What is Evergreen Content?

Evergreen content is content about topics that stay relevant long after their publication date. Some types of evergreen content include: 

  • How-to guides
  • Reviews
  • Listicles
  • Buying guides
  • Tips
  • Q&As
  • FAQs
  • Glossaries
  • Interviews
  • “History of” articles
  • Industry resources
  • “Ultimate guides” 
  • Case Studies

Not every piece in this format is evergreen, but these types of content lend themselves to evergreen content more than other formats. Minor updates related to data or dates don’t disqualify something from being evergreen content.

Pine ForestWhat Isn’t Evergreen Content?

A few examples of formats that don’t lend themselves to 

  • Trend-focused articles
  • News articles
  • Pop culture articles
  • Statistic-based articles
  • Product announcements

Unlike evergreen articles, the relevance of these types of content has an expiration date.

FireWhy is Evergreen Content Important?

Writing evergreen content has plenty of benefits for your branded blog compared to trending content. 

Drive Traffic to Your Website

Timeless topics, high-quality writing, and the right keywords give evergreen content the potential to rank high on search engines for a long time to come. This leads to more traffic on your website and higher conversion rates. 

Sign Posts

Build Your Backlinks

The continued relevance of evergreen content on search engines can do wonders for your link building. The more other people read your content, the more people will link to it. Backlinks make search engines see your site as credible, which in turn boosts your SEO rank. 

Chain Links

Offer Value to Your Audience

Evergreen topics are more likely to be topics that people genuinely want to learn about over time. Writing these pieces on topics that are relevant to your business can help people see your company as an authority in its industry.

Offering Value

How to Create Evergreen Content

Brainstorm Evergreen Topics

Start by making a list of topics that are relevant to your business and are helpful for your audience. For a pet supplies store, this may include

  • Dog care
  • Cat care
  • Bird care
  • Small animal care
  • Getting a new pet

Brain

Do Keyword Research

Once you have a substantial list of topics, use a keyword tool like Moz, Ahrefs, Google Trends, et cetera to find related keywords to rank for. You want to find terms with:

High Search Volume

Search volume is how many times users have searched a particular term. High search volume means more likelihood that people will find your content from searching. However, it often also means more competition. Aim as much as possible for keywords with high search volume and low competition. 

Upward or Consistent Trending

If a keyword is on the decline or has drastic peaks and valleys, it’s not an evergreen topic. If searches are trending upward or have stayed consistent over months and even years, it has evergreen potential. 

Consistent Search Intent

Search intent is the reason someone made a search. A user could search with intention to make a purchase, find information, or compare similar products. For evergreen content, you want search intent that stays consistent over time. 

Keyword Research

Create Evergreen Content

Once you’ve got your topic ideas, it’s time to create your evergreen content. 

Create Quality Content

First of all, your content has to be worth reading. Search engine algorithms don’t just care about keyword placement. They’re trying to put the best results at the top. Writing the best piece of content on any given topic may seem like a lofty goal, but you can get there if your content is

  • Well-designed
  • Easy to read
  • Useful
  • Engaging
  • Solves the problem
  • Unique
  • An authority on the subject matter

Quality

Avoid angles with a short lifespan

Referencing pop culture in your marketing content may be fun, but it puts an expiration date on its relevance. For example, an article about what the Mother of Dragons can teach you about pet care may have killed five years ago, but wouldn’t get many clicks now that Game of Thrones isn’t popular anymore. 

Another tactic some content marketers use to get trending is connecting their content to a breaking news story. Though this may lead to a short-term spike, it won’t lead to pieces of evergreen content.

Downward Trend

Avoid using language with a short lifespan

Using references to time like “last year,” “earlier this month,” or stating the current year can easily date your content. Sometimes content marketers use the year in their titles if the piece is data-heavy or it’s a topic people are likely to include the year in their searches about it. If you do that, make sure to update the content every year. 

Time Running Out

How to Maintain Your Content’s Evergreen Status

Track Your Rankings

After your evergreen article is published, see its relevance over time with its SEO rankings. If it’s steadily declining, it might be time to refresh it and give it a promotion bump. 

Refresh Your Content

Here are some ways to update your content: 

  1. Correct outdated information
  2. Add new text
  3. Fix broken and outdated links
  4. Add new media
  5. Make it interactive
  6. Check the grammar and spelling

Refresh

Highlight Evergreen Posts on the Sidebar

The sidebar on your blog is a great place to promote related content that the readers may enjoy. It also keeps content in circulation after it’s been published. 

Repost Evergreen Content on Social Media 

One of the great perks of having a branded blog is the content it adds to your social media calendar. With evergreen posts, you don’t have to share it just once. Sharing it every few months or whenever it’s particularly relevant again. 

Social Speech BubblesEvergreen Content Best Practices

  • Choose the Right Keywords
  • Optimize for SEO
  • Narrow Your Topic
  • Write for Beginners
  • Avoid Overly Technical Language
  • Repurpose Content
  • Link Posts Together

How Sav Can Help

A successful blog with evergreen content deserves a beautiful website from an effective website builder. Sav's Blog Widgets make it easy even if you've never blogged a day in your life. With our SEO features, you don’t need to be an expert to dominate Google. Get Started today!

Luca Harsh

Luca Harsh

Luca Harsh is an in-house content writer for Sav. They live in Chicago with their cat, Polly. Yes, Harsh is their real last name.