In today's digital era, having a website that is flooded with visitors every day is the dream of every business owner or content creator. One effective way to achieve this goal is to create “evergreen” content.
Evergreen content is a type of content that remains relevant and valuable to an audience over a long period of time, without being affected by changes in trends or time. In this article, we will provide tips on how you can create evergreen content that will continue to bring traffic to your website.
Evergreen content is an important type of content to implement in marketing strategies. Do you know what is called evergreen content?
Quoting the Digital Marketing Institute page, evergreen content is content that is optimized for search engines so that it remains relevant and "fresh" for readers for a long time.
So, this content will still be sought after by readers even though the publication date has passed. Evergreen content can also retain its value in the long term. Apart from that, traffic from evergreen content can continue to grow over time.
An example of evergreen content is an article that contains steps for creating infographics. Content like this will always be sought after. Meanwhile, content that is not evergreen, for example trending articles, news, statistics or numerical reports that tend to change, or articles that focus on current trends.
Furthermore, here is an explanation of evergreen content that you can learn and apply in your content marketing strategy.
What Is Evergreen Content?
Evergreen content refers to the type of content that remains relevant and valuable to an audience over a long period of time. The term “evergreen” comes from a botanical term that refers to plants that remain green and live throughout the year, regardless of seasonal changes.
Likewise with evergreen content, this content is not influenced by changes in trends or time, so it remains interesting to readers from time to time.
Evergreen content can take the form of articles, guides, tutorials, infographics, videos, and various other forms of content. Its evergreen nature makes it suitable for websites, blogs, and other digital platforms that want to maintain steady, quality traffic.
One of the main differences between evergreen content and non-evergreen content is the context of time. News content or trends that are popular in a certain period may have an "expiration" period when the news or trend is no longer relevant or interesting to readers.
However, evergreen content is designed to remain useful over a longer period of time, even if there are changes in a particular environment or industry.
Simple examples of evergreen content include step-by-step guides on how to do something, articles about basic concepts in a field, or information about general principles that remain valid over time. For example, guides on how to care for indoor plants, articles about the benefits of regular exercise, or tutorials on the basics of photography are types of evergreen content.
The main advantage of evergreen content is that it can continuously bring organic traffic to your website, without the need to constantly produce new content to maintain the flow of visitors.
However, this does not mean that evergreen content does not require care. Content needs to be updated according to the latest developments, broken links need to be fixed, and responses to reader questions need to be maintained.
Why is Evergreen Content Necessary?
There are several reasons that can answer the question, why evergreen content is needed in a content marketing strategy.
1. Better Ranking in Search Engines
Who would have thought, evergreen content could actually make your website rank better in search engines, you know. This is because evergreen content has a long shelf life and the traffic generated can increase over time.
According to the Search Engine Journal page, you can maximize it by creating evergreen content that has the right keywords. So, do keyword research to find the most optimal ones.
2. Increase Prospects in the Long Term
Quoted from the SendPulse page, evergreen content can also increase long-term prospects for your business. So, try to create evergreen content that is relevant to the needs of your target market.
That way, you can reach your target audience more easily and attract more prospects. Apart from that, providing informative content can help you retain readers and get loyal customers.
3. Save more advertising costs
The next reason why evergreen content needs to be considered in marketing strategies is because it is considered to be more cost effective in advertising.
Compared to hiring employees to create TV, radio, and other commercials, paying a professional content writer is much cheaper. Even so, the potential return on investment that brands will get is much greater.
This is also supported by a study from MGD Advertising, which found that more than 70% of internet users want to learn about products through content compared to traditional advertising.
Tips for Creating Evergreen Content
Evergreen content is often chosen because it has no expiration date. So, it can be used as a marketing strategy in the long term.
For those of you who want to create evergreen content for marketing purposes, here are some tips that you can apply:
1. Choose a Timeless Topic
When you want to create evergreen content, the first step is to choose a topic that is not bound by current trends. Choose topics that have long-term relevance and will still interest your audience in the future.
For example, “Vehicle Maintenance Guide” is more timeless than “Muslim Fashion Trends 2023”. By choosing timeless topics, your content will continue to be searched by people over time.
2. Do in-depth research
Evergreen content needs to be supported by strong research. This will provide added value to readers and make your content more credible. Use reliable sources and conduct thorough analysis before writing.
For example, if you want to create an investment guide, make sure you have the latest data and information regarding various investment instruments.
3. Choose the right keywords
To create evergreen content, you need to find keywords that are evergreen too. For example, by avoiding time-sensitive keywords and focusing on keywords that have the potential for consistent search traffic.
To choose the right keywords, you can do keyword research. The way to do this is by creating a list of keywords that are relevant to your business.
Then, try searching for these keywords using keyword tools to find out whether they are suitable for creating evergreen content. Some keyword tools that you can use are Ahrefs, Moz, or SEMrush.
One indicator of whether a keyword is included in the evergreen category is that you can see it from the number of searches. At least, the keywords you choose generate at least 1,000 searches every month.
With the help of these keyword tools, you can also search for “Parent Topics” for each selected keyword to find out whether there are related keywords that are more popular.
4. Apply SEO Techniques
When creating evergreen content, you should also apply SEO techniques so that its performance is more optimal on search engines.
According to the Forbes page, here are several SEO techniques that you can use when creating evergreen content:
- Write targeted keywords in the H2 title and subheadings.
- Add internal links and external links.
- Avoid technical language as much as possible, so use simple language that is easier for readers to understand.
- Answer the question the reader is looking for directly and clearly at the top of the article.
- Add alternative text to each image used in the article.
5. Use Appropriate Visuals
In creating evergreen content, you also need to add visuals that match the content of the article. However, make sure the photo or type of visualization you use is appropriate and representative. It sounds like this might be easy to do, but in fact it's quite challenging, you know.
There are lots of sources that you can use to look for visuals for article writing purposes. For example, stock photo websites, such as Pexels, Unsplash, Freepik, and many more. If possible, you can also use visuals of your own creation in the form of graphic designs.
The use of additional visuals in your evergreen content depends on the content. If your content contains tutorials, the visuals used must be different for each step. Meanwhile, for simple blog posts, you need at least one relevant professional visual.
6. Update Content Regularly
When you have successfully created evergreen content and published it on your blog, try to keep checking it regularly. Update content if necessary. So, your content can remain evergreen amidst changing times.
Double check the spelling and language used. Is it still relevant to current conditions? If there are some things that need to be fixed, do it. Not only that, also check the internal and external links that you add to evergreen articles.
By updating and deleting content that is no longer relevant, you can attract new readers. The amount of traffic generated may also be much greater.
7. Share Content on Social Media
Once you've finished creating evergreen content with the tips above, don't forget to share it on social media. Because this type of content is timeless, you can share evergreen content repeatedly on social media.
You can share evergreen content with high traffic every year on social media to spark new interest and regenerate awareness of the content. That way, you can reach your target audience more easily. The amount of traffic from shared content will also be higher.
In the end, you can generate more leads so that the business profits you get are greater.
8. Avoid Certain Dates and Trends
Whenever possible, avoid using dates or referring to specific events related to the present. Instead, focus on general principles that still apply.
For example, if you're writing about productivity tips, avoid referring to specific apps or tools that may not be relevant in a few years.
9. Answer Common Questions
Content that answers common questions or problems frequently faced by many people tends to become evergreen. You can research common questions in your industry or niche, then create content that provides comprehensive answers.
This will keep your content sought after by people looking for a solution to the same problem in the future.
Conclusion
Evergreen content is a type of content that can help bring traffic to your website all the time because the content is always "fresh". Therefore, evergreen content is very important to use as part of a content marketing strategy.
If you are interested in content marketing or digital marketing as a whole, you should try taking the Glints ExpertClass. There, you can get a lot of new knowledge about digital marketing directly from experts who are professionals in their field.
That's the explanation about evergreen content that you need to know. Come on, apply it to your business marketing strategy!