Comparing only this information, which video do you think would teach you how to change the tire?
There probably wouldn't be a difference, right? After all, the investor database technique for changing a tire hasn't changed for a long time .
This is the main characteristic of evergreen content or perennial content , as it is also known.
In fact, much of the content you read, hear, or watch on the Internet can be classified as evergreen content, especially if it is introductory or practical content.
This type of content is an option that cannot be missing in any Content Marketing strategy . That is why we wrote this post with everything you need to know to get started.
Evergreen is a type of material that deals with timeless themes, remaining relevant long after its publication.
In addition to this type of content, there are also news and opinion content. You can find examples of both on our blog.
When we write about recent changes in Marketing , for example, we are investing in news content . It is important because it presents current issues, commented on in "real time" by our team of editors.
With this, we attract the public that seeks to stay up to date on topics related to Marketing.
On the other hand, we also have content such as this Digital Marketing guide or this other one on how to create a blog .
They were written over a year ago, but if you want to learn about Digital Marketing or start a blog, by reading these articles you will continue to find relevant and totally current content (even more so because we always update our content).
These last two examples are evergreen content.
With them, we attract the public that is studying Digital Marketing, looking for more complete content on a concept or a practical guide to the first steps to having a blog.
This same audience may also want to stay up to date and consume news content. That's why it's important to combine the two types in your Content Marketing strategy .
To better understand the origin of the name, we can make a literal translation: evergreen means "always green" and this type of content is also known by this name. The reason for its name is because these texts never age , that is, they have an indefinite or, at least, very long validity period.
It is content that should last at least 2 years, but preferably much longer than that.
On the other hand, news content has a short shelf life. But it remains important, as it usually brings very good immediate results.
Why is evergreen content important?
The main premise of Content Marketing continues to be relevance. By frequently creating and disseminating content that is relevant to your buyer persona , you are attracting potential customers on a recurring and sustainable basis.
Evergreen content plays a fundamental role in this strategy for four main reasons.
1. Strengthen your brand authority
Knowledge and authority are inseparable: whoever has one ends up having the other.
Brands that demonstrate and share this knowledge are seen as more trustworthy by the public, which naturally translates into more sales for the company.
At this point, evergreen content is essential.
This is because they can be both conceptual and introductory to any given subject, as well as practical guides and recipes. In any case, your brand is offering knowledge with no expiration date .
This is something that readers will remember for a long time and will immediately associate this knowledge with your brand.
This association reinforces your authority, positioning your brand as a reference on the subject .
2. Has high potential to receive links
Authority is so important that it is one of the main criteria Google uses to calculate page rankings and order them in search results.
To calculate this authority, Google looks at the quantity and, above all, the quality of links that the page receives .
Having plenty of links pointing to your page—and having these links come from a variety of other authoritative pages—is one of the most important factors for SEO .
When it comes to getting links, evergreen content has two great virtues:
Since it can be a well-founded conceptual piece of content or a practical guide, it becomes relevant to a fairly wide audience. Other sites that aim to deliver quality content will want to reference your articles .
Since it doesn't age, it will continue to receive new links for longer , which will continue to increase the authority of the page.
They basically help you get quality and quantity of links!
3. Attract more visitors coming from Google and other search engines
You may have heard of long tail keywords .
Despite having a smaller search volume because they are more specific, it is much easier to stay in the top positions of Google results.
Adding up all the clicks made month after month, they end up generating more traffic in the long term.
Evergreen content is not always created using long-tail keywords, but it always behaves similarly. Because it is evergreen, the public is always looking for it .
At the beginning of this article, we mentioned that this was an example of evergreen content.
For a long time, people searching for what evergreen content is and how to produce it will find this post. (And maybe you will too!)
Therefore, to obtain these results, in your keyword strategy , it is interesting to optimize your evergreen content to stay at least on the first page of Google .
This way, you continue to attract repeat visitors for a long time.
4. Help segment your leads
News content generally attracts people with different interests, but with one thing in common: they want to stay up to date and keep up with market developments.
On the other hand, evergreen content helps map out the topic of greatest interest to each of your leads . As they are more explanatory and conceptual articles, they attract people who want to learn more about that topic.
By offering rich material (preferably evergreen as well), you can convert those interested into leads, and depending on the topic of the material they download, you can segment your leads by topics of interest.
That way, when you nurture those leads in future campaigns, you'll know what topics to cover to move them down your sales funnel .
Evergreen content on social media
It's not just Google and other search engines that help to attract evergreen content to your site. Social media is also a valuable channel for this type of content.
Faced with this information, you may be wondering:
"If social media is known for real-time interaction, how can it help spread content with no shelf life? Shouldn't it only post the latest content?"
The answer lies in the importance of building an audience on social media.
One of the best practices for building that audience is to maintain a frequency of publications .
Profiles that appear to be abandoned, rarely publishing new content, will hardly be able to grow and gain public engagement .
It is true that social networks have different characteristics in relation to content and interaction with the public, but in all of them, it is important to comply with a minimum frequency of publications per day.
And that's where evergreen content comes in. Since it's perennial , it can be reposted from time to time, at different times and days of the week.
This tactic has everything to do with the “real-time” nature of social media, as it reaches people who may not have seen your previous posts because they weren’t online at the time.
Result: you attract more visitors to your page!
Promoting an article 4 times, on 4 days of the week and at 4 different times, with some distance between the dates so as not to tire the public, is an excellent tip to start structuring your social media publishing calendar .
Over time, you can test different schedules and frequencies, evaluating the results and adjusting your strategy to work best for your audience.
How to come up with evergreen content ideas?
The main characteristic of evergreen content is that it remains current for a number of years. But with so many behavioral changes and new technologies, how can we find patterns that last?
Again, the first example we can give is this article you are reading.
We know that more and more companies in Latin America are increasing their investments in Content Marketing.
To do so, you will surely need to understand and produce evergreen content. Thus, we are confident that this article will remain relevant and current for a long time to come.
That same logic can be applied to the segment your company serves to come up with evergreen content ideas.
There are two main fronts of perennial content: conceptual and practical.
Some examples of conceptual content titles:
"What is it..."
"Everything you need to know about..."
"Ultimate guide..."
"Why you should know about..."
"Frequently asked questions we receive about..."
"What I wish I had known about... when I started"
To produce this content, try to define what the basic knowledge and concepts are on the chosen topic .
For example, some SEO rules of thumb change frequently , but the basics for ranking well in search results remain the same for much longer: link building, keyword emphasis, etc. These are the basics that should be present in evergreen SEO content.
In relation to practical content, you can use titles such as:
"How to do..."
"Practical guide to..."
"Where to start doing..."
"Do it... in 7 steps"
Have you noticed that the name of this section is “how to come up with evergreen content ideas?” This is another example of practical content that doesn’t get old!
For both conceptual and practical topics, list posts also have a high potential to become evergreen content.
Check out these real examples from our blog:
49 SEO Tools You Can Use To Reach The Top Of Search Engines With Precision
7 Tools to Test Website Speed and How It Impacts Your Online Presence
Learn about 5 types of interactive content and the benefits they bring to a digital strategy
Once again, what counts is letting your creativity run wild.
And to finish this block, we leave you with a special tip. When opting for practical content, you have to pay attention to the content that includes the steps to use a tool , since these can also change over time.
Even if your content remains current, it may be necessary to update the images and step-by-step instructions from time to time.
Building an evergreen content library
When you're in doubt about the meaning of a word, you'll most likely look it up in the dictionary or (of course!) on Google.
Sometimes you know more or less what it is about and you have even written it or said it at some point, but when in doubt, it is worth confirming, right?
Now, think about the main terms and concepts related to your segment.
What do they mean?
How would you explain each of them to a non-specialist audience?
That's it, you've just built an evergreen content library! Each of those terms can become a blog post, an ebook, or an infographic .
Check out our example here on our blog. There are several concepts that have everything to do with our segment: blogs , marketing , digital marketing , inbound marketing , social media , among others.
Each one has the potential to become evergreen content and that's exactly what we did!
Extra tip: start with a glossary!
If you don't know where to start, here's a special tip: your first post can be a glossary.
In it, you gather the main terms in your segment and quickly explain what each one means . This glossary will be your first evergreen content!
From there, you pick the terms that have the most potential to become a full-blown post topic and get to work! You now have several ideas for new evergreen content.
Oh, and don't forget: as you publish new content, go to your glossary and add a link to the full post, for anyone who wants to know more about it.
5 tips for writing killer evergreen content
It is very common, when writing evergreen content, to inadvertently add some information that gives it a shorter validity date.
To avoid this problem, we've put together five tips that will help you produce great content.
1. Focus primarily on the top of the funnel
Evergreen content is generally targeted at the early stages of the buying journey, i.e. the top of the funnel .
At this stage, your potential customers are still learning and discovering about the topic or, if they have already made some progress, they are recognizing that they have a problem, without yet knowing how to solve it.
Generally, these people are looking for broader educational content, which addresses only the basics, the main points of the problem .
This is the ideal time to offer evergreen content, which serves as a gateway to that day and also positions your brand as a reference in the matter. Avoid going into too much depth in this first contact.
2. Write about what is already proven
When producing your evergreen content, avoid mentioning trends, recent "discoveries," or possible future paths for the topic being discussed.
Of course, it's great to position yourself as a brand that's knowledgeable about the latest developments, which will help reinforce your authority on the subject, but save this content for another article. In your evergreen content, you should only share knowledge that is already proven and will hardly be refuted in the coming years .
Keep in mind that more advanced knowledge tends to be updated quickly, as new discoveries are constantly emerging. On the other hand, basic concepts, focused on at the beginning of the buying journey, tend to last much longer.
3. Build internal links
Think about the visitor attraction potential of your evergreen content.
It will be accessed for a long time and has great potential for positioning in search results. It will be posted several times on social networks, attracting even more visits. It will receive links from other pages and will be recommended by word of mouth.
In other words, it is an excellent opportunity to build internal links and direct those visits to other pages on your blog or website. By demonstrating that there are other equally relevant contents, you reinforce the positioning of authority and reference in the subject.
Additionally, using internal links directs Google's algorithm to other pages on your website, making ranking easier.
4. Use short and simple URLs
It may seem like just a detail, but it is very important: when writing guides and concept articles, try to use URLs that are easy to remember and share.
We will cite as an example our evergreen post on Product Marketing.
The title is: Do you know Product Marketing? Learn everything here!, but pay attention to the URL, which is very direct:
https://rockcontent.com/es/blog/product-marketing/
In addition to making it easier to rank on Google for that keyword: Product Marketing, this increases the chances that readers will remember the URL and share it with their friends.
5. Put a good call to action (CTA)
Evergreen content has a high traffic potential and is therefore an excellent opportunity to generate leads.
If you've already built good internal links throughout your content to direct readers to other evergreen content, end your article by offering some rich top-of-the-funnel material, preferably evergreen as well. These can be ebooks, tutorials, videos, etc.
To have a good conversion rate, make sure you have a compelling call to action (CTA) that is capable of converting your visitors into leads.
Content must be kept current
You should know that evergreen content may also need a review from time to time.
When writing evergreen content, the intention is always to have a long-term validity, but even so, it is impossible to foresee all the new developments that may arise in the coming years. Therefore, it is possible that, from time to time, your evergreen content needs an update .
That doesn't mean rewriting the entire article. Unlike news content, which can become completely outdated over time, the problem with evergreen content is that only specific pieces of information may be outdated.
Therefore, you should review it from time to time so that if there is any outdated data you can update it.
It is quite easy to change only some of the information and keep the article online. But remember, every time you change any information, you should let readers know that the article was updated and on what date this action was taken.
This way, when you reread the article to look for specific information, you will know what was altered and when it happened.
Conclusion
No matter what your segment is, trends and technologies can emerge at any time. Therefore, to position your brand as a reference and gain authority, it is important to demonstrate that your company is following these developments.
However, some concepts and ideas will always be important and relevant. They are the foundations of your product and your market. In this field, it is essential to make your presence felt and stand out .
Plus, every customer has at some point passed through the top of the funnel and started their buying journey in the early stages. Is there ever a better time to make your brand known and start a connection?
To do this, it is important to balance your Content Marketing strategy well between news content and evergreen content, investing your efforts in the latter to create increasingly attractive experiences.
And speaking of creating experiences with content, it is possible to take advantage of interactivity to make them even more attractive and personalized. Do you want to know how to do it? Then, check out our Complete Guide to Interactive Content .