What Is Evergreen Content and How to Create It

Evergreen content has become a buzzword in the world of content marketing, and for a good reason. It's the type of content that remains relevant and valuable to readers for an extended period of time, often years after it was first published.

Keep reading to explore what evergreen content is, its benefits, and how to create it for your website.

What Is Evergreen Content?

Evergreen content refers to SEO content that is sustainable and stays "fresh" for its audience over a long time.

The term "evergreen" sounds familiar even to people not in the marketing industry because evergreen trees are often used as Christmas trees. It represents eternal life because it retains leaves throughout the seasons rather than shedding them.

Simply put, evergreen content is long-lasting.

One of the most distinguishing facts about evergreen content is that it is not tied to current events or a specific moment in time. The content covers topics that will entertain your audience and serve a purpose at any point in time.

If you effectively incorporate evergreen content into your SEO strategy, you will create a powerhouse that constantly drives growth with every article you publish. 

Types of Evergreen Content

Evergreen content formats can be adapted across a range of industries.

Each format can serve a specific purpose as part of your overall SEO content marketing strategy. Answering frequently asked questions, providing industry tips and advice, and explaining common industry concepts are all ways to make your article evergreen. 

Below are popular types of evergreen content:

• Step-by-step tutorials

• Listicles

• Common mistakes 

• History of a topic or product

• Worst or best

• Product reviews

• Top tips

• Pillar pages

• Interviews

• Glossaries

• Instructional Videos

• FAQs

• Checklists

• Case studies

• Testimonials

• Research studies

• Tools and calculators

It’s important to note that these are merely formats. Using them does not automatically make your content evergreen. However, these types of content do fall under evergreen writing more than any other format.

What Is Not Evergreen Content?

To get a better idea of what evergreen content is, let’s take a look at what it is not:

• News articles

• Statistics or reports that will quickly go out of date

• Articles on pop culture or a current trend

• Latest clothing and fashion trends

• Seasonal articles about a specific holiday, event, or season

• Product announcements

If an article is expected to see a decline in interest and relevance after a set time, then it is not evergreen. 

You can think of evergreen content as covering topics with no real expiration date; it retains its value over the long term.

Anything written about “2020 presidential election” may be popular right now, but a few months later, it will become obsolete. Which means: not evergreen.

Nevertheless, this does not mean you should avoid seasonal content in your marketing strategy. Seasonal content will serve a different purpose and have other growth tactics than an evergreen article.

Evergreen Content by Itself Is Not Enough

Evergreen content is essential to a good content marketing strategy, but it becomes even more effective when combined with SEO techniques. 

Think about creating your evergreen article around keywords you would want your site to rank for. Even the most sustainable evergreen article might not be valuable if you don’t do any keyword research and chase after irrelevant topics to your business or ones nobody search for.

Then, follow basic SEO on-page optimization for headings, meta title and description, images, etc., and avoid keyword stuffing. The more search-friendly your evergreen content is, the more easily it can be seen, shared, and liked, creating a constant traffic flow to your site. 

Most businesses also need to actively build backlinks to their content and promote it to their readers. This will help increase visibility and get your content to reach its peak performance.

How to Create Evergreen Content

Now that we know what evergreen content is and have explored some of the formats for creating sustainable content, let’s take a look at the process you can implement to drive traffic.

Generate Content Ideas

Every successful article starts with a great idea. To launch a strategy that increases growth, you need several ideas to choose from.

Topic Research

Use a topic research tool, like our Topic Discovery, to identify topics around your main product or services quickly. This will provide you with detailed information about what content your audience is looking for. This will instantly give you a vast number of ideas. 

But the most effective evergreen content takes things up a level. You need to understand your target primary and secondary keywords and how your articles will fit in with your SEO strategy. 

Keyword Research

Evergreen content revolves around keywords. So, before you begin writing evergreen articles, you should determine which keywords are relevant and impactful to your business.

That’s where keyword research comes in to help you understand how big your opportunity is from your article. Use a keyword research tool to find relevant keywords for your business. 

You need to find keywords that:

• Have a decent search volume: Search volume refers to the number of searches for a specific keyword over a while. Appropriate keywords have a moderate to high search volume and low competition. 

• Are always on trend: If the keyword peaks and then drops, then you know that it is not ideal for evergreen content. You need to look for keywords that have an upward trend or remain consistent over time. 

• Have consistent search intent: Search intent is the reason behind a search someone makes. Suitable keywords have a precise search intent that does not change over time. 

Keyword research helps shape the scope of an article and can sometimes end up being its own evergreen piece. If you skip this step, you will miss out on opportunities that can significantly grow your traffic. 

Plan and Create Evergreen Content

Once you have your keywords and have identified the topic and title of your article, then it’s time to start structuring your content.

Analyze the top-ranked websites for the primary keywords you want to include in your content. Using this information, you can create a solid brief for content writing and set expectations such as word count, related keywords, and headings. 

When you are creating your evergreen content, keep the following in mind:

• Relevance: Make sure your content and keywords tie together. Avoid using a popular keyword just to drive traffic to an unrelated article. 

• Error-free: Well-written content usually ranks higher than sloppy content. So before you publish your article, skim through it for errors. 

• Credibility: Make sure your research is correct and backed up with facts. Also, try to use language that is commonly used for the topic at hand.

• Clear communication: Avoid overly complicated explanations and jargon. Your audience will appreciate simple and straightforward content. 

• Content division: Using headings and subheadings makes your content more readable. Your audience will be able to quickly scan through it and get the information that they need. 

• No time-based word: Avoid using words such as "years" or "today." It can make your content seem outdated if your audience reads it months or years later. 

Promote Evergreen Content

After publishing your evergreen article, there are still some things left to do.

You can not just publish your article and expect people to engage. You need a comprehensive promotion strategy. 

Your promotion strategy should include the following:

• Social media promotion

• Link building

• Email marketing

• Paid amplification

Review and Update Evergreen Content Regularly

It’s important to regularly go through your evergreen articles and update them because the topics may be evergreen, but the specifics of the content may change over time. 

Here are things to do when you review your evergreen content:

• Correct outdated information: Although evergreen content often stays accurate over time, sometimes things change, such as finer details and numbers. 

• Add new information: When reviewing your content, consider what perspectives you may have missed first. Maybe you can add a new section that is more relevant today. 

• Check your links: Make sure that your content does not have any broken or irrelevant links. Examine if they still make sense and add value to your content.

• Include new media: A simple way to freshen up your content is to add new media. You could add an infographic, podcast, slideshow, or even videos to make your content more appealing. 

• Make it interactive: Interactive elements like polls and quizzes encourage your audience to spend more time engaging with your content. This will send a signal to Google that your content is relevant and needs to rank higher. 

• Double-check for errors: Even if you proofread your article before publishing it, there may still be grammatical and spelling errors. Read your content again to help find any mistakes you may have overlooked the first time.

Final Thoughts

Evergreen content can enhance your SEO content marketing strategy when it is integrated into your overall content strategy.

But in order for that to happen, you need first to pinpoint what content is evergreen for your target audience. Then you need to follow the framework of creating and planning your evergreen content to drive success piece after piece.