You may have heard the term before, but aren’t sure exactly what it means, or how it can benefit your business. So what is evergreen content, and why should your business create it?
Evergreen content is simply quality content that is relevant now, and that will continue to be relevant long after it is published. It can show up in a variety of formats, such as “how-to” articles, product reviews, top ten lists, instructional videos, case studies, and much more.
Topics that work well for creating evergreen content include health, finance, careers, family, and relationships, since these topics are part of our everyday lives, regardless of what is going on in the news. News articles, statistics and reports, holiday or seasonal pieces, and trending topics are typically not considered evergreen content.
Long-term Relevance
“For a content to be called evergreen, all the elements in the content should be timeless,” says Pro Blogger, Akshay Hallur.
The most important aspect of evergreen content is that it will likely still be relevant in the foreseeable future, which makes it a great tool for building a long-term SEO strategy. By publishing content that will be in demand for years to come, you’re creating content that is considered fresh to readers, regardless of whether it is read today, or a year from now.
An article about eating healthy, for instance, is a topic that is expected to continue to be of interest for a long time – maybe even forever. On the other hand, an article about today’s or this week’s news, while relevant today, won’t be something people are necessarily searching for in 5 years.
However, the value of creating timely articles on current, relevant topics should not be overlooked. Our blog about the end of life date for Drupal 6 is a perfect example of a time-sensitive piece of content. It was relevant to our industry when published, but when the next version of Drupal comes out, this blog will be irrelevant and out-of-date.
Unique and Relevant to Your Business
When choosing a topic for evergreen content, make sure you are writing about something that is relevant to your business and industry. Choose a narrow topic and research which keywords people are searching for related to that particular topic. Be sure to optimize your content for SEO, and make it easy to share across different social networks.
If you write about a popular topic, be sure to put a unique spin on it, so that your content stands out among the rest. Look at the topic from a different angle, or create a video instead of a blog. If you have an old blog that is out-of-date, it can always be refreshed and repurposed into evergreen content.
How Your Website Benefits from Evergreen Content
There are many ways that your website benefits from evergreen content. It is a great tool for lead generation, for example. Yes, all forms of content can be great sources of lead generation, but evergreen content will continue to generate leads for the long-term. As long as the content remains relevant, there’s no reason why people won’t continue to link to it, search for it, and hopefully convert a result of its creation.
Evergreen content is also more likely to be shared across social networks. People love to share valuable and relevant content that they have found, and because evergreen content is essentially timeless, it can be shared now and remain relevant in future years.
2018 Outlook
Although the idea of evergreen content is nothing new, there is still so much room for it to grow and expand. By starting to create and share evergreen content now, you’ll be one step ahead of those who aren’t quite convinced of its value. The return on your investment may not be immediate, but when done right, an evergreen content marketing strategy will benefit your business for a long time to come.
