The 9 Life Stages of an Evergreen Blog Post

Published by Kevin O'Connor on Thursday, October 12, 2017 in Content Marketing.

If you want your content to live beyond today, you have to create content that is evergreen. Evergreen content increases your chances of gaining exposure to your audience. That's because evergreen content tends to be more relevant to readers than date-oriented content. Your blog post will go through a natural life cycle, and it takes time to see the fruits of its labor. Discover the course of an evergreen blog post as it runs its natural course through a full life cycle.

1. Ideation

The initial cycle of an evergreen blog post starts with crafting a topic to discuss. During this stage of the blog post, you want to choose your topic. Think of your audience and what their pain points are. Great evergreen content often addresses an issue. Also, choose headlines you want to use. With the right idea, you can drive traffic to your site.

2. Content Mapping

Now that you have the topic you need, it's time to think of the goal you are trying to achieve with the blog post. Create an outline of what your content will cover. Plan out the frequency of your posts and schedule out your content. Think about the images you want to use, too. It's worthwhile, as it can increase content viewership by 94 percent. Also, plan for SEO. If you want to keep your content evergreen, it's important to plan out your formatting, too.

Evergreen blog posts also often answer questions that your audience will likely continue to ask. For example, the blog post "7 Simple Tactics to Produce a SEO-friendly Blog Post" is evergreen content because it helps digital marketers solve the issue of how to easily write SEO-focused content. Here are some common evergreen formats you can try:

• Tutorials, Guides, or How To's 
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Reviews
• Definitions of Technical or Industry-Related Terms
• Interviews
• Tips
• Historical Posts
• Resources

3. Research

To ensure you produce quality work, identify and use credible sources. Even if you don't have a clue where to start, you can look at what your competitors use for inspiration. Buzzsumo is a great tool for finding out what is popular in your industry.

Get familiar with leading publications in your industry, know the names of thought leaders, and stay informed. If you make research a habit it becomes easier and less time-consuming.

4. Write and Optimize

This stage of the blog post life cycle is the core part of creating content. Write your initial content without editing. Save your introduction for last and start with the content. Write your subheadings in or a placeholder and include your examples. Craft your conclusion.

Remember to keep SEO in mind when writing. Evergreen content has positive long-term implications for search engine optimization (SEO). It enhances your content's quality and increases search rankings.

5. Edit, Revise, and Proofread

Editing is essential to producing great quality content. Editing should include content editing and format editing. For example, you should make sure you double check your blog post for the SEO keywords and phrases you want to use. Check for style, grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Get another pair of eyes and utilize the help of an editor for a second look.

Revising your content is ideal, as your first draft is almost never perfect. Give your blog post one last run through for minor edits and proofread it again.

6. Publish

Your blog post is finally ready to be published! Make sure you keep up with your blog posting schedule. Aim for a frequency that speaks to the audience in your industry. Start by publishing your content once weekly and increase as you see fit.

 

You did it! You published your blog post!

7. Distribute & Amplify

Publishing your content is not enough. You have to distribute it as well so your audience knows that your content exists. Share your content across your social platforms and other relevant distribution channels that your audience uses. Include it in your monthly newsletters and email outreach campaigns. Reach out to those influencers and publishers you discovered during your research to see if they'd be interested in reading your post, sharing it with their audience, and possibly republishing it.

You won't know who a piece will resonate with until you give it a chance through aggressive promotion. If you've done everything that's necessary to create quality, evergreen content, you'll start seeing results. If your blog post isn't having the success you expected, but you are sure of its quality try putting a little money behind it and run paid social campaigns through Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Depending on your audience one of those options will be able to get you in front of the people you think would most enjoy your content.

And once you do that you'll also have data to back up or disprove your expectations.

8. Measure

Now it's time to get analytical and measure how well your content is doing. You can use analytical tools to track how well your blog post is performing. Choose what parameters matter to you, such as conversion rate or bounce rate. Keep in mind that most content takes about four to six months before you see it driving meaningful traffic to your site. It's also important to have realistic expectations from the long-term effects of SEO. It takes time to see the effects of writing quality content.

After 4-6 months of regular content production, you'll have enough data to make valuable adjustments. You will be able to see what works and what doesn't and push your content in the right direction.

9. Repurpose

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, your blog posts can live beyond their physical form when you repurpose them into other forms of content. Think of transforming your blog post into a podcast episode and elaborate on your topic. You can also turn your blog post into content that is visual, such as a video or an infographic. Also, take this time to update content checking for relevance and removing outdated information.

Final Thoughts

Creating a blog post that is evergreen just means you've written something that will be relevant and useful for a long time. By following the natural full life cycle of an evergreen blog post, you can create content that will keep your audience coming back. Think of your audience's needs and let that guide you to creating truly useful pieces of content. Stay with it and you will see results.