Evergreen content is content that’s meant to attract viewers over a long period of time. Like an evergreen tree, it stays fresh year-round. And producing content that lasts can help build your brand, drive sales, and increase traffic to your site.
It requires a bit more thought and planning than other forms of content, but the potential rewards are worth it. Just follow a few simple steps to make sure that you’re producing the kind of content that lasts.
Researching and Creating Evergreen Content
Choose the Right Topic
The topic you choose is what makes your content evergreen. Ideally, you want to approach the content with the idea of creating something that will stay relevant for years.
The topic should be engaging. You want something that people will want to click on. Of course, that’s a given for any content. But when it comes to evergreen content, you need to focus on creating something that people will want to view far into the future.
So while a post about a recent movie or upcoming product might get a lot of viewers in the short-term, the appeal of that sort of post is going to drop dramatically after a few months. Instead, you should focus on something that is always going to be interesting.
There are a few different ways to find these kinds of topics. The easiest is to simply think about the kind of content you find interesting. What sort of post are you likely to click on? As long as it isn’t too topical, that sort of content is probably evergreen.
Then there are a few different types of posts that can generally make good evergreen content. Listicles about interesting topics tend to stay relevant over time. How-to guides also make for good content.
Finally, you can identify evergreen topics by looking at the performance of different keywords. If a keyword performs well over a period of years, it’s probably a good choice.
Be Authoritative
One of the best ways to make sure that your content stays relevant is to be authoritative. You want everyone researching that subject to turn to your content for answers. That means doing your own research first.
Obviously, all the basic rules about good research apply. Make sure you’re only referencing reputable sources of information. Double check any facts, no matter where you get your information.
But when it comes to evergreen content, you also want to offer something new. You want people to cite your content as part of their own research. If you have the resources and time, consider finding new information about the subject that no one else has covered.
Not only does this make your content more authoritative, but it increases the chances that people will cite your work. And that raises the possibility that they will link your content, which increases your search ranking and means that more people will see it.
Share Regularly and Widely
Any time you produce content, you want to share it as widely as possible. That’s especially true with evergreen content. When you create this kind of content, you’re expecting that it will serve as cornerstone content for your site for years to come. That means that you should make sure you’re giving it the attention it needs to succeed.
Consider building a wide-reaching campaign to spread the content to as many viewers as you can. This kind of investment can pay off in the long-run and really contribute to the continued success of your content.
Because this kind of content is always relevant, you can also share it regularly with the expectation that people will still find it interesting. Don’t limit your campaign to just the time that your content is first published. Share your content every few months or years to make sure that it reaches a wide audience.
Update Accordingly
As long as you expect people to access your content, you need to make sure that you’re updating it. Content that’s designed to stay relevant over a long period of time probably won’t need a lot of updates. But keeping your content as up to date as possible is a good way to continually engage viewers.
How-to guides might need to be revised to account for new technology or techniques that have been developed since the content was published. Listicles might need new entries to reflect new information or events. If your content includes original statistics, it’s a good idea to update them to make sure that they’re still relevant.
Evergreen content is supposed to pay lasting dividends, and that means that it requires regular attention.
What do you think? How Do you produce content that lasts? Tell us in the comments.
