What is evergreen content?

Evergreen content is content that stays relevant long after you publish it, because it's built on a topic people keep searching for. A guide on how to water houseplants is a typical example of a topic that doesn't go out of date. That makes it the opposite of news or trending content, which loses its readers once the moment has passed.

What is meant by evergreen content?

What makes content evergreen is its topic: people keep looking for it, whatever the date. The format can be an article, a video, an infographic or a podcast.

The name comes from nature: an evergreen plant keeps its leaves all year round. In everyday English, evergreen also means always seeming fresh or remaining popular, and that's the sense marketers use.

To tell whether a topic will last, ask yourself whether the page will still be accurate and relevant two years from now. If it will, and needs only small changes to stay that way, the topic is evergreen. If the page leans on this year's prices, a product launch or a news story, it will age quickly.

What is the opposite of evergreen content?

The opposite of evergreen content is trend-related content, about news and trends that people only look for while they're new. For your plant shop, a post about the houseplant everyone is sharing this month is trend-related. Seasonal content, such as a Christmas gift guide, is a type of its own, tied to a holiday or a season. People look for it again every year, but only for a short period, so plan and update it ahead of its season rather than expecting steady traffic.

Should you only create evergreen content?

No. We recommend making evergreen pages the base of your content, built on the questions your customers always ask. Add a timely piece when there's a real reason for one, such as news about your shop or a seasonal offer. It shows customers that your business is active.

Why is evergreen content important?

Evergreen content is important because it has a long shelf life and a good chance of ranking well in search engines. You write the page once, and it keeps bringing in visitors while you run your business.

Benefits of evergreen content

• Good evergreen content can bring a steady flow of visitors month after month, because people keep searching for the topic.
• Once a page is live, it stays relevant for years. Unless the topic changes fast, a check once or twice a year is usually enough to keep it that way, so you don't have to write lots of new content every week.
• The topic is easy to reuse. You can make a short video about it or create images that support the text, and share them on social media.

Drawbacks of evergreen content

• Evergreen content needs regular maintenance to keep performing well in search.
• An evergreen page builds slowly and pays off over years rather than days. If you need a burst of attention, a timely piece is the better choice.
• Evergreen topics are very competitive. If a popular topic already has many strong pages, pick a narrower one that fits your business.

Types of evergreen content, with examples

Evergreen content comes in many types, and each of these eight stays useful as long as its topic lasts:

• How-to guides explain a task step by step. Our guide on how to use WordPress takes you from installing WordPress to publishing your site.
• 'What is' explainers make one term or idea clear in plain words. Our article What is SEO? does this for search engine optimisation.
• In-depth guides cover a whole topic from start to finish. Our guide on how to build a website from scratch goes from deciding what the site is for to testing it before you publish.
• Lists gather tips, tools or ideas the reader can scan quickly. Our overview of the most popular domain extensions is an example.
• History pieces give an overview or a timeline of how your trade developed.
• Frequently asked questions answer what your customers ask most, gathered on an FAQ page. They help visitors find an answer without contacting you.
• Glossaries explain the jargon of your field. "Hosting", for example, is a tricky term until you know what web hosting does, and our One Glossary explains terms like it.
• Customer stories and reviews, such as case studies and testimonials, show how you've helped people. Depending on your business, they can work well when customers want proof before they buy.

How to create evergreen content

These steps are for when you want to plan and write a piece of evergreen content for your website. On your plant shop's site at mossyleafplants.co.uk, that could be an article that brings in visitors for years:

1. Pick a topic people search for all year, not one tied to news or hype.
2. Check in a keyword tool whether interest in the topic stays steady over time.
3. Make sure the core answer on your topic won't change much over the years.
4. Find out what searchers want from the topic, and write the kind of page that gives them that.
5. Cover the questions people expect answered, with subheadings that will still make sense later.
6. Leave out trendy angles and time words like "last month" or a specific year.

For your plant shop, keyword research might show that many people search for "watering plants". Google's Keyword Planner shows estimates of how often a keyword is searched, so you can check the interest. To see whether that interest lasts, look at how searches rise and fall over the years. Google Trends, a free tool from Google, shows how interest in a search term changes over time. A fairly flat line over a long period is a good sign of steady demand. A sharp spike after one news story suggests the topic is unlikely to stay evergreen.

Next, search for "watering plants" yourself and see which pages come top. If they're step-by-step guides, people want a guide. An article with tips on how to water houseplants then gives them what they're looking for, and it can link to the watering cans you sell.

When you write, keep the text easy to read, with clear headings, short paragraphs and lists. Good content writing also means you answer the reader's question early and explain any jargon you use.

Once the article is live, keep promoting it. Your email newsletter and your social media marketing are good places to start, and so are forums and online communities where people ask about plants. Paid search ads can bring extra visitors if you have the budget.

How to keep evergreen content up to date

Check your guides and how-tos once or twice a year. If your topic changes fast, such as software or prices, check it more often. A reminder for each important page keeps the check from slipping. Start with the pages whose visits are dropping in your website statistics. Even when the answer stays the same, these parts of a page age:

• Statistics and data age, and a source you used may have changed since.
• Examples become outdated, and screenshots may no longer match what readers see.
• A link that no longer works, called a broken link, leaves readers at a dead end.
• When your products change, for example a watering can you link to is no longer in your range, update the text and the call to action too.

When you've updated a page, keep its web address the same. If you do change it, Google recommends a permanent redirect from the old address whenever possible, and rankings can fluctuate while Google processes the change. Google's guidance on helpful content warns against changing a page's date to make it look fresh when the content hasn't substantially changed. So give a page a new "last updated" date only after a real update.

Publish your evergreen articles on your own website, where you decide when a page changes. Every hosting plan includes web space, professional email and an SSL certificate.

Evergreen content ideas

Each of these title ideas works for almost any business. The examples show how your plant shop might fill them in:

• "A beginner's guide to [topic]", for example "A beginner's guide to caring for succulents".
• "The most common mistakes with [subject]", for example "The most common mistakes with watering plants".
• "How to [task]", for example "How to repot a houseplant without hurting the roots".
• "The [number] best [subject] for [situation]", for example "The 10 best plants for a dark room".
• "The history of [subject]", for example "The history of the houseplant".
• "Your [topic] questions answered", for example "Your orchid questions answered".
• "What does [term] mean?", for example "What does pot-bound mean?".
• "The [number] tools for [task]", for example "The 5 tools for repotting".

Pick the title your customers would ask about first, and write that article. If you host your website with us, each article stays on your own site, where you can keep it up to date for as long as it brings in visitors.