How to keep your evergreen content fresh!
Blogging packs tons of big SEO benefits for your website – we’re talking backlinks, keyword targeting, relevancy and fresh content. Google loves that kind of stuff. But there’s one thing all SEO-minded bloggers strive for above all: evergreen content.
No, we’re not suggesting you start blogging about coniferous trees (unless that’s your thing). Instead, write blog posts that remain relevant throughout the years. Ensure they answer highly-Googled questions, and are centred on always-popular topics. No matter how many years go by, these posts should continue to attract a good amount of traffic.
That’s the kind of “evergreen” we’re talking about.
Of course, even the best evergreen blog posts become dated after a few years. If you’re aiming to create and maintain evergreen content, keep reading to find out how.
How to keep your evergreen content relevant:
1. Regularly review your evergreen content
Just because a post is evergreen doesn’t mean it will stay evergreen. A couple of times per year, make sure to take a look through your evergreen blog posts. Are the facts still relevant? Are there references to stats from three years ago? Do all the links still work? Go through your posts with a fine-tooth comb, and take stock of changes that need to be made.
2. Stay updated
Once you’ve identified areas of improvement, it’s time to implement updates. Add a new quote, update links, provide insights on the latest data, update your infographics – whatever it takes to remain helpful, relevant and actionable.
One thing you shouldn’t update? Your page’s URL. If you change that, you’ll basically have to rebuild the page’s evergreen status all over again.
3. Use analytics to stay on top of the SERPs
If you want to rank at the top of Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs), analytics are your secret weapon. By using a ranking checker, you can see how your content performs, and how its performance improves (or falters) over time.
Pay attention to pages that knock your content down in the rankings. Why has Google deemed those pages more relevant than yours? Try filling in those gaps in your own post.
4. Share it on social
After publishing your updates, it’s time to share them with the world. Post the updated content on your social channels, add it to your next newsletter – whatever you can think of to spread the word.
Updating your evergreen content can take some elbow grease, but the effort is definitely worthwhile. According to Moz Blog, “In some cases, you can see gains of 500 per cent to 1,000 per cent just by relaunching some of your old content with some updates.”
The numbers are in, folks – it’s worth taking a little time to update those old, evergreen posts.
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