What Characteristics Define a Great Evergreen Article?

Evergreen articles are long-form pieces (typically 500-1000 words) and tend to take the form of how-to guides, tips and advice pieces and check-lists.

As their name suggests, they have a much longer shelf-life than news-related content and can, therefore, be very effective at driving traffic to your website for months, sometimes years, to come. They are also great for demonstrating your know-how to your audience and increasing the amount of time people spend on your website.

Where do evergreen articles work in the sales funnel?

They tend to work best at the upper-middle part of the funnel where prospects are searching for solutions to their problems.

What do our journalists think?

So, before you embark on your evergreen journey, take on-board the advice from our journalists about what characteristics are key to a great evergreen piece to ensure that it stands the test of time.

Jack Stanton

Great evergreen articles always remain relevant to your audience. Whereas blogs and news stories are often topical and time-dependent, evergreens are written to stand the test of time. As your audience grows, things like ‘How to’ guides that may have been produced a year ago can be re-run and will still be of great interest. High-value evergreens with searchable titles shouldn’t be buried in your blog – keep them separate or perhaps host them on your homepage. This will go a long way when it comes to establishing your company as industry experts, as well as improving your SEO rankings.

Elizabeth Smythe

A great evergreen article should be – like any piece of content – engaging, well-written and of value to readers. Most importantly, though, it needs to be timeless, hence the term ‘evergreen’. It should provide information that will be useful for months, if not years – ‘how to’ guides and ‘top tips’ pieces are fine examples. That way, your piece can attract traffic consistently over time as it remains relevant.

David Howells

A great evergreen article is one that delves into a subject; giving readers new knowledge or insights into that topic. As evergreens are longer than blogs or news, they can be really in-depth pieces that offer a new angle on well-covered subjects or a detailed explanation for total beginners. Ultimately, though, the hallmark of a great evergreen is one which hooks people in, so they read the entire piece, even though it’ll take them a little while to do so. The best evergreens are those where readers get all the way to the end, on the basis of them being well written, insightful and educational.

Laura Varley

Evergreens are meant to be in-depth pieces, and ideally should read like a great magazine feature. This means they should be entertaining, informative and useful to the reader. Some evergreens are funny and amusing, whereas others are more serious – it really does depend what you’re writing about. However, no matter what, an evergreen should always be well-researched.

Graeme Parton

While news is all about the present, evergreen articles must be useful without being too time-sensitive. That said, it never hurts to be a little topical. Think about what it is you think your audience could benefit from learning and make sure the piece answers all of the questions they’re likely to have on the subject. It’ll certainly be longer than your standard news piece or blog, but it’s important not to go over the top by rambling on – the idea is to keep them interested and reading until the very end.

What Characteristics Define a Great Evergreen Article?