Why did you decide to develop a web presence and design ad campaigns to bring in business? For growth. Yet depending on how long you’ve been online, there comes a point when every business struggles with what to do next.
You have a website. You’ve created profiles on social media sites. You might even be throwing money at pay-per-click advertising. But is it all working? What’s your next step?
Do a little research, and you’ll find that SEO can be a great way to grow your business online. With an evergreen content strategy in place, you can reach more people who want to do business with you. It starts with getting into your customers’ minds and really understanding what they want from you. It begins with defining the most critical keywords people use to find you and focusing on creating content that is ranked well under those key terms.
Enter an evergreen content strategy.
What Is Evergreen Content?
Evergreen content is a fresh post or article that consistently ranks well over time. It won’t age like other pieces, and it’s updated frequently to ensure viewers get the relevant information they are looking for on a particular topic. It has information people want and are willing to share or refer back to once they find it.
Studies show that evergreen content pieces are created carefully. Choose your topic well. From there, pay attention to the content you wish to provide to your viewers. How-to and lists consistently remain at the top for the likelihood of becoming evergreen content. You can see this by performing your own Google search. A recent search using the key term “New Year’s Resolutions” produced titles like:
- 55 New Year’s Resolution Ideas
- How to Make and Keep a New Year’s Resolution
- Top 10 Most Common New Year’s Resolutions
Once produced, they’re easy to update each year. It’s a tradition that springs back to life every 12 months.
How To Create Evergreen Content to Grow Your Business
Before we get into the details of evergreen content creation, it’s important to step back and understand a little more about keywords. Ranking well for major key terms isn’t where you should start. Instead, find far-reaching keywords that customers may find you with, phrases that are outliers for your business. These are long-tail keywords, and they can pack a punch for your business. In the case of New Year’s resolutions from our example above, you might dive deeper and create content for:
- New Year’s Resolutions for Teens
- New Year’s Resolutions for Caregivers
- New Year’s Resolutions for Small Business Owners
Start by stretching beyond your basic business concept and focus more on specialties. Sometimes, thinking about one specific customer can help you dig deep for details. Ideas may include:
- A collection of timeless statistics
- In-depth case studies
- Checklists
- Resources
- Best books in your niche
- FAQ or glossary for your niche
- History
- How to do something over time
- How-to series
- Storytelling
- Success stories
- Training guides
- Annual write-ups
- The best blogs on a topic
- Instagram accounts to follow in your niche
- Beginner guides
- Pro-and-con lists
Keep in mind that it needs to be written in such a way that it will never go out of date. You’ll need to update it more frequently the more data it requires to stay relevant for today’s times.
Why Evergreen Content Is So Effective
Think back for a moment about memorable content from your earlier life. We all can think of commercials we still hum along with or influential brochures or ads that made a big impression. The internet, on the other hand, has given us more content at the click of a mouse than anyone could ever consume. And for most of it, it disappears and fades away just as fast as we read it.
Evergreen content is memorable. Good information will always be valuable. And if someone places value on it, they’re more likely to share it, bookmark it, and refer to it again and again. It can also be one of the most cost-effective marketing pieces you’ll utilize. Create evergreen content, and it keeps working with no other cost except for the occasional updates. Think you can get the same ROI by hiring a camera crew and creating an ad?
Evergreen content is also a strategy you can continue to build on. Create an evergreen content piece today. Create another one tomorrow. You can define multiple long-tail keywords to focus on and ensure you have evergreen content pieces for each of them. It’s a great way to touch on every individual detail of your business model.
And once your evergreen pieces are in place, you can refer to them with your marketing campaigns. Link to them on social media. Use them as landing pages for your ad campaigns. It’s a great way to get people talking.
Tips for Adding More Evergreen Content to Your Site
It’s important to note that not every piece of content will carry the same value over time. There is no set strategy; sometimes, it’s luck and tenacity. Be sure to develop and craft it in an SEO-friendly way to encourage better ranking.
As you’re building evergreen content, ensure it is:
Written as Green Content
eCommerce content can be difficult to craft. You may write posts and articles about your brand, individual products, or makes and models of your products. But they will only last for so long and be attractive to a select audience. You can get a greater stickiness factor by thinking of your customers’ needs. For example, you may sell carpet, and a review of a specific type will only gain so much traction. But an evergreen content piece may be titled, “How to Remove Every Stain Your Carpet May Experience.”
Well-Researched
While you can’t include everything about a specific topic in one post, you can stretch beyond what most of your competition does. The goal is to have your content be the authority of the long-tail keyword. If people click on five results for a search, what would make your content stand out above the others? This is where it pays to spend extra time thinking about what people might want to know. You can even ask customers or run focus groups if it helps.
Visually Appealing
Just because you’re writing thousands of words on a topic doesn’t mean you should make it boring. White space is important. We live in a highly visual world. Include visuals that make your content even more appealing. Photos, graphics, videos, and more should be curated to match and complement your storyline. You can create your own, use stock houses, or hire a photographer, videographer, or graphic designer.
Updated Frequently
While you may end up with hundreds of blog posts over time, you won’t have as many evergreen pieces. Set up a schedule to review them regularly, making updates and changes as necessary. This also gives you a reason to send it back out to your audience, increasing the number of shares.
Are you using evergreen content to grow your business this year?
