We often hear of the need to write evergreen content. Do a search, and I’m sure you will find a number of tutorials on how to write evergreen content that you can apply to your industry. But do we even know what evergreen content is?
[inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]Evergreen content is content that is just as valuable a year or more down the road as it is today.[/inlinetweet] Ever watch a movie you loved as a child to find that it’s just not as exciting as you once thought? A few years back I saw a great deal on the entire set of DVDs for the Police Academy movies. Now, I know Police Academy 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. were, well, they were pretty bad. Even by my standards back then. But the original was always a classic in my eyes.
Why? Because they pushed the envelope. The stuff they did in that movie was cutting edge and, therefore, hilarious. So I bought the DVDs and watched the first one only to be utterly disappointed. The cutting-edge crass humor back in the 80’s is tame by today’s standards. Which pretty much sucked out the entire humor. (That’s the problem with crass humor. It’s only funny so long as it’s cutting edge. Once it’s not, you realize how non-funny it is. Take note: The stuff you laugh at today will be snoozefest boring tomorrow.)
Anyway, my point is that the Police Academy movie is not evergreen. It didn’t hold up with the test of time. Ghostbusters, on the other hand does. I just watched that the other day and still laughed all the way through it. That’s evergreen!
Most current-event or newsworthy content has a very short shelf life. There is certainly nothing wrong with having that content as part of your content marketing campaign. By all means, there is a high value on current event, what’s-happening-now content. But that should not be your only content focus.
Be sure to regularly produce content that your visitors will find valuable, not just today, this month, or this year, but content that they will find valuable years from now. For example, if you read this post seven years from now, guess what? The advice still holds. However writing about the latest Google algorithm change won’t matter one iota. That is great for the time, but this is a great tip forever, or at least until we no longer need content communicate.