What are evergreen blog posts?
I’m a huge fan of evergreen content. It’s a great way to maximise the effort you put into your blog. And to increase the organic search results on your website. But what are evergreen blog posts, and why should you care?
In this blog post, I’ll be covering:
What are evergreen blog posts?
Examples of evergreen content (and what’s not evergreen)
Why it’s important to incorporate evergreen content into your strategy
Tips for creating evergreen blog posts
Evergreen content is something you create which has an ongoing interest over time. It stays relevant and has no end date, so it helps to drive people to your website for months, or even years after publishing.
And, in case you were wondering, the name comes from evergreen trees that retain their green leaves all year round.
What are evergreen blog posts?
We all know that posts on social media have a relatively short shelf life. The exact timescale depends on the content and the platform being used, but these examples from Levitate Media give an idea of what to expect:
TikTok: 0-2 mins
Facebook: 5-6 hours
LinkedIn: 24 hours
Instagram: 48 hours
People scroll and move on, I do it myself. But, even so, I was surprised at how short some of these timescales were. If you’re using social media as one of your marketing strategies, it’s clear to see the importance of posting regularly enough to stay visible in people’s timelines.
On the other hand, blog posts have a much longer shelf life. The Levitate Media article suggests two years. In my experience, they can last much longer.
If you publish a blog post covering a current fashion trend, it will only stay relevant as long as that trend is in the news. But, if you write about a topic which will always be useful and interesting to readers, the number of search views can increase over the years.
Examples of evergreen content
Blog posts remain on your website until you decide to delete them. Even so, they’re not classed as evergreen unless the content continues to be relevant long past the publication date.
Some examples of evergreen content include:
How to clean your walking boots - whether someone is new to the outdoors, or wants to do a better job of caring for their walking boots, the information will always be helpful and stay in date.
How to get people to visit your website - this blog post has 20 free things that business owners can do to get more people to click on their website. Even as the years move on, the information continues to be useful.
Why have a blog for your business? - technology changes, but there are still lots of great reasons for publishing regular content on your blog. This post covers reasons which are not purely technology driven, so the content stays in date.
Walking the West Highland Way - this is a post on my outdoor blog which talks about my experience of walking the West Highland Way. It will continue to be an interesting story over the years for armchair adventurers and anyone planning to do the walk themselves.
Customer case studies - this type of content is a summary of a project, or how you work with your customers. They will always be interesting to read, even if there have been more developments since the original post.
A few ideas to get you going include:
Listicles: 11 ways to write a great listicle
Checklists: SEO checklist
Glossaries or key terms: SEO glossary
Tips or best practices: Interviewing tips for employers
How to’s: How to plant a hanging basket
Product reviews: for products which will be on the market for a long time
What’s not evergreen?
When creating your blog content strategy, you may want to consider a mix of evergreen and non-evergreen posts.
Whilst evergreen content will keep search engines finding your website for years to come, the non-evergreen posts will show that you’re up to date on industry news and trends. It can also create lots of interest at the time, and drive new readers to your website.
Some examples of non-evergreen content include:
Will ChatGPT replace content writers? - I wrote this blog post in February 2023 when ChatGPT burst into our awareness. Right now (July 2023) it still has lots of helpful and relevant information. But technology is constantly evolving and, without regular updates, I suspect it will be out of date in a few years.
IPSE ‘Sustainable Freelancer Award’ finalist - this blog post was written to share the news that I was selected as a finalist for an award in October 2023. It could be interesting over the years if someone wants to learn about me. But whilst it was newsworthy last year, it’s no longer in date.
UK Mountain / Adventure Festivals 2021 - this post on my outdoor blog is a summary of events in the UK during 2021. By 2022, it was already out of date.
Here are a few more examples of topics which are unlikely to stay trending over the years:
Breaking news: this can be great for short-term gains as it will drive immediate traffic to your website. But once interest around the news has waned, so will the visitors to your website.
Seasonal content: specific seasons or holidays (eg. Christmas gifts, summer holiday events) can be a great way to come up with fresh ideas for your blog. But the post will become obsolete once that season or holiday has gone.
Statistics / reports: statistical data tends to be time bound - for example, a report about marketing trends in 2022 will become out of date once the 2023 version has been published.
Fashion trends: writing a blog post about fashion trends for summer 2023 will no longer be relevant once we move into autumn 2023 trends.
New technology: with current pace of development for new gadgets and tech, blog posts sharing recent innovations will be quickly superseded.
These non-evergreen topics can create great pieces of content and drive new visitors to your website. But if you’re looking for search engines to continue doing the hard work for you, it’s important to include some evergreen content into your strategy too.
Why it’s important to incorporate evergreen content into your strategy?
Good evergreen blog posts will work for you long after the publication date. When I look at the analytics for my outdoor blog, some of the highest performing posts* each month are from 2018. One is even from 2015 but it consistently brings new visitors to my website. That’s despite publishing very little new content between 2019 and this year.
I’ve done nothing to promote the blog posts since the original publication dates. But they still have people finding the link and visiting my website. It’s search engine optimisation in action!
Readers have searched for a topic on Google. My blog post has been shown in their search results. They’ve clicked on the link and read the post. And that tells Google that it contains useful and helpful content which answers the original question they typed into the search bar. Because of that, Google continues showing it in answer to new search queries.
Want more reasons to use evergreen content?
You can repurpose your evergreen blog posts into social content for years to come
It helps your website have consistent web traffic. Once people are there, you can direct them to other areas of your website.
It takes away the pressure of continually finding new content. Instead, you can refer people to an older post which you know is still helpful and relevant.
Google loves it, and your search traffic will increase over time.
It can help show you as an expert in your sector.
You have a low maintenance blog post which works hard for you.
It will help improve your search engine ranking.
You can connect with customers by providing long-lasting and helpful content.
It helps with your sales funnel.
You’ll have SEO content which is continually relevant and fresh for readers over a long period of time.
* In case you were wondering, these are two of the evergreen blog posts mentioned above:
5 favourite climbing destinations in Europe
Bikepacking the Hebridean Way - getting started
Tips for creating evergreen blog posts
I talked earlier about different examples of evergreen content.
Whichever type of content you decide to write, it’s important to choose the right topic. Keyword research can help with that, as can Google trends and Answer the Public.
For example, looking at the Google trend for ChatGPT over the last 12 months, we can see that interest peaked around March 2023 and is now starting to wane. That indicates that it’s not a great topic for evergreen content.
On the other hand, the Google trend for chocolate cake recipe shows a more stable pattern of searches over the 12 month period. You can then use Answer the Public to search for chocolate cake recipe and come up with some great evergreen blog posts.
Once you’ve chosen a topic, here are a few tips to help you maximise your evergreen content:
Pick relevant keywords, especially long tail.
Avoid using overly technical language so your content is easy to read.
Optimise the blog post for SEO [read How to write SEO friendly blog posts].
Share on social media and keep highlighting it regularly.
Repurpose the content in different ways [read How to repurpose 1 blog post into 20 pieces of social media content].
If needed, update the content over the years so it stays relevant. You can then add “updated for 2023” at the top of your post to help Google know that it’s current information.
Re-run social media promotion with the updated content.
Add a ‘Start here’ page on your website with evergreen content so it’s easy for visitors to find.
Hopefully this post has sold you on the idea of including evergreen content into your marketing strategy.
Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions, or would like a chat about your content strategy.
