Finding the balance between evergreen and timely content can drive traffic and keep your blog relevant. Check out our guide to balancing these content types!
Finding the balance between evergreen and timely content can drive traffic and keep your blog relevant. Check out our guide to balancing these content types!
When creating blog content calendars (you are making content calendars, right?), how do you find the perfect balance between evergreen and timely content? And more importantly, what’s the difference between those two? Whether you’re a longtime content expert looking to shake up your strategy or a beginner wondering what pine trees have to do with blogs, let’s dig into the ways you can leverage different types of content on your site.
Evergreen blog content stays relevant throughout the year and even for years to come. Think of an evergreen tree – it keeps its needles year-round instead of dropping them like a deciduous tree in the fall. Your evergreen content is the same! It stays “green,” or relevant, all year long.
Examples of evergreen content:
All these examples are timeless blogs that retain relevancy throughout different seasons and years. They aren’t tied to timely topics, seasons, current news, or short-term trends.
Evergreen content capitalizes on topics with staying power. These are long-term blogs that help build trust with readers. Think of these blogs as the foundation of your readership – the pieces your customers return to and come to rely on you for. These are the building blocks of increased site authority!
Timely content is blog content that capitalizes on short-term trends, news, or fads. It emphasizes topics that are in the moment but may lose relevance or importance in a short period of time (weeks, months, or less than a year).
Examples of timely content:
Wait a second – is a seasonal blog, like that Christmas one, timely? Christmas happens every year! Yep, it’s timely content because, on December 26th, it becomes irrelevant for approximately ten months. It’s a seasonal topic, so we consider it timely. That doesn’t mean it won’t come back around and be relevant again, but it’ll likely spend a lot of time getting very few clicks.
Another element of these example topics to examine is their timeliness. As this blog is being written, some of those references are relevant, while others are already dated. But in a few months (or even weeks if you’re super trendy), you’ll likely read them and think, “Man, this is outdated.” That shows how quickly these timely topics get lost in the cycle. Fortunately, the broader topic of evergreen versus timely content is, well, evergreen!
Timely content can help keep your blog relevant, boost engagement, and make it a go-to for in-the-moment content. Keeping up with microtrends, like those popular on Instagram and TikTok, can help your brand appear pertinent, in the know, and on-trend.
It’s crucial to balance timely and evergreen content in your social and blog calendars. If your balance is skewed, it can look like this:
When you balance timely and evergreen content, you can build a long, reliable reader base with evergreen content and enjoy the periodic spikes of timely content.
Need an example? The pros at Semrush explain it like this:
Say your evergreen content generates five sales per day. Change that metric to clicks, views, or whatever is relevant to your brand’s KPIs.
Now, say your timely content goes viral and generates 400 sales over a few days. Then, they fall off as it becomes irrelevant.
It may seem like your timely content performs better, right? Well, if that evergreen content remains consistent, you’re going to generate 1,825 sales over the course of a year. That’s why utilizing a mix of both can be the most effective strategy! You get reliably performing content that can keep building in the background so you aren’t always stressing about the latest trends (stressed-out social media managers, we see you!).
Generally speaking, most digital marketing experts will recommend a 75/25 mix of evergreen and timely content. That means if you post 4 blogs per month, 3 should be evergreen, and 1 should be timely or seasonal. However, every blog is different, so it’s up to you to find the right balance of content for your brand. Experiment with different mixes of content until you find the right formula!
Let’s face it: even the most evergreen content can go stale after a while. Content refreshes are a great way to re-work old topics, both timely and evergreen. The information on your blog may be outdated or proven false. New keyphrases may have surfaced, SEO best practices may have changed, and those super cool pop culture references might be dating your content. Refreshing your evergreen and timely content can help bring it into the current day and age, even if it’s only six months old.
You need a content strategy that drives traffic year-round. With GPO’s end-to-end blog services, we create strategic, keyword-backed content calendars that offer the ideal blend of timely and evergreen content. We ensure your brand stays fresh with the latest trends and seasonal topics while supporting long-term, year-round growth with evergreen coverage. Chat with our content experts today to learn more about how we can help your brand get found — no matter the season.
Finding the balance between evergreen and timely content can drive traffic and keep your blog relevant. Check out our guide to balancing these content types!
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