The term ‘evergreen’ describes content or marketing strategy that is created to last. Like the hearty leaves on a coniferous tree, aka an evergreen tree. These tree leaves stay alive throughout the seasons, unlike their relatives’ deciduous trees, whose leaves fall off every autumn like time-sensitive content, which I’ll write about in another post.
Evergreen content is continuously relevant, doesn’t lose interest, and is useful for an extended time. This includes articles, stories, site or blog pages, and videos that remain appropriate for an extensive period. It’s content that continues to be relevant long past it’s publication date, and that traffic will continue to grow over time.
Essentially all web content is evergreen content as it has no expiration date and will retain its value over the long-term. With the exception of types of news stories such as political elections, or current events, which will become obsolete in 6 months from now, and with many keywords associated with that topic ending up in the Google cemetary, never to be queried again.
Examples of Evergreen Content are:
- Information Lists
- Top Tips
- Instructional “How To” Tutorials
- Encyclopedia-type info
- Product Reviews
- Videos
Evergreen Content is Not:
- News reports
- Stats or reports that are likely to change and go out of date
- Holiday or season posts
- Current trend or pop culture fad stories
- Most modern clothing and fashion trends
Some Top Tips for Writing Evergreen Content (see what I did there? ^).
- Don’t Write for the Experts
Your audience will most likely always be primarily beginners, and you want to generate content that is targeted for them. You may feel the need to write a piece to show off your expertise on a specific topic, but this is a bad idea as Experts are less likely searching for your assistance.
- Avoid Overly Technical Language
Because most of your content will be for beginners, complicated, technical language could scare them off, so stick with more simple composition.
- Don’t Write Broad Topic
If you write about too broad a topic, your piece will be much longer, and more likely to lose the interest of your beginner readers. Broad topics tend to have shorter keywords with more competition too. Writing a broader piece is also more difficult for the writer. Write simple specific topics like “How to Elevate Your Daily Eye Makeup Routine” vs “How to Do Your Makeup” which is less engaging.
- Repurpose Your Best Content
There is nothing wrong with reusing some of your existing content. Companies do it all the time. Simply look for ways to “spin” or repurpose that great piece of evergreen content you created into other formats, like video snippets, GIFs, or social media stories.
Derrick Branco 