When you have a business blog or even something like a Web 2.0 site, you don’t expect the content to be fresh forever.  You might have posts from 1 month ago, 1 year ago or 5 years ago that you want people to read, but they never do.  After all, when you create a content site, you tend to put a lot of work into writing all of those posts; it’s kind of a shame that people don’t visit them anymore now that you have new stuff up, right?  Fortunately, there IS a way for people to be led to that content from weeks, months or years ago; it’s called evergreen content.  So what is evergreen content?  It’s essentially a post or a piece of content that continues to gain search traffic long after it’s been posted.  If you want to understand more about this type of content, how to use it to your advantage or how to create it, continue reading below!

 

It is about Search Traffic

When people talk about evergreen content, they talk about how it just has to do with the readers you have now.  But, it also has to do with search engines as well.  In most cases when a top SEO company in NJ talks about creating content, it’s usually for the users they have now, rather than search engines.  But, with evergreen content it’s important to think about this in opposing terms.  Evergreen content can’t be what it is, unless you have search engines that come and index it and continually return again and again to place it in search results.  It doesn’t matter what search engine it is.  What good or rather what’s the point in having evergreen content, if it doesn’t show on search engines like Google?  There is no point really.  Obviously your readers now can search back to previous posts or they have read all of them anyway.  The point to a blog isn’t just about pleasing your current subscribers and readers; it’s about gaining more through the use of the search function on search engines.

 

Not All Content Can be Evergreen Content

In some cases, such as lists for certain years (Top 10 Places To Visit In 2014) or certain situations (current situations; politically, music, concert venues, new restaurants, etc.) these pieces of content cannot be evergreen because they are something that will eventually be obsolete.  For instance, say you write an article as mentioned above for The Top 10 Places to Visit in 2014 – in 2014 or even 2013, you could have had quite a few search engine users searching for this specific topic.  But in 2015 or 2016 you will have many less because its 1 year or 2 years later – less people will be searching for what happened in 2014.  Common sense.  On the other hand, most other content that is not considered potentially obsolete can indeed be evergreen content.

 

Other Forms of Evergreen Content

These days, sites like Google don’t just have a section for websites; they also have a section for images, videos, blogs, news, etc.  Because of this, you should get it out of your mind now that ONLY content like blogs with actual words is considered evergreen content, because that’s simply not the truth.  Anything that can show up on search engines can be considered evergreen content.  Make sure that when you create evergreen content, you don’t just rely on articles and blogs, also try out different forms of content such as images, videos and infographics.  Some of the best content that shows up on search engines includes:

– Case Studies:  This might not seem like an evergreen type of content, but it actually is.  Essentially the term “case study” in itself is a great search modifier for any long tail queries – especially ones that are over competitive or have a lot of traffic.

– How to Articles:  By far one of the best “articles” to post, these how to articles almost never go out of style.  Someone will always want to know how to build a wooden table, how to file their taxes or how to install music on their iPod, because it doesn’t matter if its 2015 or 2050 chances are these issues are always going to be around and people will always want to know how to fix the issue at hand.

– Tips:  Again, like with how to articles, these tip articles never go out of style.  One of the nice things about tips is that they can be as short or as long as you want and still get attention from search engines.  Just make sure that with the tip post, you also post another form of content, like a video, infographic or image.

– Other:  Other pieces to write about include things like cooking, woodworking, relationships, how to care for your kids, cleaning, organizing, etc.

If you want evergreen content, but you don’t want to create it yourself, that’s okay.  Not everyone can afford the time it takes to create their own content or on the other hand, some people just aren’t good at writing.  If you run into a situation where you want evergreen content on your website but you don’t want to/cannot write it on your own, you can look into hiring a writer or contacting a top SEO company to see if they have an in-house writer.  SEO companies that offer everything are a good option because they can help with ALL aspects of your business; Search engine optimization, search engine marketing, perhaps they have a web designer to help design your website, help write your content, help you pick good keywords for your marketing campaigns and more.

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