Do you wonder why old pages tend to show up at the top of some search results even though they are relatively old? Aren’t we told to keep our content fresh to stay on top of search engine results? We in the digital marketing industry refer to these results as evergreen content.
What is Evergreen Content?
Now the questions become: what is evergreen content, and how can you leverage it for your content marketing strategy?
Content marketing is the idea that you can use the content you create for your website to attract and convert searchers and prospects into paying clients to be relevant and visible to the aforementioned groups. Therefore, evergreen content continues to provide value to readers no matter when they stumble upon it. In other words, it can be referenced long after it was initially published, and even then, it's still valuable to the reader. Typically, it is a piece of SEO content that is timeless, valuable, and high quality.
Here are a few formats of evergreen content that can help you start cultivating your “set it and forget it” evergreen content:
- Listicles
- Tips and Tricks
- How-To Guides and Content
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Industry Definitions
- Videos as appropriate
Remember, evergreen content should not have an expiration date and should retain its value long-term. An article about the latest political movement, an election, or this year’s trends may be popular content now, but it won't make it evergreen content.
9 Tips for Writing Evergreen Content
Now that you better understand what evergreen content is and isn’t and the formats that work best, let us look at some evergreen content-specific writing tips:
- Write for your audience: The formats mentioned earlier may or may not work for your business. At the risk of stating the obvious, you must create content that provides value to your target audience. You may need to share your expertise, but do so in a way that caters to your target audience. Frequently, assistants are tasked with broad-based searches, or it may be a homeowner who doesn’t know a screwdriver from an Allen wrench. You want to generate evergreen content for a broader and recurring audience.
- Choose the right content: One of the most challenging things when generating evergreen content is that more prominent companies have often covered the topic, possibly hundreds of times. While some people may say you should only bring new and fresh ideas to the table, I disagree. While one person may say something one way, you may say it another way that resonates with that person much more. This will make your content more valuable to your target audiences and more likely to move up in the search engine results.
- Choose the right keywords: Like with any content you generate or write, you will want to look at the keywords. Look to long-tail keywords or very targeted search phrases that you can expand on for your prospects. Here are three resources to get you started:
- Optimize for Search Engines: Once you have your keywords, don’t forget to use SEO best practices for on-page optimization.
- Add alt text to images.
- Keyword(s) in the title, URL, and throughout the body copy, just don't stuff keywords!
- Link to related evergreen articles on your site and other websites to improve SEO rankings.
- Avoid Jargon and Technical Terms: Along the same lines as writing for your audience, you will want to avoid jargon, technical terms, and even acronyms with our first defining them. Almost all search engine experts agree that evergreen content is not intended for experts. It is easy to use jargon specific to your industry since you are fluent in that language. But for prospects searching online for more information, that type of jargon can turn them off to your business. Be sure to write content for searchers who don’t know what you’re talking about.
- Repurpose Your Content: When you create a great piece of content, don’t be afraid to break it down and utilize it in other ways. This may include:
- Social media posts
- Videos
- Additional blogs
- Email newsletters
- Be Comprehensive: Content Marketing Institute describes evergreen content as typically longer than the timely “news” types of posts. The longer length will allow you to build in more search engine keywords, elaborate on valuable points, or drive potential clients to contact your business for additional information, such as price estimates.
- Offer Freebies: Everyone loves a freebie. It is a staple of the sales world and a great way to help potential customers return to your business when ready to purchase. What are some freebies you can include on evergreen content? Consider downloadable checklists or informational graphics. Be sure to brand these downloadable freebies so people will remember who gave it to them.
- Keep it simple and skimmable: Have you ever opened a webpage and didn’t read it because it was too long? It happens all the time. This is often referred to as the “TL;DR” or too long; didn’t read. How do you keep those people with short attention spans or lack time to read your comprehensive evergreen content? There are a few ways to make it more skimmable:
- Use Infographics: Not only will infographics provide visual rest for eyes, but it allows people to nibble on the information you present without asking them to read pages of text. You can use a few online infographic makers for free to create very visually appealing graphics. Canva and Visme are great choices.
- Use Multimedia: Add slideshows or videos that present the same information in different formats.
- Use Subheadings and Lists: Paragraphs are so boring, right? If you present the most relevant information in list format, you’ll be more likely to catch the attention of searchers who skim for crucial details.
Final Thoughts
Content marketing may seem intimidating, but it is about serving your prospects and clientele. You don’t have to do it alone! Myself and everyone here at Cube Creative Design are content marketing specialists with years of experience. Contact me to help cultivate your content!
