Over 7.5 million blog posts are published on the web every single day. That’s a monthly total of around 230 million blogs. Now, you won’t be competing against all of these. Different industries, audiences and regions will cut this number down quite significantly. However, to stand out in your niche, you need to fight for the top content spots online. And the key to doing this well? Evergreen content. In this post, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about this type of content. We’ll also share some excellent evergreen content examples.
What is Evergreen Content?
Evergreen content is content that is – and always will be – relevant. For example, ‘How to tie your shoelaces’ or ‘How to bake a cake’. Unless Velcro trainers command the next New York Fashion Week and Betty Crocker brings out a range of self-baking cupcakes, I can guarantee both enquiries will continue to be popular search queries for the foreseeable.
What makes evergreen content so great is that – as long as it’s written well – it will stay relevant for a long time. While it may need the odd update and a dash of optimisation from time to time, once published, good evergreen content will continue to work around the clock until the day that the internet ceases to exist.
The importance and benefits of using Evergreen content
Evergreen content is your golden ticket to audience growth. Here are ten reasons why:
- Sustained relevance: Evergreen content remains relevant over time, providing long-term value to your audience without quickly becoming outdated.
- Consistent traffic: Since evergreen content doesn’t lose relevance, it continues to attract traffic consistently, helping to maintain a steady flow of visitors to your website or platform.
- SEO impact: Search engines often favour content that stands the test of time. Evergreen pieces can contribute to better search engine rankings, driving organic traffic.
- Resource efficiency: Creating this type of content requires substantial effort upfront, but its longevity means you won’t need to continually update or recreate it, saving time and resources in the long run.
- Authority-building: Timeless content establishes your brand as an authority in your niche. When readers find valuable information that remains applicable, it enhances their credibility and expertise.
- Increased shareability: Evergreen content is more likely to be shared consistently across social media platforms, helping to extend its reach and attract new audiences over time.
- Lead generation: Evergreen content can serve as a reliable lead generation tool, consistently attracting and converting new leads even as they age.
- Versatility: Content can be repurposed into different formats, such as infographics, videos, or podcasts, extending its reach across various channels and appealing to different audience preferences.
- Educational value: Timeless content often provides educational value, helping your audience solve problems or gain insights, which can lead to increased trust and loyalty.
- Stability: While trend-focused content may become irrelevant as those trends shift, evergreen content remains stable, ensuring short-term fluctuations do not overly influence your marketing efforts.
Evergreen content versus other types of content
So, I hear you asking: ‘What’s the difference?’ or ‘Okay, so what isn’t evergreen content?’. While evergreen content is timeless, focuses on longevity, and provides consistent educational or informational value, other types of content need to be timely and are very dependent on trends, news, and interests. While the latter works to capture high-volume, short-term attention, the former focuses on building an engaged readership over time.
Both content types play an important role, and choosing the right kind will depend on the topic you are writing about. Research by Backlinko, which analysed over 3.6 billion articles to better understand evergreen content, found that list posts and how-to posts are the two ‘most evergreen’ content formats. On the other hand, the research found that press releases and presentations sat on the opposite end of the evergreen spectrum.
For a piece of content to be successfully evergreen, it needs to tick two boxes. One – does it target an evergreen topic? And two – will the content stay relevant long after you hit publish? If you answer yes to both of these questions, chances are you are on to a winner.
How to create evergreen content
Evergreen content starts with an idea. To find these ideas, you need to start with keyword research. We recommend using a tool like Ahref’s Keyword Explorer to find relevant keywords within your niche. For us, we’d start with a term like ‘copywriting’ and find matching, longtail keywords within this topic area. If a topic is evergreen, it won’t be on a declining trend. You can look at the keyword search volume to see how traffic to the keyword has performed over time and pick keywords that offer excellent traffic potential.
Keyword research aside, other places you can look – and tools you can use – to find topic areas for evergreen content include:
- Social listening tools such as Answer the Public.
- Customer FAQs are highlighted within your customer base and your competitors.
Once you have pinpointed your topic, you need to start creating your content. Make sure you do thorough research using reliable and trustworthy sources before you start writing. The goal is to create an ultimate guide and one-stop shop for users seeking answers within your niche. Your content needs to:
- Match audience search intent
- Cover important subtopics
- Offer a unique point of view or solution
- Be the most valuable and most in-depth piece of content on the topic
- Be optimised for SEO
Tips for creating excellent evergreen content
How do you make your content stand out from the crowd? Evergreen topics are hard to compete for – especially when high search volume terms encourage every single one of your competitors to create something that targets these keywords, too. Even if you’re late to the evergreen game, there’s still time – and lots of opportunity – to win the race to the top.
Solve common problems
Address common challenges or problems within your industry. Don’t try to be too niche with it. It will pay to be really general here. Even if it feels like you’re answering a stupid question, we can guarantee that people are Googling those stupid questions to save themselves the embarrassment of potentially not knowing the answer later. One look at my search history will reveal that, until this morning, I didn’t know how to cook a poached egg. So, trust me when I say evergreen content that offers solutions will continue to attract readers seeking answers of all kinds.
Choose a timeless format
Evergreen content comes in many different formats, but the most widely used formats, according to Semrush, are:
- How-to guide or tutorial: A list of instructions to complete a specific task or learn a new skill
- FAQ: A piece that addresses common questions and problems in your niche
- Guide: A comprehensive resource that provides in-depth information on a specific topic
- Listicle: A curated list of tips, recommendations, or resources relevant to your audience
- Expert interview: A published conversation with relevant industry experts
- Case study: A report that shows how your customer solved a problem using your products or services
- Resource Library: A collection of valuable tools, templates, or references in one place
- Infographic: A graphic that presents or illustrates information in a visual manner
Avoid using language that suggests a short lifespan
Things can quickly get outdated when we start throwing in dates and years. When writing your evergreen content, you should avoid saying things like:
- Earlier this year
- Last month
- This week
- Yesterday
- Tomorrow
- Next week
- Later this year
This will not always apply. If you are referencing an event or study, including the year of occurrence or publication will be important. Sometimes, freshness will be essential, too. That brings us to our next step.
Refresh your content regularly
Now, when I say regularly, I don’t mean every week or even every month. You’ll probably (well, you should) perform a content audit at intervals throughout the year. This is a great time to assess your evergreen content and identify areas for improvement. Improvements you may make to your content include:
- Statistical updates: Incorporate the latest statistics, data, and research relevant to the content.
- Industry trends: Address any changes or emerging trends in your industry and how they may impact the information offered in your content.
- New developments: Include information on advancements in your field, including new laws or new technology.
- Add new sections or subtopics: Identify new areas to expand the topic based on new and up-to-date keyword research data.
- Internal linking: review and update your internal links to connect your evergreen content with any new, relevant articles or pages on your site.
- SEO: Ensure that your content is performing well for SEO and make any optimisations where relevant.
- Visuals or interactive content: Look for ways to improve the general user experience. This could include the images or illustrations you use or the interactive elements woven into the published content.
Evergreen content ideas – a list of sample titles for different industries
We define evergreen content as genuinely and consistently useful, but how does that translate into real-time? Here are content ideas by industry – and a few sample titles to help you out, too.
Finance content ideas
- Building wealth for beginners
- How to navigate the investment landscape
- How to prepare for the unexpected
- A comprehensive overview of retirement planning
- How to spend smart
- Understanding your relationship with money
- The best ways to save money
- How to improve your credit profile
- The best savings accounts for kids and teens
- How to manage your business finances
Technology content ideas
- The history of the internet
- What is AI, and how should I use it
- How to protect your computer from viruses
- The future of social media
- How to become an influencer
- A beginner’s guide to website building
- How to optimise your site for SEO
- The best platforms for website hosting
- Automation for beginners
- Ten tips to maximise your online presence
Fashion content ideas
- How to build a capsule wardrobe.
- A guide to shopping ethically
- The biggest fashion brands of all time
- The history of fashion
- How to style the iconic little black dress
- What to wear to work
- How to tie a tie
- How to find your colour palette
- A guide to New York Fashion Week
- What not to wear to a wedding
(P.S. – for 100 more fashion blog ideas, head to this blog.)
Travel content ideas
- Budget-friendly travel destinations
- A guide to exploring [Inset Place]
- How to travel in [country] like a local
- The best places to go in [season]
- Personal security abroad
- How to learn a language to get by abroad
- How to pack for [location]
- Family-friendly holiday destinations
- Hidden gems in [insert place here]
- Why you need to travel to [country]
Food content ideas
- How to bake cookies
- Essential skills for every home chef
- How to cook a roast dinner
- Timeless [seasonal] recipes
- How to cook five meals on a budget
- How to match wine to food
- How to host a dinner party
- The best restaurants to try in [place]
- How to cook the perfect steak
- Vegetables you can grow at home
Sample title structures
The ideas above are by no means inclusive of the vast number of content ideas to explore. You’ll need to tailor these to your specific product or service, geographical region or particular customer group to get maximum SEO value. The bottom line is that, unless you’re a major player, you won’t rank for the generic version of the title so consider ways of making it more niche, more longtail.
If you have an idea that you know your audience will love, try using one of these sample title structures to help draw users to your site:
- The Ultimate Guide to [Industry/Topic]: [Subtitle]
- Learning [Key Skill/Concept] for [Industry/Outcome]
- Unlocking the Secrets of [Industry/Topic]: [Year] Edition
- [Number] Timeless Strategies for [Industry/Outcome] Success
- The Definitive [Industry/Topic] Handbook: Everything You Need to Know
- [Year] Trends in [Industry/Topic]: What You Need to Know
- The Complete A-Z of [Industry/Topic]
- How to [Achieve Goal/Solve Problem] Like a Pro in [Industry/Topic]
- The [Number] Essential [Industry/Topic] Tips You Can’t Ignore
- Navigating [Common Challenge/Issue] in [Industry/Topic]
- The Science Behind [Industry/Topic]: [Subtitle]
- [Number] Proven Ways to [Achieve Goal/Overcome Challenge] in [Industry/Topic]
- Debunking [Common Misconception/Myth] in [Industry/Topic]
- The Art of [Skill/Technique] in [Industry/Topic]: A Step-by-Step Guide
- The Complete [Industry/Topic] Checklist for [Goal/Outcome]
Evergreen content shouldn’t be your sole content marketing strategy
Despite how much we rave about evergreen content in this blog, combining it with other types of content within your content marketing strategy is essential. This is because:
- You will limit your engagement with current trends and timely topics your audience might be interested in.
- Your audience could perceive it as ignorance
- if you don’t address important, timely issues or concerns.
- You might miss out on viral opportunities if you don’t react to trending topics.
- You could limit your SEO performance, as ranking factors constantly evolve, and fresh content might contribute to better search visibility.
- Diversifying your content strategy with different formats, such as trending topics or news-related pieces, can help broaden your audience’s reach and appeal to a wider demographic.
- Industries are subject to shifts, innovations, and changes. By exclusively focusing on evergreen content, you might miss the opportunity to address emerging industry trends or provide insights into the latest developments.
Evergreen content examples from different brands
So, what does effective evergreen content look like? Here are ten evergreen content examples from brands who know how to get it right:
- Fenty Beauty’s Shade Finder helps customers find the perfect foundation for their skin tone.
- Our Ultimate Guide to Website Copywriting is an example of evergreen content that shows readers how to maximise results from their online copy.
- BBC Good Food’s sponge cake recipe is a bookmarked page for bakers of all levels.
- Trip Advisor’s ‘Best beaches in England’ listicle is an up-to-date resource for Brits planning their next staycation.
- This ‘How to find the perfect pair of jeans’ article by John Lewis is a great evergreen content example that provides internal links to their in-store brands.
- This informative letter-writing guide by Grammarly is an example of evergreen content that could be useful to multiple users.
- This beginner’s guide to surfing article in Outside Magazine entices readers keen on learning the water sport.
- This landing page by the National Careers Service is a compelling, evergreen content example that helps users discover the right path to becoming a doctor.
- Holy Curl’s curly hair routine finder helps educate its readers on the best way to look after their hair.
- Google’s Search Engine Optimisation Starter Guide is a thorough resource and evergreen content example, perfect for users who want to learn SEO.
Do you need a hand with your content creation?
There you have it. Evergreen content should be an integral part of your content strategy and make up a significant portion of your marketing efforts. But it isn’t as straightforward as it seems. You may read this blog and feel equipped to tackle your highly informative guides immediately – or you have reached this point and now feel overwhelmed. If you fall into the latter, let us help. We’ve been creating high-value, optimised content for discerning brands since 2005. We know a thing or two about what makes great content. Get in touch to request a sample or explore how we can support your content strategy.