How To Make Your Blog Content Evergreen

Have you ever wondered what the benefit of “evergreen” blog content is? Do you look back at your blog posts and wonder if they are evergreen or how you can shift them to be evergreen? Picture the evergreen tree, for which evergreen content is believed to have derived its name, and note that the evergreen tree is just that — always green. No matter the weather or season, the evergreen tree stands sentry, shedding its needles on occasion, but never losing its color or steadfastness.

Your evergreen blog content should do the same: Remain steadfast and never lose its color, aka timelessness. Evergreen content is continually “SEO fresh” and relevant to your readers.

The Benefits of Evergreen Content

Before you can write evergreen content, you need to know what it isn’t:

1. Trending news topic
2. Statistics, as they will go out of date
3. Pieces wholly unique to a holiday. The caveat to that is if you want to refresh that content for that holiday annually.
4. Fads. The pet rock of yesteryear is the fidget spinner of today. ‘nuf said.

Evergreen formulas that work: 

1. How tos
2. Lists
3. Videos (done with an eye toward timelessness)
4. Product reviews

Reasons to write evergreen content:

1. Boosts keyword ranking
2. Enhances the traffic to your site
3. Is SEO-friendly
4. Helps you do more work in less time (it’s easier to re-purpose and update than to write a new post, right?)
5. Increases social shares; followers are often more inclined to share a post that is evergreen.
6. Keeps “paying you back” for the effort you put into crafting it. It’s worth the time you spend crafting that evergreen post.

How to Make Your Blog Content Evergreen

There are some topics that will never go out of style, and if you can work those into your evergreen post, you may see your site traffic soar. Know your WHY, though, before you decide to tackle one of these topics. Just because they’re timeless doesn’t mean they will be a fit for your blog:

1. Relationships
2. Money-saving tips
3. Food/Recipes/DIY food posts
4. Weight loss
5. Careers
6. Pet-related topics (travel, health, training, etc.)

A note of caution: Because evergreen content is so popular, you may find a plethora of posts on the very topic you want to write. Look to your niche and your unique expertise and put a spin on your evergreen content.

To get started on your own evergreen content, jump into your Google Analytics and see what words people are using to find your site; can any of those words be worked into an evergreen post? Look at your top performing post(s); can that be repurposed to make it evergreen? For example, you wrote a post, “DIY Christmas Dog Toy Box,” change it to “DIY Dog Toy Box” and you’ve gone from holiday-specific to more timeless. Repurpose your best content.

If you’re a BlogPaws Influencer and are in blogger programs, how can you make product-specific content evergreen? NOTE: Brands will love you for that! For example, if you’re blogging about an outdoor pet toy in an influencer program, write your post to feature the product AND “tips to help your dog lose weight” or “the best indoor games to play with your dog” or “how to live a healthy lifestyle — tips for you and your pet.” You see where I am going with this, right?

When crafting your own evergreen content:

1. Write for your audience. Know who they are and write for them.
2. Narrow your topic. Every blog post should be about one topic, but it’s easy to get down a rabbithole and write content that veers off on a different path. Hold true to one topic and niche it to a bite-sized chunk. Consider: “How to cook for your dog” versus “How to cook a healthy chicken meal for your dog.”
3. When writing evergreen content, link back to other posts on your site that relate to the post you’re writing. If you’re writing about “Introducing a new kitten to the family” tie it in with a post about “Veterinarian costs for new kitten owners” instead of “DIY dog treats.”

Evergreen content cautions:

1. Update as needed. Even though a post is evergreen, you may need to update dates or facts or links. You may want to update your images to give the post a fresh look.
2. Share your evergreen content on your social platforms, but don’t use the same wording or phrases across all of them. Change it up a bit. Evergreen doesn’t mean ho-hum.
3. Run a few tests on blog titles and images to see what works best. You may have a great idea for an evergreen post, but it just isn’t living as long as you’d imagined it would.

Remember, not every post has to be–nor should be–evergreen. Don’t stress that evergreen content is the be all and end all of content creation. It’s not, but it is a good plant to drop into the fertile soil of your blog and watch it continue to grow and bear fruit for years to come!

Do you specifically ever write evergreen content? Do you write blog posts and are sometimes pleasantly surprised that a post has morphed into an evergreen post that is continually searched and shared?

What suggestions or tips can you offer to help others craft their own evergreen content?

Robbi Hess is an award-winning author, full-time writer, newspaper columnist, writing coach and time-management guru. She works with bloggers and solopreneurs and blogs at All Words Matter. If you’re interested in learning about my new 30-Minute Writing program, email me, let’s talk. (Robbi AT PositivelyWoof DOT COM)