Why You Need Long-Form Evergreen Content

Content is king. That has well been known online. Recently, however, there has been a shake-up on what type of content truly rules the web. In the past providing content in a regular and consistent basis was prioritized and Google loved you for it, regardless of the size. After Google released the Penguin update to their algorithm, which targeted “thin” content, many indexed pages dropped in Google search. Thin content refers to articles or pages with not enough content to support a full idea on a subject. To avoid thin content (Penguin) penalties, it is advised to incorporate long-form evergreen content somewhere on your website.

What is long-form evergreen content?

Long-form evergreen content is similar to a college essay paper in that it is very well structured and written, lengthy around 3,000-5,000 words ideally and focused on the main business verticle the business sells. It is called evergreen because it should be content that is always relevant and timeless. Long-form (3,000+ words) is one of the best ways to build SEO these days. When approaching this technique, just imagine you are in a college writing class and this is your final essay about what your business does. Shoot for content that would get you an A in that imaginary class, and you will well be on your way to achieving phenomenal SEO results.

Frequency

It’s important to note that frequency of updating a website is still super important and hasn’t changed. What has changed is the mix of long to short content pieces, and you want to have some weight with the length of your content. Quick updates around 300-500 words are great for a blog and to keep good frequency, but a core long-form evergreen content piece should be front and center in your website content presentation.

Where To Start

I recommend using official to get a plan outline of your long-form evergreen content. It will guide you through the basics that need to be covered in every good essay, like “Who?” “What?” “Where?” “Why?” “When?” and the opening and closing statements. Using proper grammar and spell-checking this document is very important. Considering it is a 3K-5K word document, editing is going to be a process and take a couple of read-throughs to catch everything. Having mistakes and grammar issues can negatively impact SEO and provide a poor user experience for your reader, not to mention it doesn’t make you look good!

Publish & Distribute

Now that the long-form piece is done, it is time to publish it and deploy on social media outlets. This piece being central to the core of what your business does, it can be pinned to the top of your pages on Facebook and Twitter. Also, this page can be used in backlinks with other important local websites that match your industry or are close in proximity to your business location. This will help to enforce to Google that this piece of content is important to your company index.

That’s it! Good luck with your essay (:

Written by: Jophiel Silvestrone

Jophiel Silvestrone has written 326 posts in the Tech Blog.

Jophiel grew up on a ranch in Paradise Valley, Montana near Chico Hot Springs. Working on the ranch instilled work ethic and self motivation. Filled with this drive, Jophiel started mowing the local school's yards twice a month throughout the summers, at the age of 12. He moved to Billings in 2004, where he has been deeply involved in the local business community ever since. A serial entrepreneur, Jophiel has ran multiple businesses in our local community. The first business, a janitorial and carpet cleaning company, founded in 2005, has employed over 50 locals. Moving on to the media industry, Jophiel and several partners founded Green Directory Montana in the spring of 2007. Green Directory's sustainability ranking software awarded points based on sustainable or "green" actions. These points counted towards a business's total "Green Score," which in turn ranked them against other businesses in their category and throughout the entire site. It also featured a limited edition print version distributed annually. A business acquisition allowed Jophiel to focus on new projects, and a few close business colleagues and Jophiel started Rocky Mountain Mr. & Ms. Magazine, a lifestyle publication for men and women in the Magic City. After a year and a half at the helm of RM3 Magazine, the business was purchased. He now runs a web development company SkyPoint Studios and fathers his son Jaoquin, who plays football, basketball, soccer, and is learning snowboarding from his dad. Recently, has expanded to locations in Havasu, Arizona & Vegas. SkyPoint Studios is a market leader in both Billings & Havasu and Jophiel is working on building that same level of market dominance in Vegas. Specialties: Extensive experience in online and offline business. Especially savvy at WordPress, and operate several sites, one example is the blog: skypointwebdesignbillingsmontana.com/tech-blog. Check out skypointwebdesignbillingsmontana.com for the latest projects from SkyPoint Studios.

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