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Evergreen content is the key to working smarter in content marketing. Publishing high-quality content that stays relevant to your target audience saves you from having to constantly mine for fresh ideas. It also establishes your credibility as a subject matter expert and builds trust between you and your audience.
Even as SEO evolves with the uptick in AI-powered searches and voice searches, evergreen content plays a crucial role. Make evergreen content work for you to drive organic traffic to your website.
What is Evergreen Content?
Like the eponymous tree that keeps its needles year-round, evergreen content stays relevant to your target audience over time. Think of your timely content as an elm that draws in the leaf peepers in the fall and loses them once it sheds its autumn colors. Your highly searchable evergreen content, on the other hand, remains steady and reliable.
Any information you post on foundational topics can be considered evergreen. If you operate, for example, a resale clothing boutique, evergreen topics may include caring for your clothing and accessories or tips for authenticating designer items.
Posting evergreen content alongside timely topics, such as seasonal tips and fashion trends, keeps your readers interested while establishing your authority.
Why Evergreen Content Powers Long-Term SEO
Making high-quality content optimized for relevant keyword searches based on user intent keeps your website visible for the long-term. Targeting high-volume searches keeps people coming to your site even as the article ages, because people still care about the topic.
Let's return to our example of the clothing consignment store. Timely, topical articles such as fall fashion tips can bump up traffic in the short-term as people look for trending pieces to complement their fall wardrobe — but they won't keep people coming back to your site year-round. To keep users engaged, you'll need content that's always relevant to your audience. Blog articles covering topics like getting the best return on your consignment pieces or how to find good deals on designer merch will drive traffic for longer than a piece tied to fashion trends in a given year.
Posting well-researched evergreen content can turn you into a trusted resource for information about your industry. As your reputation grows, others may cite your articles and add links in their own content. More backlinks boost your search engine rankings, because Google’s algorithm sees you as credible. Avoid link farms and other shady methods of getting those backlinks and focus instead on making yourself a trustworthy, authoritative source.
Creating a steady collection of evergreen content exponentially increases your organic website traffic over time as more people read your articles and watch your videos. This strategy can reduce your average customer acquisition cost, because you can easily refresh evergreen pieces by updating some information instead of taking the time to write something from scratch.
Find Evergreen Content Your Audience Always Searches For
Evergreen content marketing works best when you approach it strategically. Instead of covering topics just because they’re timeless, figure out what matters most to your audience. Start with keyword research using Google Trends or other SEO tools to see which keywords in your industry consistently have a high search volume.
Look for keywords with a high monthly search volume over long periods. Any long-tail keyword with upward of 1,000 monthly searches every month for two years is likely relevant to your audience.
To better understand user intent, look at what types of content pop up often for each keyword. This could be how-to guides, listicles, or product manuals. Target different members of your audience with evergreen content. For example, a person looking for information might click on a how-to guide, while a person who intends to buy might look for a comparison guide or a case study.
If you see trends that are losing popularity or that only see seasonal spikes, skip them. Focus on the topics with long-term traction. Use your analytics tools to see which existing pieces of content are generating reliable traffic.
Your frequently asked questions, consistent problem/solution themes, and perennial pain points will also clue you in on your audience’s interests. To find out what matters to your audience, review past customer surveys, social media mentions, and online reviews. Also, talk to your customer support team for insights on trending issues.
Choose Content Formats That Age Well
For many businesses and content creators, their most successful content is actionable, educational, and useful. Choose a format that ages well, such as:
- How-Tos: A guide designed to walk your audience through a process step by step.
- Glossaries: A guide that clearly defines common terms in your industry. These are great jargon-heavy fields.
- Pillar guides: If you have your content broken into pillars or topics, create a long-form article or video that offers an overview of each pillar.
- Checklists: A guide that helps your audience track their steps in a process.
- Comparison: A side-by-side guide that outlines two similar products, services, businesses, or other topics.
- Cornerstone resources: A long-form, in-depth blog post, video, or other piece of content that goes in-depth into a relevant topic. These tend to be encyclopedic resources.
Architect for Search: Intent, Entities, and Structure
Content architecture refers to how you organize, structure, label, and distribute your marketing materials. By creating clearly-labeled and easy to navigate categories for content, users can easily find what they’re looking for and will likely spend more time on your site.
For example, organizing your content into pillars attracts a specific audience and encourages them to explore related topics. A content pillar is a specific theme or topic. Our clothing resale boutique might organize its blog into these pillars:
- New and Noteworthy Products
- Style Inspo
- Community and Culture
- Consignment Tips and Tricks
- Sales and Deals
Before you dive into your evergreen content, create a keyword map. Conduct topic research to find your best keywords, then assign those keywords to specific pieces of content based on your goals and intended audience.
For each piece, outline the primary keyword, secondary keywords for added content, and search intent. Are you targeting informational searches (education), navigational (locating), or transactional (buying) searches?
Then list schema markups and other structured data for each piece of content. When you know your content’s main purpose, use a structured data resources, such as Schema.org, to find the most appropriate type. Then use Google’s Rich Results Test or a similar tool to create the code.
Structured data helps Google’s search algorithm and AI-powered search tools put your website into context. Adding it to all your content will increase your chances of being cited through tools such as Google’s AI Overview or ChatGPT.
Write for Longevity: Clarity, Depth, and Neutral Tone
AI-powered internet search tools prioritize conversational content that’s easy to understand. Don’t overuse jargon. Instead, take an engaging tone and use everyday language that speaks to your audience.
Hammer home your point with actionable copy that clearly communicates what you want your audience to do. For example, if you’re writing a case study, open with a timeless, relatable pain point that impacts most of your customers. Once they’re hooked by the introduction, walk them through your solution. Break up the text with block quotes, illustrations, and bulleted or numbered lists.
If you’re covering a topic in-depth, cite your sources, but avoid time-stamping your claims in evergreen content. For example, instead of referencing a specific year, say “recently.” This keeps your content fresh even as it ages.
Repurpose Content to Extend Reach
Save more time by repurposing your best content to extend its reach. Reformatting content and sharing it on different platforms gets you noticed by a wider audience.
Turn pillars into checklists, infographics, or other interactive content and post them on social media. To convert a content pillar into a checklist, pick your most relevant topics and break them into small, actionable tasks. For example, a firm specializing in estate law might make checklists for writing a will, what to do if you’ve been a victim of identity theft, or filing for divorce.
Convert popular listicles for Instagram and other social media feeds by adding a photo to each list item and turning it into a carousel. Use a popular blog post as the basis for a series of short videos. Or write small stories related to each section of the blog post and push them out to your email list. Break posts into small lessons and infographics and use them as internal training resources.
Update Without Starting Over: Keep It Fresh, Keep It Ranking
Even the best evergreen content can get stale over time. Regularly refreshing your highest performers is a great way to keep your content visible without writing a new piece. Here’s how to tell if your content needs updating.
Identify Common Triggers
If you notice a dip in organic traffic or engagement for a once-popular article, it may be time to refresh. Review your statistics on occasion and update any that have changed since you originally posted the piece.
Sometimes, new regulations or industry developments will make your evergreen content outdated. If you’re seeing significant regulatory changes in your industry, look through your evergreen content and add new references where you need them.
If you’ve changed or discontinued a product, look through your evergreen content for references to the old model.
Use a Checklist
As you revive your content, make changes to improve readability and optimize it for SEO. A content refresh is a great opportunity to reoptimize older content for AI and voice searches, so start by checking for issues most commonly found in older pieces:
- Refresh Your Data: Check references, statistics, product information, and facts and update any irrelevant or inaccurate information.
- Add FAQs: Frequently asked questions are perfect for AI search optimization. Add a few questions and short answers to your content to improve AI visibility.
- Tighten Sections: Read through your posts and note any areas that could be more conversational.
- Improve Media/Alt Text: Replace photos, videos, infographics, and other media with newer graphics. Add the appropriate alt text to keep your content ADA compliant.
- Re-Index: Use the Google Search Console to submit a reindexing request. Google will review your site and update any new information.
Measure What Matters: Proving Evergreen ROI
Analyze your content regularly so you know how it's performing and whether it needs a refresh. Track impressions, search engine rankings, backlinks, and time on page to see how your audience is responding to a piece.
A high-quality piece of evergreen content should perform well consistently over time. As more people find your content, you build your reputation as an authoritative source. When more people cite your content, you should see an uptick in backlinks to your site.
Other Metrics to Track
Measuring how long people are spending on your site can tell you if people are clicking on related pieces of content while they’re looking at a specific content pillar.
If you have recently refreshed any content, tracking these metrics will tell you if refreshing your content has improved its performance. If you’re not seeing significant lift, try editing the piece again, or think of a way to rewrite the piece so it’s more relevant to your audience.
Track your number of unique visitors to see if your content is increasing the number of people visiting your site. Measure the bounce rate to determine if people are clicking on a headline and leaving your site quickly.
Why to Track KPIs of Evergreen Content
These key performance indicators (KPIs) help you visualize your return on investment. You can see how a piece of content is helping you meet business goals and justify its value.
Tracking metrics also helps you optimize future content so each piece performs better over time. Improve your content quality by building on your successes.
Build Evergreen Assets That Last
Evergreen content can seem like a big undertaking, but it doesn’t have to be. Work with Compose.ly to develop an evergreen content strategy that keeps you visible online. We will evaluate your goals and existing content and work with you to identify topics that matter to your audience.
We match you to a someone in our fully vetted network of writers with the knowledge and experience to write an impactful story. That means you get high-quality, optimized, evergreen content without having to write it yourself.
Are you ready to boost your site rankings? Hire professionals for creating evergreen content. Contact us today to get started.
