Evergreen content is articles on a website that remain relevant for a long time, months or years. Why is evergreen content needed?
What we’ll discuss
- What is evergreen content and why is it needed?
- Which topics are long-lasting?
- Popular formats of evergreen content
- What is not considered evergreen content?
- How to create a publication that lasts for years?
- How to analyze evergreen content
Evergreen content refers to articles on a website that remain relevant for a long time, months or years.
Why is evergreen content needed?
Search engines favor your resource because it is interesting to users.
For example, a review article about models of a specific product line remains interesting until more advanced versions appear. However, material on how to choose, say, a gas stove — what to look out for, the different types available, where not to skimp, and which type will last longer than others.
SEO promotion helps increase the site’s ranking. But it’s important to remember that articles are chosen by people. Therefore, evergreen content that evokes a genuine response from the audience and a desire to share with friends naturally improves the resource’s position in search engines.
What topics are long-lasting?
Long-lasting content topics are often confused with formats and types of articles. To identify topics for your business, it’s advisable to consult with the sales department — what questions do clients most frequently ask? What are their objections? What are they dissatisfied with? What do they like about competitors? And who in your niche is interesting to them?
By getting feedback from sales managers, you can divide relevant content into several themes:
- expert,
- educational,
- entertaining/inspiring,
- branding/selling.
Expert Content
This refers to materials on your resource from professionals in the niche. For example, if you own an online food store, texts in the blog can attract new customers through search queries. They can vary from “What do the labels on cookies tell us?” to “20 best gluten-free products for diabetics”.
Educational Content
Helps potential customers broaden their horizons on why a particular service is needed or what to look for when buying a product. Materials on a resource, such as an online accessory store, might include:
- 7 Life Hacks: How to Choose Sunglasses?
- Choosing a Women’s Handbag: Match with Shoes or Top?
Entertaining Content
Or inspirational content can often go viral. This can include not just humor, but also share-worthy videos. For example, for an online eyewear store—”What glasses do celebrities wear?”.
Image Articles
Help with the reputation of a brand or company. Their goal is to leave a wow-effect in the consumer’s mind. For example, these can be awards in the business sector or on a city, regional, or national level. Also, these are materials about promotions, discounts, and loyalty programs that attract customers.
Popular Evergreen Content Formats
Any sale begins with trust. Sales managers say that before making a purchase, a customer needs up to seven touches to make a decision. Informational content and its regularity build trust among subscribers, they see your expertise, and after some time, they are ready to buy or order a service.
What should you pay attention to when creating content?
Articles that work for your reputation. These are publications in which you talk about the achievements and successes of the team.
Highlight your expertise. Write about industry news and trends.
Inform your clients. Today, a buyer studies the product and its features before making a choice. Reviews of products and services will help them navigate.
Publish posts about product features. In a social network feed, where attention goes to scrolling, your useful post may also be encountered. Do not miss this opportunity.
Inform about the life of the company. What the team is up to, your behind-the-scenes, the process of creating and testing a product, secrets and life hacks, photos from production or the laboratory — all this not only generates interest but also trust.
What Other 15 Evergreen Content Formats Can You Implement
/1
Frequently Asked Questions
Customers usually ask similar questions. All that remains is to gather them and write the answers in an accessible way. An evergreen article with a title like “How to calculate ROI, ROAS and ROMI. Calculator, computation and differences” will not go unnoticed.
/2
Cases
The format of “before and after” stories. You describe what the client came with and what they got in the end, what was achieved or corrected. For example, how to improve conversion from 7 to 16 it three months.
/3
Personal Stories
Or stories about the creation of a store, brand, company — about how someone achieved success after going through all sorts of challenges. Such stories are always interesting to read. How the idea of introducing a new segment or offering a new service came about—people will tell their friends, and that’s how word-of-mouth spreads.
/4
Collection of Life Hacks
One of the most common questions that concern users is phrased like this: “How to do + (specific topic)”. Advice from experienced individuals will definitely not be overlooked, and users will likely want to save them to bookmarks.
/5
Glossary of Terms
Especially such a glossary is needed in new niches. Have you tried to find out if there are any guides in your field? For example, an internet marketing glossary will interest not only SEO and SMM specialists but also business owners and those who are just beginning to understand new terms.
/6
Description of Technologies, Methods
A detailed analysis of how a particular method works, with screenshots and explanations, is a great opportunity to keep attention on your website.
/7
Mistakes
Learning from mistakes is valuable, but not everyone has the opportunity to gain experience from their own errors. Describing blunders not only helps others but also allows you to stand out among competitors with your expertise. This contributes to your reputation!
/8
Advice
This format should be chosen with caution. If you are not an expert in your niche, trivial advice may only elicit a smile or skepticism from your readers. If you decide to go for this format, choose the most practical tips that will be useful. For example, “How to set up lead ads on Facebook: a step by step guide with advice“.
/9
Checklists
The purpose of these is to track results or progress in a task. For a marketer to launch a product or an advertising campaign, they need to conduct a series of actions, and it’s better if they have a campaign launch checklist at hand. If your business operates in e-commerce, you will likely be interested in the stages of product launch.
/10
Facts
Stubborn and indisputable! Seriously, facts inspire trust. If your blog features a few articles in the style of “10 facts about internet marketing experts won’t tell you” with genuinely compelling data, you’re set for viral content.
/11
Resource List Pages
Search engines favor websites that link to other sources. If there are resources in your niche that need to be used regularly, gather them in a blog, and users will promote you themselves. For example, “100+ English-language platforms for marketers”.
/12
Interview
This genre is better to master thoroughly. An article in a question-and-answer format is not yet a sign of an interview. The goal of this format is to showcase an expert through a certain focus. Here’s how the author conveyed the expertise of editor Maxim Ilyakhov, who popularized infostyle. People who criticize infostyle for being soulless know nothing about infostyle or the soul.
/13
YouTube Videos
A format that is perfectly suited for evergreen content. Sometimes it’s easier to watch a video than to delve into text.
/14
Audio Podcasts
They work well when there is an opportunity to listen in the background. One should not forget about those users who better perceive information by listening.
/15
PDF, White Papers
They provide an opportunity to trigger word-of-mouth marketing. Free valuable information containing active links to your resource, as well as services and contacts, is good to distribute to your target audience.
Evergreen Content for Instagram
- Introduce the “Product of the Day” feature. Spark customer interest and explain why the product is useful and deserves attention.
- Answer the most popular questions. Photograph your product with a vivid focus: pencils, paints, brushes, simple pencil sketches, or drafts.
- Talk about your plans for the day. Photos of notebooks and pens are suitable for illustrating such posts.
- Open the kitchen of your production. Behind-the-scenes and team life will interest everyone.
- Share company stories. Antique decorations, watches, calendars, ornaments, and tableware can illustrate a post.
- They write about you. Don’t forget to share news or publications, screenshots from media resources about your specialist commenting on industry trends or about your team’s achievements written on a thematic web resource.
- Stand out. Do a comparative analysis of the product, show how your goods differ from others.
- Publish photographs of people. Such photos attract user attention. Talk about upcoming events, marathons, and exhibitions. Tell interesting stories about your employees and those people who help your team. Bright flowers and beautiful bouquets will illustrate a post about the company’s anniversary or celebration.
- Dispel professional myths. Simply talk about myths related to your company or product and debunk them.
- Share tools. Don’t be stingy, show the tools that help create the product. Don’t forget to mention how long it took you to master the necessary technique or professional skill.
How to Create Content That Lasts for Years?
Let’s practically break down how to create relevant content from existing material and prepare articles that will boost your website’s ranking step by step.
- Update the content. Rewrite outdated paragraphs or sections, or better yet, add new ones.
- Implement interlinking. Add links to updated materials. This will increase your user’s time on site, which search engines will favor.
- Publish promotional posts. Use all available social channels to draw attention to your publications.
- Avoid tying to specific dates. Better to update or remove the date to keep the content evergreen.
- Consider SEO requirements. Make changes with search engine expectations in mind. Rewrite metadata considering keywords.
- Bring the article to the top list of publications.
The two simplest ways to check content for longevity are to ask yourself two questions:
- Is this useful to the user?
- Is it understandable? Is the information not overloaded with complex terminology?
If you answered yes, you are likely close to the mark.
What is Not Evergreen Content?
In one sentence: anything that is date-bound and time-limited. These formats include:
- news,
- event-related materials,
- statistics or numerical reports,
- descriptions of trends and tendencies.
Another self-check method is if interest in the publication decreases after a certain period, it is not evergreen content.
This doesn’t mean news, forecasts, and comments on trends in your field are inappropriate for your content strategy. Such publications are aimed at different goals, with a different success tactic.
How to Analyze Evergreen Content?
Search Suggestions
Look at what Google suggests when you enter a word in the search bar and enrich your content with these phrases.
Google Trends
This service will show how popular a query is over time, allowing you to update content based on the season. For example, update an article about skiing in the fall.
Google Analytics
Allows you to analyze a specific page. For instance, if a page isn’t gaining traffic, it’s worth checking how optimized it is or if it has enough content. Check the traffic like this: Traffic Sources → All Traffic → Channels → Landing Page.
You can analyze existing content or follow trends to stay informed. We recommend paying attention to the traffic report of a page in Google Analytics. If traffic is declining, optimize the page. How can you do this?
How to Create Evergreen Content: Practical Tips
- Focus on the E-A-T requirements (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness of information).
- Add an author. Previously, authorship was not mandatory for informational materials, but now Google needs to know who the author is to determine its trustworthiness.
- Cite sources. Even though it’s not a scholarly paper, sources are important. You didn’t make everything up, did you? Don’t be afraid of external links; Google now appreciates when you even link to competitor sites.
- Add structure. If it’s an old long read without a table of contents with anchor links, add it. It will be convenient for readers, and if it’s convenient for readers, behavioral factors and Google’s love will increase.
- Update photos. If the photos are “heavy,” convert them for page speed and mobile first. I use the service iloveimg.com.
- Include quotes and thoughts from experts. Perhaps something has changed. For example, you wrote about how to choose skis in 2017 and the article was a hit, but since then new models have been released, so it’s good to write about that.
- Add fresh information and data and mention that the article has been updated, including the update date.
- Check the page load speed and its mobile responsiveness. I use pagespeed.web.dev.
- Monitor competitors in the top results for your main keyword. Maybe they have more content (text, photos, comments), so they are gradually pushing you out. Make a list and correct it on your page.
- Repost on social media to attract users who haven’t seen this material. New users mean good behavioral signals.
This was a short list of parameters for analyzing evergreen content to keep it thriving.
