What is evergreen content and why is it important?
Evergreen content has been a hot topic in marketing for quite a while now - and for good reason. Here I am going to explain what it is, and why it is so important to include in your marketing strategy. I'll also share a few key pointers to keep in mind when creating your own evergreen content.
What is evergreen content?
Evergreen content is a marketing term used to describe information that doesn’t become dated or irrelevant. It can take the form of text, videos or pictures.
It also includes social media posts that can be shared time and time again, regardless of how old they are.
The information often takes the form of:
‘How-to’ guides
Tutorials
Industry tips and advice
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Articles explaining industry-specific phrases or processes
Infographics
Why is it important?
Consider how people come across information online. Most of the time they use a search engine to look for the answer to a specific question, or someone they know shares it on social media.
When using a search engine, the software sifts through the available results to find which is currently the most relevant. Anything that seems out of date will not be prioritised in the results that are shown.
Useful or interesting posts can get shared on social media regardless of how old they are - over and over again. But, this will only happen as long as they are still relevant.
Using the latest statistics, or reviewing the current trend, are great for making you look current. The problem is, once the data is out of date or the next trend has started, the content will stop getting any interest.
While this is inevitable sometimes, what we really want is more and more people to find your post (and in doing so, your website) for months or even years. This is where evergreen content comes in.
How do you make your content evergreen?
Not every piece of content you create will be evergreen, but it is a tactic worth trying to include in your marketing strategy. To help you, here are my tips to bear in mind:
Ensure the information you provide will stand the test of time. Will it remain valuable and relevant, or will it become useless if something changes or as time passes?
Avoid dating it. Many blog platforms automatically add the publication date to a post or include it in the URL. If you can, turn this function off and consider restructuring your URLs. You may want to seek help before tinkering with URLs for existing pages though. Broken URLs and un-found pages are not good for your search engine rankings.
Make the content easy for people to find, both on your own website and in search engines. Feature links to your evergreen posts on your website prominently. Think about what search results you would expect your posts to appear in. Make sure you include these search terms in your post so search engines can find you.
Be true to your brand. Don’t force something into your marketing strategy in the hope it will work as a piece of evergreen content. Make sure you put your brand foremost and mould all your marketing activity around it.
Bear in mind that any content needs to be engaging, easy to understand, and informative in the first place. If it isn’t it won’t get read or shared in the first place.
If you’ve had some success with evergreen content I’d love to hear about it on my Facebook page.
Think you could do with some evergreen content in your marketing strategy, but not sure where to start, then get in touch.
Not sure if a marketing strategy is all that important? Read what it can do for you here.