As a consumer of online content, one pet peeve of mine is when articles aren’t dated. Knowing when a piece of content has been published is important to know how relevant and up-to-date it is.
But some content doesn’t necessarily need dates: evergreen content.
Evergreen content is a type of content that retains its merit and relevance over time. It’s useful for months and years, and with routine refreshes, it can provide immense value to any content marketing strategy because it provides enduring value.
This blog post will discuss what evergreen content means, some evergreen content writing best practices, and why having evergreen content on your blog benefits your business.
What is evergreen content?
Evergreen content consists of timeless information relevant to your audience regardless of the date they were published.
Unlike seasonal content (news stories, trending topics, or hot takes that may become outdated quickly), evergreen content can be used as a reliable, authoritative source of information for years.
This type of content is usually timeless and not tied to any particular trend or event. Examples of evergreen content ideas include:
- Ultimate guides
- Listicles
- Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
- Glossaries
- Case studies
- Templates and checklists
- Tutorials
Now, evergreen content shouldn’t trump seasonal content. There’s a time and place for both, and the combination creates a content portfolio.
Part of your portfolio should be allocated to a core library of evergreen content pieces, and the other part should be allocated to fresh thought leadership and seasonal topics—your publication.
We’ve written a lot about this modern approach to content. Read more about that here.
Evergreen Content Benefits
Now, let’s dig deeper into some specific benefits of creating evergreen content.
Steady traffic
One benefit of evergreen content is its SEO advantage. Because it remains relevant for a long period of time, it has the potential to continue ranking on search engine result pages (SERPs) for months or even years after its publication date.
That means that evergreen content can provide you with a steady stream of organic traffic over a longer period than other types of content—making it an excellent investment in terms of SEO value.
Long-term visibility
Another benefit of evergreen content is its long-term visibility on SERPs.
As mentioned above, well-crafted evergreen pieces can remain visible on SERPs for a while, meaning that they will continue to bring in organic traffic and leads long after their initial publication date—even if you don’t actively promote them anymore.
These “pieces become “everlasting” sources that drive traffic, leads—and revenue.
I worked with one client years ago to create an ultimate guide for their industry. At the time, the topic had less than 100 global monthly searches, but we wrote and published it anyway. Why? Because the client was an early adopter in a budding industry, and creating that piece of evergreen content would bring in traffic for years to come.
Today, the same term has over 4,000 global monthly searches, and the client’s guide still ranks #2—right behind Wikipedia.
Awareness and authority
Creating evergreen content keeps your brand top-of-mind for your target audience and potential customers.
Since evergreen parts remain relevant and useful over a longer period than other types of website copy, they’re great for establishing yourself as an authority figure in your industry—especially if you are consistently updating them with fresh data and insights from time to time
This helps create long-term relationships with your audience that will also reward you in the future.
Additionally, having a library full of evergreen content helps build brand trust with readers as they know they can rely on your company for consistent information—especially if you update old evergreen articles every so often (which I’ll touch on below).
It gives readers access to reliable information that they can rely on no matter when they visit your website or blog.
How to Create Evergreen Content
Creating evergreen content takes effort and planning, but it’s well worth it.
1. Think long term
First, focus on creating quality, valuable information that will stand the test of time—think educational how-to guides or industry best practices instead of time-sensitive news articles, pop culture references, or trendy hot takes on current events (which won’t last long).
When writing about evergreen topics, consider how the content could be reused or repurposed (e.g., via social media marketing, in email newsletters, for sales enablement) in the future—even if it’s years down the line. This will help you get even more mileage out of these long-form pieces.
2. Quality over quantity
With evergreen content, quality is much more important than quantity. This means taking the time to craft thoughtful pieces that provide value to readers instead of just churning out as many pieces as possible in a short amount of time. Your goal should be to produce pieces that will stand the test of time—pieces that people won’t just read once but will come back to again and again over the years.
Aim to create comprehensive pieces with detailed explanations. This way, you can provide readers with all the information they need in one spot instead of clicking elsewhere (and potentially away from your site).
3. Optimize for search—and conversions
Many evergreen content opportunities line up with high-volume search terms, such as “what is content marketing” (15,000 global searches per month) or “how to detail a car” (4,000 global searches per month).
Evergreen content is low hanging fruit when it comes to SEO. Optimizing for search ensures your post appears Google and drives relevant traffic. Add your chosen keywords to the title, meta description, and article headers. Use a tool like Clearscope to help, too.
Adding internal backlinks can help direct readers towards other valuable pieces of related content within your website, further improving visibility while building trust between you and your readership base.
Lastly, be sure to leverage the organic traffic you attract to turn readers into subscribers or customers. Place well-written, targeted CTAs on the page and within the content to move organic visitors down your marketing funnel. You can also use evergreen posts with consistent or growing traffic as testing grounds for A/B tests on new designs, conversion assets, pop-ups, or more.
4. Perform routine updates
Honestly, no web content is truly evergreen—it’s rare to publish a piece of content and never have to touch it again. All great content is at risk of expiry due to algorithm, industry, and platform changes.
When I was at HubSpot, I had to refresh the “Instagram Marketing: The Ultimate Guide” every six months to keep up with changes to the app design and software best practices. Even if the content is relatively evergreen, statistics and screenshots can go out of date.
Similarly, the search landscape for keywords can change, making your evergreen content less competitive on the search engine results pages (SERPs). This requires routine refreshes to keep your content optimized.
Routine content updates allow you to feature interesting trends, news, and statistics in your evergreen pieces (a.k.a. add something new to the conversation) without shortening the lifespan and impact of the content.
5. Don’t let your evergreen content get buried
Because evergreen content has a much longer lifespan than its news and trends counterparts, it can get buried on your blog. Don’t let that happen!
Beyond its search potential, here are other ways to breathe life into and get extra mileage from your evergreen content:
- Feature your evergreen content in your help or knowledge center as valuable training material
- Repurpose your evergreen content as email or video courses
- Highlight your evergreen content on your homepage or in a special module on your blog
- Offer a “Start Here” or “101” page on your homepage or blog where newcomers can learn the basics and get acquainted with your industry. Readers will soon regard your brand as an educational authority in your space
Over to You
Creating quality evergreen content can help establish your business and team as an authority in your industry while providing lasting value for readers over time—regardless of when they stumble across your blog post or article.
By choosing timeless and engaging topics and writing high-quality content, you attract new visitors to your website and maximize the impact of your content on your audience and business growth.
