In this lunchtime #WPQuickies, I’ll be giving you some tips on how to write evergreen content. Evergreen content can help boost your traffic and SEO.
What Is Evergreen Content?
Content marketing is one of the most effective strategies to market your business to your target audience.
Evergreen content is content that is written and optimised to stay relevant and drive traffic to your website for months or even years.
Evergreen content has no expiry date and is written around a topic that people will always find interesting and relevant.
Some examples of evergreen content topics are:
- How to make WordPress go faster
- How to optimise a website for SEO
- How to lose weight
- Different ways to cook an egg
- Generating passive income
What Evergreen Content Is Not
Before you dive in to write your evergreen content, here are some examples of topics that would not be classified as evergreen.
- Statistics related to a particular period. They are likely to change in future.
- Announcements and news articles
- Content-focused on current but temporary trends; Covid-19, sports events etc.
Why Bother With Evergreen Content?
Many digital marketers favour writing evergreen content because it’s a relatively easy and cost-effective way to bring organic traffic to a website.
If written properly, the content is always going to generate interest and that’s a +1 for SEO.
Your evergreen content is designed to target organic traffic to your website appearing in the free organic SERPs.
According to a 2021 Hootsuite report, almost 43% of internet users use ad blockers, so if you are using paid ads, you’re wasting 43% of your campaign money.
Organic search results are more important than ever, they boost search rankings.
Boosting Your E-A-T Score
Evergreen content helps boost your Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness (E-A-T) score on Google – an important metric that is part of the search engine algorithm.
The stronger your E-A-T score is, theoretically, the higher your best articles will rank and that will generate more traffic, boosting your E-A-T score. It’s a bit of a self-fulfilling loop if you get it right.
5 Strategies For Creating Evergreen Content
Here are my 5 strategies for creating successful evergreen content
1 Topics Are Very Precise
Avoid time-based and trending topics, you want a topic that is going to appeal to interested parties regardless of time periods.
I like to use a tool called AnswerThePublic https://answerthepublic.com/.
The site tracks top search terms that real people are searching for.
Enter some keywords that you are going to write an article about. I’ve chosen “Cook Eggs”.
You can see a whole range of searches categorised by How, Who, When, Why, Which, etc.
Here are some of the results:
- How cook eggs for ramen
- How cook eggs in microwave
- Can you cook eggs in an air fryer
Targeting popular search intents makes sure your content has a good foundation.
2 Evergreen Content Is Mostly Aimed At Beginners
The reason evergreen content is so popular is that it’s mostly consumed by people who are not experts in the topic area i.e. beginners.
You will find that most evergreen content first begins with an explanation of the topic and why it is important or relevant; just like the first few headings in this article.
If you are an expert in the topic area, evergreen content is most likely not going to be relevant because you already have those skills.
An exception to this rule is very niche-specific topics.
For example, most digital marketers understand how SEO and campaigns work so beginner level evergreen content won’t be relevant.
However, writing about a very niche-specific topic such as “How Track Digital Marketing Campaign ROI For Dental Practices In NSW Australia”, will be very relevant to already established digital marketers trying to expand their client base or trying to break into a new vertical.
3 Focus On Keywords
Keywords are super important for evergreen content creation.
You need your content to appear high up in Google search results so that more people can find and read it.
Pay attention to your main keywords but also make sure you are targeting adjacent keywords in your subheadings.
If you Google “How to get fit”, the top result is from a site called active.com and the article title reads “5 Simple Tips for Fitness Success”.
If you have a look at the opening paragraph the article targets adjacent fitness keywords like “get in shape”, “sculpted body” and “having a better body”.
The subheading also targets fitness-related keywords “Exercise Daily”, “Eat the Right Foods” and “Keep Track of Calories”.
Return to the Google search results to find out other related searches people are performing in the “People also ask” section.
Thanks, Google for giving me extra keywords and content to include in my evergreen article.
4 Easy-To-Follow Format
Long text-heavy essays don’t make very good evergreen content because they are not very engaging.
Make sure the format of the article is easy to skim, read and understand in short readable chunks.
Here are some of the most engaging content formats that attract the most interest:
- How-to content
- Top X lists
- Reviews of popular products and services
- Case studies focusing on problem and solution
Don’t limit your evergreen content to a textual format.
Mix up the flow of content with graphics, infographics, videos, polls, quizzes, video and audio.
Make sure that your headings are relevant and topical so that people can skim to the sections most relevant to their needs.
5 Show Your Authority And Back-Up Facts
Evergreen content should be referable.
People should be able to link to your evergreen content and quote information from it as a trusted source.
You need to show your authority, knowledge and experience through the evergreen content that you produce.
If you are using statistics, make sure you check and reference the sources.
If you have an opinion, state why you believe this over the other options.
The more trustworthy your evergreen content, the more it will be linked to and shared.
Summary
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