By Kennedy Cee
Have you ever searched for a particular information on Google, Bing, or Yahoo and pages from five years back or more pop up on the first page?
I’ve seen this on countless times. For every time I see such content, I always want to check them out to see what made them stay relevant for that long. If you haven’t, you can check it out.
For instance, I recently searched “email marketing strategy” on Google and here’s a screenshot of the first page:
Right there is an article published on buffer.com in 2013 appearing on the first page of a Google search.
Here’s the result of another search I did on “branding your business:”
Here, content from 2014 on entrepreneur.com pops up on the first page.
This is not only for SERPs, you find this happening on YouTube, too. Seemingly old video content still find their way to the first pages of a YouTube search like this:
That’s a search I did on “business management ideas” on YouTube. Brian Silverthorn’s content from eight years ago still shows up in the first pages. Of course, I didn’t apply any filters.
What’s my point?
It’s possible to create content that will remain relevant to your organic market over time. And this is important if you want to build a successful business that will stand the test of time.
Here’s why…
Take for instance, I wanted to search out a business coach and that YouTube result pops up. I would definitely check out the video course that has stayed relevant even after eight years. This is because I would want to know what Brian has to offer me in this video eight years down the line.
If I watched the video and it has so much value in it, I’m definitely reaching out to Brian for next steps. This is how your potential clients searching organically for solutions behave.
How to Make Your Content Evergreen
If that’s the case, then the question on your mind right now should be; how do I make my content relevant and evergreen?
1. Create Your Content with a Balance of Timelessness and Sustainability
Truth is, not all kind of content passes for an evergreen content. However, you can turn a piece of content that naturally wouldn’t have been evergreen to be timeless and continually relevant. I’ll expound more on this much later in the post.
Before you create content that is evergreen from inception, you have to understand the two types of evergreen content:
- Content that stays relevant regardless of changing times and advancement in technology and culture.
- Content that could be updated from time to time to reflect changing times while maintaining its core message.
With this at the back of your mind, you now ask yourself; “which of these kind of evergreen content do I want to make?”
Let me narrow it down a bit…Let’s say you create content with the title; “A Healthy Way to Circumcise Your Male Child.”
This kind of content stays relevant regardless of how times have changed. Every one whose religion permits to do that will definitely look for this information online.
Hence, if you published that content today, in 10, 20 years’ time, it will still be relevant because people will always want to know a healthy way to circumcise their male children.
On the flip side, you created content on say, “How to Fly an Airplane.”
This is evergreen content. However, you need to keep updating it to capture improvements in technology. And, you don’t have to deviate from the purpose of the content.
These two factors are the foundations for any evergreen content you want to create.
2. Massively Promote Any Content You Desire to Have Evergreen Relevance
The thing about evergreen content is the value it gives anyone who consumes it. This means that the content has to be rich in value and beneficial to consumers.
I agree that it takes a lot of time and effort to come up with content that will potentially be relevant over time. You have look at the future with the eyes of the present.
However, it makes no sense if you craft that potentially evergreen content and it doesn’t get to the potential client for their consumption.
As a matter of fact, the chances of any content becoming evergreen is dependent on how it is being consumed. So, you should make plans to promote your evergreen content so that it will get to as many people as should see it.
This could be organic or using paid ads. In my experience, using paid ads sends your content viral faster and also helps you attract premium clients in the process.
However, you should also map out an effective strategy to promote the content organically if you don’t have budget for paid ads. Whatever the case, work out a promotion plan for any content you desire to become evergreen.
3. Make the Content Visible on Your Website or Blog
The greatest mistake you’ll make is to bury your evergreen content under fresh content on your blog. By default, blogs are designed to arrange content according to when they were published, with the latest coming out top.
The onus is on you to pick out your most valuable and evergreen content and pin them to the top of the pile. You can tag it at “Top Post,” “Hot Stuff” or any other caption that will tell visitors that they have to go through the content.
Same goes for your social media evergreen content. Facebook makes it easy for you to pin important posts on your page. That way visitors will see them first regardless of when they were published.
You can pin the link to your evergreen post on your social media pages to direct your potential clients to the source of the content. This helps to boost SEO. That’s what makes it possible for your content to appear in the first page in SERPs even after years of it being published.
4. Continuously Update Content
Earlier, I told you how content can be made evergreen by constantly updating it. I also mentioned that there are pieces of evergreen content that can be updated to align with current trends without losing their purpose.
Here’s how it works…
Search engines have crawlers that check all published post on the web for new information. When a piece of content is constantly updated, it easily moves up in rank. After a while, the content makes it to the first page when people search for related keywords.
You can also use newer content to add more strength to your evergreen content. That way, it stays alive and relevant.
One Last Thing…
In one of the points, I told you how I use paid ads to boost my content and in turn land premium clients. You could use it to promote your content. And trust me, it delivers great results.
However, you don’t want to downplay the effectiveness of free promotions. It saves you a lot of marketing. And if done well, delivers great results.
