We have been discussing inbound marketing all month. It’s impossible to talk about this topic without mentioning evergreen content. Just like the conifers in our forests, evergreen content is designed to sustain life and stand the test of time. This is the type of content that makes your website more than just a one-time informational fling. It creates something that users can come back to again and again and it makes your website a truly useful resource.
Keep reading to learn how to put evergreen content to work on your website.
Defining Evergreen Content
Evergreen content is optimized content that creates a lasting impression within your platform. It focuses on relevant information that will stay valuable for an extended period.
You may think that all online content remains sustainable, after all, once you post a blog, it doesn’t exactly disappear. But just because you are online doesn’t mean you’ll get the views.
Things like “Top 10 Fastest Roller Coasters”, “How to Lose Weight”, “How to Change a Tire” are all examples of content that will change minimally, if at all, for many years. These types of things are evergreen.
On the contrary, a post about a bug in the latest smartphone will not continue to drive clicks over time. As soon as a developer fixes the bug or a new smartphone model is released, this post is irrelevant.
News, holiday content, or articles focused on current trends are all examples of content that is important but will not continue to bring traffic to your website over time as evergreen content does.
Evergreen Content vs. Timely Content
Evergreen content plays a key role in your website’s engagement strategy. However, it’s ideal to have a balance of evergreen and timely content.
Talking about trending topics or common problems is a perfect way to draw attention to your information and stay relevant to “what’s in”. Evergreen is really what keeps your traffic alive over time. This content will passively benefit your website’s overall traffic and SEO, helping you rank higher.
These two types of content work together because they benefit each other. Better SEO and rankings achieved by evergreen content will help expose newer visitors to your other content.
3 Reasons to Update Older Content
If your industry or topic is something that is sustainable but has ever-changing details such as statistics or dates, be sure to stay up-to-date and keep your content fresh and accurate. Keep the information current for three reasons.
- Up-to-date information gives the visitor a good impression.
- When you update older evergreen content, you can re-post it. This will revitalize your information, get it back to the top of your blog page, and give the post a bit of a boost for people who stumble upon your other content.
- You will get an SEO boost. Search engines reward historical optimization because it keeps old blog content fresh and can generate even more traffic than before.
Call Out Evergreen Content on Your Pillar Page
Having loads of useful content is fine and dandy, but it needs to be easy to find. Posts that you want to remain in the spotlight can become buried by an influx of other blog posts. So what’s the solution? Call attention to these posts by creating sections of your blog such as “Top Posts” or “Most Viewed”.
Create a page and/or section that highlights and categorizes your evergreen content to give the user the easiest way possible to find what they’re looking for. Doing this is also a great way to increase internal linking within your site. This interlinking can positively boost your SEO and search rankings.
Experiment With Your Types of Content
Experiment with the content that drives the most traffic to your website. Start by reviewing your existing blog topics and performance. You probably already have evergreen content and don’t realize it.
Pay attention to how users engage with this content. Try to learn everything you can about what types of information drive the most quality traffic to your site. If your “top 10 list” blog posts have six times the number of views of your “tips & tricks” posts, that gives you a basic idea of what your audience prefers.
Some great examples of these evergreen categories include:
- Lists
- Industry Tips
- History
- Frequently Asked Questions
- How-To Videos
If you don’t already have any of these types of content on your site, consider adding them. Articles, infographics and videos are all great ways to deliver these types of evergreen content.
Design Considerations
Content is king, but content needs to be exciting. A page full of words isn’t enough.
Creativity is an important part of evergreen content sharing. Many highly successful companies that frankly don’t have very interesting industries; natural soap, shaving clubs, air fresheners. There isn’t much that’s very exciting about soap. But companies that manage to dominate the specialized soap industry do so because of their creative and visually impressive content.
When you’re planning evergreen content, be sure to include stunning graphics, beautiful charts, and great photography. Give people a reason to want to look at your page for more than just a quick informational read.
