Evergreen content is a fantastic element to utilise on your website and by its very nature, can pay dividends time and time again.
For those who have not come across the term ‘evergreen content’ before for clarity, the term refers to content that is always valuable and does not have an expiration date. It is content that can be referred to time and time again.
An example of evergreen content for a gardening centre would be a page on what to plant at what part in the year. This page is likely to answer a lot of questions regarding what plants are best to plant, when they should be planted, and be relevant year after year.
It's these kinds of pages that will appear high in search engines for relevant searches and act as a good starting page to introduce visitors to the rest of your website.
How do I find my Evergreen Content?
There are two ways to find your evergreen content. You can either look inwards at the content you already have or look outwards at what evergreen content you could create.
To look inwards, spend time checking out your current content. Use tools such as Google Analytics to work out what pages have been popular over the time that they have been on your website. The stats you will need to look at include their bounce rates*, the average time spent on the page and the overall number of visits to the page.
*(Bounce Rate: This refers to the number of people who land on the page and then leave the page. If you have a low bounce rate it means that people land on the page and stay on the page, if you have a high bounce rate it means that people land on the page and quickly leave the page.)
To look outwards then you need to put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Think about the typical questions that they may have in relation to your products/services. Think about what they look for at certain times of the year. Is there content that you can create that answer these questions and thoughts? If so then get cracking.
If the interest in the topic is unlikely to drop off soon then you can consider it a topic that could have evergreen content created for it.
What kinds of Evergreen Content can I create?
Most people see evergreen content as the blog posts and articles that they put on their website. Whilst there is an argument that you may have a blog post that is timeless, blog posts/articles are not usually classed as evergreen content.
When we talk about evergreen content we are actually referring to content on your site such as:
- How-to Guides
- Product Reviews
- Videos
- Interviews
- Purchasing/Buying Guides
- Glossaries
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- Case Studies/Portfolio Items
- Testimonials
As this list shows, evergreen content can take many forms and be used in different ways as part of your overarching marketing strategy.
How do I Improve my Evergreen Content?
If you already have content on your site that could be classed as evergreen content then take a long hard look at it. Ensure that all links within the content are working and up to date, ensure that the structure of the content makes it easy to read and lastly think about the images that you are using.
If you have a strong piece of evergreen content on your website or a page that could be a strong piece of evergreen content after some tweaking, then take this one step further and ensure that you have the right calls to action on the page. Whilst you don’t want to spam the page with heavy ‘Buy Now’ buttons, a carefully placed ‘Check out X for yourself’ button or ‘Enquire Today’ button can make all the difference.
Why do I need Evergreen Content?
When you create a piece of content for your website it is not ranked by search engines immediately. It takes time for search engines to find the content, rank the content and show it within their search engine.
Great time-limited content simply won’t appear high enough in search engines promptly enough to deliver value. This is where sharing a direct link to these time-limited pieces of content on your social media channels helps to ensure that people see it and that your time creating the piece of content has been worth it.
This is where evergreen content shines. Evergreen content has time to be found, indexed and shown in search engines. It has value to stay where they initially get ranked by search engines and can improve their ranking position as more and more people find the content and access it for themselves.
As a result, evergreen content will be your top performers for bringing traffic via search engines. And once they are on the website they are fantastic tools for converting a website visitor into a customer due to their traditional non-direct sales.
If you need assistance creating and maintaining evergreen content on your website, then simply contact Digital Nachos today. We can carry out a content review within your marketing strategy and put you on the right track.
Published: 22nd Sep 2020