evergreen content

Evergreen content is a term for web content that is permanently in demand and independent of trends. They are searched for by users regardless of season or time of year and offer lasting added value. Vendors need to update them regularly for good search engine optimization.

Definition

In the language of search engine optimization (SEO), evergreen content refers to web content that is interesting to a site’s target audience over a very long period of time. Users regularly request such perennial favorites regardless of season or time of year, which generates continuous traffic to a website.

For evergreen content to work well, the post must add a lot of informational or entertaining value and be updated regularly. Search engines like Google, Bing & Co. rank websites that have not been updated for a long time worse. In order for pages with evergreen content to be presented high up on the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) for a long time, website operators must update these pages at regular intervals.

Evergreen content works well as cornerstone content in many cases.

Typical topics for evergreen content

Evergreen content can take many different forms. Basically, any contribution that does not have a thematic or content-related reference to seasonal circumstances is a potential long-runner. This applies to posts about historical or mythological topics as well as cat videos.

Typical categories for evergreen content are mainly encyclopedias or wikis. Articles in this genre are almost without exception in demand regardless of the season and therefore do not experience seasonal fluctuations in visitor numbers. In the same way, rankings or records are topics for long-running stories. After all, people are not interested in who is the oldest person in the world in the summer.

Guidebooks are also often perennial favorites. Here the categorization already becomes somewhat more difficult. After all, a recipe is more likely to be a perennial favorite than a guide to the perfect bikini figure. The recipe is likely to be in similar long-term demand as a diet guide – although of course this may change with seasonal cooking. How to get the perfect beach figure is more interesting as a topic before the holiday season.

The demand of the target group is therefore decisive for the potential of a topic as a long-runner. If the audience is likely to have a lasting interest in a topic (such as what evergreen content is), it’s a topic for evergreen content. Otherwise, no (as in, say, guides to Christmas decorations).

Why is evergreen content important for SEO?

For the OnPage optimization of a website, permanent posts are good posts to continuously lead visitors to a website. Well-designed long-running articles are articles that are interesting and entertaining and therefore have a high dwell time and a low bounce rate. Thus, they are recognized by the search engine algorithms as valuable for the users of the search engine and accordingly displayed higher in the SERPs.

In order to produce evergreen content, website operators need to know the target audience of a site very well and be able to gauge their interests very well. Plus, evergreen content means a lot of work. Not only is the creation often relatively time-consuming, but the posts also need to be updated regularly. Google, for example, includes the publication date in the rating. Therefore, even perennials need to be kept up to date.

Because guides and wikis are particularly suitable for evergreen content, this form of web content is also well suited for demonstrating to the target group the competence of a site on a particular topic. Therefore, appropriate blog posts are also suitable for e-commerce site to convince customers about themselves.

Conclusion

Long-running content is web content that is requested by the target group of a topic again and again, regardless of time and season. This makes them good for generating continuous organic traffic to a website and having posts with good KPI. They need to be updated regularly to be considered relevant by Google.