You might have heard the term evergreen content but not understood its meaning or relevance. It often comes up in the context of content marketing, blogging and search engine optimisation (SEO). Essentially evergreen content is material that is timeless, always relevant and attracts online traffic long after it’s publication date.
In this article I go over the main features of evergreen content, the different formats it can take, ideas for creating evergreen content and tips for maximising the value of your evergreen content.
What is evergreen content?
Even though your published blog articles never disappear (unless you delete them – and even then they probably exist somewhere in cyberspace), some content continues to appear in search results long after it was published while other pieces fade away.
Evergreen content is search engine optimised (SEO) and timeless – meaning it is likely to remain high in search rankings for a long period of time (I’m talking years here). It does this because evergreen content covers topics and challenges and questions that are always relevant to your audience. It never goes out of date. Which means it will continue to bring traffic to your website long term – and traffic increases overtime as the content becomes solidified as a valuable source of information.
Sometimes it can help to look at what evergreen content isn’t, to understand what it is. Evergreen content is not:
- about current news (e.g. 2020 US Presidential elections)
- looking at seasonal trends/fashions (e.g. christmas cake recipes)
- stats and numbers that quickly become outdated (e.g. how many people joined Clubhouse in Feb)
- specific timeframes (e.g. best marketing strategies for 2021)
- fads and trends (e.g. zoom backgrounds)
That isn’t to say articles based on these things don’t make for great content. Trending content can bring spikes in traffic and demonstrate that you are plugged in to your industry and have an opinion about current trends. But their value is timestamped. At some point in the near future the content will no longer be relevant and no-one will be searching for it, or reading it.
Consider these two blog topics as examples:
Evergreen ⇒ “Ten proven strategies that will improve your productivity when working from home”
Trending ⇒ “The three best productivity apps being released in 2021”
The first one will likely rank highly for anyone searching “productivity strategies” and “productivity when working from home”, which are likely to be common search terms for many years to come (COVID or not). The second one, on the other hand, might rank highly when people search for “productivity apps” and “best productivity apps 2021”, but once 2021 is over it will be less and less likely to appear in results. And it will be superseded by whatever comes out in 2022.
The value of evergreen content is in it’s sustainability and lasting benefit in bringing traffic to your website over the long term.
Examples of evergreen content formats
The actual information provided in evergreen content is limitless – whatever your topic of expertise is, you can create evergreen content for it. But there are formats which are more common for evergreen content, and these include:
- Beginner guides
- How to guides/instructions
- Top tips
- FAQs
- Checklists
- Case studies
- Definitions/Glossaries
- Infographics explaining a process or system
Writing content in these format’s doesn’t guarantee it will be evergreen, or that it will rank highly. But the nature of the information provided in these kinds of formats lends itself well to creating content that is evergreen.
Ideas for evergreen content
As already mentioned, the actual information your evergreen content contains will be linked to whatever business you are in. One of the golden rules of any content you create is that it should provide value to your audience by helping them move closer to their goals. This applies to evergreen content. Given the strong link between evergreen content and search results, you need to keep in mind the kind of keywords your audience will be searching for and build your content topics around these.
Here are some ideas for evergreen content you can create for your business:
- Answer questions you are frequently asked by potential or current clients
- Interview other experts in your industry
- Explain common concepts that people new to the industry or topic might not understand (like this article on evergreen content)
- Provide step by step instructions for how to complete a task relevant to your audience
- Bring together all the information relevant to a particular topic in a one-stop-shop complete guide
- Share tips and tricks you have learnt and applied
How to maximise the value of evergreen content
Publish it and they will come? Well, not necessarily. We live in such a content rich world that there is a lot of competition for people’s attention. So just creating evergreen content doesn’t guarantee you will now be the #1 result on Google and your website traffic will skyrocket (if only it were that easy!). But it will give you the foundation for putting your best foot forward in the digital marketing game.
Here are a few things you can do to ensure you are getting maximum value out of the evergreen content you create.
1. Bring a unique perspective
The challenge with evergreen content is that – because the topics are always relevant – there are probably already articles out there covering the same thing. The key is to bring your unique perspective, insights and experience to these timeless topics. If you work in a specific niche or with a specific type of client then use this to take a new angle on the topic. For example, an article on inbox management tips (lots of those out there) could focus on tips for mums wanting to manage their personal and business email inboxes together. Or tips specifically for using the features of Gmail or Outlook. You know what your ideal clients are struggling with and the information that will help them most, so use your client persona’s so drive your topic selection and then layer in your point of differentiation.
2. Repurpose evergreen content into different formats
Evergreen content lends itself well to repurposing because you can use different formats to reach different audiences, and breath new life into old (but still valuable) content. It also means you can maximise the reach and ROI of the effort put into creating the original piece of content.
You can use evergreen blog articles as a basis for creating:
- Videos/Facebook Lives/Instagram Reels
- Infographics
- Interviews/Case Studies
- Podcast episodes or guest appearances
- Email tip series
- Webinars
- E-books – great for combining multiple evergreen blog articles on the same topic in one resource 🙂
3. Link related content to each other
If you are creating multiple pieces of content linked to one common topic, it makes sense to include links within each individual piece of content to the others. For example, if you have created a Beginner’s Guide to Inbox Management, you might include a link to your list of common definitions or glossary of terms. And when you create your guide to setting up automated rules in Gmail, you would direct people back to the Beginner’s Guide as a place to start. Building these internal links helps keep people on your website, consuming more of your content, and further demonstrating your expertise and value to them. Because the content is evergreen it is less likely your links will break as all the individual pieces remain relevant over the long term.
Keep in mind, just because evergreen content doesn’t go out of date doesn’t mean you shouldn’t review and update when needed. Definition lists might need new terms added. A how-to guide might need steps added or removed or updated. There might be new outcomes achieved for a case study. A yearly content review is valuable in identifying content that can be removed, updated or repurposed.
If you already have a business blog then you have probably already created some evergreen content, maybe without knowing that is what it was called. If you are thinking of starting or relaunching your blog then evergreen content needs to be a core component of your content plan. Now you understand the value of evergreen content in bringing traffic to your website, look for more opportunities to create timeless content that continues to remain relevant and valuable over the long term.
If you want to explore opportunities to create evergreen content for your business, book in for a free 15 min content chat.
