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SEO-Hacker.com went live for the first time in April 2010 – which means it’s been a decade and I’m proud to say that we’re still going strong. Every year, our website traffic grows because most of our old articles are consistently generating us traffic as we produce more fresh content.
The secret behind is age-old SEO advice: evergreen content. And even though publishing evergreen content is such a classic SEO and marketing strategy, I assure you that it works up to this day.
Don’t believe me? Check out the top 20 pages from Jan 2020 to August 2020 according to Google Analytics:
Most of the articles listed there were published a few years back and yet they are the ones that garner the most traffic even up to this date.
That is the power of evergreen content. It’s a strategy I’ve used for my own websites and I’ve used it to make our clients’ website successful as well.
In this article, I’m going to talk about what exactly is evergreen content and how you can use it and get traffic even after a long time.
What is Evergreen Content
Evergreen content is a piece of content about a topic that is still relevant even after a long time regardless of year, season, or trends. Compared to news articles and writing about trending topics, evergreen content will consistently bring your website traffic over time because there are people always searching about it.
Evergreen content is such a crucial SEO strategy because it keeps your audience engaged and gives your website continuity. It should definitely be the backbone of your SEO strategy as the gains are far greater than the costs.
What Evergreen Content Brings to the Table
Long-term gains
Think of evergreen content like an investment. When you initially publish an article that is evergreen, you may not get traction immediately in your article. But as you rank higher, you would notice that traffic will increase slowly
If we compare evergreen content to news and other trending topics, you would see that as time goes by, evergreen content can still generate traffic while news and hot topics will fall off a lot faster.
Here’s an example. I wrote an article a few years ago about the easiest way to apply aggregate rating schema. 2 years later after it’s publishing, it is consistently getting traffic and it’s one of the top articles every month.
Let’s compare it to a news article I published a year ago. I wrote about Google’s announcement of the June 2019 algorithm update. After publishing the article, its traffic spiked up and immediately died down after a month.
That is the value that evergreen content brings. And as you add more evergreen content on your website, you will be able to see that your traffic increases and is on an upward trajectory.
Take note that while it does seem that publishing evergreen content is a far better use of your time than publishing news doesn’t mean you should put 100% of your focus on it. Writing about recent events and trending topics is a different strategy on its own and it does have benefits as well so make sure you have a good mix of both.
Attracts Backlinks
As your content rank and get traffic, there is a high chance of it getting backlinks without you having to work too hard for it. Of course, when you publish an article, you would have to do a little link building to make it rank. But once it does and your content gains consistent traffic, you would notice that your article is getting backlinks without you proactively doing anything.
Check out the backlinks of my YouTube SEO article.
I published this article about 5 years back, did a little link building, was able to get on the first page, and there you go. 5 years later, it’s still getting backlinks on its own.
This is because people find my article as a good resource and if they write an article about YouTube SEO as well, people usually link back to it. This can be applied in any niche. Since evergreen topics usually target high-volume keywords, ranking for them on the first page may let people see you as an authority which brings me to my next point;
Evergreen Content is Good for E-A-T
It goes without saying that as you get more backlinks, your website’s authority increases. But this isn’t just about PageRank, evergreen content is also great for E-A-T.
Google quality raters measure the E-A-T of a website using various criteria but the content of a website is definitely one of the main things that they check. If you publish evergreen content that is well-written and well-researched, it is a great sign of expertise, authority, and trust. It gives you more credibility and it is also great for your brand.
Sample Evergreen Content you may Consider
How-to Guides and Tutorials
- How to fix blue screen of death
- How to properly clean your car
- How to cook fried chicken
Informative Articles
- Best Ways to Lose Weight
- Money-Saving Tips
- Resume Writing Tips
In-depth Guides
- Everything you Need to Know About Diabetes
- In-depth Guide on Dog Training
- Complete Guide to Link Building
Important Tip: Update your Evergreen Content
Although the content you published is evergreen, it doesn’t mean that new information is not going to be available in the future. That is why it is also important to go back to the evergreen content that you publish and update the information in them if applicable. It is also a good practice that when you update a piece of old content, your website should properly label it with the date it was last updated.
Reminder: Take Note of the Difficulty
One of the biggest hurdles in being successful with evergreen content is that topics and keywords tend to have high difficulty.
If you are just starting out, the best advice that I could give you is to stick to your niche and try to find low-hanging fruits. Regardless of the volume of traffic that it brings, as long as it is consistent, it’s already a win.
Key Takeaway
If you don’t see yet the value of publishing evergreen content on your website, don’t worry and give it some time. As I mentioned earlier, evergreen content is an investment. And hey, nothing in SEO is easy. SEO in itself is a long term game.
Producing evergreen content has brought SEO Hacker to great heights and it’s a major part of our success. I hope this guide encourages you to continue to publish evergreen content and I hope it could also help in your success in many years to come.
