Just like what its name implies, evergreen content is an undying form of content. It remains relevant and factual for a long time compared to other types of content.
But is evergreen content really a post-it-and-leave-it kind of thing?
A Gift that Keeps on Giving
On its own, the term 'evergreen' may ring a bell even to people who are not into web marketing. It is because evergreen is a kind of foliage usually used for decoration during the holiday seasons. These plants are blooming through more than one growing season. On that note, Meriam Webster's dictionary defines evergreen as 'universally and continually relevant.'
Evergreen content can be thought of as a gift that keeps on giving. It is aimed to provide value and information to its consumers before anything else. Apart from that, evergreen content reaps online traffic far beyond its publication date.
Most Common Types of Evergreen Content
FAQs : (Frequently Asked Questions) Tax-filing FAQs
Listicles : Top 20 Service-Based Niche Websites
How-to's : How to Cook the Perfect Omelets
Checklists : What Should You Bring? - A Guide for New Backpackers
Resource Lists : All Photo-Editing Software: Ranked
Common Mistakes : 15 Things I Wish I Knew Before Studying Law
GOATs : (Greatest of All Time) The Legends and Forefathers of Pop-Punk
Everything You Need to Know About [Topic]: What is Lumpy Marketing
Tips : Tips for Finding the Right Web Agency
Line Them Up
When visualized into a line graph, evergreen content will show an upward trend over a long time compared to non-evergreen or time-limited content. Here, we can look at the performance of two different keywords.
The first one, 'The Da Vinci Code,' broke out around 2006, after the movie's release, based on the book of the same title.
The second set of keywords, 'What is the stock market,' which can be answered through evergreen content, showed a slow but steady rise in interest over the years.
If a website published EC on the stock market, it's most likely that the content (with a few revisions and updates) is still fresh up to now. It will also remain relevant for even more years to come. Compared with the first graph's search activities which plummeted and haven't yet had a comeback.
However, evergreen content on its own may not perform that well without proper SEO research.
Evergreen Content and SEO
To have a deeper understanding of EC's importance, we need to understand SEO.
To learn more about SEO, check this article out! The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to SEO.
In a nutshell: Search Engine Optimization is the art and science of being seen on search engines such as Google, Duck Duck Go, Mozilla Firefox, etc.
A website can leverage evergreen articles by packing valuable keywords to accumulate online traffic. Not only that, as evergreen content contains information useful to visitors. They will stay on your website for a longer time—which is also an important metric search engines measure for SEO.
Once a website becomes more popular through EC and SEO, its brand develops influence and credibility.
Evergreen Content and Thought Leadership
Thought leadership is the practice of leading an industry or a niche by expressing ideas and opinions that demonstrate expertise and authority.
As the old (but true) saying goes, "Leaders are made, not born." Even in thought leadership, no one takes over an empire overnight. EC is a vehicle for a brand to dominate its industry.
A thought leader is a front runner in any industry. Thought leaders may be a person or a brand that sets the standards and unveils new horizons for the competition to move forward to.
EC is one of the most effective ways to show how expert and trustworthy a brand or a website is. The more value you give your visitors, the more they are likely to remember your brand and associate it with quality.
How to Write Effective Evergreen Content
When it comes to EC, we must recognize the fact that intentional visitors value quality over quantity. So, to give your visitors what they crave, we have set up a short guide for you to follow.
Junk the jargons. (Write for the beginners)
It is safe to assume that the visitors are at a level 1 on their respective topics with evergreen content. It is only befitting for you to write for the beginners; that is EC's intention, to begin with. So, junk the jargons and dumb it down. Make sure you clearly define the industry's terminology and perhaps post another blog post or video with more in-depth and intricate information.
Divide and conquer. (Subcategorize topics)
When a complex topic is simplified, one always runs the risk of having content that seems to be endless. To not bore your visitors to death, you can divide the topic into multiple subtopics. Perhaps, you are writing a blog on building a gaming PC; you can split topics into different components such as graphics cards, ram, fans, and others. Linking them all together makes it less likely for a visitor to click on other webpages.
Back it up. (Conduct extensive research)
This may not apply to all, but Backing your statements with actual data will help boost your website's credibility and help visitors put things into perspective. Remember, numbers don't lie.
10 Questions to Ask Yourself When Writing Evergreen Content
- Can a 15-year-old understand this with ease?
- Am I leaving topics uncovered?
- Does this answer the visitor's question?
- Is the content true to the title?
- Is this information valuable to my visitor?
- Am I encouraging my visitor to know more about this topic?
- Am I writing for a human and not a robot (SEO crawlers)?
- Will this information be relevant 5 years from now?
- Is this consistent with my brand?
- Is there anything else I wish I knew about when I was at the visitor's level?
What About Time-Sensitive Topics?
While it is true that not all topics can have evergreen content written about them, some can still be used to make timeless content.
At the time of writing, news about the Corona Virus Pandemic dominates headlines in almost all countries. These are definitely useful information, but most articles about it have short shelf lives because of the pandemic's erratic nature.
However, that doesn't mean that we cannot write evergreen content about the pandemic. Perhaps, a creative writer will attack this subject from another angle and write something along the lines of "How the Covid-19 Changed the World Forever."
Is Evergreen Content Really Undying?
Going back to evergreen's actual definition as a plant, we all know that plants do not live forever. However, they can live for a great long period provided they have access to everything they need to survive.
Much like plants, evergreen content is not undying; but requires very low maintenance.
How to Keep Evergreen Content from Going Stale
Keep it up-to-date.
Yes, evergreen content is not time-sensitive, but innovation never stops. There are always new ways to create something, new products, new specifications, and new data.
Make your website mobile-friendly.
A recent study posits that more than half of all internet traffic comes from mobile users. With phones, it is easy to tap back from a website that is not designed for mobile.
To know why mobile web design is important, here's a blogpost to check out: Mobile Web Design is VERY Important, Here’s Why.
Bid for longtail keywords.
Longtail keywords, also known as key-phrases, make up more than 70 percent of all searches. "How to use the pen tool in photoshop" is an example of a key-phrase. Being this specific with your content's SEO components gets you more intentional visitors and has less competition SEO-wise.
Great article, right? Be an All-Things Insider and get notified when we post new content! Sign up below!