8 Tips to Increase Your Content’s Lifespan

Well-written content is like an investment. If you invest in it today in the right way, its value increases with time. In order for your content to count as an investment, it has to be crafted with utmost care and relevance.

The world of web content writing is a volatile one. There is uncensored competition, trends, viral content, etc. Is there a way to increase the long-term value of content? Yes, by increasing your content’s lifespan.

This blog will tell you everything you need to know about increasing the lifespan of your content. Although there is no one right way or one key ingredient, the following list explores the best practices that you can follow. 

8 Ways to Increase the Lifespan of Your Content 

When creating content for your business, remember that it should be useful and add meaning to people’s lives. Here are a few tips for creating great content and extending its lifespan. 

1. Factor in its relevance

Just like anything under the sun, content requirements, too, evolve with time. Write content that is relevant to the future as well. It is easier to do it right the first time and build on it in the future, rather than creating new content each time. But how to make content that stays relevant in the future too? The evergreen quality of content is taken care of, when the mission of the brand, the voice, purpose, and tone remain the same. 

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When creating content for your business, you should try to steer clear of singularly focusing on today’s trends or on virality. It should touch upon the foundational basis of your brand – the morals, ethics, and the value-additions that you provide your customer with.

2. Tweak it periodically 

Once your evergreen content is ready, revisit it as often as possible. Concentrate on updating existing links, statistics, information, etc. Tweak it wherever necessary to keep it relevant. Some forms of content that you can consider for upgrades are FAQs, testimonials, glossaries, tutorials, resources of the industry, quotes or sayings from industry leaders, how-to pieces, etc. This ensures your content stays fresh and relevant despite being old.

3. Consider the audience’s interests

Did you know that the average lifespan of a Tweet is merely 20 minutes? Similarly, your content’s lifespan varies depending on the platform it is published on. For instance, when you are sending out emails, remember not to be repetitive. Change the subject or the headings. Make it as personalized for the readers as possible. Keep your variety game in good shape by switching the type of content you share: text, video, infographics, etc.

4. Focus on engagement and influence

The most important goal of content is to engage the audience and influence them to follow a call to action. The audience will automatically do this when they find value in what you say. One of the best practices for increasing your content’s lifespan includes responding to comments and queries, with additional links so that you can genuinely help your audience with what they are looking for. 

That is the kind of value addition your consumers look forward to. Refrain from requesting readers to subscribe or share the content. You can ask them to contact you in case of any queries, which is a better option.

5. Divide your content into smaller chunks 

When you divide and subdivide your content into chunks, there are more ways to expand the life of your content. Each subdivision becomes a piece of content by itself. This way, you will open up numerous opportunities to reach audiences, rather than sharing a large chunk of content multiple times. 

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A major advantage of repurposing your content is that each subsection can be converted into a whole piece. For example, you can convert a paragraph from an article into social media content, with a link to the original large piece. You can even try converting important bits from an article into a podcast or infographic. This way, over a period of time, your original content will be revisited several times. It won’t be lost in the digital sea.

6. Reshare your content

The more you reshare your content, the more visibility it will get. Of course, we don’t recommend spamming your audience with the same content. Therefore, it needs to be done smartly. One way to do it effectively is to space your content over a few weeks. Rewrite post titles, repost the same content with a prominent quote, etc. You can reach new audiences each time you reshare your content. 

7. Look back at your old content

Before you start to create content, look back at what you’ve done in the past. Reevaluating your old content can be a great way of knowing what works with your audience and what doesn’t. Ask yourself the following questions: 

• What type of content drove traffic? 
• What type of content did the audience connect with the most?
• What kind of content helped you most with lead generation?

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These are just a few metrics to keep in mind when doing a content audit. There’s nothing wrong with emulating or recreating old content that you think will work with your audience in the present as well as the future. Also, while you’re at it, don’t hesitate to reshare or republish top-performing content. 

8. Pay attention to search engine optimization

Although underrated, SEO is one of the most important strategies you must follow when creating content for your business. How to incorporate SEO in your content? Here are a few ways:

• Focus on a string of keywords and include it in the title.
• Incorporate the main long-tailed keyword in the URL too. 
• It isn’t enough if the content is optimized only for a desktop or tablet screen. Make sure it is optimized for a mobile phone screen too. 
• The image alt text should be optimized accordingly. 
• Internal links help content present on the web. 
• Long posts garner more attention. 
• Tag your content with relevant hashtags (you can change the hashtags as frequently as you want, so that your content stays for long in the online game. 
• Set your social media profiles to public visibility. 
• Meta tags also help with content marketing.

As discussed earlier, there is no one way to increase your content’s lifespan, but by following these industry best practices, you can stay at the top when it comes to keeping your content evergreen.

However, creating evergreen isn’t enough. How do you make sure your content is always performing well? In order to do this, you will need to employ data-driven insights to gauge the traffic, leads, and conversions generated by your content. In this manner, you will be able to make adjustments and improvements in your content for optimum results.

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