The value of creating “evergreen” content has been touted in countless online articles for years, and for good reason. The concept behind creating this type of content is that it will always remain useful, relevant, and searchable, no matter how much time has passed since the posting date. Considering how evergreen trees retain their leaves during cold-climate winter seasons and currently cover 15% of Earth, it makes sense that experts correlate their strategies with such a versatile, perpetual force of nature.
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However, that level of quality requires significant investment in time, effort, and/or money to be successful. It would be a waste of resources to let rich content lose its value as it gradually sinks deeper and deeper into a blog feed. Reposting the original blog post would signal duplicate content errors, negatively affecting a site’s Google rankings. So, how can that asset be recycled to provide continual benefits? Here are 7 ways to further capitalize on your best content!
1. Video
Video content is steadily becoming the top online marketing resource. Although it may seem intimidating, converting content to video doesn’t require blockbuster size budgets and equipment. The videos can be as simple as images with text or voice overs coupled with short clips. The advantage of video is that it gives the content life and engages the mind in a different way than text. Buzzfeed and other content-based platforms have perfected creating video content for our society’s ever-shortening attention span.
2. Slideshare
LinkedIn’s Slideshare feature remains one of the best ways to repost content online in a unique format. Enabling you to include specific keywords to make the presentations searchable, Slideshare’s regularly appear high in Google search rankings. This format is especially useful for professional or academic content, which fit the profile of the majority of LinkedIn users.
3. Podcast
Podcasts combine the popularity of talk shows and radio, without the restrictions of looking at a screen or dealing with commercial interruptions. Offering something for everyone, whether that be suspense, comedy, or education, podcasts are injecting human connection back into online content. When repurposing content through podcasts, do not make the mistake of treating the content like a script or audiobook. Invite guests onto the show to weigh in with their thoughts, introduce world news relating to the subject, or make the show into a dynamic conversation between friends. This is an opportunity to disrupt the delivery while retaining the message, which will keep a fan base positively engaged.
4. Infographic
The long-form version of the teaser segment method, infographics give a comprehensive visual to a body of text. By nature, they easily consumed and shared as they can be copy, pasted, and saved faster than HTML. Think of infographics as the “SparkNotes” of a lengthy, informative blog post, highlighting the most important parts that readers can quickly scan and decipher. Creative infographic designs explaining a complex process through simplified step-by-step instructions are a popular way to illustrate evergreen content pieces. A well-designed infographic can transform even the most boring or confusing content into an aesthetically-pleasing image. So, you may look for free infographic maker to visualize your content.
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5. Q&A Forums
Online forums can get saturated quickly with irrelevant posts, which ultimately dilutes the substantial information. However, this can still be an option for circulating content when done correctly. Search for very specific questions or topic threads to which your content is directly related. Users visit online forums looking for answers, and if you give them the answers they seek, it will help drive traffic to your original post and website.
6. Update & Refresh
Even the best evergreen content needs a little touch-up now and then. It’s important to adapt to changing keyword trends and marketing priorities. As search engines naturally crawl your URLs, impactful changes can affect rankings. Whether it is adding information, restructuring format, hyperlinking new sources, or tweaking to better fit a rebrand, updating evergreen posts can revive struggling content.
7. Social Media Sharing
A successful social media strategy usually includes a priority on consistency. However, it can be difficult to curate enough content for regular posting week after week. A great way to repurpose content is by circulating it into a social media schedule. This keeps your followers engaged with relevant, original content by simply resharing past posts. Using a social media scheduling program, like Hootsuite, makes the process automatic by offering the ability to schedule these posts weeks ahead of time, allowing social media managers the opportunity to focus on generating quality new content.
While these seven strategies vary in level of difficulty, implementing any one of them can prove quite advantageous. Don’t let your best content collect dust in the forgotten corners of your website!