Are you looking for consistent, regular, and sustainable traffic over time? The answer is Evergreen Content. But how can you make that happen? Let’s learn all about this content type to deliver more traffic to your website.
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What is Evergreen Content?
Evergreen content is the content that never fades away or goes out of style. It revolves around a topic that will relate to the victors irrespective of the time or years. In short, it is similar to the evergreen plant that stays green all around the year.
Let’s look at a few examples to set this term straight for you.
- How to impress a girl on the first date?
- How to lose weight?
When you look at the above two topics, you can see that irrespective of if you are searching it this year or two years from now, you would be interested in knowing more about such topics. They are evergreen and always searched for.
On the counterpart,
- Interior style for 2020
- IPL qualification scenario
These are some of the topics that will lose effect after a certain time. For example, now in 2021, no one is interested in the interior styles for last year. Similarly, IPL scores and qualification scenarios change with each match giving it just one day’s short span of the trend. These are trending topics that do not qualify as evergreen content.
In short, if you are to define evergreen content, it is the content that stays fresh always – or at least for a long time to come. But is it the title that matters or the content? Let’s take a look at if these two are different aspects, and if the difference actually matters while making your content marketing strategies.
Evergreen Topics vs Evergreen Content
Evergreen blogging topics are the ones that content spikes the visitors’ interest and search volume over time.
Some of the examples of evergreen topics can be:
- How to start a business
- How to boil an egg
- Football scores
Whereas, evergreen content is the content written about the evergreen topic that never goes out of style.
Let’s take the example of the same topics as earlier:
- How to start a business with minimal investment – irrespective of the year, people will keep on looking for this content.
- How to boil an egg – no one is ever going to stop eating an egg. And there’s are many doing it for the first time.
But you cannot write an evergreen content on “football scores”. Although the topic is always searched – thanks to the football fan following and jampacked matches. But the content will wade out as new matches take place. And this is exactly where you can see the difference between an evergreen topic and the content.
Why is Evergreen Content Important for Your Business?
- Rank Well on SERPs
I am sure you are looking at your optimization and SEO ranking while writing a content piece. So, why not write something that will rank better on search engines for a longer time. Moreover, it gives your content a boost as the work is timeless. The only thing you need to worry about is targeting proper keywords and optimizing your content piece for search engine rankings.
- Drive Traffic and Generate Leads
The evergreen content stays longer on the search engine results. So, there’s no wonder that you will be receiving more traffic to your website without any additional efforts. What’s more? It also can generate leads over time.
- Save Time and Energy
Once you post your evergreen blogging topic and the content, it helps SEO to keep ticking and bringing your traffic. This means you do not have to indulge in publishing more quantity of content. The only thing you need to worry about is the quality of the content. As the content stays relevant for months to come, you can avoid breaking your back while typing those long number of posts.
- Marks Image as Industry Expert
The high-quality content will be surely jampacked with informational value. That means, your audience will automatically consider yourself as a thought leader in your niche. This does not only work with SEO and traffic but also helps to build a relationship with your visitors.
Now, that you know how awesome it is to have evergreen content. But how do you create it? It is a three-step process.
Step 1: Find Evergreen Topics
Start with finding the evergreen topics that people keep on searching for. This means, stay clear of the trending topics and look for the classics.
- Keywords with Search Volumes
In the next content meeting, brainstorm a few ideas that you look like to write about. Then enter those topics or keywords into an SEO keyword tool. You can use any of your choices or simply go with Google Trends and Google Keyword Planner.
You can see in the results about your topic ideas as well as a few more suggestions that you haven’t thought of yet. Then check the search volume if they are really searched enough to consider as evergreen.
- Check for The Trend Over Time
Now, you know that the keyword has a good search volume, but is that the case always or just at this moment? To check if it is evergreen, you should see that the trend over time of this keyword isn’t declining or simply seasonal. You can check this with your Google Trends account.
- Consistent Searcher Intent
Lastly, check for the searcher intent if they are looking for the same consistent thing with means of that keyword. Or is there an idea different from yours? If the intent is unclear and the results are volatile, it is better to drop the idea of creating content based on such keywords. So, learn about the search intent before you go further with the creation of the evergreen content.
Step 2: Create Content
Next is the easiest part of content creation – something you are already an expert in. You simply need to create something that withstands the test of time. And not hire someone on Upwork to publish a 500-word article. Make this opportunity count.
- 10X Content
Create something better than everything else available on that topic. After all, there should be some reason for Google to rank you higher than the others, right? So, aim for 10X content. How will you create it?
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- Quality – Make sure that not only your content but also the quality of your visitor’s experience is great.
- Unique – Ask yourself, why would someone read your content piece over others.
- Authority – Question yourself, if are you really an expert in the field.
- Avoid Content Angles with Short Life
You might be inclined towards using pop culture references in your content. But does that really benefit you? For example, if you write an article based on Game of Thrones characters and what you can learn from their character, the content might show a spike but fuzz out later with time. This is because people aren’t always interested in the same soap opera, and the content will matter when the show ends. So, avoid creating content with short lifespan angles.
- Avoid Language with Short Life
Another thing to look after is, avoid adding phrases like ‘earlier this year’, ‘yesterday’, ‘202X’, or ‘last month’. These dates or limit your post, and people might find it old while coming across it.
However, it doesn’t mean that people using years in titles are wrong. It is just, using language with short life is not something that goes well with evergreen content.
Step 3: Maintaining Evergreen Content
If you have researched well and created a good content piece, then that is enough to keep your content fresh for a few months to come. But what after that? You need to maintain it.
- Track Rankings
Keep an eye on your rankings. If Google starts to drop your rankings over time, there’s a possibility that even though the topic is evergreen, the content isn’t. You can use SEO tracking tools to check over the stats.
- Update or Refresh Content
When you find that the ‘evergreen’ title of your content is waning out, it’s time to update and refresh the content. Google might have started to drop your rankings because of the following reasons:
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- Process
- Stats
- Broken links
- Year in the title
- Screenshots
You can also check the content that ranks higher than you. And ask yourself, what do they have that you have missed? The answer to this question should be your update for the content piece.
- Build Links
Although you have created an impressive piece of content, without links, others can outrank you. So, start reaching out and get into some link building strategy to secure your number one spot on the search engine.
Conclusion
Evergreen Content is the way to get constant traffic coming to your website without putting much effort later in the days to come. But that doesn’t mean it is a piece of a cake. You need to put in effort, research, create, and maintain to thrive. But even after doing all this, investing in evergreen content is always better than stressing yourself out with the thought of publishing an article every alternate day.