You’ve heard the term “evergreen content” thrown around lately, and there are reasons for that. We’re in the age of information; we want it, we need it. Say you are curious about the subtle nuances of early 19^th century Spanish architecture (hey, you never know!), and you want to confirm how many buildings Antoni Gaudi designed in Barcelona. So you Google-up, and come across an article explaining Gaudi’s architectural portfolio.  Bingo: you have reaped the benefits of evergreen content!

What is it? Why do you need it? Who cares? We answer all the fundamentals of evergreen content.

Evergreen Content?

Evergreen content is SEO-friendly content designed to continually be relevant. We’re talking long-term content that will never “expire!”  Any brand’s best friend, evergreen content is strategized to drive traffic to your site indefinitely, due to its fresh, informative approach. Requiring minimal updating, this type of content is crafted to be a staple of your content marketing strategy, all while taking on many forms.

To have a better understanding of this, consider what evergreen content is not.  A press release announcing a bake sale, any form of seasonal content, a flyer advertising a closing sale, a Facebook update, or breaking news articles are not evergreen content. These types of materials are doomed to be obsolete in a given time period.

If Not Gum, Than What?

This green content can come in many shapes and sizes.

How-to Posts will never go out of style.  Google-ers are always looking for information on how to change a bike tire, or how to host a Twitter Chat.

About Us Pages serve as the intro paragraph to a company or brand. Often over looked, these pages humanize a brand, and can easily be updated.

Moving Pictures. Video did kill the radio star. A video is a more non-traditional, but more effective means of content.

Infographics. Plan on creating a step-by-step piece of content? Compile the process into shorter steps with corresponding visuals.

How Do You Do It?

Simply put, evergreen content must stand the test of time. How can a piece of content do such a thing? Hello, quality.

Your Topic: Choose Wisely.  Before masterminding how this piece of content will last longer than the dinosaurs, the foundation must first be laid. Consider your sphere of business and what current or target audiences may be interested in.

Put a Bow On It.  After a long-lasting topic has been set, decide the best means to package all this information.  Is it a lengthy topic? Consider an eBook.  Is it short, but information packed? An article posted on the company blog will do the trick.  Is the topic strictly visual? A photo-enriched pamphlet can reach a number of onlookers.

Keep it Keyword Centric!  Research the topic’s SEO-relevancy and translate that to the content’s title and URL. Avoid catchy, cute titles, as they will inherently drive down possible web traffic.

Details, Details, Details. Keep your content relevant by providing all the necessary information. Make sure it’s more foundational than other, non-evergreen pieces of content.

Link ‘Em Up! An effective evergreen piece should always have embedded links to other relevant articles on the company’s website or blog.  Think of this strategy as the root to which you base other, more specific content off of.

So Why is This Evergreen Stuff So Valuable?

Due to the content’s timelessness, evergreen content stays relevant to readers over time. Thus, it will highly rank with search engines over time.  Thanks to the high ranking, websites will also see high traffic.  These high rankings allow content to be found more and easily, allowing a continuous and steady stream of traffic to the company’s blog or website.

Evergreen content works for you, not the other way around.

Consider these words you are reading. This is an example of evergreen content, about evergreen content. It is in the form of an article on our blog, with a how-to and informational approach. Now go be green and recycle this ever timeless post.

What types of evergreen content do you use? Comment below or Tweet us!

[newsletter title=”Win A New Car” text=”Actually, no. We don’t have the budget for that. But we do have super cool free E-Books and news! Sign up today.” mobile_text=”Signup for future articles:”]