Seasoned webmasters and Internet marketers are well aware of the importance of publishing high-quality content on their websites. Content attracts visitors and search engines alike, encouraging more traffic and higher search rankings. Today we're going to take a closer look at a specific type of web content known as evergreen content, revealing what it is and why it's beneficial.
The term “evergreen content” is used to describe any web content that's not time-sensitive. Much like evergreen trees retain their leaves throughout the year, evergreen content retains its relevancy 2 days or 2 years from now. An example of an evergreen article for an automotive website would be “5 Ways to Improve Your Car's Gas Mileage.” Because this topic remains relevant, regardless of the date or time, it's considered to be evergreen. This is in stark contrast to news-style articles or blog posts that are focused around a trending or time-sensitive topic.
Benefits of Publishing Evergreen Content
There are several key advantages to publishing evergreen content, one of which is the fact that people will always be searching for it. If you publish an article about a current event, it may receive some initial traffic before slowly dying off. Evergreen articles, on the other hand, are always in high demand since they are not time-sensitive.
Another benefit of publishing evergreen content is the simple fact that search engines love it. This means you'll have an easier time achieving a top search ranking for an evergreen article as opposed to a time-sensitive article.
Tips on Crafting Evergreen Content:
- Use the Google Adwords Keyword Planner tool to uncover high-traffic, low-competition keywords that are associated with your website's niche.
- Follow the mantra of “quality over quantity.” A single article of exceptional quality is worth more than two or even three articles of mediocre quality.
- Keep an eye on your website's statistics to determine which evergreen articles have the most hits. Using this information, you can replicate the process with similar articles.
- If you're running out of evergreen topics, scan through some of your competitors' websites to see what they are doing. You obviously don't want to copy their work, but you can use it for inspiration.
- Remember, you shouldn't focus all of your efforts on evergreen content. Diversifying your website with both time-sensitive news-style articles and evergreen content will allow you to reach a broader audience.
WordStream Provided the following Tips for common evergreen content formats you might consider in generating lasting content.
- Lists
- Top Tips
- Instructional “How To” Tutorials
- Encyclopedia-esque Entries
- Product Reviews
- Videos
Writing in these formats does not automatically make your piece evergreen, but these structures tend to work well with evergreen writing. Videos are especially effective when you need to illustrate how to do something, like how to frost a cupcake or how to grout a tub. If videos aren’t possible, consider using a series of images (photos or illustrations, diagrams, etc.) to your advantage.
How To Articles:
What you will often find is that evergreen content tends to be in the “how to” column of content formats with sites like:
- about.com
- wikipedia.com
- answers.com
- imdb.com
- ehow.com
...being the top producers of evergreen content across a broad spectrum of topics. This is important, because it tells us that evergreen content typically answers an introductory level question for a specific niche or topic. To help clarify this with examples:
- How do I convert my existing website to mobile friendly responsive design?
Summary
If it’s your goal to start writing evergreen content for your blog, then remember these steps; write for your readers, narrow your topic and make sure that your content is comprehensive but not too technical.
