An e-commerce or service website might have an abundance of content, including blog posts, case studies, and various guides that are still relevant to a search query. It can be hard to keep track of all this content, and most of it can become outdated over time. In this post, we’ll explore what evergreen content is, how to update it to boost your organic search results, and how to tailor it to each stage of the sales funnel.
What is evergreen content?
Content that stays relevant and sustainable over time that is optimized for search engines is known as evergreen content (like its namesake). This could be a buying guide, how-to guide, FAQ, or checklist that’s tailored to answer all the searcher’s questions concisely.
How can older evergreen content help your business now?
Older evergreen content on its own won’t boost rankings in the SERPs or help you reach the prestigious position 0 (answer box result). You must revamp it and make it 200% better than what it was in order to compete. First check the piece of content for anything that might be outdated, which can include screenshots, processes, links, statistics, and even the year being in the title.
Ask yourself these two important questions:
- Were you ranking well at one time for this piece of content?
- What changed and what do your competitors have that you don’t?
Do your research then update content with fresh data, links, and well …content! My recommendation if your content topics aren’t in a constantly changing industry is to be sure to check the traffic coming into these pages every few months and once the traffic data starts to dip, it’s time for a refresh. If it’s a constantly changing industry, check and refresh every month!
Don’t stop with just re-writing the content though. If the actual design of the article or post is outdated, update it as well! You want to draw users in with a visually appealing layout filled with infographics, data, and anything else that can answer their questions.
Which part of the buying/service search stage are they in and how do you tailor content to each?
This is an important question to ask because it can decide how you can structure and contextualize your content to fit the different stages of the sales funnel. The five stages of the sales funnel are:
Awareness – When a prospect learns about your brand, product, service, or solution. They have been made aware of a problem and are seeking a solution. Many searchers in this stage are putting questions into the search bar or asking their voice assistant these questions. Tailor this content for the user and answer all their questions so that your brand is shown and made known. Exposure is key in this stage! Some forms of evergreen content in this stage are: buying guides and how tos, blog posts (that don’t deal with yearly or seasonal trends), guest posts, and infographics.
Interest – The prospect now has a better understanding of what they want regarding a product or service solution. They are now taking to the SERPs and entering specific search queries that contain modifiers like best, affordable, and top. These forms of content come in the following ways: informational content on how you compare to the competition, and video content with product explainers.
Decision – The prospect is now deciding to purchase your product or service. They are visiting product or service pages and paying close attention to any sales or discount offers. Pull them in anyway you can to convert them into customers. This is where you can leverage case studies with as much data as possible and update it frequently to gain organic ranking in the SERPs. Product write-ups may seem tempting for e-commerce businesses, but if they are this year’s trend it won’t be evergreen content. Think more of established product categories and leverage content in that way.
Action – This is the purchasing stage of the sales funnel where the prospect becomes a customer and turns into a conversion. Make sure this isn’t the last stage for your new customer, as you should continue to market to them to return through email, with sales and coupon offers, and any exciting company or product launch news. This is known as retention. Retain your customers with: promo codes/coupons, newsletters/emails, and review follow-ups.
Bringing It All Together
Remember topics that don’t change are considered evergreen. Focus your content strategy for each buying stage and update your content regularly if there is new data available, which can be important in that it sends great authority signals to Google. Remember to keep it evergreen!
If your company needs help optimizing or even creating evergreen content, contact our content & SEO wizards at ENX2 Marketing today to increase your sites visibility on the SERPs!