How to Create Evergreen Content For Your Blog [with Actionable Tips]

Evergreen content stands the test of time by being relevant and useful long into the future. On the other hand, timely pieces such as news articles become obsolete as the news cycle shifts.

You’ll reap many benefits by creating evergreen content, such as the chance to generate traffic for a long time with the same article.

Now, many blog owners publish evergreen articles but fail to carry out regular updates. It’s a big blunder as search engines check for the freshness of the information. For more information, we’ve previously covered why updating your existing content is important.

Today’s article covers ways to create evergreen content as well as what to do after publishing your articles to retain your rankings.

Let’s get started:

What Is Evergreen Content? (Updated meaning)

Evergreen is a term used to refer to content that retains its freshness and continues driving traffic long after its publish date.

It remains fresh because the audience cares about the information and finds it helpful.

An article on “How to choose a new pair of shoes” may be considered evergreen. You can safely say the core basics of selecting footwear may never change. Shoppers will need to consider foot size or color preference.

Evergreen content needs to have timely information.

For instance…

If you wrote the article in the 1900s, you might have mentioned ways to assess the quality of wood-soled shoes.

No one wears wood-soled shoes anymore, so the same article in the 21st century may focus on other aspects such as heel flexibility.

“Evergreen content” needs a new and broader definition:

“It’s content with information that a target audience will continue seeking for a considerable time to address persistent problems.

True evergreen content adapts to new developments and incorporates new information to enhance its usefulness, timeliness, and credibility.

It’s also any content that search engines will gladly promote to the top of the SERP results because it’s always the most relevant result for the given time.”

Why Is Evergreen Content Good for SEO?

You’ll be stocked by the amazing SEO benefits of focusing on evergreen content as part of your content marketing efforts, including:

1. Less effort and no need to publish regularly: With timely pieces, you must keep publishing the latest information to remain relevant.

1. Generates regular traffic: An evergreen article may continue driving traffic to your website months and even years from now, even with minor updates.

1. Continues generating backlinks: New articles can reference your existing evergreen content. The backlinks will enhance your domain authority.

1. Lead generation: Insightful content with clear CTAs and value propositions will keep generating high-quality leads, reducing the need for paid ads.

1. Better chances to rank well: Evergreen content is often authoritative and well-written. It has a better chance of showing up among the top results.

What Are Some Examples of Evergreen Content?

You can consider the following examples of evergreen content:

• How to give a speech – Giving impromptu speeches to family members, colleagues, and friends is part of normal life. The same speech techniques that were applicable 50 years ago are still relevant to this very day.

• 10 different ways to cook potatoes – Potatoes are a staple in many diets. You can expect that people will seek new ways to spruce up their meals.

1. The proper way to run a 10-miler – Running is a growing topic as more people seek ways to be healthier. So, an article on tips to run a 10-miler may remain relevant for a long time.

What Doesn’t Qualify as Evergreen Content?

Great question. The following content formats may be topical and timely as opposed to evergreen:

• Posts covering events
• Celebrity news updates or gossip
• Statistics that may be easily replaced by new studies
• Posts discussing the latest trends or news stories

How Do You Make Evergreen Content in 5 Easy Steps?

Are you planning to publish a new evergreen piece? Consider following these 5 easy steps to achieve your content marketing goals. The techniques are applicable in all niches, from fashion to travel.

Step 1: Choose an evergreen topic that can stand the test of time

It’s tempting to write about trending topics. For a fashion blog, this may be seasonable fashion articles, for instance, who wore what during the last fashion week.

Trending topics are still important, but if you’re trying to create evergreen articles, consider posts that will remain relevant over time.

Instead of covering recent news or trends, you may write about “5 Quick Hacks for Glowing Skin or How to Rejuvenate Dull Skin with Tips from Dermatologists.”

Follow this process to find evergreen topics easily:

• List the common and persistent problems your target audience faces;

• Research your topic idea to see which articles are ranking and when they were last updated;
• Gauge if interest in the topic will keep growing or diminishing over time.

You can also use Google Trends to find out if popularity in the topic has been growing or declining. Say you want to write about the paleo diet, it would be helpful also to compare it against similar topics. 

We also have some helpful pointers that you can use to come up with great blog ideas for evergreen content.

Step 2: Follow evergreen-friendly content formats

Certain content formats naturally lend way to evergreen articles, including:

• How-to posts: It’s one of the most popular content formats. Articles adopt a tutorial style with actionable insights readers can implement to address their problems.

• Case studies: Case studies inform the audience on how a project was conducted, challenges the team faced, and unique lessons learned. Businesses tasked with complex projects such as ad agencies should capitalize on case studies.

• List-posts: The content contains a collection of tips or facts, for instance, the best pepperoni pizza types. List-posts may be educational or informational.

• Tool, apps, or product recommendations: Technology has made many tasks easier. But owing to increased options, many people look for recommendations before purchasing new tools, apps, or software. You can cover relevant tools in your niche as a potential evergreen topic idea. Now, these articles may require constant updates as tools evolve to incorporate more features.

• Definitive guides: Dive deep into a topic with long-form and complete guides.

• Checklists: You can help your audience solve a particular issue or complete a certain project by giving them a checklist. It helps them cover all the bases, for instance, a car inspection checklist.

When gauging how evergreen a topic is, think about its longevity. Can the information be easily replaced? For instance, while a study may have been conducted a couple of years ago, you may find newer articles still referencing the material for the lack of fresh content.

Similarly, some evergreen topics have a timely element. Take, for instance, the topic of “Google Ranking Factors.”

Owing to regular Google Search algorithm  updates, marketers tend to search for “Google ranking factors in + {Year}.”

Step 3: Select keywords with good search volume, low difficulty, and stability

Ideally, you should target keywords with good search volume, low difficulty scores, and good stability.

• Search volume gives you an indication of how many hits the keyword receives.
• The difficulty score or ranking difficulty can tell you what it takes to rank among the top results, such as the number of backlinks the content should attract.
• Stable keywords have a clear search intent, and the rankings are often consistent with no major swings.

Tools such as Ahrefs and SEMRush can provide information about the rankings volatility.

Step 4: Build new & better content

The best evergreen articles tend to retain their rankings even after competitors publish new content. That’s because they are more thorough.

Now, here is how to build better content in quick steps:

• Review the top 5 ranking results for your target keyword;
• Check for areas that competing articles have not covered effectively;
• Generate new headline ideas to improve your new article;
• Consider adding illustrations, expert opinions, case studies, or the latest statistics;
• Enhance the content by creating related media, including videos, graphics, or infographics.

Step 5: Avoid longevity killers

Some mistakes may interfere with your efforts to create evergreen content, for instance, basing your article on current events. An article such as “What Marketers Can Learn From Apple’s 2020 Event” may quickly become outdated.

Mentioning terms such as “last year or yesterday” can confuse the timelines for readers interacting with the content long after it was posted.

Now, it’s not bad to add the year to your article’s titles, for instance, “The Ultimate Guide to SEO in 2021.” However, it’s paramount to keep updating the content, not just changing the year during periodic reviews.

Another alternative is to simply remove the year reference if you’re not planning on updating the content.

How to Update Evergreen Content for Better SEO Results

No content is truly evergreen unless it’s regularly updated. Google assigns a freshness score to results and shows a preference for recently updated articles.

Our investigation collaborated on this fact. We checked the dates for articles ranking for some highly competitive keywords:

You will not need new content to rank well.

Our research uncovered that many articles with recent publish dates on SERPs actually came earlier.

Take the example of Backlinko’s “Google’s 200 Ranking Factors.” Brian Dean published the article back in 2013.

Over the years, he has made countless updates. Many people keep coming back to the article following any Google Algorithm changes because they are sure to find up-to-date information. So, it’s no wonder that it has maintained its high ranking.

The URL https://www.wpbeginner.com/guides/ has served as a landing page to redirect users to other articles since 2012 according to snapshots on the Wayback Machine.

Today, it’s a full-fledged blog claiming a coveted spot on the SERPs.

Google shows dates for articles that it considers time-sensitive. Many of the articles with dates typically fall into the “evergreen content” category.

Having recent dates for your ranking pages is important for another reason. It may influence which results users choose.

We live in the modern world where new often means better, whether it’s a new iPhone or vehicle.

So, how can you update your evergreen articles:

1. Track everything: keyword rankings & analytical data

Your blog may grow to hundreds of articles, making it difficult to gauge which articles to update. Before making any decisions, collect hard data about search performance and traffic.

Google Analytics can give you insights on page views, bounce rates, and audience segments.

You can use keyword tracking tools for position tracking and Google Search Console to see ranking keywords.

From a content marketing basis, the best-performing articles should receive the most attention. You should review and update them at least once per year.

To summarize:

• Track any changes to your keyword positions;
• Check your page’s analytics data;
• Watch out for large traffic drops or position losses;
• Prioritize articles to update based on their importance or urgency;
• Focus your efforts on the most valuable content.

2. Improve your evergreen content

You should refresh and update your content regularly. But how do you do it?

Well, try the following strategies with existing content:

• Check for any grammatical errors and spelling mistakes—small improvements can result in an enormous SEO boost;
• Review newer articles on the subject;
• Add new information to make the article more timely;
• Uncover any content gaps by checking terms people are using to find your content over which topics the content covers —you can use Zenbrief + Google Search Console for this research;
• Update any broken links and link to newer sources;
• Find opportunities to add recent statistics or findings;
• Add more related media items, including photos, charts, graphs, etc.
• Embark on link building, which shows Google that third-party sources find the content relevant.

3. Re-promote your articles

Promote your updated content as if it were new. You can tweet or post about the article on various social media platforms. When reposting, think of unique ways to encourage more people to check out the article, such as asking intriguing questions to spark discussions or sharing graphics from the article.

You can also find new social media platforms to promote the article, such as LinkedIn or Quora.

Make the article more visible to your website visitors. You can promote it on your blog’s sidebar or create a Google Search Console featuring related articles.

You can also ensure that your blog post is well-structured with different interest areas or categories.

4. Repurpose old content into podcasts, videos, infographics, etc

Not everyone gets their knowledge by reading blog posts. Some people can count years since they last read something online. If you put a lot of work into creating great content, it’s a tough pill to swallow.

Look into the future —and expand your content visibility by taking advantage of more media formats. You can easily adapt an article into a video or podcast.

The content will be published as if it were new, and repurposed content may perform better.

For instance, people searching for a guide on “How to do eyebrows” may benefit from a video format. Even Google prefers showing a video for the featured snippet.

Similarly, an article on “How to mow your lawn” may work well as a video. Case studies may perform well as infographics. Tutorials can make great checklists. News stories and investigative pieces with storytelling formats can make great podcasts.

5. Keep your entire website fresh

Don’t update one article and hope for the best. Google recrawls your website frequently, checking for new content and updates to existing articles.

If your entire website seems stale, you may gradually lose ranking across several keywords.

So, have a plan to regularly update most of your content, even if you’re not planning on publishing new content frequently.

Bottom Line

Focus on evergreen topics to generate consistent traffic without chasing the hamster wheel of content. Updating your evergreen articles should be a key focus of your SEO content strategy too. Not only does Google assign a freshness score to articles, but readers may also view recently updated content as more relevant. While evergreen content is great, don’t forget to create timely content too.