Content marketing is invaluable for any online business. However, your content must be beneficial to your audience, no matter when they find it. In other words, your content should be evergreen.

Evergreen content for SEO can empower your brand, offering all the right information whenever users should need it. Let’s look at what evergreen content is, how to create it, and how it can benefit your brand.

What is evergreen content for SEO?

When we talk about evergreen content, we mean content with long-term appeal for users. In essence, the topic won’t expire.

This is a piece of content with a topic that will remain relevant for a long period and will drive traffic to your website long after it published. Your content needs to meet your user’s needs when they reach it, which is why relatable content should be at the forefront of all your evergreen content marketing efforts.

Put simply, evergreen content is the opposite of breaking news stories, which become irrelevant the very next day and completely forgotten the week after.

How to create evergreen content for SEO

You’re probably wondering how you can create evergreen content for SEO and what format you should use.

For content to be evergreen, it needs to focus on a topic that will remain relevant for a long time. You need to choose a topic that is going to be relevant for the following days, weeks, months and (hopefully) years.

Resist the urge to write about current news stories and look instead to subjects where there are questions that people would like the answer. You can find what people are searching for through keyword research — just ensure those terms are relevant to your brand and you have the authority to write about the topics.

Additionally, the language used should make sense to the reader in real-time. Instead of using phrases like “this year”, say the actual year. If what you’re talking about actually happened in 2019 and the user is reading your content in 2024, phrases such as this can be confusing.

Bear this in mind for facts that could easily change, too. As an example, travel writers directing readers to a recommended museum might feel inclined to say, “the museum is open between 10am and 6pm Tuesday-Saturday”.

That might be true at the time of writing but this could change by the time a user finds your page. Instead, include open-ended information, such as “the museum has long opening hours, so you can visit at a time that suits your schedule.”

Evergreen content marketing formats

The content type you choose depends on the topic, but evergreen content formats can include:

  • How-to guides
  • Beginner guides
  • Product reviews
  • Case studies
  • Product comparisons
  • History of [topic or product]
  • FAQs
  • Buying guides
  • Glossaries (for words your industry uses)
  • Webinars
  • Testimonials

The above are just a few examples, but the opportunities are endless. Remember, SEO evergreen content is a chance to show off your knowledge — it’s all about finding the right content type for your topic and business.

Guides are a great idea, such as a beginner’s guide or a ‘how to’ guide. These pieces explain a topic with simple language, offering long-term value to readers.

Consider the subject of your guide carefully, however. As an example, people always want to know how to brush their teeth well, but are less likely to want to know how to operate a printer no longer in production.

If you can go down a specialised route with your chosen subject, do it. For example, instead of ‘How to brush your teeth’ you could write ‘How to brush your teeth with an electric toothbrush’ or ‘Tips for brushing your child’s teeth’.

These two ideas will naturally appeal to smaller audiences, but are also more likely to be found in the SERP than a common search query.

Finally, be prepared to spend time on your content — it may take significantly longer than a regular blog post, but it will be worth the extra effort.

Does all content need to be evergreen?

While it’s important to ensure as much of your main content is evergreen, it’s not always possible. A good example of when evergreen content for SEO isn’t possible is for promotional content marketing, such as blogs and press releases.

If you are releasing a new product, you may be inclined to write a blog post to discuss the product. This will naturally include phrases such as “new product coming soon”.

This type of content is very useful for grabbing the attention of users at the time, even if it won’t be relevant later. In this case, don’t avoid the topic just because it’s evergreen – if it’s useful to your brand at the time, then it is the right type of content to create.

How is evergreen content SEO-friendly?

Evergreen content won’t go viral but will be read, watched, and enjoyed by users. What’s more, it will hopefully improve your SEO visibility over time if executed well.

Ensure your targeted keywords are featured in your headers, URLs, alt. text, meta descriptions, and within the copy body to give it the best chance in search.

Evergreen content for SEO should help steadily drive traffic to your website over time, improving its popularity and increasing its chances of earning backlinks, helping you perform better in the SERPs.

How to keep your content evergreen

Review your evergreen content marketing regularly to assess its relevance and determine whether it is still helpful and factually correct. If the content was created to be evergreen, then this should only be a small task, but it can result in a boost in performance.

Think about new pages on your site you can link to, as well as new findings and developments on the subject you’ve written about. You can also add new images or videos to amplify your content in new ways or amend the writing so it meets a modern version of your brand’s tone of voice. It’s also a good time to check brush dust off our internal copywriting guide and amend the grammar and spelling on a page, as you never know what errors you might notice at a later date.

Once you have updated your SEO evergreen content, the date stamp will also be updated. Because it’s evergreen, the updated content can be shared again when you want to promote your offerings at a later date. Share this content on social media like it is new, and reap the rewards.