Why Evergreen Content Doesn't Always Stay Evergreen

The golden rule of content creation: write evergreen content. Make an ultimate guide, give the definitive answer. Then, publish it and watch as it climbs higher and higher in rankings because you know how much Google likes stuff like this.

It works like a charm, and you know it because, well… Everybody says so.

So why are you now staring at your analytics and wondering what happened to the traffic? It plummeted and for no apparent reason.

How does this even happen if the content is evergreen?

Welp, now you feel betrayed by all those articles and behind-the-camera' experts' who said that evergreen content is the ultimate SEO hack, don't you?

The problem is that most people don't understand what evergreen actually means.

They think it describes rankings, but it doesn't. It describes the topic. In other words, people will always search for 'how to change a tire, but your guide from 2019 on how to do it won't necessarily stay on top.

The web is a jungle. Everybody's racing to the top, and things are always changing.

Even if your content doesn't change, everything around it does, so even the so-called timeless content is under constant pressure.

Your content doesn't live in a vacuum, although that would be easier.

It's out there, in the wild, where no two days are alike. Even if the question users ask is the same, Google doesn't show the same answers all the time. You might have been king of search results two years ago, but now that page looks pretty different.

There are new contenders rolling in all the time.

And they don't even have to try too hard; it's enough to take your idea and add a video or break it down into simpler steps. You can bet that Google will notice this fresh new piece that'll make your once-perfect page look a bit… Meh.

Your page might look great visually, but that's not all there is to it. What Google (and other search engines) do is they monitor and analyze people's behavior. How do they react to your content? How do they behave on your page? Did your page answer the searcher's query? Is the user satisfied or even enticed to dig deeper? How does all of this data compare with your competitors' websites?

Google's algorithm has its own way of answering these types of questions. And depending on the answer, your rankings will either drop, rise, or stay exactly where they are. Those seem like small details, but they add up.

There's also link attrition (also sometimes called 'link rot') to think about.

Remember all those websites that linked to you; sort of 'vouching' for you as the expert on the matter. That was great to have, but over time, some of those sites might have shut down, or they redesigned, which broke the links; those sites may have stagnated and/or dropped in rankings. If any of that is the case, then those links are basically past-time votes of confidence that went 'poof!'. Vanished. Gone. This basically means that your (back)links are decaying while your competitors are out there working hard to get new ones. For you, that's not a good position to be in.

So what does all this mean for your evergreen content? How do you keep your site fresh? Well, you'll need to do more than update a fact or two here and there.

Hiring a link building company would be a good start because there's no way you can do all of this yourself. Oftentimes, people don't really grasp the number of things that need to be done here (all correctly as well) in order to achieve success. The number of hours, the skills required, and the money you'll spend on all the analytics and CRM tools that allow you to monitor your progress.

There's a good reason why it's an industry on its own. Do you think you can run your own business or work your 9-5 job and still have the time AND the energy to do all of this?

Is it possible? Sure. But, realistically? No.

Crossing your fingers and hoping your rankings will improve won't do much, so what you want to do is shift your mindset from seeing evergreen content as a finished product to treating it like a house you live in.

You don't build it and walk away, right? You maintain it.

You fix the roof before it leaks and slap on a fresh coat of paint every once in a while. The point is, you're being proactive, not reactive, which is the same thing you need to do for your site.

Basically, you do 2 things at once.

First, you refresh the content itself. But second, and just as important, you work to make it stay competitive. Refreshing refers to making sure all information is still correct.

In order to keep it competitive, you need to make sure it can still trump all the other options from competitors.

The starting point is to look at what you're up against.

Go to Google and type in your target keyword. Now, what do you see? Look at the articles above you and figure out what they have and you don't. Don't copy them, though, that won't work. Your goal is to understand the new standard. Then, go to your page and make it meet or, ideally, exceed everyone above you.

You could maybe add a short video explanation or make the language more direct. This doesn't need to be a gigantic overhaul, just a refresh that tells Google this site is cared for.

And keep an eye on those backlinks because they're important. If you notice dead ones (and you probably will), reach out to the site(s) and see if they can be restored.

Of course, you should also focus on earning new ones.