When I give presentations or consult with other organizations I always ask how evergreen content fits into their digital strategy. Our “This Day in North Carolina History” blog continues to outperform most content on our website. Why? It focuses on evergreen topics.
Evergreen content isn’t just reserved for knitting tutorials or tips on getting new clients; it can be very applicable to government communications as well. Whether it’s a how-to on sorting recycling or a listicle of the top five places for bird watching, it will drive traffic to your website and gain attention on social media.
What is evergreen content?
Evergreen content is content that doesn’t go out of date. It revolves around a topic that’s always relevant to readers, regardless of the current news cycle or season.
Evergreen content can be:
- Lists
- Tips
- How-to
- Encyclopedic
- Case Studies
Why should you create evergreen content?
Do less work. You don’t have to change or update the content often.
Get regular organic traffic. Google’s job is to provide answers to people’s queries. If the content is out-of-date, it won’t rank. Creating evergreen content works in your favor if you want to attract organic traffic to your post for a longer period of time.
It is more likely to be shared across social networks. People love to share valuable and relevant content that they have found.
Source: PointVisible
When creating evergreen content you need to focus on topics that won’t fail the test of time.
- Start with a keyword search. If you want to increase organic traffic keyword research is the most important part of the equation. Focus on keywords that have a significant search volume and ranking.
- Check for trends. With tools like Google Trends, you can easily see if a topic is gaining or losing popularity over time.
- Use your analytics. Review your social media and website analytics to see what topics have been popular or searched for on a regular basis on your online platforms.
- Check the calendar. Who doesn’t love National Donut Day? The National Day Calendar is a great resource for finding topics that are so popular they have a whole day devoted to it.
Although the idea of evergreen content is not new, there is still so much room for it to grow and expand. Additionally, evergreen content isn’t the only thing you need to be creating. Timely and topical pieces are just as important and vital to your digital strategy.
Kaytee Smith is a GovLoop Featured Contributor. She brings more than 10 years of digital communications and outreach experience to her role as Chief Content Officer at the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, where she helps tell North Carolina’s story and oversees the department’s editorial and content production team. She has a full spectrum of experience across platforms, including video and emerging social media, and works with divisions across the state on digital initiatives and content strategy. You can read her posts here.
Excellent tips, Kaytee. Taking time on the front end to produce a volume of evergreen content can save tons of of time later on; it’s worth it. Thank you for sharing.