Evergreen Content 101: What is it (and Why Should You Create it)?

What is evergreen content? How do you create this content, and what do evergreen articles look like?

Perhaps even more importantly, how does evergreen information work as a content marketing strategy and how will it help with your search rankings?

Well, if you've ever wondered about any of that, then don't worry, because we're going to teach you a few tips about quality evergreen content today, so you can apply it to your own website and reap the rewards.

What is evergreen content?

Evergreen information is exactly what it sounds like - content that will never get old. Sharing this information means you're focusing on providing value added content that will never go out of style.

These pieces will always be relevant to your potential website visitors and customers, so creating evergreen content is an important thing to do to bring in search traffic year by year.

In creating evergreen content, you need to understand two things:

1. Evergreen topics

These topics have consistent interest. Evergreen article ideas are never out of date and are usually what popular articles are all about.

Examples of evergreen content:

• ‘How to find leads for your business’: Businesses will always need new customers, so an article which defines the importance of leads and ways companies can obtain them will never go out of fashion.
• ‘5 ways to respond to a customer complaint’: Even the best companies in the world deal with customer complaints, and how you respond often makes or breaks the customer service experience. Detailing tried and tested ways of placating, and pleasing customers is always of interest to businesses.
• A step-by-step guide to using your product: Hopefully, you’ll always have new customers, which means there is always likely to be someone learning how to use your product (or service). A guide to getting the best from what you deliver satisfies your customers and showcases you as a company who cares.
• The history of your brand and how it has driven you to where you are today: The historical nature of this content means that it isn’t going to change, but if you show a sustained commitment to serving customers and helping your audience, the content will be as authentic today as it ever was.

You get the point. They're broad topics that people will always be interested in, and so you're guaranteed long-term traffic.

2. Helpful and relevant information

Evergreen writing is information that should work at any point, you don’t only have to consider the time; you need to ensure the information is correct too.

Time sensitive topics won't last forever. In the examples above, while ‘How to find leads for your business’ is an example, while ‘How to find leads for your business in 2022’ isn’t because it is time sensitive and will be outdated in 2023. Similarly, if you create an article on finding leads on a social media platform, such as ‘How to find leads for your business on Tik Tok’, there’s a good chance the content won’t be evergreen.

However, seasonal content can be evergreen, if it’s relevant each year or season. You don't need to create content every year if the information is the same.

Tik Tok might be around for many years, but the methods shared in the article might not be relevant in the future. Platforms change, interest wanes and content which focuses on specific strategies based on media might be out of date.

This is why evergreen content performs best when engaging people or dealing with tried and tested matters.

In the example relating to a customer complaint, the medium of the message will change (from an in-person complaint to a phone call to an email to social media message or WhatsApp message and so on).

Still, the way a firm acknowledges the criticism and resolves the issue to the customer’s satisfaction should follow similar lines. Good evergreen content revolves around resolving the issue instead of being overly concerned about the platform or medium, or even what happens between different industries.

Common evergreen formats and examples of this content include::

• How-to articles and videos, such as how to develop a customer persona, because no matter the era or how people buy, the nature of the customer buying from your business is likely to be stable over time.
• Listicles that detail the process of using your product or establishing your organisation's core values are examples of evergreen content creation. A list detailing how people can contact your firm isn’t evergreen because communication methods change and evolve, not to mention your business might change addresses or phone numbers.

Of course, a contact page is necessary for businesses. While it doesn’t fit the expectation of evergreen stories or content, it should provide you with a base level of content that can be easily maintained and updated as per your requirements.

What isn't evergreen content?

Now you know what it is, it's important to know what it isn't. Articles focusing on pop culture, topical articles, news posts, news articles, statistics or any article with overly technical language (you should avoid overly technical language because it may not be relevant years from now) won't be evergreen content.

That's because they all have an expiration date. Think of it like this:

If you click a post and see the publication date was years ago, if the content and topic is something you think is still relevant, then it's evergreen.

If it isn't up to date or continually relevant no matter when it was published, then it isn't.

Evergreen content examples

Specific examples include:

How-to guides

These components, often known as step-by-steps, work because they provide simple instructions for completing a task.

Checklists

Getting the message across quickly and simply – summarizing them in an interactive or printable style for promotional purposes is typically useful.

Case studies

A digital marketing agency specializing in project or client work can show steps, processes and results in word and image format.

Resources

People are continuously looking for tools, thus lists of tools and resources are another good example of long-lasting evergreen posts.

A guide to dealing with customer complaints

An article about dealing with customer complaints is helpful internally, as it provides employees with a guideline for dealing with customers, but it’s also beneficial in attracting new business. Customers, particularly in the B2B sector, want to know if they have a problem that the firm will resolve to their satisfaction.

Companies that have negative reviews on their social media page and who respond to the matter on their page, resolving the issue in public, are more likely to be trusted than a company with nothing but five-star reviews.

It might be a business with nothing but five-star reviews offering exceptional service, but many potential clients will have concerns about the validity of feedback on site.

By being upfront about things going wrong, and how you work to resolve the problem makes your business more trustworthy and reliable for prospective clients.

So, creating an article which showcases the initial complaint or problem and then walking through the steps to resolution is helpful, and relevant to your business. It shows you are trustworthy, but it also details what your clients should expect in the event of something going wrong when dealing with you. This provides peace of mind, it answers search intent and will likely lead to more business.

Why is evergreen content important?

Evergreen content is an SEO content marketing strategy with proven results. With great evergreen content, you won't need to keep that content up to date.

With the right keyword research beforehand too, your piece of content can bring consistent traffic to your website overtime because people won't lose interest in it.

Other strategies rely on you posting content as often as possible to stay relevant.

But if you cover an evergreen topic with the right keywords and long-lasting, dependable content, then you won't need to keep posting to stay relevant to your customers.

Of course, you'll need to diversify evergreen writing with a blog post now and then that's topical and will eventually go out of date, or else your visitors will get bored.

But in terms of strategy, it's your evergreen content strategy that's your bread and butter.

List of evergreen content benefits

With evergreen content carrying so many benefits, it’s of use to virtually all businesses. The following list of relevant content benefits details why you need to consider this form of content:

Increased organic traffic

A key reason to create evergreen content is that it can help to increase traffic to your website. This is because it’s relevant and useful long after it is published, which means that it will continue attracting new readers. Additionally, these posts are more likely to be shared than other types of content, as people are more likely to share something they know will be useful to others.

A reduction in time spent on content

With significant organic content, you’ll rank for essential terms and receive hits on an ongoing basis, all from work you have already done. Rather than devoting time or money to generate new content that drives traffic, investing time, effort and money into great organic content once frees up time for other work.

Improved search engine rankings

Another benefit of this type of content is that it can help to improve your search engine rankings. This is because this type of content is more likely to be relevant and valuable to searchers than other types of content, which means that search engines will give it a higher ranking. While many factors influence search engine rankings, shared content and linked content are deemed trustworthy by search engines, making good content more likely to rank highly.

More leads and sales

Creating evergreen content ideas can also help you to generate more leads and sales for your business. This is because these posts are more likely to attract new readers over time, so there’s a greater chance that they will become customers or clients. Add this to evergreen posts being more likely to be shared; you benefit from word-of-mouth recommendations, which should drive new customers to your business.

Increased brand awareness

Writing evergreen content can also help you to increase brand awareness for your business. This is because it will continue to be seen by new readers over time, which means more people will become aware of your brand. As this style of content is based on more fundamental matters as opposed to short-term issues, it should reinforce the brand and identity of your company.

This is the sort of content that most people see, and they’ll think of this content when they consider your business. Good lasting content creates a positive impression of your brand, boosting awareness, and generating goodwill to your organization.

Businesses can repurpose content in many ways

Evergreen marketing is a great way to generate content in the future. The information contained in this content can be repurposed if you want to create video content, presentations for events, brochures, social media clips, infographics, listicles and even internal documents.

Doing so saves time, helps you reach new customers differently, and creates consistency in what you do. This consistency means your voice stays the same, helping new and existing customers to recognise you and what you believe in.

Higher ROI

Finally, evergreen content typically has a higher ROI than other types of content. This is because it continues to generate traffic and leads long after it has been published, which means that you will continue to see a return on your investment even after the initial publishing costs have been recouped.

It’s not as though evergreen material is the only approach your business should take when engaging your audience and promoting your products or services. However, as part of your overall marketing strategy, content marketing is highly effective. It should be an integral part of your approach to generating leads and developing a great relationship with customers.

How to create evergreen content

If you want to write an evergreen article or create an evergreen post with your next blog post so you have your own evergreen pieces, then it couldn't be simpler. Here's what to do:

First - find evergreen topics

All you need to do here is pick a target keyword and do some keyword research with a keyword tool to find if a topic is relevant.

Looking at popular related keywords can help here too, as this might give you some ideas for articles that would also be considered evergreen articles.

Search optimized content is part of the best content marketing strategy

Focus on searching volumes of those words. Is there potential? What is the target keyword's and related keywords' search volume? Are enough people searching? Do Google trends suggest it will continue?

Google trends and keyword tools are free tools you can use to determine where your content ranking would likely be (first page of the results, etc.) if you tried to make an evergreen piece on the topic.

Use them to decide what's best for you - it's the best way to make dependable content and it's smart content and digital marketing. Evergreen content relies on ideas that will last, but when you have them, you develop your content marketing strategy.

Then - create quality content

Quality content doesn't have an expiration date, it can enjoy perpetual life. Such content remains relevant long past any 'trends'.

In marketing, evergreen content of high quality is called 10X content. That's because it will be 10X better than your competitors and stay on the first page of search results for years.

With that comes organic traffic and more traffic.

But what makes a piece evergreen and high-quality?

• Avoiding dated language
• Avoiding a 'spin' that's too 'out there'
• Being authoritative
• Being unique
• Being well-written and well presented

Final thoughts

Once you've mastered evergreen content strategy, you'll get more organic traffic from your target audience. Then you can generate even more traffic by creating more links back to the content and re-advertising your evergreen posts on social media to gain more attention again.

With a little help from social media marketing (using a social media post to drive traffic), you'll only need to put effort into these posts now and then, leaving you more time to work on your next big piece or trending content that'll spike interest in your website!