What is Evergreen Content and Why Does it Matter for SEO?

This article provides a subtle explanation of Evergreen Content; how to recognize it, why we need it, and how to write it and use it for SEO.

If you’re the type of person that goes on Google and start browsing random stuff that come to your mind and end up reading few articles and watching a couple of videos, then you are a prime consumer of Evergreen Content.

Evergreen Content is specifically the kind of content that doesn’t lose vibrance over time and doesn’t become outdated. Wikihow and Wikipedia are one of the best examples of Evergreen Content Websites, their content basically never dies, we keep going back to them because they’re informative and up-to-date.

Forms of Evergreen Content:

• Lists
• How-to Content
• Tips
• Encyclopedic Information
• Product Reviews
• Videos

If you create content, you can use the above formats for your own benefit as they are the most accessible and frequent kind of content out there. However, this all depends on the topic you’re planning to write about, for example, current trends, statistical analysis, and buzz news will become dated in a matter of days.

To be more specific, here are some examples of Evergreen content:

• How to Care for a Newborn. This is a very frequent topic since there are billions of people becoming parents everyday wondering what to do.

• Top 10 Gluten Free Recipes. Recipes are endless and they are an everyday necessity.

• Change a Tire Tutorial. We all googled something similar at one point of our lives, and those videos are always helpful since a flat tire can happen any day.

If you have a topic you want to share and you’re worried about it getting lost among the million other similar topics, it’s your job to make it more specific or special. For example, if you have a Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe you want to share on a website, but there are gazillions of similar recipes out there, you can brush it up by calling it ‘A Classic Granny Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe’, it will drive more traffic than just a plain ‘Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe’ and boost your SEO. Or else, you can make it unique by adding a special element in your content that cannot be found among the other similar content. 

How to Use Evergreen Content for SEO?

Using keyword search for Evergreen content is a great way to optimize your SEO and improve your website’s search ranking. Being constantly on the lead to modify and optimize your SEO will render more traffic to your website and rank your content among the most valuable evergreen content of that same subject.

How to Write Evergreen Content Successfully?

Make it Simple:

Usually, a subject that drives a lot of traffic is introductory. If you want your content to be Evergreen, write it for beginners not experts. No one will understand if you use technical terms or if your content looks complicated, anyone who sees that will just leave your page and search for another source that looks simple and comprehensible.  

Make it Short:

Everyone wants the fastest, most efficient way, therefore, make your topic shorter. No one comes to the web to read a PhD Proposal, the more informative and shorter the topic is, the more readable it will become. Remember that you’re writing for beginners, so it needs to be introductory, short and simple. 

Link Topics Together:

Narrow your topics down, instead of sharing a broad-extensive content on a certain subject, you can narrow the topic and turn it into 2 to 3 subjects linked together. For example, instead of sharing ‘A guide to care for your indoor plants’, you can narrow down the topic and write about ‘Where to position your indoor plants’ and link it to ‘How much watering is enough for your indoor plants’. Anyone who reads the first one and gets the information they need, will be encouraged to read the second one that you linked for extra information. This will boost your SEO game and drive more traffic to the same type of content. 

Repurpose Your Content:

When you own a piece of Evergreen content and you want it to keep thriving, you need to repurpose it into other formats. For example, turn an old ‘how-to’ blog post into a video tutorial, or an old slideshow into an infographic. This way you will drive more attention to good content that became dated.