create evergreen content that will help your website stand the test of time.
In the world of digital marketing, evergreen content is a popular buzzword. Everyone is talking about it, and everyone is telling you to implement it in your content marketing strategy to achieve successful results.
The truth is, there is a reason why people discuss it so often—it really is a game changer. But if you’re just starting to dabble in online marketing, chances are you’re not sure about what evergreen content actually is.
So, what is the meaning of evergreen content?
Evergreen content is content that will always stay relevant. It is timeless, and for that reason, it will never go out of date or style. It is content that the visitors can always come back to for valuable information or advice, no matter the season, year, or trend going around.
As we stated earlier, timeless content is a game changer when it comes to your content marketing strategy. But how exactly? In order to get you motivated, let’s take a look at some reasons why evergreen content is so important.
Creating content with no expiration date is crucial for your website’s authority. What does that mean? Websites with authority are trusted sites that offer their readers expertise and valuable content.
Readers like to return to such websites for whatever queries they may have regarding a specific niche over time. Since evergreen content doesn’t conform to current trends but should offer truly timeless and high-quality information, your readers will soon look at you as the expert in the field.
Just like the readers, search engines too value content that is informative and helpful to the visitors.
Timeless, detailed content written with expertise for the right audience equals quality content that search engines reward by higher ranking and organic traffic boost.
Helpful evergreen content will likely get a lot of reshares on social media and references in other blog posts and articles. That means that such content will also lead to more backlinks, which according to Semrush, are still in the top 3 SEO success factors.
Still not convinced you need evergreen articles on your website? Take a look at how today’s blog giant Ahrefs increased their organic traffic to over 200 000 visitors a month thanks to the power of evergreen blog posts.
There’s no doubt that evergreen content is extremely useful. But how to create it? Let’s take a look at 4 basic steps of the process.
The first step is to find evergreen topics by doing keyword research.
Use an SEO research tool of your choice to look up keywords you’ve brainstormed. Here, according to Forbes, you should pay attention to “Search Volume”.
For evergreen topics, this metric should generate at least 1,000 searches monthly. If they consistently bring that amount of searches and more, it means there’s a lasting interest in them.
The next step is to check your selected keywords for a positive trend over time. To do that, you can use many tools, such as Google Trends or Ahrefs’ keywords explorer.
If you see a keyword having a declining trend, i.e., it’s losing popularity over time, then it’s likely not your best option. Similarly, if you see interest spiking only during certain periods of the year, chances are the topic is more trendy than timeless.
After finding your evergreen topics and checking them for trends, you can finally get to writing. To create truly evergreen blog posts, make sure to avoid adding specific years or other time markers to your headlines.
To support your content, also be sure to include only updated stats, links, or screenshots. After publishing, it is also good to refresh your content once in a while and check that it doesn’t involve any outdated information.
While crafting your article, make sure users will actually be able to find it. Here are some steps you shouldn’t miss when optimizing your evergreen blog posts for SEO:
Be careful though—longer doesn’t always mean better. If your topic is complex, don’t hesitate to dive deep. However, you should always think about the value to your readers. Are you writing for them or just for the word count?
Now that you know how to create evergreen content, let’s explore some high-performing evergreen content examples for your content marketing strategy success.
How-to guides centered around a timeless topic are an excellent example of evergreen content. They give your readers valuable information that they can use now and re-use at any point in the future.
Think about an audience of content writers. What are some examples of evergreen topics that will always be relevant to them? Take a look at the list below to see some examples of content that will stand the test of time:
Content writers will always want to know how to structure a blog post, create a show-stopping landing page, or craft a killer headline to achieve the best results and wow the readers as well as the search engines.
What’s the best way to show your audience that you’re an expert in the field? A case study! They are truly a win for everyone.
You can use them to show the amazing results your product or service can achieve in practice while giving a shoutout to your customers, boosting your website’s authority, and giving your readers a chance to connect with a story.
Case studies make for great timeless content as they can provide interesting insights into your brand for years to come.
Detailed, comprehensive guides that answer a series of questions centered around a certain topic are another great example of evergreen content.
These guides break everything down into step-by-step explanations, making everything more digestible to the readers.
For example, content writers will always ask questions related to content creation, from forming ideas all the way to publishing.
By having all these questions related to timeless topics answered in one place, they can keep coming back to it over time.
If you are in an industry that uses specific terminology, you might want to consider creating a glossary. While you may not think of it as the most thrilling piece of content, it truly is timeless as definitions rarely change.
There may be beginners in your niche who want to understand your area a bit better. If you have a glossary on your page, you can help them learn your industry-specific terms with ease, and, they can always return to it later to brush up on their knowledge.
What’s also great about glossaries is that they often get referenced in other blog posts and articles, which can get you plenty of valuable backlinks! Last but not least, glossaries are also a great way to enhance your website’s authority.
Just like comprehensive step-by-step guides and glossaries, tutorials also demonstrate expertise and can improve your website’s authority.
Users will search for them to find answers related to your brand, and an informative tutorial can get them excited to start using your product.
For even better results, try to cover different complexity levels to bring benefits to all, from beginners to the advanced. To make them a little more engaging, consider spicing up the tutorials with videos of your product in action.
Need inspiration? Check out some Kontent.ai tutorials.
Now you may be wondering—if evergreen posts are such a big deal, should you just abandon the rest completely? Absolutely not. Non-evergreen content is just as important.
It’s in our nature to get hooked on trends and get “googling”. By including trendy topics, you can attract a lot of readers at a specific point of the month, year, or another season.
Trends are doing especially well on social media, so if you manage to promote your trendy content well, you can expect a lot of curious visitors coming to your site. Not to mention the possibility of trends helping you go viral!
The best you can do for your content marketing strategy is to mix them both. With timely content, people will come right at this moment, while with evergreen content, people will keep returning to your site over time.
Want to turn a piece of trendy content into an evergreen article? Remove any time markers from the headline and the meta title. Also, make sure to update the in-body text to get rid of any outdated information.
Have you seen a shift in your organic traffic after implementing writing about evergreen topics in your content marketing strategy? What are some evergreen content ideas that worked for you? Do you like to write evergreen articles or prefer trendy topics?
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