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How to make your evergreen content drive long-lasting results

Evergreen content is a powerful tool for SEO and content marketers. Choosing a topic that remains relevant and interesting over time can help your business drive consistent, high-quality traffic.

The common misconception with evergreen content is that it can be left alone once it’s published. This is partly true, in the sense that evergreen content should keep bringing some level of traffic and conversions. However, you could be driving even better results with some maintenance.

We’re going to look into what evergreen really means, how you can successfully implement it into your digital marketing campaigns, and why it’s great for SEO.  

What is Evergreen content? 

Evergreen content is a piece of content that is intended to last for a long time. To classify as evergreen, you’ll need to be discussing a topic that remains highly relevant to readers, regardless of the current news cycle or time of year. It will be continually relevant and ‘fresh’:

Graph showing that evergreen content remains relevant while other content loses interest
Evergreen Content

Why is it called “Evergreen”? 

The evergreen tree is a symbol of ongoing life because its leaves remain green throughout all seasons.  So, the idea is that your content should do the same – remaining fresh and ‘new’ for all viewers, at any time past publication. The following would not be considered evergreen:

  • News articles 
  • Articles discussing specific holiday or season 
  • Current trends  
  • Statistics that might change  

Types of content that are evergreen

There are plenty of examples of evergreen content online – and you can usually spot them as early as the headline. Content that doesn’t go out of fashion will usually be based around providing tips or advice, for example: 

  • Lists 
  • Top Tips
  • “How To” guides, tutorials or videos 
  • Product Reviews 
  • Product Demos

Writing in these formats does not automatically make your piece evergreen – this will depend on the topic being discussed. However, these formats do tend to work the best when it comes to long-lasting content. 

We recommend using some sort of image or video if you are demonstrating how to do something. Think of it this way – how many times have you searched a how-to question and chosen to watch a video? They are easy and provide quick solutions for users to refer back to. 

Combining long-lasting content with targeted keywords 

Evergreen content is valuable to any business because it is a way of driving more traffic by providing helpful and long-lasting solutions for potential customers. Evergreen content is particularly powerful when combined with a solid SEO strategy.  
 
From a digital marketing point of view – it is important to base your evergreen pieces around the keywords you want your site to rank for. If you’re not doing your keyword research – then it’s much less likely people will be finding your content.  

The more search-friendly your content is, the higher visibility it will have. Evergreen searches never end – so if you follow the right SEO techniques, your web page could be being shared, linked and driving traffic  much more consistently.   

How to write evergreen content that will last

Consistent search intent

Search intent is the goal a searcher has when entering a query into Google. If the search intent for a keyword is likely to change over time or is unclear – then your rankings might suffer in the long-run.  

This is because Google matches searches to what they see as the most up-to-date and relevant solutions. Even if your post is new or up-to-date, Google won’t recognise this if your keywords are not matching intent.

We suggest checking the ranking history graph of any potential keywords using an SEO tool such as Keywords Explorer.  

Research positive trends over time 

Once you’ve made sure a keyword has a good search volume; you will need to also ensure you are writing about an evergreen topic.  Avoid anything that is: 

  • Seasonal 
  • On a declining trend  

We suggest using Google Trends to find out whether a topic is gaining or losing popularity over time. For example, keywords such as ‘Halloween costumes’ or ‘Christmas’ are obviously seasonal. You will only be driving traffic at specific points throughout the year.  

On the other hand, terms such as ‘social media templates’ or ‘SEO marketing’ could have a high search volume at any point. Keyword Explorer is useful at this point too. You can use it to research the popularity of topics in terms of searches and clicks. 

Don’t just write for experts

When you have expertise in a subject, you might understandably want to show this to your audience. However, it is usually best to be inclusive for people who have an interest in learning about your area of expertise. This leads us on to our next point. 

Avoid overly technical language

Evergreen content should be easy to understand. Avoid technical and overly complicated language that might deter users. As an agency, we would avoid constantly overloading content with digital marketing terms without an explanation of what they really mean. 

Narrow your topic 

Writing about a broad topic can work, but it’s important each piece you share has one primary focus. For example, we may write an evergreen blog about SEO – but why are we writing it? Is it to explain keywords? SEO tools? Or targeting? These are just a few examples. It’s best to ensure each article you share is answering one search query.   

Link your content

If you decide to share a complete guide on one topic or area – consider linking to other posts you have published. As a digital marketing agency, we may share a complete guide on PPC. Within this, we would ensure we are linking to other helpful, shorter blogs such as ‘our top PPC tools’. 

Update your best-performing content

When you create a high-quality piece of evergreen content, keep looking for ways to “spin” or repurpose it into other formats. If your content has stopped driving traffic, try to consider why it is no longer seen as relevant by Google. This is often the case if a piece involves something that is outdated, such as: 

  • Old stats 
  • Screen shots 
  • Broken or irrelevant links 
  • Year in the title (for example, SEO tips 2019) 

Once you’ve checked over your content, you can refresh and republish a newer version. The idea here is that instead of having to constantly think of new evergreen topics and ideas – you can refresh your content with an existing evergreen status. 

Promoting beyond search engines

Even if your content is getting attention from your SEO efforts, you should still look beyond the organic visibility gained on search engines. If an article or page is driving consistent traffic from search, it’s proven to be a high-quality piece. You should use this as an opportunity to promote your content across other digital marketing channels.

Examples of this include sharing it across your social media channels and pinning a high-quality page to the top of your blog archive. Repurposing content for other channels can also be beneficial and link people back to your original piece. Essentially, you already know this content works, so it’s worth using it again with a new or expanded audience.

So, in a nutshell, evergreen content is great because it lasts – and as a result of long-lasting content, you will keep driving valuable traffic to your site. The trick is to keep working on it even when it’s driving results.

Feel free to get in touch with if you have any questions or are looking for help with your content marketing.