How to Create Evergreen Content Right From the Start

Evergreen content engages and educates readers for longer without a huge amount of effort. Once you master the art of writing “timeless” content, you can ensure your articles, e-books, and tutorials stay relevant for years to come. 

Below, I’m going to show you exactly why evergreen content should be part of every marketer’s content strategy, and I’ll explain how to craft your own timeless pieces. 

What is Evergreen Content?

Evergreen content is content that is optimized to stay relevant and drive traffic for months or even years at a time. 

It doesn’t have an expiration date. It’s centered around a topic that people will be interested in for years to come. 

Examples of topics that might be considered evergreen include:

• how to write a will
• how to lose weight 
• ways to cook chicken
• ways to generate passive income 
• how to optimize your site for SEO 
• how to build a blog 

It doesn’t matter what season we’re in, or what year it is: There’s always a healthy number of people searching for content on these topics. 

Marketers tend to write about evergreen topics because it’s a relatively easy way to bring organic traffic to their website. There’s always going to be some interest in the topic, so you won’t struggle to find an audience base.  

For example, if you Google “choosing the right SEO,” you’ll find one of my articles on the first page:

It’s evergreen because SEO isn’t fading out of style anytime soon. Businesses will be searching for SEO advice for years to come. 

A little later, I’ll show you ways to improve your chances of holding a first-page ranking for a long time, but for now, just remember one thing: If it’s evergreen content, it persistently matters to people, and you should be writing about it.  

Here are some examples of time-sensitive content that aren’t evergreen:

• seasonal articles e.g., Christmas gift ideas
• announcements and news posts 
• posts about current but temporary issues e.g., Covid-19 or a sports season

If it’s a niche topic you expect people to lose interest in overtime then it’s not evergreen, because people naturally stop thinking about it (and searching for it online). 

Here’s an easy way to remember it: 

Evergreen content is ever-relevant.

Why Is Evergreen Content Important?

OK, so that’s what evergreen content is, but why does it matter? Well, a few reasons, but here are the three most important. 

1. Evergreen Content Boosts Search Rankings

Did you know that 75 percent of people never scroll beyond the first page of search results? If you’re not on the first page, it’s unlikely people will ever find your content. 

Evergreen content helps boost your Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (“E-A-T”) score on Google. The higher your E-A-T score, the more likely it is you’ll secure a first-page ranking on Google. 

How can long-lasting boost your E-A-T score? By helping position you as an authority in your industry. 

To be clear, the level of “expertise” you’ll need to secure a good score varies depending on the subject matter. 

For example, you’re more likely to rank on the first page if you’re a highly qualified doctor writing an evergreen post about weight loss than if you’re a general member of the public talking about weight loss tips. 

Why? Because Google recognizes how important it is for someone to be qualified before they offer medical advice. 

If you have expertise in your industry, you can increase your chances of a first-page ranking by producing quality evergreen content in your field.

2. Evergreen Content Draws in Organic Traffic 

Organic traffic is simply how many people visit your website after finding you on a search results page, rather than clicking through a paid ad. 

How does evergreen content help you draw traffic? Here are a few ways: 

• It answers a question, which there’s always a healthy level of interest in, so you can assume people are regularly searching for an article just like yours. 
• Readers are more likely to find your content, since (you guessed it) there’s a sustained level of interest. 

The result is more organic traffic landing on your website. 

3. Evergreen Content Keeps Your Business Relevant 

It’s not just about generating traffic. It’s about ensuring you create valuable, relevant content for readers—and evergreen content helps you do just that.

Here’s why: Valuable content means lower bounce rates, since people stay on your page for longer.

Since evergreen content stays relevant, you can use it to show search engine’s that readers find your articles useful, which in turn helps boost your overall search rankings.  

The best part? The more valuable content you create, the more you impress readers—and keep your brand relevant in an increasingly competitive digital space. 

7 Tips for Creating Evergreen Content Right From the Start

To be clear, not all your content needs to be evergreen. Your audience wants to know you’ve got your finger on the pulse of your industry and understands current trends that impact them. Also, sometimes, people just want their fill of short, relevant, and entertaining news articles.  

However, it’s definitely worth crafting a solid hub of timeless, enduring content to impress your audience and set yourself apart from the competition. 

With all this in mind, here are seven relatively simple ways to write your own evergreen pieces.  

1. Choose the Right Topics

First, choose topics with persistent traffic potential. 

An analytics tool like Google Analytics can help here. Briefly, here’s how to distinguish between trending and evergreen topics. 

• Trending posts: Typically have a high initial search volume which drops fairly quickly
• Evergreen topic posts: Attract a high volume of traffic initially, but there’s still a sustained level of traffic over time

To get started, take a look at your own site and see what topics retain a high level of traffic over time. Are there related topics you can cover? 

Then, check out leading blogs in your niche. Identify potentially evergreen topics, run them through a competitive analysis tool to see which ones get long-term traffic, and decide how you can put your own spin on the topic to add value for your own readers. 

2. Use Appropriate Keywords

Now you’ve chosen a few topics you’d like to write about, you need to use the right keywords to ensure your posts appear in the search results. 

• Use a keyword discovery tool like Ubersuggest. 
• Type a search query into Google. Take some ideas for related keywords from the “people also ask” section. 

Let’s check out an example. 

Say you want to write about weight loss. When you Google “how to lose weight,” one of the top search results is a post from Diet Doctor. 

Here are the two main things we can take from this sample. 

• The first paragraph contains multiple related key phrases including “trouble losing weight” and “weight loss without hunger.” 
• Subheadings are also optimized around popular related keywords like “weight-loss pills.” 

Return to the search results and you’ll find people also ask:

• How do I lose weight naturally?
• How can I lose weight fast?

This is a quick and easy process, so give it a go! 

3. Avoid Specific Events and Dates

One of the quickest ways to “date” your content, and shorten its lifespan, is by using current dates and events. Here’s why: 

• If the date’s relevant to the context or the wider understanding of an article i.e., anything about working from home during Covid-19, it’s not evergreen.
• People stop searching for trending or date-related topics after a certain amount of time, so they won’t find your content. 
• If someone finds your article even just one year later, they might assume it’s outdated and they won’t click on it. 

If you must use dates, be smart about it. For example, you could turn a “2021 Guide to Digital Marketing” into the “2022 Guide to Digital Marketing”, and so on. Or, make a plan to update content with a date annually. 

In general, you’ll want to avoid using dates or referring to current news events, where possible. 

4. Create Case Studies

Case studies won’t work for everyone. It all depends on your audience and the type of business you’re running. 

However, if your audience values in-depth, analytical content, consider writing evergreen case studies. Here are a few benefits of case studies: 

• Case studies help boost your credibility within your sector. 
• Readers can derive true value from in-depth case studies. 
• You can make case studies evergreen by focusing on the core issues rather than dates or anything time-specific. 

Finally, by sharing real case studies with your audience, you can boost your company’s authenticity. Since 90 percent of customers value authenticity when choosing which companies to support, I’m thinking this is a win!

5. Write In-Depth Guides and Tutorials 

When people want advice, they very often turn to guides and tutorials. Why? Because they’re comprehensive enough to answer all the questions they have about a specific topic. (Or, at least they should be!) 

In other words, guides and tutorials make for excellent evergreen content ideas.

For example, if you type “keyword research” into Google, one of the top results is my own guide to keyword research:

It’s a guide, and it’s part of a comprehensive, three-part series on effective keyword research. I cover a huge amount of ground, and the goal is to ensure the guide is a “one-stop-shop” for your keyword research needs.  

What’s more, tutorials and guides are a chance for you to showcase your authoritativeness and build trust in your brand. (Which, as we know, can improve your search rankings.)

6. Update Your Content Regularly 

No matter how hard you work to create evergreen content, you’ll still have to update it occasionally. Strategies change, new research and tools come out, and content becomes less fresh over time. If you want to keep your content ranking well, you’ll need to update it.  

How does this work? By updating content, you’re creating a new publication date, which gives your post an instant boost: most first-page results are published within the last few years.

Here’s a few tips for updating content:  

• Add a little more information, or change a few stats. 
• Freshen up the images.
• Change any outdated details. 
• Double-check spelling and phrasing. Could you phrase something better?   

For a more detailed guide, check out this complete guide to giving your content a facelift. 

7. Repurpose Your Content

Finally, once you’ve got a great piece of content it’s time to make it work for you. One of the best ways to make the most out of great content—and reach as wide of an audience as possible—is to repurpose content into different formats. 

Here’s a few ideas: 

• Build an infographic to share elsewhere.
• Repost the content and remarket it across social media. 
• Around 85 percent of web users enjoy video content, so repurpose an evergreen article into a shareable video. 
• Got a positive review or customer testimonial? Use it to link back to your content.

These are just a few suggestions, don’t limit yourself!

How to Maintain Your Evergreen Content Ranking

You’ve compiled your evergreen content and you’re ranking well. Great! 

Now comes the tricky part: how do you keep your first-page ranking for the months (and years) to come? Here are two suggestions. 

1. Promote your content to ensure people can always find it on your website. Share it on social media, and consider adding fresh hashtags to increase exposure. 
2. Link to evergreen posts on other pages across your site. Not only will this help you draw more traffic, but internal links are another simple yet highly effective way to boost SEO.

I recommend using these techniques alongside other strategies like content repurposing and refreshing to maximize your chances of maintaining a first-page ranking. 

Conclusion

Evergreen content is timeless. It never goes out of fashion. If you want to draw organic traffic, educate your audience, and position yourself as an industry authority, it needs to be part of your content marketing plan. 

Don’t just dive in, though. Identify the topics that matter to your audience, do your own research, and put a fresh spin on them. Use the right keywords to improve your chances of ranking on Google, and don’t forget to update your content whenever you feel it’s a little stale. 

What does evergreen content mean to you? 

from Neil Patel https://ift.tt/3ujTJ4C