8 Effective Ways to Write Evergreen Content
Have you ever heard of a place in the Western US where
civilization has not taken place? It is found deep in the forest
in a grove of trees where you will also find worn out stuffed
animals and worn out dolls.
You will not see this place being advertised and it is hard to
locate it unless you have been there before. Yet, a lot of
people trek for long distances just to visit this place to see
this grove of trees. No one knows for sure why…but trees are
filled with dolls and stuffed toys.
Personally, I have seen trees with shoes. And what came to my
mind is that maybe it started with just one pair and grew from
there. If you tie the shoes together by the shoestrings, you can
fling a pair into the air, and eventually cover nearly the
entire tree with old shoes.
Since the stuffed toys cannot hang on the branches, you have to
place them by hand, placing them in lower branches and leaving
the higher branches for those people with ladders and climbing
ability.
There is also a bra tree found in a place South of Las Vegas,
Nevada. This bra tree goes against the popular slogan in Las
Vegas that “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”. However, we
all know that not everything that happens there stays within the
locality. Again, people come from all over to see this tree of
bras.
More on evergreen content
This now brings us to our topic today – the need to come up with
evergreen content. People will continue to visit these trees
irrespective of whether it is during the heat of summer or the
blistery cold of winters now and then. This is the dream of any
site owner; to have their content remain relevant for a long
time and attract visitors.
However, the problem is that most of the evergreen content tends
to be dry. Just like the previous description of the tree, it
might stand the test of time, but it won’t attract a lot of
shares, likes, Tweets, and so forth. No one gets overly excited
by an ordinary grove of trees in Oregon because, basically, you
will find trees everywhere. However, people get excited to see
these trees filled with spooky dolls and stuffed animals.
So, if you want to make your content evergreen, here are eight
tips to help you out. People will be telling others to visit
your site and to read it year in & year out.
1. Personalize Your Posts
It is not the grove of trees that makes them stand out – it is
the shoes, bras, and dolls hanging on their branches that make
them stand out. They are unique, they are different, and above
all, they have a personality.
Your content needs to have a personality too. Breathe life into
it by injecting your own personality. You might not be able to
fill it with bras and shoes, but you can twist the way of
presenting it and find unique angles of presenting your info in
a way that makes it interesting, captivating, and worthy of
sharing.
2. Write Content for Your Customers Not For the Search Engines
You need to capture your customer so write content with your
customers in mind. In fact, pick a tone that they can relate to
and write as though you are speaking directly to them. Don’t
write as though you are writing a textbook. Write as though you
are addressing a good friend. This way, it will sink in their
mind.
3. Inject A Little Humor into Your Content
Use fun in your content wherever it is applicable. Even if you
are not a humorous person, come up with a creative way of making
people smile once in a while. Humor goes a long way in making
your content remain fresh and memorable.
4. Use Stories
Using real-life stories makes your content relatable. Stories
make your content interesting which makes your audience share it
with others.
5. Keep Your Content Updated
As times goes, dolls fall apart, shoes fade, and bras wear out.
But because new bras and dolls are continually hung on these
trees, people keep coming. Your content should work the same way
if you want it to be evergreen. After several months, revisit
your posts and update your content where they need to be
updated.
Your content cannot be evergreen if it still holds 2010
statistics and it is 2017. Add any new changes that might have
been enacted recently. Not only will this make your content
relevant to your audience, but will also be good for the search
engines.
Keep in mind that Google loves fresh content, but this doesn’t
mean it has to be new. By updating your content regularly, you
will benefit from better ranking by search engines as much as
you would by writing new posts. Better yet, updating your
content is a lot easier than coming up with new content.
6. Keep a Record of Your Content
You might want to create an inventory of your blog posts and
articles to help you know how they are faring. This will also
help you to stay organized. You will learn which content is
performing better and which requires an update.
7. Make Use of Dates
A good way to make your content relevant is not by displaying
the date when your content was posted, but by displaying the
dates when it was updated. Failure to use dates may spark
several questions among your readers such as how old is this
content and is it up to date. And this might not be a good thing
for you.
Also, if your publish date of your SEO article reads 2013, then
someone might think that it has outdated tricks and probably you
don’t know what you are talking about since a lot of changes
have occured since then.
Therefore, instead of failing to include dates, a common trick
in blogging is to use the dates of your last update. There is no
reason not to put today’s date if you just updated an article
you published two years ago. Your article will retain all the
backlinks, and your readers will know that your content is
up-to-date.
8. Go Against the Odds
No one expects to see bras hanging on trees, and that’s why
people flock the area to see it. Similarly, you need to surprise
your audience by coming up with unexpected content that will
make them tell others about it, regardless of when it was
published.
To Your Success,
Erlend Solvberg