Tips for Creating Evergreen Content


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As we start in 2020, there are two things that I can be certain about: first, content marketing will only become more important; and content creation and its distribution will carry on evolving rapidly.

I am a big fan of content marketing and advocate that every company (no matter the size) should start paying an enormous amount of attention to it.

Why?

Because content marketing is something that can make your company stand out, connect with your consumers on a more personal level and position you as an industry and thought-leader.

It is an extremely powerful tool to generate new leads, help the existing ones grow further and build relationships with your audiences.

Given the fact that the world is moving super fast and new trends come frequently, it’s important to be up-to-date with your marketing efforts. It can be overwhelming and sometimes time-consuming to keep up with the latest developments.

That’s why it’s wise to have some evergreen content ready. Something that would be always useful and what you’d be able to share with the crowds without much additional planning. I love having evergreen content ready and (re)use it from time to time. It’s a big part of my marketing strategy.

What is evergreen content?

Evergreen content is a search-engine optimised content that continuously remains relevant and fresh. Even though all content that we publish online (blog posts, articles, social media posts, etc.) stays on the web until we decide to delete it, not all content remains relevant over a long period of time.

News, social media posts and trends are, for example, very time-sensitive and can generate great short-term traffic, however, in the long run, wouldn’t remain relevant or searched.

Evergreen content is, on the other hand, not tied to specific news and generally accumulates the growing search traffic over time.

 

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Common ways to make evergreen content

Creating evergreen content should be a continuous business goal. However, it may be problematic to come up with content ideas that would remain fresh over a period of time. I give you some of my favourite templates:

  1. In-depth research (e.g. The changing landscape of payments in Southeast Asia)

  2. How-to for Beginners (e.g. How to create a Facebook Business Account?)

  3. How to choose the best product (e.g. How to choose the best camera?)

  4. How to do something (e.g. How to stop snacking in the office?)

  5. Lists (e.g. 10 reasons your business should be on LinkedIn)

  6. Best ________ (e.g. Best tools every marketer should use)

  7. Common mistakes (e.g. Common mistakes most startups make)

  8. Your product (e.g. How can <name of a product> improve your business processes?)

  9. Best or worst practice (e.g. The top 4 ways to get new sales leads)

  10. Complete glossary of the specific niche (e.g. The complete list of IT terms for beginners)

However, keep in mind that your marketing strategy shouldn’t be based on producing evergreen content alone. Trendy and news-related content is great for short-term marketing campaigns. They have the capacity to boost your brand visibility and should be an important part of the overall marketing strategy as well.

Tips for writing evergreen content

Now that you know what evergreen content is and what the common templates are, let’s have a look at some tips to make your evergreen content an even bigger success:

  1. Choose the right keywords. Even the best evergreen piece of content is worthless if nobody is searching for that topic, so do your keyword research. I would recommend paying particular attention to the keywords that you want to relate to the piece. Long-tail keywords (consisting of 4 and more words) are often much more valuable. Don’t overcrowd your post with too many keywords either. I’d suggest looking at a maximum of 3 main keywords that you want to optimise. These keywords should be related.

  2. Optimize for SEO. Once you have the keywords you want to optimise for, don’t forget to apply the best SEO practices to your post. Add alt text to images, and put the main keyword in the title, URL, use the selected keywords throughout the body copy. Use the keywords in your meta description and interlink your articles whenever it is relevant.

  3. Write for beginners. You don’t have to share deep expertise in the field. Instead, cater to beginners, who aren’t familiar with the subject. Experts seldom search for broad topics. This also means that you should simplify the language and use simple terms because the overly-technical language will be much harder to understand.

  4. Reuse your content. You shouldn’t post and forget about your content. In order to maximise reach, I always share my evergreen articles on social media channels at least every two months. This helps to bring new followers to read the post. Don’t be afraid that your old followers will get annoyed — most frequently, people don’t remember what they read or saw online a couple of months ago. This is also a powerful SEO trick because visits signal to Google that your article is still relevant.

  5. Update your evergreen content regularly. Don’t treat your content as permanently true. It may happen that your article will require an update as some new information will be released or new developments will take place. That’s why it’s healthy to revisit your post and see if it’s still 100% relevant. Regular updates are also a great SEO booster as they indicate to Google web-crawlers that your content is still up-to-date.

  6. Continuously measure performance. Remember that new content is created every minute. Some of it may compete on the same keywords with your evergreen post. That’s why it’s very important to be hands-on and track the performance of your post. If you notice a drop in metrics (page visits, time spent, impressions, positioning on Google search page, etc.), it’s smart to assess what’s been going on and adjust the post. You need to keep your content fresh, useful and comprehensive to stay on top.

Summary

Evergreen content is a great way to drive traffic to your website and share your expertise with a broad audience. I love reusing evergreen content because it’s easy yet valuable for the audience, and it doesn’t take much time (once the piece is created). It also has lasting value.

Here is a quick summary of the ways to make evergreen content:

  • Answer the most frequent questions that your user personas ask,

  • Provide industry tips, “how-to” explanations and advice,

  • Explain common industry concepts and jargon that may be tricky for readers to understand.

SEO is vital for the success of an evergreen post. You should carefully optimise your article and make it search-engine friendly. Don’t forget to revisit your article once in a while and make necessary updates to ensure that it stays fresh and relevant.

Happy content creation.

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