Don’t fall victim to trends: Why evergreen content never goes out of style

The internet has brought so many opportunities for businesses to engage with potential customers through content but it’s also an easily-distracted medium where you can fall into the trap of chasing trends.

This can seem like a great way to capitalise on what everyone is talking about, whether it has any real relevance to your business or not. And it’s true that well-crafted topical content can have an impact if perfectly timed, gaining plenty of short-term momentum for a brand.

But even when this is the case, today’s topical trends can be just as quickly forgotten tomorrow when all-new topics are dominating online discussion. And what is the benefit of a 24-hour spike in traffic that sees you go right back down again when it ends?

This is why creating evergreen content has to play a big role in your marketing strategy. But what is evergreen content? In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know, including why you should be wary of falling victim to trends.

What exactly is evergreen content?

An evergreen tree is a tree that stays green all year round while the leaves change colour and fall off those around it. That’s the basic concept of evergreen content. It’s 'always good' content and it’ll always bring in traffic and conversions, no matter what time of the year.

This makes it very different from content created to chase a particular trend, as that will have a shelf-life of a couple of weeks at most. After that, you wouldn’t expect many people to still be searching for topics related to that trend, so your piece of content is likely to be forgotten.

Meanwhile, your evergreen content will be chugging along nicely in the background, bringing in the results that you need because the topic is always relevant.

Creating evergreen content

Understanding what evergreen content is and how to deliver it are two different things. So how do you create evergreen content for yourself? It can feel easier to sit back and wait for topical opportunities to come up but evergreen content is worth the time and effort to get it right. Here are some tips to get you started...

What types of content should you focus on?

The main types of evergreen content you should be focusing on are:

• Articles - These blog posts should be your bread and butter. There’s no harm in adding in topical and seasonal content on an ad hoc basis, but you should have a steady flow of evergreen content that addresses the challenges your customers face and the ways that your products or services can help them. And these should be as relevant in a year as they are today.
• Guides/How To content - This article you’re reading right now is a piece of evergreen content because it’s telling you how to do something that is useful now and always will be useful. So all you need to do is think what guides related to your products or services would be helpful for your customers and you can create content that will keep on bringing them in.
• FAQs - Another reliable piece of content that consistently works well for both businesses and their customers is the FAQ page. After all, these are questions that are frequently asked, so giving people the answers they need will never let you down.
• Case studies - And finally, case studies that demonstrate how you have delivered for your clients or customers are also dependable pieces of evergreen content because potential new customers will always want to do their research into what you can offer.

How to create evergreen content

Now you know what types of evergreen content to focus on, how do you go about creating it? The first thing you need is to research topics to write about that will stand the test of time. Keyword research is important here because it can inform what issues your customers care about and what will bring traffic to your website.

With in-depth research into the subject, you can demonstrate that you are experts in your field as well as delivering value for readers. Ideally, you’ll be able to repurpose it into different formats, including breaking it down into social media posts that link through to the original piece.

When creating evergreen content, follow Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines (experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness) and the best SEO practice to ensure the content is set up to truly deliver for you.

And finally, remember that even evergreen content might need help sometimes. If you want your piece of content to stay relevant, be sure to keep updating it when new information or new statistics come to light. Ideally, this should also update the published date at the top of the content so readers know it is still fresh and relevant.

The benefits of evergreen content

We’ve mentioned why evergreen content is important but what benefits can you expect to gain from creating it? The most obvious one is that, if you get it right, it will drive traffic to your website consistently, but it will also help position you as authoritative and an expert in your space, building trust in your brand.

And, best of all, the ROI (return on investment) should be clear to see. While a piece of trending topical content has a short shelf-life and can deliver minimal ROI, especially if the timing isn’t right, evergreen content can keep on delivering a return on your investment of time for potentially years to come.

Using your evergreen content

Creating evergreen content is only part of the work required to turn it into something that delivers ROI for you. It also needs to be used in the right way, including thinking where to use it.

Potentially it could just sit in your list of blog articles and keep generating traffic through your impressive SEO work, but linking to it from relevant landing pages and other blog pages will keep it visible. You can also share it from newsletters and regularly on social media channels.

A high-quality evergreen piece of content is also likely to work well as part of a backlinks strategy because it will not be seen as having a risk of falling out of date.

Our content team can help

If all of this makes perfect sense but you’re still not sure you have the time or expertise in-house to start crafting impactful evergreen content, that’s where we can help.

Our content marketing team can work with you to ensure that we are creating evergreen content that meets your objectives, is SEO-optimised and forms part of a cohesive strategy that will bring in traffic and conversions on a consistent basis.

So why not get in touch with us today and see how we can help you create evergreen content that will keep on delivering?