Keeping It Green. As In Evergreen.

Are your articles forever green or evergreen?

One of my clients recently discussed with me his desire to include a story on his blog that was newsworthy, but there was a problem: almost as soon as the information was to be posted, it would become outdated.

Now posting what you want, when and how you want on your blog is your business. That’s the beauty of online journaling—you’re the writer, editor and publisher all wrapped up in one and you get to say pretty much whatever you want to say.

Article Freshness

But we also know that there are other reasons for posting something online, reasons demanding a carefully constructed plan following much thought. One of the most important reasons is the article’s strength long term–many weeks, months, perhaps years after it was originally written.

How fun is it to find an article you wrote in 2007 still getting hits? Importantly, those hits are translated into income (through ad clicks) or business (through client inquiries) because you had the presence of mind to write in such a way to make sure your article never aged. You kept it green, as in evergreen.

Evergreen content is always fresh, it never ages and is useful years after it was first written. News stories are not evergreen because they focus on a specific time and place. Articles about particular holidays, a sporting event, a world crisis or any other event that has passed are not evergreen. Even writing about the location of the 2015 Super Bowl now will only guarantee a few years of freshness before that article is old and outdated.

Evergreen Example

Certainly, I am not against writing articles locked in a specific time and place, because they do have their place in the writing sphere. If you were to look through what I’ve written on this blog since it launched in December 2005, you would find mostly evergreen articles, but also a fair share of dated material included.

Timeless articles such as, “The 5 Components of the Writing Process,” written by me in September 2007 continue to perform well. In the past year alone that article has been visited 941 times, and has been referenced elsewhere well after it was first published. I believe that articles like this one have helped raise my visibility while offering advice that will never change. That’s something you’ll want to consider doing as well.

New Approach

Now let’s get back to what my client wanted.

I knew he was looking for something that could be cited time and again, thus we killed the original story and decided to develop something that will endure. The subject matter is right, but the approach we’re now taking is far different with an eye toward long term usefulness.

There isn’t anything wrong with writing articles that are not evergreen. In fact, if an article is hot and cited by others, you may want to consider visiting what you wrote from time to time and updating your material. I do that with an article I wrote several years ago about Operation Christmas Child here because it continues to do well in the SERPs and is referenced frequently by people who want to help this worthy project each year.

Update List

I keep a list of articles to update from time to time, but I keep that list short because the last thing I want is to be held hostage by dated material needing my constant attention.

Evergreen writing is my preference because once you have published what you wrote you can put your time and energy into advancing your other work.