There is a trend that has seemed to grow with the prevalence of social media. It is the constant updating of content that is only relevant in the moment, trending in the short term to draw a quick influx of traffic. While this can be a useful tactic for certain forms of marketing, and it is the life blood of niches involving current events (such as news sites), there is a time and a place for it.
For the average blog, this shouldn’t be making up the bulk of their posts. Rather, it should be used for regular injections of activity and draw, while the rest of the focus is put on more permanent articles. A good ratio often recommended is 60/40, with the 40% being currently trending topics relevant to the industry, usually offered through social networking. That 60% should be what is referred to as ‘evergreen content
What Is Evergreen Content?
The meaning is in the name. A piece of evergreen content has information that is relevant all the time, or at least until a major update within the industry itself is discovered. Posts that are written to be evergreen will be as relevant today as they will be a year from now, and perhaps longer. Making it a stable form of content for readers in the long term.
One of the benefits of this kind of content is that it will continue to generate profits and traffic – because the information rarely goes out of date, and is easy to update when it does, the chances of people searching out that information is high. People will continue finding the link over and over again, unlike temporary content that will die out as soon as the trend does. This also makes it a powerful source of ranking and
Examples of Evergreen Content
When it comes down to it, most blogs that aren’t specifically news related are going to be primarily made of evergreen content. Posts that can be pulled up any time and read without the date heavily affecting the usefulness qualifies under the term. So most of the blogs you read every day, or those you find searching for data on a specific topic, are evergreen. Even this article is an example.
Other sites that possess evergreen content are any that act as an encyclopedia or database. Wikipedia, WiseGEEK, About.com and other popular resources write a ton of evergreen posts and have become well known because of it.
Some actual examples of evergreen content in various niches:
- Writing – Grammar Goofs will never get old 🙂
- Blogging – This article listing blogging mistakes is a perfect example of timeless information (there’s nothong in that article that may get outdated)
- Technology – How do I get free WiFi everywhere: Getting something for free is a perfect focus for your evergreen article!
Case Studies On Evergreen Content
The True Power of Evergreen Content – Since it was published last year, this post from
What Is Evergreen Content? – Part cast study, part guide, this leads you extensively through the process of creating evergreen content for your site and blog. No matter what level you are at in the content creation business, this is one article you should have bookmarked.
Tips For Writing Evergreen Content
- Plan It Out. All content management takes planning, but evergreen even more so. You are going to be relying on your evergreen posts for most of your
SEO , and so leaning on it for ranking. You want the posts to reflect your expertise, to be based around what you will be known for. - Keep It High Quality. In the same thread as what was mentioned above, you want all evergreen content to be high quality. The information should be well presented, the writing consistent, the topic stable and helpful.
- Breath New Life Into Old Content (Gold!). Not everything you write is going to stay relevant forever. But once it grows stale you don’t need to toss it away. Just update it, breathing new life into something that has been there all along. Try turning it into a different type of media (such as a video, slideshow or infographic), begin promoting old posts by linking it in new content, get a discussion going on the topic, reference it in a Twitter chat…anything to boost its visibility a bit.
Do you have tips, case studies or examples of evergreen content to share? Let us know in the comments.
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