Evergreen Content
Evergreen Content: Brief Summary
Evergreen content is content that remains relevant to a topic over a very long period of time. It is always useful – both for the reader and for the operator of the page. The operator, in particular, benefits from the fact that evergreen content repeatedly attracts visitors to the site and thus generates traffic. Accordingly, evergreen content can also be consciously used as an instrument within the framework of a content strategy.
Evergreen Content: Detailed Summary
When it comes to SEO and online marketing, this maxim usually applies: fresh content brings new clicks. However, the fact that there is also an exception to this rule can be seen with evergreen content. This content, which does not lose its thematic relevance or only after a very long time, can create a stable “basic framework” that reliably ensures a certain amount of traffic. From a visit to the evergreen content, visitors then ideally come to other, up-to-date pages where they order something, for example. The great advantage of timeless content is that it remains relevant to search engines regardless of trends or current fashions. Thus, they can reliably ensure a good position in the ranking on the search results pages.
Possible examples of evergreen content are:
- Guidebooks and tutorials
- “How to” guides
- FAQs
- Encyclopaedias
- Interviews
- Testimonials/product reviews
From this small selection, you can already see what evergreen content is all about: Mostly, it deals with general questions on the topic that every beginner or professional asks and so always remains up-to-date.
How Do You Find the Right Topics for Evergreen Content?
Since evergreen content needs to remain relevant to its respective topic over a very long period of time, it is clear that not every question is suitable for it. An article about “the ten best cinema films of 2016” would not be a good candidate for evergreen content on its own, as it would eventually expire. If, on the other hand, the text were part of a series listing the best ten films of each year since 1980, the whole thing would look different again.
Therefore, one should not always consider the individual contents of the page separately because, under certain circumstances, a compilation of several contributions is suitable as a basis for evergreen content.
In addition to timelessness and relevance, the target group plays a decisive role in evergreen content. After all, content does not automatically become “evergreen” just because it has no current reference. Evergreen content should attract visitors to the site, and it will only do so if the thematic orientation fits the site’s target group. A series on the best films of the year has the potential to become evergreen content. But this will probably not appear on the page belonging to a cosmetics shop because the series would look out of place there and probably only generate a small amount of additional traffic.
Exact knowledge about the interests of the target group is therefore irreplaceable if you want to produce effective evergreen content. It is also important that the topic of the article is not too broad and that it is covered in appropriate depth. Content that only touches on various topics usually has little chance of becoming evergreen.
It may seem obvious that content must be unique, but for the sake of completeness, it should not go unmentioned. The basic format, on the other hand, plays only a subordinate role here because, in addition to texts, videos and even image collections can be used as evergreen content.
What Should Evergreen Content Look Like?
Once a suitable topic has been found, the next step is to create the material for the evergreen content. Which form you choose is, of course, a matter of taste, but it should also depend on the topic. For example, if you want to give tips on laying laminate flooring, a guidebook or a how-to video is particularly suitable. For “the most important questions to consider when entering the USA”, on the other hand, an FAQ would be suitable.
In addition, you should decide at the beginning whether – or how often – the content will be updated. The problem is that only a few content articles are actually timeless, i.e. always up-to-date. In addition, Google evaluates the publication date of the content when compiling the search results; more recent contributions are rated better and, therefore, land more easily in the top positions. For this reason, there are two approaches to evergreen content:
- Publish largely timeless content that will ideally be of interest to the target group for many years. In order to improve the Google ranking, this content can occasionally be slightly adapted.
- Use existing content that is regularly updated and thus remains relevant to the topic. Among other things, this variant is well suited for pages with test reports on electrical appliances. Since new products are constantly coming onto the market in this area, the tests must be updated again and again so that the page remains relevant. In this case, no single report would become evergreen content, but rather the entire database with all the tests. Of course, this method can also be used on a smaller scale, for example, by adding paragraphs to a page.
Basically, updating the content is not mandatory with evergreen content. However, especially in highly competitive subject areas, “refeeding” content can help you stay ahead of the competition on search results pages.
The Benefits of Evergreen Content
Since it is quite time-consuming to produce evergreen content, some people will surely ask themselves whether the whole effort is really worth it. It might be simpler to achieve more traffic with other SEO measures or advertisements. The great advantage of evergreen content is that it provides consistent traffic – the topic covered is always relevant and therefore always attracts visitors. In addition, the dwell time for this type of content is usually significantly higher than for other pages. The bounce rate, on the other hand, is usually much lower. Evergreen content, therefore, constantly attracts visitors who stay on the page for a long time – the best prerequisite for conversion.
In addition, the operator of the page can build up a reputation through the evergreen content, which in turn has a positive effect on the image of their brand. Users trust the provider’s statements and are therefore easier to win over as customers.
Conclusion
Evergreen content can be a very effective means of increasing traffic to a website and, at the same time, doing something to boost customer loyalty. The expertise of the site operator also sets it apart from the competition and give it an additional competitive advantage. It is important, however, that the topics for evergreen content are carefully selected and tailored to the target group of the page. Furthermore, in the case of highly competitive topics, it may be necessary to regularly update or adapt the content in order to increase its relevance for search engines.
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