How To Write Evergreen Content That Grows Your Audience

A content marketing strategy for small businesses needs precision. Since you're competing with both small companies and large ones, you need to differentiate yourself early. One way of doing that is by having a well-written blog that ranks in search results.

The secret of having a long-lasting blog is knowing what content people want to see over time. Your backlinks, keywords, and social media strategy can only get you so far. You would want to receive traffic on all your posts, even ones that have been around a while. To do this, you need to learn how to write evergreen content. 

Evergreen Content Helps You Rank Better

If you only write about trending things, you will have to keep publishing to maintain interest in the topics. When you don't come out with posts regularly, your traffic will drop. It is because people's interest in trending topics fade over time. When you focus on evergreen content, you can work smarter instead of harder.

For one, you can do less work. You won't need to change or update your content as often as you would if you relied on trends. Evergreen content saves you time and frees you to attend to other work-related concerns. Also, it brings you organic traffic. Since Google's mission is to bring the best answers to people, outdated content will eventually slip down the rankings. If you have evergreen posts, your organic traffic will keep you relevant. It could be months or years since you had written the post, but as long as it answers the question, you will see people visit it.

This type of content does not fade into irrelevance. Evergreen topics always have an audience despite the season. Just like evergreen trees, this kind of post retains its freshness throughout the year. You can rely on evergreen content to drive people to your blog during slow weeks in your industry. If you want a blog that is for the long term, here are some things you should know about writing evergreen content.

You Need To Get The Topics Right

A good evergreen post starts with finding the right topics. "How to go on a healthy diet" is an example. There will always be people who would want to change their eating habits or lose weight. "What is artificial intelligence" is another. Although information technology has advanced by leaps and bounds in the last couple of decades, there will always be people looking for answers to the fundamental questions.

Meanwhile, don't choose things like "how to choose a Christmas gift." If something happens once a year, you cannot consider it evergreen. Similarly, one-off events are not inherently evergreen. For example, the birth of Facebook has had far-reaching effects. However, if you write about it today, it won't be as valuable to readers. Reframe the topic to touch on people's concerns today.

Avoid Using Angles With A Lifespan

Pop culture references are excellent for articles meant to capture the essence of a time or a period. Using phrases that people associate with a particular TV show, music act, or celebrity will boost your traffic for the time being. When they fall out of the public eye, though, your content will immediately look dated.

Content marketing strategies for small businesses should reference enduring things like traditions or long trends. Your content has a better chance of becoming evergreen this way. Some marketers include pop culture in their articles to take advantage of the news cycle. This practice is called newsjacking, and it involves laying your ideas over breaking news to increase interest in them. Although this brings a spike of traffic to your site, the numbers will wane once people move to the next big event.

Avoid Using Language With A Lifespan

Whenever you can, steer clear from words like "yesterday" and phrases like "last week" or "earlier this year." Avoid mentioning dates in your content as well. If you are writing something for marketing, using language with a lifespan will prevent content from staying evergreen.

You would notice that there are exceptions to this. For example, a post might have the title "Web Design Trends in 2021." It makes sense to do this, especially in preparation for a new year. However, you have to keep revising this article and making it relevant.

Monitor Your Website's Rankings

One way for you to track your post's relevance is through your rankings. Some marketers observe a gradual drop in their posts' rankings over time. When this happens, it might mean that although the topic is evergreen, the content needs reworking. The keywords you target, how you approach the topic, and even how you format your post contribute to your article's long-term rankings.

Keep Your Content Relevant

When traffic to your website dips, you have to reflect on why Google thinks it is no longer relevant to your audience. Some portions of your website might have become outdated. You might also have broken or irrelevant links, or there might be something wrong with the title.

Apart from examining your content, look at what competitors are publishing. Read the posts from websites above yours in search results. Since Google aims to provide the best response for queries, the search results above yours might be doing things you should adapt.

Consider the topics they discuss or points they cover in your posts. See how they prefer to deliver information as well—do they write in long paragraphs or streamlined ones? Once you've implemented changes, you can republish and promote the new article to your audience. Then, it's a matter of tracking results and seeing which measures are effective.

SEO is a rapidly-evolving field. Most articles only have a shelf life of one or two years before needing a refresh. When you employ this strategy, you'll surely get more juice out of a topic.

Have a Link-Building Plan For Your Content

Pages with fewer links get outstripped by ones with more. There is a correlation between how high your page ranks and how many backlinks you get, so you shouldn't rest on your laurels when you publish an article. Even if you refresh your page regularly, it will not stack up against websites with more backlinks. One way Google determines relevance is through the number of domains that link to you. If other websites see your content as useful, it will do the same.

In Conclusion

Focusing on evergreen topics is a good content marketing strategy for small businesses. If you cannot devote all your energy to maintaining a plan for your website, choosing topics that are always relevant is a step in the right direction. When you write evergreen articles, people will keep visiting your posts, even if it has been weeks or months since you hit publish. With good backlinks and promotion, you are sure to see continued interest in your post.

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