If you’ve dipped your toes in the waters of SEO or any form of digital marketing, you may have heard the term ‘evergreen content’ come up. Evergreen content is an important digital marketing tool and an integral part of any effective content marketing strategy that can help increase your brand’s visibility online and drive traffic to your website.
But what exactly is it and how does it work? Let’s take a look.
What is evergreen content?
Simply put, evergreen content is any content that stays ‘fresh’ for a long time – sometimes indefinitely. Done right, it will stay relevant long past its publication date and even generate more and more search traffic over time.
As you might have guessed, evergreen content is the opposite of seasonal content, which is designed to be relevant during specific times of year or for a short-term period.
Good evergreen content is well-written, informative and optimised for search engines with relevant keywords and queries (words and phrases that people type into a search box to pull up a list of results). Success with this type of content can mean steadily increasing website traffic over time.
Case in point: SEO tool website Ahrefs grew their blog from 15,000 visitors a month to over 200,000 visitors a month purely by focusing on evergreen content.
RELATED: The fundamentals of content: 3 things to get right.
Types of evergreen content.
Evergreen content comes in many shapes and sizes, but there are some common formats used to generate content that doesn’t go out of date:
- Explainer guides, similar to an encyclopedia
- Lists
- Top tips
- How-to articles
- FAQ-style articles
- eBooks
- Instructional videos
While these formats don’t have to be evergreen, they tend to work well when creating content that’s intended to last. On the other hand, formats you probably won’t see used for evergreen content include:
- News articles
- Time-sensitive statistics, reports or studies
- Trend-based blogs
- Holiday or season-specific articles.
It is also important to utilise an effective content marketing strategy template to ensure consistency across these various types of content and to ensure the maximum impact that your content marketing strategy can have on organic growth and customer engagement.
Examples of evergreen content.
As mentioned, evergreen content generates consistent interest and search volume over time. In fact, this article is a great example! Some other evergreen content examples include:
- How to create a budget
- What is content marketing?
- Flower seasons and colour guide
- How to find a good plumber
- 5 ways to lose weight and keep it off
These topics are considered evergreen because they’ll continue to be relevant for the foreseeable future.
RELATED: How to identify and refresh under-performing content.
Tips for writing evergreen content.
Create content that’s relevant to your business: You don’t just want to drive traffic to your website – you want to drive the right type of traffic i.e. potential customers. So focus on content that relates to your business offering and speaks to your target audience.
Don’t focus exclusively on evergreen content: A well-rounded content marketing strategy includes pieces that stand the test of time, and others that tap into trends or help generate interest during specific times of year (such as over Christmas).
Do keyword research to back up your ideas: Strategically placed keywords will help ensure your evergreen content ranks for relevant search terms. Find out more about how to research and integrate keywords into your content.
Update your content regularly: Although it may seem counter intuitive, evergreen content should be updated to remain, well, evergreen. Because although a particular topic may always be relevant, facts or information about that topic may change over time. For example, an article on where to find free stock images would need to be updated every so often to make sure the resources remain accurate and up-to-date.
Why no one is reading your content.
And if you do all of these things, but your content still isn’t being read, here are seven things to check for.
1. The writing needs work.
You could have the most fascinating information in the world, but if it reads badly, your readers won’t bother trying to decipher it. The same can be said for content that is overly complex—you want to position yourself as an expert in your industry, but you still want the general public to be able to understand what you’ve published.
Our advice: invest in a solid copywriter who can make your words sing on the page.
2. The formatting is difficult to read.
If you’re going to promise readers an article with seven reasons why no one is reading their content, you had better give them a numbered list with seven reasons.
But seriously, if you make that kind of promise in the headline and then offer up a big chunk of text, there’s no way they’ll still be reading at the end. Use line breaks, sub headings, bullet points, and images – generally, make your content as easy on the eye as possible. A wall of text is intimidating to even the biggest bookworms.
3. It’s not the right content for your audience.
Remember that what you’re passionate about isn’t always what your audience wants to read. Don’t write content just because you find it interesting—instead, put yourself in your readers’ shoes.
If you’re struggling to find out what your audience wants to read, check out Yellow Pages’ free eBook: How to create standout online content for your business for lots of good tips and ideas. Eventually, you’ll be able to analyse your own content to see what sticks and what doesn’t, refining your content strategy as you go.
4. There isn’t enough of it.
How often are you posting to your blog? If it’s less than once a week, it’s generally not enough.
Many companies will aim for a new post two to three times per week, while the real big hitters will go for a couple of pieces of content a day. At minimum, give your readers something new at least once per week, or you risk losing their attention for good.
Plus, regular posting can help with your organic SEO, which is always a win.
5. There’s a lack of paid promotion.
You might have the best blog on the internet, but without an amplification strategy, how is anyone going to know it exists? Unfortunately, simply posting your content to Facebook or Twitter isn’t going to do the job unless you already have a massive following on social media. In most cases, you need to consider putting some of your marketing spend behind paid promotion. This could be pay-per-click, display ads, social media promotion, a mix of all three, or something else altogether.
6. It’s too salesy.
Did you know that 11% of the global internet population uses adblockers? Nobody likes to be sold to, especially not if they’re trying to read up about whatever it is you’ve promised to tell them in the headline. If your blog post or landing page reads more like ad copy, you’re going to annoy your readers (and see your website traffic suffer).
Instead of making a hard sell in your copy, throw some natural links to landing pages or products, and use clear calls to action in the side bars or as buttons throughout the content, rather than trying to sneak it into the written word.
7. It’s not optimised for mobile.
With the majority of people surfing the web on their mobile devices, you need to be absolutely sure your content is easy to read on smaller screens. If your site isn’t responsive, now is the time to invest in a developer who can help you get up to speed. Otherwise, you risk losing out on the huge amount of mobile traffic that could be coming your way.
RELATED: eBook: The ultimate guide to content marketing for small businesses.
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