If you’re tasked with creating or updating content on your microsite, you may be asked to create something called ‘evergreen content’.

But what is it, and why is it important for your site? This article will explain everything you need to know about evergreen content.

What is evergreen content?

Evergreen content is content that is written to prevent websites getting out of date. It helps your website stay fresh and relevant as it is written to be timeless.

This means not mentioning specific dates in your content such as ‘in 2018, we’ll be….’ and instead, using content like ‘our team aims to…’.

It means that if your site isn’t being regularly updated, the content is less likely to appear out of date. This content provides value to your audience long after it is published and means the content will be relevant to users even if it hasn’t been updated for a number of years.

Why is it called ‘evergreen’ content?

The term ‘evergreen’ comes from nature. The evergreen tree is used as a low maintenance landscape feature. Unlike a deciduous tree, evergreen trees don’t drop leaves as the season changes. This represents continued life as the tree offers sustained growth and predictability.

Just like we don’t want to sweep up lots of brown leaves that have fallen, we don’t want to visit a webpage and find lots of out of date information.

Why use evergreen content?

Evergreen content lets you set and forget. This is general in context as it doesn’t provide information on timelines or current affairs. Therefore, evergreen content doesn’t need to be edited often. Well written content looks fresh and your audience wouldn’t even know when it was last updated.

So what is evergreen content?

  • general information
  • lists
  • instructions
  • concepts.

What isn’t evergreen content

  • news articles
  • events
  • content that talks about dates or is future focused
    information on trends
  • research information containing numbers and statistics
  • numerical information and statistics
  • videos
  • testimonials.

The advantages of evergreen content

The production of evergreen content is helpful in 2 ways:

  • Timelessness. Evergreen content is useful at the time of writing and in the future. You may need to make slight changes, but content should remain current unless something changes. e.g. the description of a research centre will remain the same unless a new area is added.
  • Value. As users search, find and engage with content your content builds value. This content continues to build value the longer your user interacts with it. Search engines will see this ensuring your website ranks higher in search results. If a user leaves your page quickly after finding out of date content, this indicates to search engines that the content isn’t good, and lowers the value. 

Evergreen Content and SEO

Evergreen content is highly valued by search engines. Well written, search optimised and sustainable content will help increase your page’s reputation. Relevant and continued traffic will help your page build reputation over time. This will not only improve your ranking but have a lasting effect. Newer pages will need to demonstrate their value before they rank higher in search results.

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