10 Types of Evergreen Content You Can Publish on Your Blog

I know we all strive to create blog content that’s not good, but great. If you’re serious about your content marketing strategy, you know that half-assed blog posts don’t cut it anymore.

A while back I wrote about the need for authority content. This is the level of quality we always deliver for our clients, irrespective of the industry they’re in.

But authority content is not the same thing as evergreen content. Evergreen content has to be authority content, but the vice versa is not always true.

Let’s find out what evergreen content is and why you need it on your blog.

What Is Evergreen Content?

Briefly put, evergreen content is content that remains relevant to the readers for a long time. As long as a blog post continues to be read and linked to long after its publishing date, it’s considered evergreen content.

How long exactly?

Well, no one can tell you that. It can be one year, two years or even five (provided that you update it regularly).

Moz says that evergreen content is something that brings “continued, sustained success”.

What’s not to like, right?

Better yet, evergreen blog posts turn into what HubSpot calls compounding blog posts. These are the blog posts that bring more traffic with time. 1 in 10 blog posts become compounding.

When that happens, said blog posts can bring as much traffic as six decaying posts. And, most astonishingly, compounding posts can account for 38% of the total traffic to your blog.

Talk about a gift that keeps on giving, right?

Before you commit to creating nothing but evergreen content for your blog, let me add that this is neither possible, nor desirable. We know that blog posts have a limited life span and that’s perfectly OK. If we want a piece of content with a longer life span, we can always write white papers or e-books.

More importantly, we sometimes need to write content that has relevance only for a limited time. For instance, in the last part of 2017 I wrote a series of blog posts about content marketing trends in 2018, digital marketing trends in 2018 and social media trends in 2018.

I do this every year knowing that they will only be relevant until next March or so. Sure, they get a bit of traffic throughout the year, but it’s so little that it’s barely relevant.

Another example of blog posts with fleeting relevance are those about recent changes in the industry. Social Media Today (and thousands of other websites, not all of them related to marketing) wrote about the recent changes coming to Facebook and their impact on brands and publishers.

In the beginning of 2018, this is a very hot topic. But, as other similar news happens and as Facebook will change its algorithm even more, this particular blog post will become irrelevant.

Does this mean that Social Media Today should have ignored it?

Not at all!

Their readers rely on them to bring relevant information to the table. And if that’s not relevant, I don’t know what is.

Thus, it’s always a good idea to maintain a healthy balance. Of course we want evergreen content on our blog posts – who doesn’t like traffic that comes for years without lifting a finger?

But other types of authority content are equally important.

If you ever find yourself wondering whether you should write about something or not, forget about SEO and organic traffic for a minute. Just ask yourself: would my readers want to read about this? If the answer is “yes”, then it should definitely be written.

Speaking of that question, you’ll see that when you ask it, you’ll often find yourself writing evergreen content. You may not know it right away, your analytics will prove it.

Now that I’m sure you’re convinced of the value of evergreen content for your blog, let’s take a look at the types of posts that have the best chance of becoming evergreen.

10 Types of Evergreen Content that Will Boost the Traffic to Your Blog

Let me start by saying that I have tried all of these types of blog posts on the Idunn blog or on the blogs of our clients. And they all have the potential to become evergreen content.

However, there is no guarantee that they will become evergreen. Your usual traffic, promotional channels, competition, quality of writing and many other factors influence the odds of any blog post becoming evergreen.

1. How-to Posts

The Idunn blog features a lot of how-to posts. And, even if some of them are almost two years old, they still bring in a lot of traffic.

This is only normal. People will always search how to fix a problem online – any problem really. From a clogged toilet to advanced financial investment strategies, Google is always a good place to start in fixing your problem.

Better yet, a headline that starts with “how to” lets people know that it will contain the answer to their problem. Long-tail queries are constantly increasing, which also means that people want specific answers. Long-tail keywords may not bring as much traffic as their short-tail counterparts, but they will definitely bring more targeted traffic.

2. Information-Packed, Comprehensive Guides

This is the perfect place for you to work your authority content magic. As the name implies, these comprehensive guides are usually long-form. Think more than 2000 words if you want them to be effective and become evergreen content.

For us, Pinterest SEO: Your Complete Guide for Optimizing Your Pinterest Content, even though fairly new has worked wonders. Pinterest SEO is a topic that very few people tackle. Plus, this long-form guide truly covers everything you need to know about it.

3. Tips and Tricks Posts

From Buzzfeed to marketing blogs, everyone loves listicles. 8 tips to clean your home in 30 minutes or less or 9 tips to create the best marketing strategy are the kind of posts that will perform excellent in their respective niches.

I know what you’re thinking (I used to think it, too): these headlines seem shallow and fit for the first category in the examples above, but maybe not for the second. I agree this is not something you may find published in scientific journal. But we’re speaking about a blog here, remember?

The reason why numbered lists have a great chance to become evergreen content is that they tell people exactly what to expect. They offer an easy solution.

Plus, they cater to people who don’t have time to read an in-depth guide and to those that aren’t beginners in the field. For instance, the complete guide to Pinterest SEO I mentioned earlier could be rewritten as a listicle. For people who already know something about this topic, but are looking for ideas they didn’t think about yet, this format is better.

If you’re looking to cater to both audiences, this is a great opportunity to repurpose content and get more traction out of a single topic.

4. Infographics

Speaking of repurposing content, both types of posts mentioned above can be turned into infographics. They are a great way to deliver bite-sized information that people can read at a glance. Couple that with excellent graphics and you’ve got yourself a winning recipe.

Infographics are constantly gaining more popularity and that’s no surprise. They look fun, but are packed with information. No fluff, no opinion, nothing shallow.

5. Origin/History Pieces

Don’t worry; I’m not suggesting you go all academic. But this will require some research. History pieces are a great opportunity for long-form in-depth content.

This post about the history of advertising by HubSpot is both information-packed and easy to read. If you search for “history of advertising” in Google, this is the result that pops up right after Wikipedia.

That’s a pretty neat position if you ask me.

But what about the audience, you ask? Is it suitable for HubSpot’s audience?

Definitely!

As a company that sets the tone in inbound marketing (you know, the thing that revolutionized advertising), a look back on the origins of the trade that unites HubSpot’s audience is almost mandatory. HubSpot is more than a CRM provider. People go to their website to get news, tips, and tricks and even be educated in their Academy.

Thus, a historical post is a great addition. And the best thing about these posts is that they can be spun to fit almost any industry. A post about the history of screwdrivers by a construction contracting company may not be a good idea. But one about the history of houses, how the architecture and habitable spaces evolved in a certain area will most likely turn into evergreen content.

6. FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions are a great way to boost your SEO and to cater to a vast audience. For Idunn, for instance a post on “10 of the most common questions about Facebook advertising” would work great.

[Note to self: need to get this written!]

Even if your website already has and FAQ section, you can still have tons of blog posts in that same vein, especially assuming that your web page deals with questions about your products or services, while your blog posts could offer unbiased information.

The trick with FAQ posts is to make sure you fine-tune them for specific audiences. Following up on the example above, an FAQ post about Facebook ads for beginners would start with setting up the account and basic targeting.

However, if I want to cater to a specialized audience, I would have to forego the beginner-level questions, assume that my readers already have an account and speak of Power Editor features and in-depth targeting and CRO.

Bonus: you can always expand on the questions in this type of blog and turn them into stand-alone how-to or guide articles.

7. Statistics

10 Stats that Prove Content Marketing Is Worth Every Cent is one of the articles I wrote for SiteProNews, one of the websites where I guest post regularly.

Let me start by telling you why I wrote this piece. It was meant for two types of audiences: business owners, C-level executives that aren’t yet convinced about the power of content marketing [I wrote more on this topic here] and marketers who need help convincing said CEOs.

Such a collection of stats is incredibly powerful. None of them come from research I personally conducted. But it did take time to browse through countless reports and studies and to vet sources. This is the kind of time marketers and especially CEOs don’t have.

Speaking of time – I’m sure you’re wondering how such a post withstands the test of time. Since the industry is changing so fast, will the stats still be relevant in a couple of years? Will this post get the chance to become evergreen content?

I think so.

These stats point to trends. Content marketing has gained ground slowly, but efficiently and constantly. And this trend is unlikely to stop in the next couple of years.

Better yet, if you publish a similar piece on your own blog, you have the chance to update it as frequently as needed. This way, it will stay relevant even more than the other types of evergreen content. And it will come with the added bonus of showing the evolution of your field.

8. Stories

Stories never die. And I’m not just talking about fairytales. People will always want to hear a good story, even if it’s older than a couple of years.

Your personal story, your rise as a professional, how you quit your job and moved to a new city, the funny story of how you started your company by sheer fate, the even funnier story of how your first client fired you – all these will attract readers for a long time to come.

They literally don’t have an expiration date.

A caveat: be careful with the amount of personal detail you go into. You don’t need to write a cold, bland story, but you should steer clear of recounting sexual adventures or anything too intimate. [As long as we are talking about a business blog, OK?]

9. Case Studies

How I Doubled My Organic Traffic in Two Months is definitely a crowd-pleaser. And there are at least two reasons for this.

Firstly, people love success stories. If it’s a story they can also learn something from, even better.

Secondly, tried and tested strategies are something we are all looking for.

Again, go as in-depth as possible to give your case study a chance to become evergreen content.

One last thing here: you can also publish client-related case studies on your blog. No one is stopping you. But they are usually published as gated content to help collect email addresses.

10. Expert/Reader Round Up

This is a type of post that worked really well for a client of ours in the wedding industry. What we did for them is ask some of their previous clients about their favorite tips for wedding dresses. The article was well-received and shared by everyone who was featured.

What could work even best is to round up experts in a certain field. For instance: 10 Experts Share their Number One Tip for SEO.

People will click on this title because it promises tons of valuable information from people who actually have something to say. Better yet, if your experts share the article with their social media followers, it will be the perfect kick-off for an evergreen piece of content.

Wrapping Things up

We all dream about writing one blog posts and then milking the traffic and the leads from it for ages. And while that happens occasionally, I would never recommend it. A continued, sustained content strategy is better than trying to find that elusive silver bullet.

In other words: don’t forget about blogging just because you struck gold with a post. Try to create more evergreen content for more than one audience. Only then will you be able to truly reap benefits in terms of both SEO and lead generation.

Need help creating blog content that keeps on giving? Get in touch with expert copywriters who have created hundreds of evergreen posts so far.