How To Write A Blog Post People Will Keep Finding By Going Evergreen

Evergreen isn’t just the Yankee Candle you didn’t know you needed. It’s also the kind of content that you absolutely do need — always relevant, always driving traffic, and always ranking. But what exactly is evergreen, and why does it matter for your website? Let’s take a walk amongst the evergreens to find out.

What is evergreen content?

In much the same way that evergreen trees retain their verdant leaves throughout the year, evergreen content is content that is always relevant. This is in contrast to things like news stories, seasonal articles (Christmas, Black Friday, etc), and editorial pieces. Some ideas for evergreen content include:

• How-to guides
• Answers to common questions
• Definitions to terms and phrases
• Best practice guides

Note how these aren’t tethered to changeable things such as current events or special occasions. They’re always relevant, all the time.

True evergreen content should be:

• Timeless: it should be true and correct all year round, 24/7.
• Genuinely beneficial: your readers need to benefit from it and find it valuable.
• Definitive: you might write about the same thing elsewhere in your blog, but evergreen content is the most detailed and informative piece on the subject.

What are the benefits of evergreen content?

The benefits of evergreen content are manifold. For a start, true evergreen content is something that will continue to drive traffic for weeks, months, and even years after its original publication. A constant source of traffic is no bad thing for a website.

On top of that (and part of the reason for its popularity), is that it’s detailed and informative. As such, it establishes your website as a place of authority. This will both bolster your existing audience, plus increase your readership further.

And its authority will also increase social shares. Evergreen content receives more shares on social media due to its perpetual relevance, again driving further traffic towards your site.

Evergreen content returns a range of benefits, and it’s something you can start benefiting from today.

How to create evergreen content

You know the what and the why — here’s the how.

Optimise, optimise, optimise

The best evergreen content is search engine optimised to the max. First, start by identifying a topic for your blog post. It needs to be something that appears frequently in search queries. Some subjects that are always popular include:

• Romance and dating
• Recipes and cooking
• Finances, including budgeting and simple ways to make money
• Health and fitness, especially weight loss

Next, decide on your format. It could be a common question, or a comprehensive guide to influencer marketing, or a listicle on different ways to beat writer’s block. These formats typically lend themselves to evergreen content by being relevant and easily digestible.

Once you’ve found your topic and your format, do your keyword research. Use tools such as Keyword Tool to identify relevant long-tail keywords that will lead people to your post. These will drive high traffic but with low competition, improving your SEO and enhancing its evergreen quality.

Keep it accessible

The readers most likely to read your content will be beginners, inexperienced in your field of expertise. They’re searching for your content because they need guidance, so be sure to keep it accessible. Avoid excessive or unnecessary jargon, and think about the user experience. Including simple and concise steps ensures that your reader can digest the information easily. Use the Hemingway App to check your content to make certain that it’s readable to your audience.

Regularly update your content

Your evergreen content is like a bonsai tree: it can’t just be left to its own devices. It needs regular pruning and freshening up. Go back to your content every so often and update it. Maybe there’s been some new developments that could be added to it? Or perhaps the statistics you used need updating with more recent data? Go through your piece with a fine tooth comb and add (or indeed, prune) as you see fit.

Remember, you’re not rewriting the whole thing. You’re just updating it a little here and there. This ensures that you don’t lose any valuable SEO that you’ve built up, keeping it evergreen.

Improve your backlinks

We’ve already established that good evergreen content is timeless and always relevant. Its value is universal, so why not link to it in your other content? By linking to it throughout your blog, you help to drive further traffic to it. Plus, you also improve your internal link structure, helping search engine crawlers navigate, map, and value your site. Internal linking is a vital part of your site’s SEO, so don’t neglect it.

Ramp up your social shares

Bigging yourself up might be frowned upon in polite society, but when it comes to your evergreen content it’s actually encouraged. Social media is a great way to drive traffic to your evergreen content, simply by regularly promoting it throughout the year. If it always has value, sharing it on social media means it will always get clicks.

And if it gets clicks, it’ll also get shares too. And social shares indirectly play a role in enhancing your SEO, which is money in the bank as far as your evergreen content is concerned.

Not every tree in a forest is an evergreen, and not every post on your blog should be either. Evergreen content has its place, but so too do seasonal and current pieces. Incorporate a diverse mix of content into your blog strategy, and create a blog that sees real continued, meaningful engagement.