If you are new to the world of marketing, you might not be familiar with evergreen content. It is a common word mostly used in content marketing and is one of the significant content strategy elements for achieving marketing goals. Unlike other posts, evergreen content never becomes outdated and stays relevant for a long time.

So if you are a content marketer, you need to know how to effectively use evergreen content to increase site traffic and boost SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

In this article, you’ll get to learn more about evergreen content, how it can benefit and help to improve your content strategy.

Let’s get started!

What is Evergreen Content?

Evergreen content is a search-optimized content that continues to stay relevant over time. It doesn’t have an expiration date and can never be out-of-date. Its value won’t be affected even after years to come. This content can show up in different formats, including list blogs, “how-to” articles, case studies, product reviews, instructional videos, and others.

In simple words, evergreen content is valuable and timeless information that your visitors have needed forever and will continue to require into the future. It is pretty impressive for several reasons:

• Brings traffic to your website or blog continually once you publish it
• Boosts ranking on search engines
• Helps you in positioning your business as an industry leader
• Drives more traffic with less content
• Helps you in adding prospects to your business sales funnel

Why is it Called Evergreen?

We all know that the word evergreen is far older than marketing. It can be associated with botany, and mainly describes a plant that retains its leaves all year round.

In marketing, the word evergreen is used to describe strategies, products, and segments that remain significant for an extended period. Some of the popular words used in marketing and other areas of management are the evergreen approach, evergreen segments, evergreen niche, and not to forget evergreen content.

The content remains evergreen if it has value and can be used years after the published date. Just like the pine trees retaining leaves throughout the year, evergreen content withstands the test of time and never goes outdated.

Why Does Evergreen Content Work?

When it comes to blogging, there are several content types to select from. Some of them resonate with the audience, and some do not. However, there is one content style that drives genuine traffic for years to come, and this valuable content type is – evergreen content. The content is called evergreen because it is not based on current news or market trends; instead, it focuses on the issues that the audience faces.

Evergreen content works for years because it is eternal and won’t fade away. Though you might have to update your content over time as something new comes up, usually, this content type withstands the test of time without enormous changes. Here are some points that demonstrate why evergreen content works:

• This content is a detailed guide on a specific topic.
• It is comprehensive and covers the subject from every possible angle.
• Higher ranking over search engines: Since evergreen content is high-quality and lengthy, it can help you in boosting your ranking over search engines. Even the research also suggests that search engines give value to longer content.
• More traffic to your website: As the ranking of the evergreen content is higher; it can drive substantial traffic to your website or blog.
• Produces quality leads over time: This content type can bring you a steady lead flow for a long time, without requiring you to make additional changes for some time, except for the initial posting and promotion.

These are some amazing reasons which show why you need to add evergreen content to your content marketing strategy.

What Isn’t Evergreen Content?

To generate perpetually relevant or evergreen content, it is essential to understand what types of content pieces and stories are not evergreen. To clarify what kind of content is considered evergreen, you need to know what types of writing are not considered evergreen. Let’s take a look:

• Articles on current news and trends
• Blogs that include numerical reports, statistics and data become outdated over time
• Articles focused on latest fashion trends and clothing
• Seasonal or holiday content

What are the Common Formats of Evergreen?

Here are some standard formats that you can follow to produce long-lasting content:

1. List Posts: Over the years, list posts have become very popular. They have a high retention rate and gain high traffic. List posts are quick to read, to-the-point, and easy to follow. You can create a list of anything, including useful content marketing tools, or a list of your favorite books, and more. Listed posts always bring value to your readers. For example, The Dog Book Company created an epic list of interesting dog facts on their blog.
2. “How to” Tutorials and Guides: These are extensively researched and well-written posts that provide all the critical information to readers in one place. Usually, this type of evergreen content is longer than the average posts. It presents details in an easy to understand manner so that the readers can follow it without getting confused.
3. Encyclopedia Entries: It incorporates content that emphasizes on truths and unchanging facts about a specific subject. Encyclopedia entries may include ultimate tips, historical facts, and other information that will not change in the future.
4. Video Content and Podcasts: Videos and podcasts provide you with the content that you need to create brand awareness and build your reputation. Video storytelling and podcasts on subjects like how to grout floor tiles or how to frost a cupcake come under the evergreen category. Unlike article writing, creating videos and podcasts may require more time, but it’s an effective way to generate long-lasting content. To produce compelling evergreen video content, you can make use of video making tool that adds special effects to your videos. Also, you should know a high percentage of the audience today values audio and video content more than written content.
5. Glossary Posts: These posts mainly explain the definitions or meaning of unique phrases or terms used in a particular industry. You can group these terms into a blog category or a wiki type website. Glossary terms and phrases are mostly used by teachers, translators, and students. Hence, they are of great value, and you can classify them under evergreen content.
6. Case Studies: Case studies are another excellent evergreen content format that can work wonders. They are accommodating because they offer real-life examples. The digital marketers look into these examples and then make a plan for their businesses depending on these case studies. The information available in these case studies can also help marketers in understanding which channel is right for investment. Click here to see an example related to this content format.
7. Answer Questions: When you create genuinely helpful content, it remains relevant for a long time. People always search for answers to their questions on the internet. So, if you want to create evergreen content for your marketing goals, try out this content format. Let’s take an example to understand how it can help your business. Many people look for answers to their queries on platforms like Quora, Yahoo answers, etc. Look for a query you think you have a solution for. You can answer their questions and promote your product or service as a solution to their problems.
8. Historical Content: While creating historical content either about the brand or the industry, remember not to use adverbs. For instance, using words such as “recently,” “last year,” and others can quickly cause your writing to be inappropriate, incorrect, and outdated. So avoid mentioning such words in your writing.
9. Checklist: Readers love checklist. Even the Atul Gawande (US-based Writer) has written a book on the importance of the checklist, called The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right. So, whenever you create quality content, make sure to add checklists. You can add 5 to 9 items on the list. Always keep your language straightforward and easy.
10. Top (X) Lists: List-style articles are widespread and easy for readers to digest. Moreover, these articles help readers get your advice in a more organized way. After all, information is briefly broken down in an orderly manner. Similar to how-to guides, such content should be full of information, but simple in tone and verbiage. Topics which are not time-sensitive will remain relevant for years. New users look for already established content and such content can lead traffic to your website.
11. Interviews: Interviews are another form of evergreen content that is not just timeless but also easy to repurpose. You can take old podcast or video and turn into a PowerPoint presentation, eBook, and White paper.
12. Become a Curator: There are a lot of resources out there on the web to find information, and you may do a real favor to your visitors by rounding all the resources into one place. This can be a great initiative to help the audience to find more information at a single platform. One perfect example of such a content format is here.

Choosing one of these formats to write an article or a blog post does not make your writing evergreen, but these templates tend to work best with evergreen content. All you need to do is – pick the right format depending on your content type. When it comes to illustrating something, such as how to make a cake, it is recommended to use a video format. Or you can also use a series of photos, diagrams, etc. to add value to your content.

12 Tips for Writing Evergreen Content

Now that you read about some of the major formats that can go well with your evergreen content, here are a few tips to put them into practice.

It happens very often that businesses and individuals think that they are creating everlasting content, but in reality, their published content loses significance after a while. You must keep in mind that your content needs to make sense and should be long-lasting. Make sure that the content you create has a scope of flexibility so that it can be revised whenever needed.

If you are new to the content marketing field, then there is no need to feel lost. Here are some tips for writing evergreen content:

1. Consider Your Audience

Evergreen content only stays relevant if it meets the requirements of the users. Therefore, to ensure that the content you create has strong and long-lasting relevance, you need to write keeping your audience in mind. Write about any subject that offers value and serves as a solution to the problems of your audience.

2. Curate Keyword Based Content

Creating content around specified keywords that bring value to your business website can encourage search engines to direct visitors to your page directly. For instance, if you optimize a website based on “Health & Fitness,” then you should write content using keywords like “best leg exercise” and others. Writing blog posts around this topic can be a smart decision as this is one of the most searched topics on Google, regardless of the season.

Also, when it comes to adding keywords, long-tail keywords can be the best. So do your keyword research, choose relevant keywords, and create your content around targeted keywords.

3. Update Your Content Regularly

One common misconception with curating evergreen content is that it does not need any upgradation once you publish it. But the truth is – no content is truly evergreen. This is because the information you mention in your content today will become irrelevant after a few years or decades.

For instance, suppose you’ve written a blog post on video marketing, added facts & recent statistics, and published it on the web. After 10-15 years, it is apparent that the information you’ve included will become disproved and outdated. So, it is essential to update your content regularly whenever it requires changes.

4. Make Use of Attractive and Appropriate Visuals

Selecting attractive and representative visuals and adding them to your content is another essential tip you should not avoid. In this visual age, where visual-based content has proved more powerful, do focus on visuals. The number of visuals or images you need to insert in your content depends on the content type or information you are transmitting to your audience.

5. Create Relevant Content

The content you are creating must be in line with your business voice. This is an essential tip because if created properly, evergreen content can help you in boosting your brand awareness and visibility among the target audience. Creating relevant content not only helps you in enhancing your client base but also makes it easy for the audience to recognize your brand and associate it with high-quality content.

For example, let’s assume, you deal with a boat selling business. In this case, you may get more benefits from blogs related to sea life, sailing, and fishing than creating blog posts on topics, such as how to repair boat issues and others. Thus, know your niche and create relevant content to grow your brand visibility, not only your followers.

6. Avoid Writing about Current Events

Writing about current events will turn any evergreen content into a generic one and will ruin all your efforts. So, avoid news or any current event that lasts for a short period. Also, the keywords you use in your content shouldn’t have a time frame as this will determine the ranking of your post on search engines.

7. Make Your Title Catchy and Clickable

One another tactic to make your content evergreen is – make your title attractive and clickable. Whenever people see a catchy title, they click on it to check the content. One thing you can do to make your title striking is – attach it to a trendy or popular topic. For instance, using a self-explanatory title for “best of” and “how-to” blog posts is the easiest way to grab the attention of your audience.

8. Don’t Make Use of Technical Language

Because most of the content you publish on different platforms is for beginners, thus using technical and complicated language could scare them off or make them disinterested in your content. If you want to deliver value to your readers, remember to use only simple words or avoid using difficult and complex ones. Make sure the content you’re going to publish is informative and easy to understand. Remember, sticking to a simple language will maintain the relevance of your content and make it evergreen.

9. Avoid Writing for Experts

Some people focus on creating articles or blogs, showing off their expertise and knowledge about a particular topic. If you are also one of them, you are making a mistake. This is because professionals are less likely to be looking for help. Also, your primary audience is beginners, not the industry’s experts. So know your prospective audience and focus on generating content around that.

10. Link Different Posts Together

If you are writing a thorough guide on a subject, like “A Guide to Bike Care,” split this broad topic into small and specific content parts. You can divide it into different pieces, including “How to Replace Your Bike Tire” and “How to Oil Bike Brakes.” Once you create these articles, link them together. This is perfect for SEO and lets your visitors resolve a specific requirement while also directing them to other related posts.

11. Promote on Social Media

One another fantastic idea to make your content evergreen is – promote it on social media. Having a plan for advertising your content on different social media networks not just gives your content a longer life but also helps you in receiving more likes and shares.

You can use a social media posting schedule with your updated content to boost the marketing efforts of your content. Also, do not forget to share all the new content pieces you inserted via social media channels.

12. Repurpose the Content

To give new life to your evergreen content, try to repurpose your content into current trends using different formats like changing your blogs into videos or audio files. There are many formats that you can use – all you need is creativity to craft something new.

Evergreen Article Ideas and Examples

Evergreen content doesn’t need as many updates and revisits as other generic content. This is why it is never considered outdated. It can also be created in different formats like videos, posts, or infographics.

And when it comes to SEO, evergreen content increases traffic on websites, attracts interest, and encourages audience engagement. Here are some examples of evergreen content:

• How to create a Facebook account?
• What are social networks?
• What is Twitter?
• How to make a website?

Various other everlasting content ideas never lose relevance no matter who reads it. Here are a few of them:

• Tips or content lists (ideal to find answers about any subject)
• Informative posts (such as guides)
• Tutorials
• Solutions to frequently asked questions
• Historic articles
• Education posts

Some Examples of Evergreen Content

The information available in your writing is what makes your content evergreen. Some examples of evergreen topics are:

Tips to Start Fishing: When you think of learning a new skill, you type it into Google to know the basics. And this is what everyone else does. A simple step to step guide with stunning images is something you may call evergreen content piece.

Top 6 Tips to Lose Weight without Really Trying: As you know, weight loss is one of the biggest concerns of people in the present time. Providing clear and concise tips on weight loss can make excellent, evergreen content.

To know more about creating long-lasting content, you can visit the following sites which are major producers of evergreen content:

• wikipedia.org
• imdb.com
• answers.com
• dotdash.com
• ehow.com

These websites publish evergreen articles in huge quantities. For instance, Wikipedia is ranked first for nearly half of the searches on Google. You can visit the above-mentioned sites to see how they create evergreen content and where they are lacking behind. This could help you to improve your content.

Watch the video below to know Content Marketing Strategies

Wrapping Up

Evergreen content is one of the most widespread and effective content strategies. It helps you to increase brand awareness and maintain an organic relationship with your audience. Also, it adds value and relevance to your content and helps it to last for a longer period.

So step up your game today with evergreen posts, and if you’ve already published them, add some fresh ones to breathe new life into your posts.

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Guest blog post by Roman Daneghyan who is the Chief Marketing Officer at Renderforest, specializing in social media marketing, content marketing, and SEO.