Reading back over some of the posts that have been shared, I realized many of the links are not as main stream as I believe they should be. So I poured through what has become a library of links and selected the most useful, evergreen pieces.
I sincerely recommend reading everything on this list, and it’s a long one, so take it a section at a time – and bookmark it for later.
I promise you will come out a better marketer if you make it all the way through.
Table of Contents
- 1 My Evergreen Content Criteria
- 2 Evergreen Content Categories
- 3 SEO
- 3.1 WHAT IS SEO?
- 3.2 Getting Site Architecture Right
- 3.3 How To Develop A Keyword Plan
- 3.4 Craziest SEO Audit Checklist on the Internet
- 3.5 Maximizing ROI on Your SEO Investment
- 3.6 The Stunt Train SEO Marketing Manifesto
- 3.7 Optimizing Your Long-Tail Content Strategy: A Guide
- 3.8 What’s Your Landing Page’s Unique Ranking Proposition?
- 3.9 4 Ways to Optimize Site Structure for a Solid Search Engine Ranking Strategy
- 3.10 READABILITY AND SEO
- 3.11 How Google May Identify Navigational Queries and Resources
- 3.12 Microsoft Excel for SEO’s
- 3.13 Impact of Keyword Cannibalization: Beyond the SEO
- 3.14 Why it Makes Sense to Target Longtail Keywords First
- 3.15 KEYWORD MATCH RATIO
- 3.16 Spy On Competitors For Keyword Opportunities
- 3.17 Setting Realistic SEO Expectations
- 3.18 Information Architecture is Crucial to Good SEO
- 3.19 Estimating Organic Search Opportunity
- 3.20 How Google Might Ignore Insignificant Terms in Queries
- 3.21 Advanced SEO Tips for Blogs
- 3.22 The Advanced Google Analytics Cheat Sheet
- 3.23 Competitor Backlink Analysis in Excel
- 3.24 Fixing 5 Common SEO Problems with HTML5… Today!
- 3.25 SEO Podcast On Outing – Halo 18
- 3.26 Sustainable SEO vs. Myopic SEO
- 3.27 7 Best SEO Tips for (not provided) Keywords
- 3.28 Tested Advertising Strategies Respun For SEO
- 3.29 4 Steps to Becoming a Hero Using Competitor SEO Analysis
- 3.30 Own Your Role In SEO
- 3.31 SEO Competitive Analysis to Go
- 3.32 How To Spot Keyword Trends
- 3.33 The Advanced Guide to SEO
- 3.34 Hiring an SEO Company or Consultant
- 3.35 Can The SEO Industry Embrace Long-Form Content?
- 3.36 Blogs, Feeds, Follows, and Subscriptions for Keeping Up with SEO
- 3.37 Why Executives Should Care About SEO, and How You Can Help Them
- 4 Local SEO
- 4.1 Local Search Ranking Factors
- 4.2 How To Create Your Local SEO Roadmap Through Research, Benchmarking & Tracking
- 4.3 The Definitive Guide to Local SEO
- 4.4 How To Identify Quality Citation Sources
- 4.5 The Best Online Local Business Directories For SEO
- 4.6 The Guide to US Census Data For Local SEO
- 4.7 Making Stuff Part of Your Routine (For Better Local Rankings)
- 4.8 4 Powerful Local SEO And Content Marketing Strategies No One Is Talking About
- 4.9 Glossary of Local Search Terms and Definitions
- 4.10 4 Reasons Small Businesses Should Have a Blog
- 4.11 How To Do Local SEO For Your Website in Five Minutes (or So)
- 4.12 Community: The best local SEO strategy you’re not using
- 5 Mobile SEO
- 5.1 Building Smartphone-Optimized Websites
- 5.2 How to do a Mobile SEO Audit: Identifying and Maximizing your Website Mobile Potential
- 5.3 Mobile SEO Strategies: More than Just Choosing Keywords
- 5.4 How To Best Optimize Your Mobile Site For SEO
- 5.5 Mobile SEO: The Canonical Tag
- 5.6 Recommendations for building smartphone-optimized websites
- 5.7 Good Practices to Maximize Your Mobile SEO
- 5.8 The Mobile Movement
- 5.9 Mobile Couponing, SMS & QR Codes: What You Need to Know
- 5.10 Google: One URL With Special Stylesheet Is Easy Mobile SEO
- 5.11 Optimizing a Screen for Mobile Use
- 5.12 Local Search Engine Optimization: Mobile SEO & Local Tools
- 6 Video SEO
- 7 International SEO
- 7.1 Establishing your International SEO Strategy: How to Start your International Web Presence
- 7.2 International SEO Best Practices Checklist
- 7.3 A Simple Guide to Using rel=”alternate” hreflang=”x”
- 7.4 ADVANCED INTERNATIONAL SEO WITH REL=”ALTERNATE” HREFLANG=”X”
- 7.5 11 Considerations For International SEO
- 7.6 International SEO: 5 Things to Get Right
- 7.7 International SEO: Dropping the Information Dust
- 8 Conversion Rate Optimization
- 8.1 How to Get Traffic That Converts
- 8.2 [How to] Use Design Principles to Increase Conversions
- 8.3 How to make users scroll down your page
- 8.4 The LIFT Model: Use These Six Factors to Increase Your Conversion Rate
- 8.5 The 7 High-Converting Places to Add Email Sign-Up Forms to Build Your List
- 8.6 How to Calculate Customer Lifetime Value
- 8.7 Follow the F Pattern and Make Your Visitors Pay Attention
- 8.8 The SEOgadget Guide to Conversion Rate Optimization
- 8.9 Sell More By Being Human and Building Relationships
- 8.10 Gruesome conversion killers: 15 common causes of conversion death
- 8.11 A 50-Point Checklist For Creating The Ultimate Landing Page
- 8.12 How 5 Popular Landing Page Optimization Tips Can Also Hurt Conversion Rates
- 9 User Experience
- 9.1 A/B testing discount leads to 121% increase in revenue
- 9.2 What are landing page elements that contribute to increased conversions?
- 9.3 The Blueprint for a Perfectly Testable Landing Page
- 9.4 25 Point Website Usability Checklist
- 9.5 How Mobile Is Changing Ecommerce [Infographic]
- 9.6 How Successful is Your Landing Page? The 3 Key Metrics You Need to Know
- 9.7 The Backward Landing Page
- 9.8 Comparing the Anatomy of B2B Landing Pages
- 9.9 Into The Mind of a Usability Expert
- 9.10 Reduce Bounce Rate: 20 Things to Consider
- 9.11 How Behavioral Design Creates the Best User Experiences
- 9.12 The Five Landing Page Metrics You Need to Know
- 9.13 3 Ways to Increase Conversions Using Heatmaps
- 10 Content Strategy
- 10.1 We Can Do Better Than This
- 10.2 The Epic List of Content Strategy Resources
- 10.3 Mining for (Source) Content Gold
- 10.4 CONTENT RECALL
- 10.5 Should you work for free?
- 10.6 Content Analysis: A Practical Approach
- 10.7 Transitioning to a Content Strategy
- 10.8 Balancing user-centered design
- 10.9 A Basic (yet essential) Pre & Post Content Launch Checklist (with guidelines)
- 10.10 Common Creativity: Understanding the Rules and Rights Around “Free” Images on the Web
- 10.11 Practical Content Strategy, Part 1: Roles and Approaches
- 10.12 What It Takes To Get Remarkable Content Done
- 10.13 HOW TO GET TWITTER FOLLOWERS
- 11 Link Building
- 11.1 Using Brand Building Strategies to Improve Link Building
- 11.2 Please Exit The Link Building
- 11.3 Non-Intuitive Search Queries & Resources for Link Building
- 11.4 Stalking for Links
- 11.5 How To Estimate How Many Links You Need
- 11.6 How to: Get Links on Resource Pages
- 11.7 An Outreach Experiment for Paid Links in the Travel Industry
- 11.8 Putting Guest Post Outreach Theories to the Test [With Some Real World Data]
- 11.9 18 Tools to Speed Up Link Building
- 11.10 How To Be More Persuasive – Psychology 101 for Link Builders
- 11.11 The Most Creative Link Building Post Ever
- 11.12 Broken Link Building using BuzzStream
- 11.13 How Authorship (and Google+) Will Change Linkbuilding
- 11.14 The Link Builder’s Guide to Competitive ‘How-To’ Content Analysis
- 11.15 Big Brand Link Building: Identifying Link Opportunities via Misspellings
- 11.16 The Death of Link Building and the Rebirth of Link Earning
- 11.17 Link Building for Real Content
- 11.18 Blog Links That Bring Traffic, Not Trouble
- 11.19 Link Building With Your Sales Force
- 11.20 Backlink Analysis: 20 Uses Beyond Link Building, Part 3 of 3
- 11.21 Forum Participation Rubric for Ecommerce Link Building
- 11.22 131 (Legitimate) Link Building Strategies
- 11.23 Link Building Strategies – The Complete List
- 11.24 Link Building Query Theory: 7 Crucial Keyword Types for Link Prospect Querying
- 11.25 Who’s Your Competitor? – St. Stephen Relation Building
- 11.26 Prospecting with Power – Using Link Prospector with Screaming Frog for Brands
- 11.27 Linkable Asset Inventory: A Starting Point For New Link Building Campaigns
- 11.28 Link Building By Imitation
- 11.29 Link Building for Local Search
- 11.30 Link Prospector’s Guide to the InAnchor Search Operator
- 11.31 How to Make Your Website More Interesting and Linkworthy
- 12 Pay Per Click
- 12.1 6 Essential PPC Landing Page Optimizations
- 12.2 The Who, When, and Why of PPC Account Audits
- 12.3 Are You Following PPC Best Practices?
- 12.4 Consider The Ends To Justify The Means In PPC
- 12.5 Conversion Optimization 101: Perfectly Persuasive PPC Landing Pages
- 12.6 9 Most Misleading PPC Metrics
- 12.7 LinkedIn Ads: The Social Marketer’s Ticket To Amplifying Organic Reach
- 12.8 How to Easily Manage & Test Millions of Ads
- 12.9 PPC Pro – You’re Being Replaced
- 12.10 You Must Choose a Winning PPC Ad
- 12.11 Tips for Managing High Spend, High Volume PPC Accounts
- 12.12 5 Mistakes That Can Ruin Client Relationships in PPC Marketing
- 13 PPC 101 – The Beginner’s Guide To Pay-Per-Click Marketing
- 14 Content Marketing
- 14.1 The Complete Guide to Blogging for your Business
- 14.2 The Two Most Important Words in Blogging
- 14.3 Are Your Titles Irresistibly Click Worthy & Viral?!
- 14.4 Technical Hacks for Content Marketing
- 14.5 How Video Drives Consumers to Purchase
- 14.6 [GUIDE] Inbound Marketing Funnel Do’s and Don’ts
- 14.7 Content Marketing – Think Campaigns Not Just Links, Your Guide to TOFU
- 14.8 Content Marketing Worth Imitating
- 14.9 Here’s How “Product Context” Helps You Sell More Stuff Online
- 14.10 The 3 Emails You Must Send During a Launch… and a Fresh Alternative for Bloggers
- 14.11 Define and Align: A Manageable Content and Social Media Marketing Process
- 14.12 Why Your CEO Doesn’t Care About Content Marketing
- 14.13 8 Writing Triggers You Should Never Ignore
- 14.14 How to Leverage Personal Brand to Rank Your Business
- 14.15 Seventeen Ways To Improve Your Blog – Case Study
- 14.16 Could Algorithms Replace Writers?
- 14.17 How to Get Major Press For Your Startup, Small Business, Or Website (with No Connections and Without a PR firm)
- 14.18 What’s all the fuss about tone of voice?
- 15 Social Media Marketing
- 15.1 Finally! A complete list of every (important) social network’s image dimensions!
- 15.2 The Ultimate Guide to Twitter Marketing
- 15.3 How to Identify a Narcissist on Twitter
- 15.4 8 Simple Rules For Social Media Marketing in Business to Business Markets
- 15.5 GOOGLE+ SEO
- 15.6 10 Dead Simple Tips to Take Advantage of Google+ for SEO
- 15.7 The Science of Instagram: How to Get More Followers and Likes
- 15.8 35 Ways to get Links in 35 Minutes
- 15.9 HOW FOLLOWABLE ARE YOU ON TWITTER?
- 16 In The True Spirit of Evergreen Content
My Evergreen Content Criteria
Most evergreen content isn’t really evergreen, at least not in our technology-related vertical.
In dynamic verticals that change on an almost daily basis (search, social, design, ad tech, etc.) it’s difficult for content to stay perpetually useful, unless it is maintained and cared for. Sometimes big changes can make an entire marketing channel obsolete overnight.
So for this list I will be using my own, slightly modified, definition of evergreen content.
Here is the criteria for the content optimization I have included on this list:
- Provides relevant information or a perspective that will remain useful for a minimum of 2 years.
- Comprehensively covers a topic or process that is unlikely to change.
- Aggregates disparate information to be more accessible to a larger audience.
Evergreen Content Categories
Click on any of the buttons below to jump ahead to a specific section, you can then use the Back to Top link at the bottom of each section to get back to these buttons easily.
SEO
WHAT IS SEO?
Getting Site Architecture Right
How To Develop A Keyword Plan
Craziest SEO Audit Checklist on the Internet
Maximizing ROI on Your SEO Investment
The Stunt Train SEO Marketing Manifesto
Optimizing Your Long-Tail Content Strategy: A Guide
What’s Your Landing Page’s Unique Ranking Proposition?
4 Ways to Optimize Site Structure for a Solid Search Engine Ranking Strategy
READABILITY AND SEO
Microsoft Excel for SEO’s
Impact of Keyword Cannibalization: Beyond the SEO
Why it Makes Sense to Target Longtail Keywords First
KEYWORD MATCH RATIO
Spy On Competitors For Keyword Opportunities
Setting Realistic SEO Expectations
Information Architecture is Crucial to Good SEO
Estimating Organic Search Opportunity
How Google Might Ignore Insignificant Terms in Queries
Advanced SEO Tips for Blogs
The Advanced Google Analytics Cheat Sheet
Competitor Backlink Analysis in Excel
Fixing 5 Common SEO Problems with HTML5… Today!
SEO Podcast On Outing – Halo 18
Sustainable SEO vs. Myopic SEO
7 Best SEO Tips for (not provided) Keywords
Tested Advertising Strategies Respun For SEO
4 Steps to Becoming a Hero Using Competitor SEO Analysis
Own Your Role In SEO
SEO Competitive Analysis to Go
How To Spot Keyword Trends
The Advanced Guide to SEO
Hiring an SEO Company or Consultant
Can The SEO Industry Embrace Long-Form Content?
Blogs, Feeds, Follows, and Subscriptions for Keeping Up with SEO
Why Executives Should Care About SEO, and How You Can Help Them
Local SEO
Local Search Ranking Factors
How To Create Your Local SEO Roadmap Through Research, Benchmarking & Tracking
The Definitive Guide to Local SEO
How To Identify Quality Citation Sources
The Best Online Local Business Directories For SEO
The Guide to US Census Data For Local SEO
Making Stuff Part of Your Routine (For Better Local Rankings)
4 Powerful Local SEO And Content Marketing Strategies No One Is Talking About
Glossary of Local Search Terms and Definitions
4 Reasons Small Businesses Should Have a Blog
How To Do Local SEO For Your Website in Five Minutes (or So)
Community: The best local SEO strategy you’re not using
Mobile SEO
Building Smartphone-Optimized Websites
How to do a Mobile SEO Audit: Identifying and Maximizing your Website Mobile Potential
Mobile SEO Strategies: More than Just Choosing Keywords
How To Best Optimize Your Mobile Site For SEO
Mobile SEO: The Canonical Tag
Recommendations for building smartphone-optimized websites
Good Practices to Maximize Your Mobile SEO
The Mobile Movement
Mobile Couponing, SMS & QR Codes: What You Need to Know
Google: One URL With Special Stylesheet Is Easy Mobile SEO
Optimizing a Screen for Mobile Use
Local Search Engine Optimization: Mobile SEO & Local Tools
Video SEO
Video SEO: A Beginner’s Guide
12 Valuable Tips for Video SEO Beginners
Building a Video SEO Strategy
Video SEO Walkthrough
Using Video SEO To Steal Clicks, Localize Results and Increase Conversion Rate
International SEO
Establishing your International SEO Strategy: How to Start your International Web Presence
International SEO Best Practices Checklist
A Simple Guide to Using rel=”alternate” hreflang=”x”
ADVANCED INTERNATIONAL SEO WITH REL=”ALTERNATE” HREFLANG=”X”
11 Considerations For International SEO
International SEO: 5 Things to Get Right
International SEO: Dropping the Information Dust
Conversion Rate Optimization
How to Get Traffic That Converts
[How to] Use Design Principles to Increase Conversions
How to make users scroll down your page
The LIFT Model: Use These Six Factors to Increase Your Conversion Rate
The 7 High-Converting Places to Add Email Sign-Up Forms to Build Your List
How to Calculate Customer Lifetime Value
Follow the F Pattern and Make Your Visitors Pay Attention
The SEOgadget Guide to Conversion Rate Optimization
Sell More By Being Human and Building Relationships
Gruesome conversion killers: 15 common causes of conversion death
A 50-Point Checklist For Creating The Ultimate Landing Page
How 5 Popular Landing Page Optimization Tips Can Also Hurt Conversion Rates
User Experience
A/B testing discount leads to 121% increase in revenue
What are landing page elements that contribute to increased conversions?
The Blueprint for a Perfectly Testable Landing Page
25 Point Website Usability Checklist
How Mobile Is Changing Ecommerce [Infographic]
How Successful is Your Landing Page? The 3 Key Metrics You Need to Know
The Backward Landing Page
Comparing the Anatomy of B2B Landing Pages
Into The Mind of a Usability Expert
Reduce Bounce Rate: 20 Things to Consider
How Behavioral Design Creates the Best User Experiences
The Five Landing Page Metrics You Need to Know
3 Ways to Increase Conversions Using Heatmaps
Content Strategy
We Can Do Better Than This
The Epic List of Content Strategy Resources
Mining for (Source) Content Gold
CONTENT RECALL
Should you work for free?
Content Analysis: A Practical Approach
Transitioning to a Content Strategy
Balancing user-centered design
A Basic (yet essential) Pre & Post Content Launch Checklist (with guidelines)
Common Creativity: Understanding the Rules and Rights Around “Free” Images on the Web
Practical Content Strategy, Part 1: Roles and Approaches
What It Takes To Get Remarkable Content Done
HOW TO GET TWITTER FOLLOWERS
Link Building
Using Brand Building Strategies to Improve Link Building
Please Exit The Link Building
Non-Intuitive Search Queries & Resources for Link Building
Stalking for Links
How To Estimate How Many Links You Need
How to: Get Links on Resource Pages
An Outreach Experiment for Paid Links in the Travel Industry
Putting Guest Post Outreach Theories to the Test [With Some Real World Data]
18 Tools to Speed Up Link Building
How To Be More Persuasive – Psychology 101 for Link Builders
The Most Creative Link Building Post Ever
Broken Link Building using BuzzStream
How Authorship (and Google+) Will Change Linkbuilding
The Link Builder’s Guide to Competitive ‘How-To’ Content Analysis
Big Brand Link Building: Identifying Link Opportunities via Misspellings
The Death of Link Building and the Rebirth of Link Earning
Link Building for Real Content
Blog Links That Bring Traffic, Not Trouble
Link Building With Your Sales Force
Backlink Analysis: 20 Uses Beyond Link Building, Part 3 of 3
Forum Participation Rubric for Ecommerce Link Building
131 (Legitimate) Link Building Strategies
Link Building Strategies – The Complete List
Link Building Query Theory: 7 Crucial Keyword Types for Link Prospect Querying
Who’s Your Competitor? – St. Stephen Relation Building
Prospecting with Power – Using Link Prospector with Screaming Frog for Brands
Linkable Asset Inventory: A Starting Point For New Link Building Campaigns
Link Building By Imitation
Link Building for Local Search
Link Prospector’s Guide to the InAnchor Search Operator
How to Make Your Website More Interesting and Linkworthy
Pay Per Click
6 Essential PPC Landing Page Optimizations
The Who, When, and Why of PPC Account Audits
Are You Following PPC Best Practices?
Consider The Ends To Justify The Means In PPC
Conversion Optimization 101: Perfectly Persuasive PPC Landing Pages
9 Most Misleading PPC Metrics
LinkedIn Ads: The Social Marketer’s Ticket To Amplifying Organic Reach
How to Easily Manage & Test Millions of Ads
PPC Pro – You’re Being Replaced
You Must Choose a Winning PPC Ad
Tips for Managing High Spend, High Volume PPC Accounts
5 Mistakes That Can Ruin Client Relationships in PPC Marketing
PPC 101 – The Beginner’s Guide To Pay-Per-Click Marketing
Content Marketing
The Complete Guide to Blogging for your Business
The Two Most Important Words in Blogging
Are Your Titles Irresistibly Click Worthy & Viral?!
Technical Hacks for Content Marketing
How Video Drives Consumers to Purchase
[GUIDE] Inbound Marketing Funnel Do’s and Don’ts
Content Marketing – Think Campaigns Not Just Links, Your Guide to TOFU
Content Marketing Worth Imitating
Here’s How “Product Context” Helps You Sell More Stuff Online
The 3 Emails You Must Send During a Launch… and a Fresh Alternative for Bloggers
Define and Align: A Manageable Content and Social Media Marketing Process
Why Your CEO Doesn’t Care About Content Marketing
8 Writing Triggers You Should Never Ignore
How to Leverage Personal Brand to Rank Your Business
Seventeen Ways To Improve Your Blog – Case Study
Could Algorithms Replace Writers?
How to Get Major Press For Your Startup, Small Business, Or Website (with No Connections and Without a PR firm)
What’s all the fuss about tone of voice?
Social Media Marketing
The Ultimate Guide to Twitter Marketing
How to Identify a Narcissist on Twitter
8 Simple Rules For Social Media Marketing in Business to Business Markets
GOOGLE+ SEO
10 Dead Simple Tips to Take Advantage of Google+ for SEO
The Science of Instagram: How to Get More Followers and Likes
35 Ways to get Links in 35 Minutes
HOW FOLLOWABLE ARE YOU ON TWITTER?
In The True Spirit of Evergreen Content
This post is an important piece of the puzzle that Kristina Halvorson inspired me to build regarding SEO content writing checklist.
This post is going to remain a living document, so please share your favorite evergreen content link in the comments below so I can add them. Thanks!
Need help creating evergreen content on your site? Ask one of our SEO consultants now!