The Life and Times of Evergreen Content

Evergreen content: What is it?  Why is it important?  You may think there are several kinds of content: videos, audio, images, or writing. Or perhaps you think of business stories, entertainment, lifestyle, or science.  In this case, I am talking about the difference between current events and evergreen.

What Is Evergreen Content?

Evergreen content is relevant into the future, but what does this mean?  Think about a book written in the 1920s.  It is likely evergreen otherwise it would have lost its relevance and you wouldn’t know about it.  Evergreen content is usually in the form of “how to” but could be an article describing something, such as describing evergreen content.

Why Is Evergreen Content Important?

You could write an article (or create a video) about an event, such as Hurricane Harvey, but the event becomes a think of the past fairly quickly.  Then fewer people are interested in reading your article because it has lost its relevance.  Of course getting that initial bump of traffic because people are interested in Hurricane Harvey is nice, but most of the time we are more interested in long-term traffic.

Evergreen Content and Business Writing

If you write to promote a business, evergreen content is the way to go.  Often you will be telling your customers how to solve particular problems.  For instance, if you sell drills, you could write an article on how to create holes. But you probably wouldn’t write about Jennifer Aniston’s current relationship or about the president’s failings.  In fact, you generally should avoid anything that would be controversial to some groups of people unless you really want the negative attention.

Other Types Of Content

Besides evergreen content, other types of content include entertainment, persuasive, and current events.  Perhaps you want to write something that would strictly entertain your audience.  Maybe you like fiction, history, or documentaries and want to share your vision with others.

Angry about something?  You may want to write something that persuades people to take action.  This could also be called opinion.  Often this links into current events, which is news reporting.

What Do You Think?

Do you usually write evergreen content or do you write other kinds of content?  Let us know in the comments below.

Further reading:

• 15 Types of Content That Will Drive You More Traffic – QuickSprout
• The Content Marketing Funnel: When to Use Different Types of Content – SingleGrain 
• 5 Different Content Types That Will Help You Save Time Blogging – CoSchedule