Why Evergreen Marketing Is Your Key To Domain Authority

Every brand wants an enduring slot at the top of the Google search results. That’s where evergreen marketing comes in. For long-term success, you’ll need more than short-lived popularity. While it may be tempting to enjoy the 15 minutes of fame that comes from the hot pursuit of the topic du jour or a viral ad campaign, that attention likely will not last. Brands that dominate the digital space year after year do so by creating evergreen content. This content will enjoy as much relevance a few years from now as it does today. 

Evergreen Marketing Definition 

Evergreen is so named because it never goes out of date, just like evergreen trees never lose their leaves. Audiences continue to consume evergreen content over long periods of time, and the best evergreen content may remain in the top spot for years, attracting a huge number of readers and growing your website’s page and domain authority. When an article is evergreen, other sites recognize its value and are more likely to link to it, boosting its authority even further. Admittedly, Google does love current content. But it also recognizes content that stands the test of time and continues to attract an audience. 

Evergreen marketing is strategic. It doesn’t just sit on your website. Just because a blog post or video has been on your website forever, doesn’t necessarily mean it will still pull traffic. Evergreen content is search-optimized from its inception then periodically updated. In addition to improving your SEO and driving traffic to your site, you’ll increase your conversions and attract good prospects. 

Benefits of Evergreen Marketing

The best part about evergreen content is that the benefits continue to accrue year after year. Those benefits include:

• Time savings. Once you create evergreen content, it requires minimal upkeep. You also don’t need to go through your internal review and approval processes for new content again and again.
• Cost-effectiveness. Because evergreen content stands the test of time, every dollar you spend on evergreen materials works overtime, increasing ROI.
• Profitability. Evergreen content brings convertible traffic to your website. 
• Automation. Evergreen content is a perfect fit for your automated campaigns. Set it and forget it.
• A/B testing. Since you will reuse evergreen content over a period of years, you can run split tests with the volume you require. This gives you the time to figure out how to optimize your return. 

The Importance of Updates

When it comes to domain authority, it’s critically important that you have high-quality legacy and evergreen content on your website. However, as mentioned, Google does favor sites and pages that are frequently updated. Just because content is evergreen doesn’t mean you never look at it again. The point of updating your articles is to ensure that your content doesn’t rely on stale information or appear dated in any way. Broken links and a tired design from 2018 aren’t a great way to represent your brand. 

What’s Not Evergreen?

Before we launch into a discussion of types of evergreen content, we should be clear about what’s not evergreen. Non-evergreen content includes the following:

• Current news
• Trends and fads
• Statistics
• Frequently reported studies, reports, and data

However, that doesn’t mean you shun this type of content, even in your evergreen articles. Reports and statistics add credibility to your articles. While some news is just today’s provocative headline, other stories are history in the making. Of course, every brand is different. Some will use more evergreen content than others. It’s essential to recognize the needs of your audience in creating any type of content. If you’re a trendy fashion label, for example, your approach will be different.

Types of Evergreen Content

Many types of content can be evergreen. There are topics, as well, that are timeless. These will vary, of course, according to your business, but some formats are particularly well-suited. They include:

• Comprehensive user guides. Google takes notice of these long-form, well-researched articles that are the definitive source of information on a specific topic. User guides also provide the platform for both long- and short-tail keywords.
• Tutorials. Online tutorials of your product in use are excellent marketing tools that provide tremendous value to customers. They are self-study activities with specific learning outcomes. You can post them on your website, YouTube channel or other video platform. Focus on providing value and the profits will follow. 
• Lists. You can create lists on many topics, including top 10s, checklists, top tips, industry secrets and lessons learned. You can also create a curated list, which is a list of lists others have written, structured in an easy-to-digest format. Lists can be used in any industry. 
• How-to guides. Instructional guides on topics your audience needs more information about rarely get old. Simply break down a process or task from start to finish and write it in a concise and comprehensive way. 
• Product reviews. Compare the features and benefits of various products available on the market. This may be a reference guide for customers who use complementary products, or it could include your product in comparison to its competitors.
• Frequently asked questions. An FAQ is a definitive guide written from the customer’s point of view and includes questions they may have about a brand, a process, a service, a perennial problem, and more.
• Glossaries. There is unique terminology in most industries. A glossary is a guaranteed way to attract new visitors, establish authority, and provide interesting information.
• Testimonials. When potential customers look for brand reviews, Google routes them to your testimonial page. Testimonials are slow to age and always relevant.
• Case studies. Like testimonials, case studies are always relevant. They allow you to showcase results and promote a message that resonates among your most important website visitors. You can also write a blog post or create a video about a case study. Not only are case studies evergreen, they can also be repurposed to double or even triple their exposure.

There’s More to Evergreen Than Articles

You may think that evergreen is a concept that applies only to articles. That’s not true. There are many aspects of your marketing strategy that can be evergreen, meaning they rarely change. For example, it’s unusual for companies to change their name, logo, or other parts of the brand identity. In addition to identity, brands typically stick to the same target audience. These evergreen elements make it easy to rinse and repeat many of your favorite marketing components, including:

• Webinars. You can easily make your webinar topics evergreen, with timeless topics that your audience will find useful today and in the future.
• Email marketing. As mentioned, evergreen content is perfect for your automated marketing campaigns. You can use and reuse the same opt-in incentive for many years.
• Competitions. By running the same contest each month, you minimize the setup work and reuse your content efficiently. 

Make Sure Your Evergreen Content Is Visible

Don’t let your evergreen content go unnoticed. It should work for you. Make it highly visible. One way to do this is through highlight pages. You can highlight featured articles on the front page of your website. You can also group related articles and flag them for beginners in the industry. Make it a practice to update and repost evergreen articles so that new readers can see them. 

Integrate your evergreen content by posting it on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn with images. Also, turn your content into videos. Have you ever noticed the video banner at the top of the Google search page? Page 1 is low-hanging fruit for brands who want to publish video content, because other companies seldom do. You can drive traffic straight to your website.

Boost Your Domain Authority

Evergreen marketing can provide the SEO boost you need to be seen as authoritative. Make no mistake, however: evergreen does not mean one and done. Like any good marketing strategy, you’ll need to revisit your evergreen content from time to time to ensure that it continues to pull in visitors and prospects. Update your evergreen content each year to ensure its continued relevance and add more great content. 

Interested in learning more about how evergreen strategies can take your marketing to the next level? Schedule your free consultation with Hawke Media’s digital marketing experts today.