The struggle to consistently produce fresh content on a small business blog is real! If you’ve ever tried small business blogging, you’ll know it can be hard to keep up with the demand for relevant content that stands out and ranks on Google. If you’ve found yourself stuck and you want to bring more organic traffic to your small business website, creating evergreen content could be the solution you’re looking for.
What is Evergreen Content?
As the term suggests, Evergreen content relates to SEO content that stays useful, relevant and fresh, no matter how much time has passed. Much like how an evergreen tree keeps its leaves over time, evergreen content keeps its relevance over time.
Producing a constant stream of new content can be tricky for many small businesses as it can be time-consuming. Making evergreen content a part of your digital marketing strategy is a good way to drive traffic to your site long after publishing the content. This means that three-year-old evergreen blog posts can still rank well in search engine results. While Google loves to serve searchers with up-to-the-minute content, it also values solid evergreen articles and blog posts that provide value to the reader – even if they are months old. Bear in mind that fresh content with current events and recent trends or topics specific to the time of year are not considered evergreen. For example, a blog post about the newest fashion trends for 2023 would not be considered evergreen content based on the information being relevant to a single year.
Why is Evergreen Content Important?
Evergreen content is important for small businesses looking to establish their online presence and improve their visibility. A well-written piece of evergreen content with the right keywords has the potential to rank well in search engines thanks to its timelessness. Articles and blogs with themes like “Top 10 Gardening Trends for 2023” may do well in 2023 but will become less relevant over time. Creating evergreen content can positively impact lead generation and the flow of traffic to your website as it will provide value to the reader for the life of your business. Valuable and timeless content is also just the type of content that other sites will want to link to. This is great for small businesses as acquiring quality backlinks can help improve the domain authority of your website.
What are the Benefits of Evergreen Content?
Small businesses will find a lot of benefits to having an evergreen content strategy. Being able to produce evergreen blog posts and articles will elevate your small business blogging efforts and make your site more trustworthy in the eyes of Google. Some other advantages of creating evergreen content include:
- It can save precious time – As a small business, keeping up with a regular weekly blogging schedule may not be feasible. Creating evergreen content means you can post an article once and years later it can still be valuable to your audience. Regular updates will ensure it stays relevant for years to come.
- Your content will appeal to anyone interested in your business – Evergreen articles are often filled with timeless information and keywords specific to your business. Since the information will always be meaningful to your audience, anyone with an interest in your product or service will value the content, no matter how old it is.
- Evergreen content provides a great ROI – One blog writing session can result in countless reposts on social media. This means you can update (if necessary) and promote an old post on social media yearly if you want to and they can continue to drive traffic to your website.
- Provides a constant stream of traffic – Some people think that you need to post content daily to get a steady flow of traffic to your website. This is true if your topics focus on news events or current trends like fashion or entertainment. Timeless content with unchanging information like guides to your products or FAQs will attract traffic consistently.
- Useful for link building – Reposting your evergreen articles across social media platforms and other relevant sites helps to create lots of links to your content which will improve your backlink profile.
- Great for SEO – Good-quality evergreen content should be rich in well-searched keywords that are specific to your business. This will make your content easier for your readers to find and make it easier to rank higher in search results if it provides value to the reader.
- Evergreen SEO content helps to build trust and authority – Google recognises and values perennial information that demonstrates knowledge and expertise in your industry.
What are Some Examples of Evergreen Content?
The key to creating effective evergreen content is to ensure it remains relevant and valuable over time. Remember to update your content periodically to reflect any changes or developments in your industry. There are several types of evergreen content that small businesses can create to provide long-lasting value to their audience. Some popular types include:
- How-to Guides and Tutorials – these guides or tutorials provide step-by-step instructions on how to accomplish a specific task or solve a problem like our Complete Guide to Link Building for Small Businesses. They can cover a variety of topics relevant to your small business or target audience. These are great for establishing yourself as an authority in your industry.
- FAQs or Frequently Asked Questions – When you create a comprehensive FAQ section on your website, it serves as a valuable resource for your audience. You can address common concerns and questions related to your services or products and these questions can be updated as new questions arise.
- Resource lists – Create a list of helpful resources, websites or tools related to your industry. These lists can include useful links to articles, podcasts, videos or books that your audience will find beneficial. Sometimes they are titled “Top 10” or “Must-have” lists. Our list of free SEO resources is an example of a resource list that can be updated when necessary.
- Glossaries – You can develop a glossary of industry-specific terms to explain concepts related to your small business in simpler terms, like our Social Media Marketing A-Z. This kind of content is valuable for educating your audience and helping them to understand the terminology used in your field.
- Case studies and testimonials – Sharing real-life examples and success stories that highlight how your services and products have benefited your customers is a great way to show your audience the value of what you offer. Seeing how much your services or products have helped others can be a persuasive tool for future customers.
Now you have an idea of what is considered “evergreen”, let’s look at what is not evergreen content.
- Seasonal content – written content that relates to a specific season or events that happen at a particular time of year is not evergreen like, “Best Gifts for Easter” or “Tips for Spring Cleaning”
- News articles – time-sensitive articles that focus on current events, trends or developments are not evergreen. The information can quickly become outdated as events unfold or new details become available.
- Trending topics – content with a focus on viral sensations, trending topics and fads will generate a lot of interest for a short time but will quickly become outdated as they lose their relevance. Social media trends and meme-based content are not examples of evergreen articles.
- Statistics or data reports – While data and statistics can be valuable, they can quickly become outdated when new research is published or as circumstances change. Content that relies heavily on specific data and statistics may not be considered evergreen.
It is important to note that these topics are not bad and shouldn’t be avoided completely to make way solely for evergreen content. Topical content should form a part of a successful content strategy as it is a great way to capture the reader’s attention since it is often highly targeted.
Tips for Writing Evergreen SEO Content.
Here are a few tips to help you to create high-quality content for your small business that continues to provide value and supports your long-term content marketing strategy.
Conduct keyword research – This will help to identify relevant keywords and long tail keywords that are often searched for in your industry. This helps to improve your content’s visibility in search engines and attract organic traffic.
Utilise On-page SEO techniques – Apply on-page SEO to your written content by using keywords in the URL, the title and headings as well as the body of the content (avoid stuffing your piece with too many keywords). Don’t forget you can also use alt tags for images and link out to other useful evergreen content within your written piece for added value.
Make your content clear and concise – Write evergreen content that is clear, concise and easy to understand. Jargon and technical terms should be avoided unless necessary so that your content can appeal to a wide range of readers. Your content should be accessible to those who are unfamiliar with our service as well as those who are experts in your industry.
Promote and repurpose your evergreen content – Promote your content across various platforms such as via your social media channels and email newsletters. Your content can also be repurposed into different formats like infographics, podcasts, videos and downloadable content to help reach a wider audience and extend the life of the content.
If you’re struggling to come up with small business content ideas for your evergreen content, we can help. SEM Consultants have a dedicated team of SEO content writers who can create an evergreen content strategy that includes a steady stream of blog content to keep your audience engaged and informed. To find out more about our services, contact us today for more information.