If you're active with SEO, content marketing, or any other aspect of web marketing, you've almost certainly heard the term "evergreen content" and been told that your site requires it. What is evergreen marketing, and why is evergreen content beneficial for search engine optimization?
As the evergreen tree is a symbol of eternal life, evergreen content marketing employs concepts and approaches that are long-lasting and sustainable.
How is Evergreen Content Defined?
As the term implies, evergreen content is search engine optimized content that remains relevant and "fresh" for readers over an extended period.
You may believe that all online content is long-lasting; after all, a blog post does not simply vanish after publication. However, evergreen content is distinct. It remains relevant well after publication, with search traffic increasing over time.
How did it get the Name Evergreen?
Even those unfamiliar with marketing will recognize the term "evergreen," as evergreen trees (often pine or fir) are frequently used to adorn homes for Christmas. Because evergreen trees keep their leaves throughout the seasons, they symbolize eternal life.
As with trees, the evergreen topic is regarded to be long-lasting and sustainable.
Why is an Evergreen Post Important?
There are many reasons why evergreen content is beneficial for SEO.
- Increased traffic and leads
First and foremost, evergreen content is important for increasing traffic to your website.
You can draw in a wider audience by producing high-quality, relevant content that remains fresh for readers over an extended period. As a result, you'll likely see increased web page views and leads generated through search engine optimization (SEO).
An evergreen article can bring your audience back again. Second, an evergreen article remains relevant for readers even if published a few years ago. Search engines reward publishers who produce quality content that keeps readers interested and engaged.
- Makes you an expert on a topic
If you have a topic that you feel passionate about, writing evergreen content can help cement your authority and expertise on the topic. By sharing your knowledge in an engaging and informative way, you'll make it easier for potential customers to decide whether or not to engage with your business.
- Increases trust
Evergreen content shows that you're dedicated to your audience and are dedicated to providing valuable information. This builds trust and encourages potential customers to interact with you on a deeper level.
In turn, this can lead to longer-term relationships and even sales transactions.
Evergreen Content Formats
There are a variety of formats that an evergreen piece of content can take:
- Blog posts
Blog posts are a great way to share your expertise on a topic in an easy-to-read format. By writing engaging, informative content that is updated regularly, you'll keep readers interested and engaged. This can lead to increased traffic and leads through SEO.
To determine how much of a role your business blogging efforts will play in helping you achieve results, it's helpful to measure the success of your efforts.
- Social media posts
Social media posts are another great way to share your expertise and connect with potential customers. By writing engaging content relevant to your target audience, you can help build trust and create a closer relationship with readers.
- Video content
Video content is another great way to share your expertise and connect with potential customers. Creating engaging, informative videos that are updated regularly can help build trust and create a closer relationship with readers.
In addition to SEO benefits, video content also has the potential to generate more leads through autoplaying or viral sharing.
- 101s and buyer's guide
A 101 is a concise, simple guide that provides readers with essential information on a specific topic. This type of content can be useful for both new and experienced customers.
Buyer's guides are similar to 101s, but they are designed specifically for buyers looking to buy or upgrade a product or service. By providing comprehensive information on the best products and services available, buyer's guides can help customers make informed decisions.
- Glossaries
Glossaries and encyclopedias are helpful resources that provide comprehensive definitions of specific terms. By providing access to these detailed definitions, readers can learn more about the topic being discussed.
Glossaries can assist potential clients in seeing your organization as an authority by providing them with useful information.
- Case studies
Case studies are stories that illustrate a specific point. By providing readers with an in-depth look at your organization's experiences, case studies can help build trust and inspire future customers.
Publishing extensive case studies is evergreen content that may show potential buyers how your product works for others.
- Listicles
Top ten lists, checklists, how-to guides, and other tools and resources providing core knowledge about your sector can generate visitors to your website, blog, or social media accounts by using the listicle type of content.
- Product reviews
Product reviews can help potential customers learn more about the features and benefits of a specific product. By providing insightful comments, product reviewers can help readers make informed decisions.
Product reviews and customer endorsements on your website may help build trust with prospective buyers and provide great SEO outcomes.
How to Create Evergreen Content?
How to create content that will be useful and interesting for your customers? This step-by-step guide will help you with actionable tips on creating evergreen content for your site or niche.
- Research the evergreen topics
To get started, it's essential to research the evergreen topics that are most relevant to your industry or customers. By understanding what content resonates with your audience, you can create valuable and timeless content for them.
You can use a keyword research tool such as Ahrefs or SEMRush to research the evergreen topics. Or, you can use Google Trends to see what keywords are being searched the most on the internet. This can help you identify potential content ideas and topics.
- Check for search intent
A searcher's goal while typing a query into Google is called search intent.
There will be a lot of volatility in ranks if the search intent for a keyword is uncertain or expected to change. Even though your content is technically "up to date," Google may not consider it an up-to-current reflection of what people would like to see, and your rankings will suffer.
Thus, you should always look for a keyword or a topic with low volatility.
- Create evergreen content
Once you've identified the most relevant topics to your audience and industry, it's time to start creating content.
Google's job is to provide the most relevant results for a given search query.
You'll need high-quality content to achieve the greatest results.
It has to be far superior to everything else on the subject or create a "10X content".
When you write the best piece of content on a subject, you have a much better chance of keeping your rankings in the long run.
So, what are the characteristics of an evergreen content that is hard to beat:
- Quality: Does the website look good? Are the words easy to read? Is it interesting, fun, or useful? Is the content going to help solve the problem?
- Uniqueness: Because your content is better than the content of other people.
- Authority: Are you an expert in this field or subject?
Take a look at the topic 'The Guide to SEO Content Brief.'
We have used various subheadings to make content lengthy and skimmable in the content.
Before writing an SEO content brief, the first thing to do is to create a content outline. You can take inspiration from the top-ranking pages to create your content outline.
Once you have the content outline ready, you can start creating your content.
While creating the content, make sure to include the target keyword and other relevant keywords. To make the content more relevant and readable among the readers, use relevant search intent terms. You can take inspiration from the other popular content pieces on the Internet, which are more shareable.
- Optimize for SEO
Once you've determined your keywords, remember to use SEO recommended practices for on-page optimization. There are various on-page SEO practices, but optimizing your content using even the most important SEO practices would do the trick.
Here are some good on-page SEO practices to do:
Use keywords in the title
An essential ranking component in on-page SEO optimization is the page title. When consumers search for specific keywords, search engines utilize page titles to choose which websites to show them. A page title is used to appear in search results so that readers get to your site.
Use keywords in meta description
A meta description is one of the little-known but powerful ways through which search engines determine whether or not a page is worth displaying.
It's about 150-160 characters, and it’s where you tell searchers what kind of content they can expect on your page. The ideal meta description length is roughly 160 characters. For desktop use, however, Google allows up to 220 characters.
Create a keyword-rich heading
Headings play a vital role in on-page SEO. In HTML, header tags include components such as h1>, h2>, h3>, and so on.
Headings are utilized to appear in search results and can be viewed as your website's first impression.
These tags help users arrange your material, and search engines determine which parts of your content are the most important and relevant based on search intent.
Image alt text
Image alt text is a text description of the image in your article or slideshow. This information can help determine click-through rates, as well as keyword density for images on pages. To get the most out of this ranking factor, incorporate keywords into your image alt texts.
- Page URLs
SEO is very important when it comes to page URLs. It is the part of the web address that users will see when they search for something. It is also where you can track how many people came to your site from search engines.
Page URLs should be simple and arranged to be easy to read. In the URL, you can see the website's structure and how it is organized. This can help search engines find your page and index it faster.
- Create backlinks
Link building is an important ranking signal that Google uses to determine the relevancy and authority of the page.
After you've optimized your content for SEO, the next step is to create internal links as well as external links for your anchor text.
Internal links are used to organize your website's pages into a hierarchy. It is the most effective technique to organize and connect relevant content in one location.
It aids search engines in crawling your site and better understanding its structure.
An effective SEO method for websites with numerous pages is to build a category page with links to all the pages under it.
- Repurpose content
Evergreen content needs to be repurposed regularly. Your old content can be a real goldmine if updated regularly. Use an SEO tool to track which pages are bringing organic traffic.
Once you have these pages, perform keyword research again and find the keywords that you have missed in your content that others are using. Also, use Google Search Console to find the keywords that are bringing you the impressions, but you aren't using them in your content.
Lastly, use Scalenut to repurpose your old content. Import your page URL into the Scalenut text editor to see the content grade and the missing NLP terms.
Once you enter the URL, your page content will be imported into the editor. You can view the main keyword's content grade, readability, and word count. On the right sidebar, you can find all the used and unused NLP terms that improve your content's relevancy.
Using these NLP terms and optimizing your content for SEO, you can ensure the content is updated.
FAQs
Q1. Which content is not evergreen?
Ans: There are various types of content such as recent news articles, statistics and current trends, clothing trends, or music trends with a short shelf life that is usually not evergreen.
Q2. Does regularly updating your content help with ranking?
Ans: Yes, regularly updating your content will help with ranking. However, if you don't have any quality or new relevant information to share, it might not be the best strategy to blog regularly and rely only on SEO.
Q3. What are the examples of evergreen content?
Ans: Some good examples of evergreen content are blog posts about a popular topic, how-to guides for different tasks, and tutorials on topics that interest your audience.
Q4. What does evergreen mean in marketing?
Ans: The word "evergreen" is used in marketing to describe products, segments, and methods that remain relevant over time.
Q5. What are the best tools for keyword research?
Ans: There is no definitive answer to this question as different people have different opinions. However, some tools that are often recommended for keyword research are Ahrefs, SEMRush, Moz, and KWFinder.
Conclusion
As a content creator, it's important to be aware that evergreen content is one of the most valuable assets you can have in your content marketing strategy. It retains a user's attention for longer periods. It also helps improve search engine rankings, promotes social shares, and earns you backlinks – all of which are essential for increasing your website's organic traffic.
That said, there's no need to put all your eggs into one basket - topical pieces with a due date do have their place.
In the end, Scalenut can be your best friend for repurposing your old content or creating fresh evergreen content from scratch.
You can sign up and start with Scalenut for free to create your first evergreen content.