Pablo Herrera
Head of SEO & Content
Evergreen SEO is a must for those looking to maintain consistent traffic. If you ask me what kind of SEO your business needs, unless it is seasonal, I will always tell you to look for evergreen SEO.
Talking about “evergreen SEO” we are referring to a type of SEO that does not expire or, at least, remains in perfect condition for a longer period of time. Of course, this is not always the case.
Both on a technical level and on a historical level, there are circumstances that can make something that, at first glance, seems not to be outdated, end up being so. In the end we are talking about SEO content, which is only one part of the job. The technical part of a website has an equally significant influence on the ranking of a content.
That is to say, even if you prioritize evergreen content in your SEO content strategy, you will need the rest to work in order to rank continuously. Evergreen SEO does not make miracles, but it is the most profitable SEO in terms of business.
But let’s start at the beginning before we look at the pros and cons, as well as how it can be combined with other types of SEO. If you use it well, evergreen SEO can become your main ally to make your SEO efforts profitable.
What is evergreen SEO?
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Perhaps the first thing we need to talk about is what is evergreen SEO, giving some examples. Evergreen SEO is content that has no expiration date. That is, what the content is about remains unchanged (more or less) over time.
It is much easier to understand if we look at it with examples. For example, if you talk about computers, an article talking about hardware components would be SEO evergreen. However, if we talk about the best computers, it would not be evergreen because new models are constantly coming out that may be better than the ones we have written about in the article.
In this sense, the best historical novels could be considered SEO evergreen, even if new novels come out every day, but this would not happen in the technology sector.
Continuing with novels, if we had a bookshop we might also want to position the best novels to give as Christmas presents. In this case, it would not be evergreen either, because we are limiting the content to a specific moment: Christmas. It would, however, be evergreen if we were to keep to “the best novels to give as presents”.
When I said in the introduction that there are historical circumstances that affect evergreen content, we can easily see it here. For example, if one of the novels we have added goes out of print or a new revised edition is released. The content would still be evergreen, but it would no longer work as such because it has become obsolete.
Thus, the content initially conceived as evergreen will not always be evergreen, but the idea is to design it in such a way that it can last as long as possible without needing to be changed or updated. In other words, once it is done, it should work on its own.
This is obviously more profitable than having to keep upgrading. For example, the best computers in May 2023 will only work for us in May 2023, by June or July we will need new content or to update existing content. This means more workload.
Advantages of using evergreen SEO
The main advantage of using evergreen SEO is that you will be able to rank content throughout the year. In other words, it will be a constant source of traffic. To do this, the content must be well-crafted, comprehensive and respond correctly to the search intent.
In these cases, we can be in first position for years. In my work as an SEO, I have articles that have been in first position for more than five years, even with an acceptable search volume and without having to make changes. Five years is quite a long time and it is not usual, usually it will have to be updated, especially if there is a lot of competition.
Another clear advantage is that it helps to generate backlinks. Positioning all year round not only facilitates higher traffic, but also generates leads, whether through subscriptions, requests for quotes, sales, etc
This, in turn, helps us to maintain our position.
On the other hand, it also helps to create long-term internal linking strategies.
Being positioned all year round, not only facilitates higher traffic, but also leads, whether through subscriptions, requests for quotes, sales, etc. In this sense, if we have constant traffic, it can be a perfect place to do CRO experiments with forms, buttons, banners, etc., and thus check what works best.
Disadvantages of using evergreen SEO
The main drawback of evergreen SEO is that it does not work for all kinds of content. For example, it doesn’t work for news, product listings or other categories where the date is relevant.
Also, if your business is mainly seasonal, it may not be the right SEO for you. For example, for toys with sales centered around Christmas or beach products. In those cases, other types of SEO will give better results.
On the other hand, SEO takes into account the date of an article . This does not mean that an older article can’t rank, but between two articles of similar quality, in some cases the newer one will be the chosen one.
Dedicating our efforts to evergreen SEO can also cause us to lose opportunities for seasonal or occasional traffic. Sometimes, there are keywords that have much more seasonal or occasional traffic than other evergreen keywords, so not using them means losing traffic and conversion opportunities.
Using evergreen SEO or seasonal SEO?
We can combine both kinds of SEO, no problem. In addition, we must keep in mind that well done, seasonal SEO is still evergreen SEO that resumes its position at a certain time of the year.
For example, if we want to position year-end getaways, whenever the date approaches, we will see how traffic multiplies, with much higher figures than other similar evergreen keywords.
In addition, we must keep in mind that this type of keywords, although the high search volumes disappear during part of the year, does not disappear. This means that it will continue to bring traffic more gradually.
Types of evergreen SEO content
The easiest way to understand what evergreen SEO is for is to look at the most common categories of content we can find:
Tutorials
Tutorials are the perfect content for evergreen SEO. It is very useful content for the user and does not usually expire with some exceptions. It focuses more on informational content than transactional content, but it helps to get more traffic in the early stages of the conversion funnel.
Content such as “how to clean a blood stain” or “how to dye your hair at home” can be very useful as a first step for a detergent or beauty brand, respectively. There are many options for tutorials and it is very easy to adapt them to the different categories of our business.
Guides
Guides are similar to tutorials but have more general information. They are very common in areas such as travel, events or video games. In comparison to tutorials, they have much simpler and less technical information.
While tutorials usually start from the user’s previous knowledge, guides explain something from scratch. For example, “everything you need to know to organize your wedding” or “guide to Southeast Asia” would work perfectly.
Interviews
Interviews are content that can work either as evergreen SEO or the opposite. It will depend on the interviewee and the questions we ask them. There are people we can do an evergreen interview with, while they won’t work with others.
For example, if we interview Penélope Cruz, we can ask her about her entire career, her difficulties as an actress in Hollywood, her recognitions, etc. On the contrary, we can focus on her latest projects.
In the first case, her answers would not “expire” and would be useful for someone who wants to know more about the character, while in the second case, expiration would take precedence.
Lists
Another evergreen SEO content that works very well are lists. In this case, I have to clarify that lists are not evergreen per se. For example, you can make a seasonal list of “the 10 best Christmas decorations”.
If we want to start in our evergreen SEO strategy, we can make a list of something that does not expire. In SEO, Google tends to like lists a lot, because users love them.
Given two similar contents, if one is listed and the other is not, it is much more likely to get the click on the list, so keep that in mind when creating your content.
FAQs, glossaries or dictionaries
Finally, FAQ sections, glossaries or dictionaries of terms are very useful for creating specialized evergreen content.
The FAQ section is also very useful for the company. Being able to introduce the most common doubts that customers have and improve sales results.
Glossaries and dictionaries of terms help us to position ourselves as experts. They improve the semantic fields of our web pages.
I hope this article has helped you learn what evergreen SEO is and how to use it. If you need help with your SEO strategy, just drop us a line.
