How to take care of evergreen contents to preserve traffic
We consider them the pillars of the site, the columns on which the stability of organic traffic and the conversions of our project rests: but, as it happens also in the building from which we borrowed these terms, need regular restructuring to avoid collapses that can cause serious consequences to the whole site. The evergreen contents are not timeless nor unmodifiable, so let’s see together what are the maintenance operations that we have to perform to refresh them and not make them become old and obsolete.
Understanding the expression “evergreen”
In short, it is important to get out of the myth of “evergreen immutable content“, which remains valid and brings traffic over time (forever) without the need for retouching: while being certainly durable and stable, these articles still need a periodic review, even if less than what you need for news-like content or hype topics.
On the other hand, even in the botany from which you take the expression evergreen it happens the same: the evergreen plants are not immortal and need water, sunlight and care. Only by satisfying these basic needs of the plant can we hope that they will remain green throughout the year, because otherwise – without the right amount of sunlight, water and nutrients from its soil – even an evergreen is likely to wither and die.
Returning to content marketing, our evergreen content obviously does not need fertilizer and sunlight, but a series of maintenance interventions and “survival mechanisms” that can ensure their effective durability over time.
How to take care of evergreen contents and make them survive for a long time
Keeping the content we have published alive means “ensuring that all elements of the content marketing process are reviewed regularly for our most important content,” explains Brittany Berger on Search Engine Journal, who outlines some main ways of achieving exactly this.
Regularly updating the content
The first advice is quite “obvious”, in the sense that it should be a routine modus operandi for anyone who operates on the web (although then, at the end of the day, is one of the most underrated SEO tactics): whether it’s a blog post or a web page, after publication the content should always be checked, studied and reviewed to maintain it effective.
Refreshing evergreen content is the way to make sure that the article always offers the most up-to-date information, a decisive element in competitive and dynamic sectors where evolutions are frequent (and Google notices, changing the rankings to reflect the current relevance to the query).
Also because, Berger recalls by quoting Derek Gleason, “your brand is not what you just published, but what p