What is Evergreen Content & Why It’s Important to Your Content Marketing Strategy
Simply put, evergreen content is content that stays “green”. It’s important to note that great content is a mix of evergreen AND timely articles. Writing content that permanently lives on your website, or even your social channels can get dusty from time to time. Your content was getting a lot of hits in the beginning but slowly faded away. Naturally, things need sprucing up as time moves on.
Stay Fresh
You may be curious, if you’re new to marketing, what classifies as “evergreen.” Evergreen content is not time sensitive and has the ability to drive traffic well after it’s publish date. It can live on your website, blog, social media channels, etc. Common evergreen formats include:
- Listicles
- Tips and tricks
- How-to guides
- Product reviews
- Case studies
- Glossaries
- Videos (some of them)
Now that you know what is considered “evergreen,” it’s important to know what is NOT evergreen content. Remember, it’s critical to note that evergreen content does not have time sensitivity and provides value over time. Content that is not evergreen includes:
- News articles
- Statistics that go out of date quickly
- Any article pertaining to pop culture, current trends, fashion, etc.
- Holidays
Are you new to writing content or struggling with the idea on how to make your content “evergreen?” Look no further, we have a few tips and tricks in our back pocket.
- The importance of keywords – When you begin writing your content piece, you want to ensure you are including keywords that your target audience is searching for. If you don’t include keywords, it’ll be like searching for a needle in a haystack. The more keywords you include, the more likely it will rank higher in search engines. Just make sure the keywords you use are relevant to your piece. Gone are the days of dropping in words to “trick” SEO rankings.
- Beginner’s guide – It can be easy to speak in your industry’s jargon, but beginners, who are searching for your content, want to be spoken to in leman’s terms. Experts in your industry most likely are not searching on specific topics. With evergreen content, you want to cater to a large audience.
- Reduce, reuse, repurpose – You’ve got an impactful and meaningful piece of content. There are countless ways you can spin it and repurpose it on other platforms. For example, you can take snippets of a “how-to” blog post and create social posts that drive traffic to the blog.
Deep Dive
In a perfect world, you are taking a look at your content on a quarterly basis. What does this entail? Well, for starters, take a look at your website analytics and social media engagement. What’s getting the most hits? The least hits? Are people interacting with your content (or ignoring it?) You’ve got two clear options. If your content is not getting any hits, it could be time to update it, or rather, ditch it.
Update, Update, Update
So, you discover some of your content is sitting in a corner and collecting dust. Time for a good ole fashion refresh. You’ve most likely learned a lot since you published that piece of content. Use that new knowledge and implement it into a refreshed content piece. Maybe you’ve got some outdated or broken links. Broken links can leave your readers feeling annoyed. Always check the links in your evergreen content. If a link is broken, add new links to credible sources.
As time moves forward, images and creative visuals can become obsolete. When going through a refresh of your content, consider adding newly designed visuals that speaks to your updated pieces. Add new images, sub headers, or even quotes. You can even add other elements that take a bit more time, but are worth the effort: videos, infographics, or image slideshows.
Taking the time to give your subject matter a bit of a refresh can add new life and a fresh breath to your outdated components. Content marketing is perhaps one of the most effective marketing strategies out there. Not only can it help build your audience organically, but it can also grow awareness of your brand.
