Search engine optimization takes time. It’s like building a house where each new addition strengthens your construction. Every blog post you write, and website page you add gives you more authority and ranking potential. Today we dive into strategies to build your evergreen content.
Covering trending topics and the latest news and stats is vital for remaining relevant, but those topics don’t rank in search engines for very long. Those topics receive a considerable boost initially, but you’ll see traffic die down as people move on to the next greatest thing.
Evergreen content is the opposite of that. This is a cornerstone topic that doesn’t go out of style. It just keeps generating more traffic. It ages like fine wine, becoming stronger the longer it’s alive. But, like fine wine, evergreen content requires care to hold its value.
We’ll explore what evergreen content is and how you can use an evergreen content strategy to build a solid online brand.
What Exactly Is Evergreen Content?
Evergreen content remains relevant and doesn’t go out of style. It’s the exact opposite of breaking news and trending topics.
It doesn’t expire, and people don’t lose interest in the topic over time.
Here are a few examples of evergreen content:
Educational Guides: How-to articles, tips, and steps for completing tasks are all examples of evergreen content. People consistently need tutorials for completing assignments and ways to sharpen their skills.
Fact Articles: Facts remain relevant for a long time unless new information emerges. For example, a post on the history of newspapers won’t change much over the years since no one is taking time machines to the past and changing history. Think about encyclopedia articles. People continually consult this content to learn more about a topic or cite research in an industry.
Industry Resources: Industry guides, case studies, and glossaries are necessary for employees to understand their industry and find solutions.
Here are some examples that are NOT evergreen content:
Current Events: If something is breaking news, readers will probably lose interest as soon as the next big event occurs. Suddenly, that article sounds outdated.
Reviews: People and businesses change over time. Just because Suzy loved a restaurant in 2014 doesn’t mean that the restaurant still offers the same quality food ten years later. People who want reviews on businesses, media, and products are usually only interested in recent reviews and testimonials.
Statistics: Statistics have a varied shelf life. For example, statistics from medical research studies done five years ago can still be relevant today because research studies are costly and don’t receive regular updates. However, social media usage statistics from five years ago are outdated and usually have a shelf-life of a year or two because that’s a fast-paced industry.
Technology: Content referencing technology usually has a short life because technology constantly changes. Something as simple as an image or mention of a smartphone can date an article since smartphones receive annual updates in appearance and function. References to how you can use technology and what technology is available will start an expiration timer ticking.
Most of your content will usually be evergreen, as that will be your primary traffic driver.
How to Turn Trending Topics into Evergreen Content
Here’s an insider’s tip on evergreen content. You can turn your trending content into evergreen topics through regular updates. In each update, check statistics, technology changes, and current event mentions so you’re referencing the most recent updates.
Here’s an example of an article Backlinko published in October 2019. Backlinko updates the article with the new year each year, updating any out-of-date statistics and adding new facts to the post.
Does this work? The article’s search traffic says it does.
You can see where those updates happened, as each update caused a jump in website traffic each year, keeping it relevant.
Trending vs. Evergreen Content Examples
Let’s look at examples of what evergreen content isn’t, followed by examples of what evergreen content is.
Here’s an article that appeared in February 2022 when the Rams won the Super Bowl.
Now, let’s look at this article’s traffic trends over time.
You’ll notice the immediate peak when Fox Sports published the article. It was breaking news, fresh, and exciting. People everywhere were searching for Super Bowl results. However, just a few months later, it nearly flatlined.
You’ll notice again that the columnist updated the article in 2023 in preparation for a new wave of searches as the next Super Bowl arrived. That update was delivered when another spike occurred. However, a year later, the article nearly flatlines again.
This is not evergreen content.
This is trending content. Trending content is crucial for showing you are relevant, connecting with new traffic, trending term searches, and being an authority in your field. However, trending content won’t bring in consistent website traffic.
That’s why most of your website should be evergreen content.
Let’s take a look at an example of evergreen content.
You’ll notice first that there are no dates or breaking news information in the title. It’s a topic that has stayed relevant through the years because people are still coaching sports teams today, just like in 2015, when this article first came out.
And the numbers don’t lie.
The organic traffic grew after Harvard Business Review published the article in 2015. It peaked five years later! It wasn’t until it had been out for five years that you saw a traffic dip. Even in 2024, nine years later, the article still brings in a trickle of traffic.
What Is the Best Evergreen Content Format?
Evergreen content can appear in any online format other than social media. Here are the most popular ways to publish evergreen content:
Blog Posts: Blog posts will be your SEO’s primary strategy. They usually appear on a resource or news page on your website. Visitors can search for specific topics, share posts on social media and emails, and see these articles appear in search results. You will also link to past blog articles through internal links.
Whitepapers: You can share shorter articles in a downloadable format using whitepapers. This is a way to attach a PDF to emails or use it for lead generation on a website. Whitepapers make excellent quick reference guides or research publications.
eBooks: If you have a comprehensive guide, fact book, or how-to article, an eBook would be your better option. They attract search traffic and can work as a lead magnet.
How Evergreen Content Benefits Brands
In what ways does evergreen content build your online brand? Here’s a look at the top benefits of regularly publishing evergreen content.
Generates Steady Traffic Over Time
Blogging increases your search engine ranking chances by 434% compared to static websites. In addition, 72% of content marketers say content creation is their best SEO strategy.
Let’s face it, posting blog posts daily would be EXHAUSTING! That’s 365 blog posts a year. Unless you are a news site, there are many better uses of your resources than that. But the average business doesn’t need that much content to rank.
Instead, focus on building an evergreen content library that continues attracting traffic. As you saw in the above examples, traffic GROWS over time.
Performs Well in Search Engine Rankings
Organic search produces the most traffic. But, attracting that traffic is no easy task as fewer than 1% of searchers will click on the second page of Google search results. That means the first page of Google is your golden ticket to traffic success.
Evergreen content performs well in search engine results. When people search for content, Google pulls what is most relevant. If your content covers a trending topic, Google will most likely push it far back in search results pages after the hype is over.
For example, when I searched “Oscar Awards,” all the top articles covered news about Oscar Awards from this year. Because the Academy Awards took place this week, every article on the first page was either an official resource or less than a month old. All those articles from previous Academy Award years are now collecting dust on some Google back page.
If you search for an evergreen search term like “best exercises for lower back pain,” I can find search results as old as ten years on the first page of Google.
Brings in Quality Leads from Traffic
Some of the best leads come from evergreen topics. That’s why 76% of content marketers use content in their lead generation strategy.
Trending topics can be a fantastic way to connect with new leads. If you time your posting correctly and are among the first to address a new trend or come at a topic from a unique angle, you can gain a considerable amount of new traffic. Within that traffic is sure to be several new leads.
However, trending topics are like fast fashion. People jump on the trend but then toss it out and jump on the next one. There’s a chance quite a bit of your traffic might be people who want to know what the buzz is about and may not be serious leads.
On the other hand, Evergreen topics tend to attract more serious leads. You’ll want to perform SEO research to identify search terms within your industry. Many of those terms are what potential customers search for since there isn’t any trending news or buzz drawing them to that topic. So, the traffic is usually people already interested in that topic due to their industry or current needs you can solve.
Establishes Your Brand’s Authority
You need high-quality, valuable content to establish yourself as an authority in your industry. About 45% of bloggers create long-form content, which will make up the bulk of your evergreen content. Long-form content allows you to dig deep into topics and demonstrate your expertise.
Your content is one way you build a reputation in your niche. Clients see a demonstrated expertise and learn to trust you better. You can also create a relationship by investing in those clients’ education about the industry.
Your content also builds authority with Google. Google’s opinion matters because if the algorithm sees you as an authority, it will place you higher in search results. So, gaining that Google stamp of approvable is precious.
Google sees your authority in several ways, including:
Regularly published content
High engagement rates
Positive customer experiences
Authority backlinks
Trending content can bring in those backlinks and engagement, but it’s often fleeting. If you want to show Google and clients consistent engagement and regularly gain new backlinks, you need that evergreen content that stands the test of time.
How to Create Evergreen Content in 5 Easy Steps
We will share five steps for creating evergreen content that will build your brand authority and bring in regular traffic.
Step 1: Map Out Your Evergreen Content Strategy
A content strategy creates a roadmap for your evergreen content. Each piece should have a purpose and be relevant to your audience. That way, you can generate a return on investment from the content.
Ask yourself what you want your evergreen content to do for your brand. Are you using it to highlight specific products? Educate about the industry as a whole. Or do you want to promote events?
Your goal will dictate the type of topics you will cover.
Begin brainstorming some general topic ideas and areas. For each topic, ask yourself how long people will be interested in the subject. If it will change, move that topic idea to your trending content strategy.
Also, consider how in-depth you can go with each topic. For your evergreen content to shine, you will want it to be long-form, so the more meat there is on the topic, the better it may perform in the long term.
Step 2: Conduct Thorough Research on Your Chosen Topic
Once you have a list of topics, it’s time to begin researching each selected topic. This research will guide the SEO side of your strategy.
For example, if you are a vitamin company, you might have decided to write articles on the benefits of magnesium. SEO research then lists specific questions about the topic people are searching for. These questions both provide evergreen content ideas and help you with search engine ranking.
Step 3: Get Organized by Outlining Your Content
Now that you have your topic and keyword, you can create a roadmap through your content outline.
Outlining ensures your content has a structured flow and aligns with your content’s goal.
Since this content will hopefully continue ranking for over a year, you’ll want to put your best effort forward.
As you create an outline, include all the most critical sections. You’ll then break those sections into subsections and points. That way, once you begin writing (or hiring someone to write), you have a clear direction to keep you on track.
Step 4: Write and Edit the First Draft of Your Blog Post
It’s time to transform that outline into golden content to bring in that traffic. You can tackle this part yourself. But if you do, clear out several hours of your time. Again, this content will rank for over a year, so you’ll want to ensure you put plenty of thought and research into the post.
If you don’t have the time to do it right, consider hiring subject matter experts to create the post for you to ensure it’s done right.
Here are a few tips our experienced writers provide for crafting your evergreen content:
Take Your Time: Creating content takes time. About 21% of content marketers take 2-3 hours, while 57% take over three hours to create content. Don’t rush the process.
Save Editing for Last: Don’t try to keep up with editing as you write, as that can mess with your groove. Your first step is to get your thoughts on the paper. You can edit once you completed the post.
Remember to Optimize: Remember that research you performed? Work those keywords into your content, use quality backlinks, and disperse internal links to help it rank in Google for months to come.
The writing process can be stressful. Be patient and take the time you need to do your best. The return will reflect the effort you put into it.
Step 5: Periodically Update Your Evergreen Content
While evergreen content has a long lifespan, it doesn’t last forever. Even the best content will eventually be outranked by newer content. But the good news is you don’t need to trash the post once that happens.
As we did with trending content, you can refresh evergreen content to expand its life. Review your evergreen content every two to three years and give it a little spring cleaning. These minor updates will be enough for Google to see it as new, relevant content and keep it near the top.
The refresh should include:
Checking that all the links still work
Updating any facts or claims that might be outdated
Adding new research or ideas
Refreshing any writing that feels clunky
Adjusting SEO for changing search trends
Generate Steady Traffic with Evergreen Content
Evergreen content can be one of your most powerful ways of generating consistent traffic if done right. But turning evergreen ideas into well-ranking content may feel like a mountain of a task.
Express Writers can help in every stage of the process. From content strategy to content creation, we have experts ready to help.
Why wait? You have traffic out there that you could be drawing to your website with the right content in place.
You can’t go anywhere without coming across content. Content is everywhere, from the emails your favorite brand sends to that meme your dentist posted on social media.
However, budgeting to create all that content is another beast you might not be ready to tackle.
We have some good news for you. Content marketing doesn’t have to be an overwhelming beast that will gobble your budget. You can take it in levels like tackling a video game. You won’t need to graduate to the next level of content marketing until you defeat the one you’re at and receive the profits.
Those profits allow you to scale up, creating more content and generating even greater rewards.
Content marketing doesn’t feel so daunting anymore now, does it?
Let’s break content writing pricing down to see what costs to expect and how to fit them into your budget.
How to Craft a Content Marketing Budget
Before diving into the numbers, it’s crucial to understand your budget and what factors play into content marketing costs.
Sure, Suzy in HR says she likes to blog in her spare time, but can she give you the content you need to achieve your marketing goals?
Use these factors to evaluate where you are at as a business and what content writing pricing you can afford.
Understand Your Target Audience
Content is for your audience. You’re writing to the people you hope will eventually become clients.
So, the first place to look when deciding your marketing budget is your target audience.
Ask yourself:
Who do I want to reach with my content?
What do I want my content to tell that audience?
What action do I want my audience to take?
Where can I reach that audience?
These questions don’t just tell you which content marketing channels to prioritize but also tell you what level of content you need. HR Suzy might be able to craft a fun social media post, but can she also write an authority piece for financial leaders?
While everyone’s content needs vary, the average monthly content marketing budget ranges between $5,000 and $10,000.
You’ll be on the higher end if your target audience has higher educational levels or is in a complex industry like the medical field or cybersecurity. You will fall on the lower end of that range if you’re a B2C business in a more common industry like fashion that doesn’t have too much industry-specific jargon.
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Factors Impacting Pricing
What might make a project or freelance agency cost more than another?
Writer Experience: You will pay more for subject matter experts with more experience. Industries like the legal industry, finances, and tech usually charge the highest prices because they require significant niche knowledge.
Research Requirements: Topics requiring more extensive research will also be more costly to account for the extra time the writer needs to find that information. Search engine optimization (SEO) research is also an additional charge. For example, Express Writers charges $10 for a meta add-on and $60 for keyword research if you want to optimize your content for search engines.
Content Volume: If you order content in bulk, you can often receive a discount, which makes creating regular content more budget-friendly.
Turnaround Time: Do you need content by yesterday? Expect to pay more for rush orders. Express Writers already prides itself on our fast delivery, with delivery times ranging from 3-10 days, depending on the content’s complexity and length. But, if our delivery is still outside your window, we also offer rushed orders for an additional fee.
Managed Options: How much help do you want with your content creation? Adding on services like Express Writers’ Managed Content will increase your costs but will also decrease the time and mental load of content creation.
Image from Express Writers
To find the right package for your marketing needs, you need a careful balance of cost and quality. Investing a little more in content today can increase your rewards tomorrow. Investing in consistent quality content over time will significantly boost your web traffic and conversions while saving you hours of valuable time.
Budgeting for content marketing comes down to how much your time is worth and what rewards you hope to achieve. The value of those items will define your budget.
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Average Content Writing Pricing Based on Content Format
Now, it’s time to dig into the actual numbers behind content marketing based on average industry prices. Use our freelance content writing pricing as guidelines to budget for your marketing strategy.
1. Average Blog Post Cost
Average Cost: $640-$3,600 monthly for eight blog posts.
Web content and blog posts will comprise the bulk of your content. Aim to create two to four weekly blog posts to maintain a consistent, high search engine ranking.
If you’re posting twice a week, that’s eight blog posts a month, which you can order using a volume discount to make it more budget-friendly.
How much will that cost you?
A quarter of businesses pay between $500-$1,000 for a month’s blog content. Content marketing pricing varies greatly depending on the business. The average includes different blog post lengths and quality levels. You can easily spend much more than that in a niche industry.
At Express Writers, a month’s worth of general blogs will cost $640+ for a basic package with minimal research or expertise. If you’re looking for a month’s worth of high-quality, authoritative content, expect to pay $3,600 for eight highly researched, 1000-word posts crafted by subject-matter experts with experience in your industry.
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2. Average Case Study Cost
Average cost: $140 per page
Case studies require a different skill set than general writing and are often more expensive than what you’d pay for a blog, quickly reaching over $1,000 per case study. What you’re paying for is the marketing experience of crafting a story that highlights your best features while showcasing previous wins.
At Express Writers, single-page case studies start at $140 with a $125 design add-on available. Each additional page increases the price by the same amount.
Since the average case study is between 5 and 15 pages, expect to pay $700+ for a case study written by a trained marketer who understands the complexities of this unique and highly effective marketing format.
Email writing at Express Writers costs $475+ for a 5-email sequence, which you can use to nurture new leads. Because email writing requires extra training (like learning how to pack a powerful punch in a small space), it costs a little more than regular blogs at the same word count.
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4. Average Press Release Writing Cost
Average Cost: $199 per 500-words
Press Releases allow you to build high-quality links from leading publications while increasing your brand awareness. The average press release runs under 500 words, and most companies don’t submit press releases more than once a month or every other week.
There is no guarantee your journal of choice will publish your press release. You need to step up your game and craft a press release that thoroughly covers a topic, makes it relevant to the publication’s audience, and appeals to the host publication. The $199 per press release is higher to account for this extra training and experience your subject matter experts need to craft news-worthy stories.
5. Average White Paper Cost
Average Cost: $105 per page before design
White papers turn information into a downloadable asset or lead magnet. They are a cornerstone of your lead generation content.
Because white papers tend to be more in-depth than your average blog post, they usually cost slightly above the average, sitting at about $105 per page (about 500 words).
They are a longer format to dig deeper into a topic than white papers. You can sell eBooks to generate passive income or use your eBook as a free lead magnet.
A beginner to intermediate writer’s average cost per page is $25-100 per page. An authority subject matter expert’s freelance writing rates land at $250+ per page.
Express Writers has highly trained subject matter experts who create authority eBooks at $112 per page.
Find Content that Fits Your Budget
What content do you want to order to get started with your content strategy?
We can help you find the right fit.
Use our managed content option to receive additional help finding the best fit, or book a call with a content strategist for a curated content plan based on your goals and budget.
Your website reflects you and your business. It’s not enough to have an aesthetically pleasing site design. You also need to make sure you’re publishing impeccable content that Google will rank highly and that your readers will enjoy.
Part of that is learning how to review content for efficacy and quality so you can put your best foot forward with everything you publish. This way, you always give off a great first impression.
But how exactly do you conduct a content review? That’s what you’ll learn how to do in this post.
What is a Content Review and Why is it Important?
A content review is essentially like the final piece of the puzzle before hitting publish and sharing your work with the world. It’s your opportunity to look everything over and make final changes that will allow you to polish your draft to perfection. Here’s why it’s so important to learn how to review content:
It Ensures You’re on Track to Reach Your Goals: As you look over your content, you’ll be able to ask yourself whether it’ll get you closer to reaching the goals you’ve set for yourself. If not, you’ll have the opportunity to make tweaks before publishing.
It’ll Encourage Consistency With Content: Consistency is key but can sometimes be tricky if you have multiple people writing content for your brand. With a content review, you can catch those inconsistencies and correct them. It’s also possible to turn the review into a learning opportunity as you sit down and talk to your team about how to better meet brand guidelines.
Any Mistakes Will be Spotted and Corrected: Content riddled with issues (whether typos or inaccurate information) is a major turn-off for your readers. You want to make sure you spot them and get them fixed to avoid hurting your brand’s reputation.
While it may sound tedious, it’s worthwhile at the end of the day. When you take the extra steps to polish your content to perfection your readers will truly appreciate your efforts. They’ll keep coming back to your site because they know they can count on you for great content.
Don’t hesitate to take your review beyond your blog posts. You can apply this process to your website’s homepage, landing pages (such as for products and services), and more.
How to Review Content for Efficacy and Quality
Your content review process could look different compared to other creators, and that’s okay. It’s important to make this step work for you and your team. However, there are some basic tips you’ll always want to implement to ensure success. Here are a few of our top suggestions:
1. Keep Your Goals Top of Mind
As you move forward with these tips on how to review content, you always need to remember your goals. You cannot measure the efficacy of your content if you don’t know what you intended to achieve with it in the first place. So, what do positive results look like in your content? What results indicate that you’ve seen a return on your investment?
For instance, your goal may have been to increase traffic, engagement, and conversions. To determine whether you’ve been successful at making that happen, you’ll want to dive into your analytics. Measure things like page views, traffic sources, and conversion rate to help you decide your goals and how to move forward with them.
2. Bring Someone on Board for Your Content Review
The best thing about conducting a content review is that you don’t need to do it alone. After all, sometimes we get too attached to our content, and it makes us unable to spot mistakes or quality issues. By having someone else step in to look over a piece of content with fresh eyes, they can see things we’ve overlooked.
Ideally, you’ll want to choose someone who is meticulous and has impeccable spelling and grammar skills. You never want to rely solely on spell check. It’s even better if that person is willing to offer constructive criticism that you can use in the future.
If you work alongside a team, you can assign a specific person to this task. Having a team of creators and editors to help you bring your content to life is an amazing asset. So, if you can afford it, it’s worth it to have a content team that can tackle these tasks.
There’s nothing wrong with having to tackle these tasks on your own. If you have to work alone, don’t be afraid to ask a knowledgeable friend or colleague for assistance.
3. Ensure Everything Meets Your Brand Guidelines
Part of learning how to review content is determining whether a piece of content aligns with the vision you have for your brand. To start, you need to create brand voice guidelines and make sure you share them with anyone on your team who will be writing or editing content. This way, they can refer to those guidelines when conducting the review.
They should encompass details such as tone of voice, who your target audience is, and even go over your brand’s quality standards. Then, you won’t have to worry about content that’s below your standards getting published. Instead, it’ll only be top-notch content your readers will love.
4. Take the Time to Fact-Check Claims and Data
Misinformation can spread around the internet like wildfire if you aren’t careful. You can avoid being pulled into an issue by taking some extra time before publishing a piece of content to fact-check any claims or data you include in your article. This way, you can feel confident knowing that what you’ve published is 100% accurate.
As you do this, make sure to include links to cite your sources. Then, you can back up any statements you’ve made. It may seem time-consuming, but it’ll be worthwhile because your readers will view you as a trusted and informed source of information.
5. Check for Proper Optimization
If you hope to see your content at the top of Google’s search results, you’ll need to take additional action steps to effectively optimize your content. If you’re on WordPress, the Yoast SEO plugin makes this incredibly easy. It breaks down all the steps you should take for blog optimization and even gives you a ranking accordingly to help you spot opportunities for improvement.
As you’re doing a content review, make sure you’ve hit all those marks to stand a better chance at ranking above your competitors. For instance, you’ll want to ensure your content’s focus keyword is used in places like the title, introduction, headers, and throughout the copy. Keyword density is crucial, too. Including internal and external things, as well as images, will also be essential.
6. Make Sure the Content Speaks to Your Target Audience
Knowing your audience is a crucial element of being a content creator. Everything you write should be developed with them in mind. Then you can be sure you’re addressing their needs, pain points, etc. As you go through the content review process, ask yourself if the content will speak to its intended audience. Will the headline make them want to click through to your site? Does the introduction hook them? And is the body copy captivating enough to keep them reading until the end?
If everything checks out, you’re good to go. If not, make some changes. Find ways to make the copy more appealing through rewrites and formatting tweaks that will make your content easy to consume. You’ll also want to avoid using complex jargon and speak only in terms your reader would understand. Essentially, your content should benefit your reader because many want to understand what’s in consuming it for them.
7. Check Back Later for a Follow-Up Review
Now that you know the essential steps for how to review website content, don’t fall into the trap of thinking your job is done once your content is published. Conducting follow-up audits later on to ensure your content is still accurate and up to your brand’s current quality standards is smart.
For instance, you could make it a point to sit down every six months to a year to reflect on your most popular content. After all, if it’s still generating traffic, it’s worth reviewing to see if it’s still giving off a great first impression to your visitors. Just be sure to record when you last updated your content and note any changes made so you can keep track.
Get Quality Content from the Experts
Here at Express Writers, quality content is our priority. Our team of skilled writers is passionate about creating valuable content that your readers and Google will love. From blog posts, web page copy, or something in between, you can count on us to deliver top-notch, optimized content that meets your brand’s quality standards.
Get in touch with us today to learn more about how we can serve you.
AI is here, and while it has generated thousands of pieces of content already, those pieces of content are still not quite up to the standard you would expect (or Google for that matter) when it comes to expertise. If your company is using AI-generated content, you may want to consider hiring a Subject Matter Expert (SME) writer to follow up and help you optimize and more importantly, humanize your content so that you do not sacrifice your position in the SERPs.
AI-Content Generation Doesn’t Understand E-E-A-T, But a Writer Does
AI creates content by pulling words together based on the prompts you provide. It can optimize content with keywords, but not in a reader-friendly way. Likewise, the tool provides outdated stats, which means you could be quoting something as much as two years old – and in the content marketing world, that might as well be 10 years. Content marketing trends come and go more than the tides, and now that Google has made it clear E-E-A-T is the standard, quickly generating content with AI and not following up with human AI content optimization is a risky chance to take.
What is E-E-A-T?
E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. This was designed for Google’s quality search result analysis and helps feed into the infamous algorithm that every website owner is trying to attract.
While E-E-A-T doesn’t directly impact your rankings in the SERPs, it is a strong SEO factor that you cannot ignore and E-E-A-T is more likely to increase conversions, according to SEMRush, because if a customer trusts your site, they are more likely to use your service.
Examining How AI Struggles to Meet the E-E-A-T Expectations
AI content is written by a computer, and while the technology can perform tasks such as intelligence, learning, reasoning, and even decision making, there is a lot that it cannot do. From the content marketing side of things, AI lacks significantly in terms of creating personalized narration, building character, establishing trust, and even being factually correct.
Right now, ChatGPT3.5 only has data back to 2021. Asking it how many blogs there were worldwide created this response:
A simple example
As you can see, its knowledge goes back to September 2021, and worse, it didn’t even have an answer then.
In case you’re curious, there are more than 600 million blogs as of 2023.
AI doesn’t have the ability to pull statistics, and statistics build two very important components of E-E-A-T:
Authoritativeness
Trustworthiness
If you cannot prove to your audience what you are saying is factually correct, where is your authority and how can they trust you?
Easy, they can’t.
What is AI Content Optimization?
AI-generated content has its flaws, but it definitely is cheaper and faster than your average writer. That said, despite AI automating numerous processes in our lives, it cannot go unsupervised – especially when it comes to content. Instead, you need content that has a human touch, essentially human-optimized AI content, so that your message gets across and leaves a profound impact on the reader.
5 Reasons to Consider AI Optimization Done by a Writer
In most cases, you can generate hundreds of blogs for free, but you still want to optimize your content using a human. At Express Writers, we do offer human optimization for AI-generated content, and quite a few clients have used this service so far to help amplify their AI-created content without sacrificing their SERPs.
For human optimization, we recommend using our General Blog service. It is affordable, has a human optimize for SEO, rewrite for flow, add branding and personality, and most importantly, infuse your content with up-to-date statistics.
Still not sure? Here are some reasons you need to use a human to optimize your content.
Humanized AI Content Offers Personalization
AI is repetitive, robotic and has no personality, but it is a computer, so you can’t expect it to have a personality. Your marketing copy, however, and those who read it, do expect to see some personality in the words you provide.
We are overwhelmed with dozens of marketing messages, emails, blogs and social media posts each day, so you need something that stands out, and AI content cannot do that alone. Instead, it needs that human touch.
AI might automate generating your blogs for you, but you still need a human to help that piece of content resonate with your audience and offer authenticity.
AI Has Writing Flaws
AI is by no means perfect, and while they continue to learn and release new versions of AI-generation tools, they still have too much missing. AI does understand basic grammar, but the output sometimes repeats itself and doesn’t read well.
For example, I had ChatGPT3.5 write me a 100-word paragraph for a blog on “reasons to start running,” and requested it to write a catching intro.
Here is the intro it came up with:
Not awful, but also, not really catchy either. It tends to ramble, it doesn’t understand flow, and some of the text feels more like fluff/filler than something that hooks. Speaking of, where is the hook? Do you see a profound hook that makes you want to continue reading a blog based on this intro?
A human needs to go through these paragraphs and pick out what matters, refine points brought up, and here is the perfect opportunity to add an interesting fact or stat that catches the reader’s eye.
A Human Writer to Help Infuse Stats into Your Content
Stats are crucial for content. Not only do they provide backlink opportunities – yes, backlinks are still important to SEO, but they also help you satisfy the Authority and Trustworthiness requirements of E-E-A-T. When you have statistics to back up statements or claims within your content, the reader feels more confident in what they’ve read rather than just making a statement and offering no insight or high-value resources to back it up.
Offering Accuracy Checks
You can use AI to generate your first draft, but you need human eyes to go back and review the content for accuracy. As shown above, AI content tools have their flaws, and sometimes they can be inaccurate, especially when it comes to more industry-specific content. Having an SME writer review the content for inaccuracies within your niche, including the wrong use of special terminology, etc., can greatly improve the overall quality of your content.
You Need a Human for Empathy
While AI-generated content can certainly create as many pages of content as you would like, it cannot offer empathy, and that is crucial in content marketing. The reader needs to think that you are on their side, you understand where they are coming from, and you are developing a relationship with them.
AI cannot do that. Instead, you need your content to be compelling and the reader needs to feel as though you “get them,” which requires a human.
AI is a First Draft, but You Need a Real Writer to Take it to the Finish Line
Yes, AI can be a great tool for coming up with blog ideas, generating first drafts and even writing up an outline, but once it comes to the meat of the topic or even taking that content to publish status, you need a human writer.
Whether you want your content optimized or outright humanized, the SME writers at Express Writers can help get the job done. We can edit, rewrite for flow, add in your branding and optimize for search engines. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you add that human touch to your AI-generated content.
Content that connects with your audience is worth every penny.
Having a single piece of content that speaks to your desired audience, and connecting to your audiences meaningfully, often results in a higher ROI.
It is essential, whether you are a small business or large corporation, that you know how to connect with your audience emotionally, and often that requires a special type of writer to do so. Not just anyone can connect; simply putting words onto virtual paper will not do the job.
Instead, you need to know what your audience needs, their pain points, their reasons for seeking out your business, and when to offer help – timing is crucial here.
Today, we will review a few ways to create content that makes a genuine connection and how to implement it into your content strategy for blogs, web pages, and even social media posts.
Is Written Content Relevant for Today’s Audience?
The age of YouTube has certainly changed how we all interact with search engines, and often we opt for a video over a blog to learn about something, but that is not the majority. Written content, specifically blogs, is still in high demand. 77% of internet users read blogs, according to Social Media Today – so obviously, there’s a market.
7 Steps Every Company Needs to Use to Create Content that Connects with the Right Audience
Creating and maintaining a connection with your audience is crucial. Whether your target audience is B2B or B2C, you have a target audience, and you need content that speaks to them. So, how do you do that when your “audience pool” masses in the thousands?
Easy…by following these key steps.
1. Embrace Empathy
The pandemic has certainly taught us a lot and restructured the way a lot of us communicate or even work today. However, one of the biggest lessons from the pandemic was empathy. Thinking about your audience using compassion and your emotional intelligence is critical in your content.
2. Write As You Talk
You want to connect to the person reading your content. What is a better way to connect than conversation? For some reason, being conversational in blogs and even landing page content got a bad rap somewhere but shouldn’t have. Being conversational is precisely what a reader needs to feel as though you are speaking to them. The robotic, encyclopedic text has its uses but rarely is that content that is designed to create a connection. Instead, that is created to educate.
Social media posts, blogs, and sales pages need to connect to the reader, or the conversions will not happen. So, as you write out your text, think of how you would talk to a friend, explain something to a colleague, and use that as your muse when crafting your “voice” within the text.
3. Use Media
Words are powerful, but so too is imagery. You want to use different media types to help you connect with your reader. While the personal tone is equally important, include a picture of yourself in your bio on each blog, that way, the reader can picture who they are talking to.
4. Picture the Ideal Reader
Just like you want your reader to picture you, you need to picture them. You know your target audience – if you don’t, that’s an entirely different topic – so now you can picture one member from your target audience as you create your content. Pick them from the crowd, and pretend you are conversing with them. When you picture yourself talking to a real person, rather than them reading what you have written, it helps you be more conversational. You aren’t lecturing a group of students at the university – just an intimate conversation between two individuals.
5. Put Yourself in the Reader’s Shoes – Address their Needs
You can’t truly connect if you aren’t in your reader’s shoes. What are their dreams? Fears? You need to know their pain points to bring them up in the copy and almost catch them off guard. You want the reader to sit there thinking, “Yes! That is me!” and not just going through the motions. The more connected they are to the writing, the more likely they are to take action you request at the end of the page – whether it is a contact, submitting email addresses, etc.
You need to show that you can relate to their problem, then strike with the solution. If you don’t build up a relationship on mutual understanding first, you cannot offer a mutually acceptable solution.
Often, copywriters will come out of the gates swinging. They don’t hit that pain point and instead just start talking about the solution while touching here and there on the issue it solves. That doesn’t grab a reader and keep them hanging on for the ride. Instead, they see that you have a solution, make up their assumptions, and bounce.
So, instead, build up the rapport first, then offer your solution. Take the reader through your journey, showing your understanding and relativeness, then add your solution and call to action. If you offer the goods right from the start, you will lose the chance to build a relationship with your reader first.
6. Work with the Emotions You Want to Pique in Your Reader
Picture your reader’s emotions as they go through your text.
If you aren’t getting a reader to laugh at a joke, ask yourself if you would have laughed. Would you cry at the same instance of emotion? Would you yearn for the same solution as profoundly as they?
Allow yourself to feel something, express it, and create that connection. You may be surprised at how willing people are to reach out to you when you occasionally open yourself up in your content, whether it is sharing a personal experience, a humbling moment, etc.
7. Avoid Third Person
The third-person POV does not connect with the reader. After all, if you read something in a third-person point-of-view, do you feel like you are being spoken to? Often a person will say “the person” rather than “you,” which makes you feel like they are speaking about someone else more than talking to you. So, why would you use a similar POV in your content?
Creating content that connects is more than just striking emotions, you need to pick the right words, especially the right POV. A good combination of first and second will help a lot – you can share a personal experience while addressing the reader’s needs. Essentially, include them in your conversation even if they read it 5 years later.
Do You Think You’re Ready to Connect with Your Audience in a Meaningful Way?
We have given you a few tips and tricks for adding more “connection” to your work, but now it is time to practice. Ensure you are researching your target audience, from their typical likes, dislikes, behaviors, generational differences, etc. Then, start working on your conversational tone, speaking to them as if they were your buddy hanging out, drinking coffee, and enjoying a casual conversation.
It takes practice to connect with your content, but it is not an unlearnable skill. Test the waters by tossing pieces that break away from what you usually do and see how they perform. Then, refine your technique, see how readers interact with your content and adjust as necessary.
Before you know it, you will be a writer who connects with the right audience to drive the conversions of which others can only dream.
Express Writers has a team of stellar wordsmiths that know how to hit on that conversational note and connect with your audience. From social media to landing pages to your next blog post, our writers can write as if they are talking to your target audience and help boost conversions so your business thrives on its blogging investment.
