Evergreen content is videos, articles, infographics, or other content that continues to be relevant over a long period of time. Compared to breaking news or articles about recent trends, evergreen content typically addresses problems or questions that never dissipate.
Evergreen content is a valuable part of your marketing strategy, specifically for search engine optimization (SEO). Let's take a deeper look at what evergreen content is, how to use it, and some of its key benefits.
What are some types of evergreen content?
Evergreen content is defined by its timelessness. Therefore, any type of content can be evergreen, as long as you craft it well. Listicles, tips, how-to content, and product reviews are common formats of evergreen content. However, you can make any content evergreen with the right approach.
"Writing about the newest iPhone would be an example of content that's not evergreen because that blog post won't be relevant to readers in a year or two," wrote Mailchimp. "If you wanted to turn that into evergreen content, you could focus on smartphones as a whole or offer tips on saving battery life with any type of phone.”
To make content evergreen, use keywords that have consistently high search volume. Many free keyword research tools can help you find the most common search terms for a specific topic, like Ahrefs Keyword Generator, the Semrush Keyword Magic Tool, the Moz Keyword Explorer, and Google Trends. Those keywords should give you some ideas for timeless topics, such as answers to frequently asked questions or glossaries of industry terms.
Avoid topics that have jargon or slang in the keywords, since that language can quickly become out of date or irrelevant. Likewise, evergreen content should be time-agnostic, so avoid discussing dates or specific events, such as an election period.
Evergreen content often becomes what experts call 'link bait.' Link bait attracts backlinks, or links from other websites to your site.
What are the benefits of evergreen content?
Evergreen content can deliver a consistent stream of traffic, leads, and potential sales.
"You can use it as part of your social media marketing strategy, allowing you to reuse content over and over again that remains relevant to your followers," wrote Mailchimp. "You can also use it as part of your email marketing strategies to help you engage and attract new customers."
Successful evergreen content can also form the backbone of your SEO strategy. Evergreen content often becomes what experts call "link bait." Link bait attracts backlinks, or links from other websites to your site. These backlinks boost your site in search results and help build your authority in your industry.
Evergreen content can help others find your content, which leads them deeper into your site and hopefully into your sales funnel. The content itself helps position your brand as an authority, thought leader, and trustworthy business. That trust is vital for convincing a new customer to buy your product or service.
[Read more: Free SEO Tools for Small Business Owners]
Best practices for using evergreen content
Evergreen content is just one component of your overall marketing strategy. While it offers many advantages, not all of your content should be evergreen.
"Timely and topical pieces are also important. These pieces are perfect for short-term marketing campaigns when you want to drive a lot of traffic and leads in a small amount of time," wrote the Digital Marketing Institute. "The best content marketing strategy includes a mix of long-lasting evergreen posts and more topical articles."
It's also worth noting that evergreen content needs to be updated semi-regularly.
"No matter how evergreen your content is when you first publish it, stuff WILL get out of date," wrote Brian Dean, an SEO expert at Backlinko. "I audit every post on my blog at least once or twice per year. And I'll give high-priority posts a small update every quarter."
Since SEO best practices also change from time to time, it's worth revisiting your evergreen content to make sure your keywords are still relevant.
[Read more: Everything You Need to Know to Build a Content Strategy for Your Small Business]
Evergreen vs. trending content: How to balance both in your content calendar
The rise of AI search and changes to traditional search algorithms have led to a rebalancing of evergreen content and more timely pieces. Historically, experts recommend dedicating 10% of your content to evergreen topics.
“Research from HubSpot found that just 10% of blog posts are ‘compounding’ posts that grow traffic over time. Yet that small percentage generates 38% of total blog traffic. One compounding evergreen post delivers the same traffic as six standard posts combined,” wrote Distribute Digital, a marketing agency.
Recent changes in the SEO world, however, suggest you should spend at least some of your content calendar on regularly updating existing evergreen content rather than generating new topics.
How to update and refresh evergreen content to keep it ranking over time
Today, Google and AI search systems use something called a Query Deserves Freshness (QDF) metric. QDF identifies when a topic is “hot” and boosts that content accordingly.
This development doesn’t mean evergreen content is useless. It does require content marketers, however, to distinguish between “evergreen content” and “evergreen topics.”
“An evergreen topic is one where the semantic core (the fundamental answer, mechanism, or concept) is stable over time,” wrote Ahrefs. “Evergreen content is what you build on top of an evergreen topic.”
Ahrefs uses the example of compound interest as a stable, fundamental evergreen topic. The definition of compound interest doesn’t change — it’s not a temporary trend and will continue to remain relevant well into the future.
To continue ranking for this term, content marketers must maintain evergreen content around this keyword. It’s not necessary to keep updating the evergreen topics but to refresh the videos, web pages, blog posts, and infographics that cover those topics.
“[Evergreen] content requires active maintenance to continue performing well in SEO, not because the concept changes, but because the competition and digital landscape around it do,” wrote Ahrefs.
The process of maintaining traffic for an evergreen topic starts with finding consistent, stable demand. Look for a topic that people will search for regardless of what’s trending. Ask these questions to determine if it’s a semantically-stable topic:
- Has information about this topic changed in the last five years?
- Will this topic still be relevant in five-plus years?
- Is this topic independent of trends, platforms, or people that could change?
Once you’ve landed on the right topic, make sure that you update your blog post, videos, infographics, and any other content according to the content refresh rate. This free tool, the Freshness Distance Calendar, can tell you how often you should update your content to rank in the top 20 search results.
What does a content refresh entail? It’s more than simply changing a few words here and there. Look for ways to add new subtopics, change stats and data, refresh examples, or update graphics and photos. “Every time you update, you need to focus on adding value and giving your reader fresh information,” wrote BuzzSumo.
How to promote evergreen content for sustained long-term traffic
One of the biggest benefits of evergreen content is that it can be shared multiple times. A study found that you need to consistently distribute your evergreen content to boost your chances of building interest. “They found that repromoting content a week after the first promotion, and tying evergreen content into current events, was key to boosting its shares,” wrote BuzzSumo.
Any time you update or refresh content around your evergreen topic, promote it via social media, email, and elsewhere. When you share an updated piece of content, make sure you highlight what’s new for your audience to spark interest.
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