In the older times, marketing and advertising were done through newspapers, and digital marketing was nowhere to be found. But nowadays, the success of your business depends largely on your ability to bring traffic to your site, whether through paid advertisement or organically. There are many ways you can generate leads for your site. And one of the best ways to do that is by creating useful content for readers.
What is Evergreen Content?
Evergreen content is content you publish about a topic that is useful for a long period. It's usually written to be relevant to readers for months, years, or even decades. Evergreen content remains relevant with intact information throughout time. Before content can rank on SERPs, it requires proper content optimization.
What is Content Optimization?
Content optimization is the process of writing content in a way that can reach a very wide target audience. Content optimization could be done through organic traffic or content marketing. It includes using associated keywords, writing a great meta description, link building, using relevant images and title tags, etc.
Topics like how-to guides, glossaries, descriptive videos, case studies, research studies, and product reviews are suitable for evergreen content. Though evergreen content could be on any topic, topics on seasonal events, period elections, and other trends are not good options for evergreen content. If you want your website to rank high in SERPs organically, you must modify your content through content optimization.
How to Make Evergreen Content Boost Your Website in SERPs
Here are ways that you can create evergreen content and use them to boost SERP.
1. Create Long Content
In content optimization, search engines like Google use the length of your content in ranking on the SERP. Having enough word count signals to Google that your post provides relevant information to readers.
Ideally, lengthy content should be between 1200 words to 4000 words. Some readers often scroll through your post to see if they can find what they are looking for. A lengthy content in this situation might help them stay and read.
Search engines, however, are not interested in the information you provide but in how long readers stay on your site—this sends them clues that your content is useful.
One thing website owners need to do before creating content is keyword research. If you are running a new website, it's best advised to stay away from highly competitive keywords and avoid very low competitive keywords. Ideally, any keyword with higher than 1000 results in the title is higher for you. Because how would you outrank a 1000-plus website when you're still new?
Use Target Keyword
Search Engine Optimized content will make your content evergreen on search engines. Not just writing optimized content but also content that serves searchers' intent.
Do your keyword research and use the target keyword in your headings, subheadings, image, and conclusion. Use related terms in your content. For example, if you want to write a post on 'How to Write a Compelling Story,' you should consider related keywords like 'How to Write a Compelling Short Story' and 'How to Write a Fictional Story.'
2. Check The Quality of Other Content in Your Niche
Before writing, check other content on the topic you want to write about. Check what makes them rank on SERPs. Is the content long? Are they written in bullet points? Do they include many backlinks, subheadings, long-tail keywords, pictures, and FAQs? Think of other things that make websites rank in search pages that are not included in those contents, then add them to your own.
3. Link Building
A website with internal links is more likely to rank on Google than others. A website without internal links would only appear in search results if the keyword is very low competition. So, if you want your website to find a place on the first ten search results, you must do promotion and link building. However, building links organically often takes some time. For this, you need other ways to move traffic to your site.
- Paid promotion: Paying other websites or social media marketers to promote your website is another way to generate traffic. While this may be exhausting, if you are a new site owner, it's important to consider it.
- Social Media Promotion: Social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter are great places to generate traffic to your site. You can start by creating pages on these sites and post links of your website content to these pages.
- Promotion on Question & Answer Sites: Answering questions on question & answering sites like Quora and Reddit is another way to generate traffic to your website. Give comprehensive answers to questions on the platforms, with a link to relevant content on your website.
4. Captivating Headlines
If you want your content to be evergreen, your headings should be captivating. Also, your content structure should be well-organized and include a good image, a bullet list, and good grammar. Your grammar should be simple and easy to read. Nobody likes to keep a dictionary beside them while reading a blog post.
5. Content Should Pass the 'Long Click Test'
A long-click test is another way your content can remain evergreen. When users click on content in Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs), they may find the information useful. Such users might spend a long time consuming the content: this gives search engines a signal that your content satisfies searchers' intent. Thus, it will let search engines allow your content to remain on the top page of SERPs.
6. Avoid Particular Events and Dates
Integrating present times and dates is one of the fastest ways to "date" your content and reduce its longevity. This is why:
- Within a certain timeframe, people just stop seeking recent trends or date-related topics, so they won't be finding your posts.
- If anyone uncovers your post even a year afterward, they may assume it is out of date and will not click on it. If you're using dates, use them wisely. You could prepare an annual scheme to modify the content with a date. In general, resist using timeframes or pointing to current affairs whenever possible.
Avoid Trend Content
Trend content is often useful for a short period and vanishes. Trend posts get you a lot of traffic and outrank many posts on Google SERPs. But they don't last. If you want your content to be evergreen, you must avoid trend content.
7. Create Comprehensive Guides and Tutorials
When people need help, they frequently turn to tutorials and guides. What for? Because they are thorough enough to resolve all of their concerns about a particular topic.
In other words, guides and tutorials are nice options for evergreen content. Furthermore, tutorials and guides allow you to demonstrate your authority and strengthen trust in your brand.
8. Make Case Studies
Case studies aren't suitable for everyone. It all varies on your target market and the kind of company you operate.
Place priority on writing evergreen case studies if your readers appreciate in-depth, explanatory information. Here are a few advantages of using case studies:
- Case studies can help you gain validity in your industry.
- In-depth research can offer so much worth to visitors.
- Case studies can be made evergreen by concentrating on the central issues instead of dates or anything time-sensitive.
9. Conduct Research
If you want to write evergreen relevant content, you will need to conduct studies on each new subject you would like to publish about. Perhaps you are by far among the most credible voices in your field. You believe in your own skill sets and you are convinced that your articles are well-written and enlightening.
However, you cannot be an expert in every field. Furthermore, a well-researched post with excellent citations and sources will be viewed as more credible than a subjective view. If you have the time and money, plan to conduct original research as well. It will enable your post distinctive while also attracting citations and, as a result, backlinks to your article.
However, keep in mind that some of this research will be out of date in a few years. To prevent this issue, there is a simple solution. In reality, you can't evade them, but you can fix them. All you need to do the following year is revamp your article and refresh your statistics.
10. Select an Appropriate and Representative Image
Choosing the most appropriate and representative visuals for articles is not an easy task, but it is also not one to be overlooked. We live in a visual world, with visual-based social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest dominating.
They are all visual, demonstrating that visual content is more impactful than text to a significant portion of today's netizens. Getting graphics will be far simpler if you plan to write tutorials. You will need to snap pictures, screenshots, and so on throughout the process.
However, there might be text-only tutorials and other kinds of posts that require visualizations. You can;
- Subscribe to stock pictures.
- Download royalty-free visuals that meet the standard.
- Create your design or hire a graphics designer.
Conclusion
Evergreen content remains relevant and valuable long after you post it and people can still find it easily. Evergreen content can boost your search engine rankings and account for a significant part of your traffic. As a small business owner who wants to enhance their digital marketing, incorporating evergreen content is a smart content strategy.
FAQs
What is a Referral Link?
A referral link is a URL that allows companies or business owners to promote their businesses. Referral links are also known as affiliate links. If done well on the internet, referral links are one of the ways of generating traffic to your website.
What are the Best Digital Marketing Strategies to Rank my site?
On-page SEO
Social media marketing
Email Promotion
Voice SEO
Landing page
Using hashtags in content
