Evergreen Content vs. Topical Content: Which Is Best for Your Blog?

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Should I write more topical content or focus on creating evergreen content for my blog? Almost every blogger asks themselves this question when deciding what type of content to create for their blog.

The evergreen content vs. topical content debate becomes something to seriously think about, especially if your intention for starting a blog is to drive more traffic to your website and make money blogging. Because, if we are being honest, most of us bloggers wish we knew the best content marketing strategy to help grow our blogs and, if possible, perhaps even get to a point where we can become full-time bloggers.

So, in this post, we shall discuss the difference between evergreen content vs. topical content and which types of posts you should make more of for your blog.

But just in case you are new to these terms, before we see which one is the best for your blog, let’s start by defining evergreen content and what is topical content.

Definition of Evergreen Content and Topical Content

So what is evergreen content? Just as the name suggests, evergreen posts are those that never lose relevance no matter the time of year or length of time since they were published. Thus, a reader who encounters your blog’s evergreen content at any time will always find the information fresh and valuable.

The demand for evergreen content may fluctuate at times but not so much that they become required only at particular times of the year.

When you create evergreen content, readers do not have to check the date of posting to determine whether the information provided is useful to them because it is not time-bound and can be relevant at any time.

Some topics you could cover while creating evergreen content for your blog include health, home improvement, self-improvement, fitness, personal finance, blogging, and marketing, among many others.  

Examples of evergreen content on Aisles of Life; 

• 50 Best Motivational Quotes for Work Success
• 10 Ways to Stop Wasting So Much Time and Be More Productive

Topical content, sometimes also called seasonal or timely content, is only relevant at a particular time and in demand for a short period. Topical posts could be about things that are trending at the moment, events, holidays, seasons, or news.

Examples of topical content on Aisles of Life;

• 10 Things to Do to Start the New Year Right in 2023
• Single During the Holidays? Here’s How to Survive the Holiday Season

So, as a blogger, should you write more evergreen content or topical content? Let’s see the differences between evergreen content and topical content/seasonal posts to know which one is the best for your blog.

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Evergreen Content vs. Topical Content: Comparison

1. Website traffic

When it comes to traffic, for both evergreen and topical content, the amount of traffic your blog gets will depend on what your post is about, the demand for that topic, search engine optimization (SEO), and your promotional strategies.

Nonetheless, if you choose blog post ideas that many people are always interested in for your evergreen content, they could generate more website traffic than topical content.

With evergreen content, your posts remain relevant no matter the season, thus guaranteeing traffic to your blog throughout the year.

Even if you do not get a high number of page views per day for these types of posts, it all adds up when you review your blog’s stats at the end of the month or year.

Even so, this is not to say that topical content doesn’t generate traffic, because it does, and sometimes even more than evergreen content.

Since a lot of people are interested in your chosen topic at that time, you might notice a spike in traffic to your blog because trending topics are highly searchable, and if you utilize the best SEO strategies, your post could rank on the first page of search engines.

The only problem with the spike in traffic for topical content is that it doesn’t last.

For example, this past month, I created more holiday-related posts for Thanksgiving, New Year’s, and Christmas, and those types of posts led to an increase in my blog’s traffic for December.

However, I have noticed that since the New Year started, most of those posts have now started becoming irrelevant, and I might only observe another spike during the holidays this year, hopefully.

But do I regret creating more topical content during the holidays? Absolutely not! As of right now, those seasonal posts have higher page views than any of the evergreen content I published in December, but who knows what will happen as the year advances.

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2. Relevance

Evergreen content has no expiry date and can be relevant to your readers at any time of the year.

However, even knowing that the posts will always be useful, choose the topics to write about wisely and optimize your content for search engines to ensure your blog posts reach their target audience.

One thing to note is that evergreen content is sometimes not always evergreen, and it might require you to update the information on it every once in a while.

Refreshing your existing evergreen post will ensure it has up-to-date information and remains relevant and valuable to your readers at all times.

The good thing with evergreen content is that you can promote and remarket it a long time after publishing, and it will still be fresh.

On the other hand, despite the initial spike in website traffic it might lead to, topical content has the disadvantage of being relevant for only a short period. After all, how many people want to read the news from last year? Or about Christmas in March?

When deciding which is best for your blog between evergreen content and topical content, think of the time and effort you will put into creating and promoting your content, then evaluate which one is worth it.

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3. Planning ahead

For evergreen content, there is no need to be timely or plan ahead for when to publish because the information will be useful no matter when you post it.

However, from my experience with making topical content, mainly about holidays, you have to create and publish your seasonal posts in advance if your main source of web traffic is search engines or Pinterest.

By not waiting for the event D-day or the holiday season to publish your topical content, you reduce competition with other websites and ensure your post gets indexed, and thus, it has a higher chance of ranking well on search engines or gaining more impressions and clicks on Pinterest.

Publishing and sharing topical content on the target date or when something is trending may be great if you have a big social media following or many blog subscribers. But if you don’t, your post could end up flopping as it might not be indexed by search engines on time.

So between evergreen content and topical content, when it comes to the limitation on the time to post or the need to plan ahead, the traffic to evergreen content is not much affected by the timing of publishing.

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4. Earnings

Both evergreen and topical content can be profitable for your blog. It all depends on what your posts are about, your website’s domain authority, SEO, blog traffic, and your monetization strategy. Though evergreen content is relevant at all times, it won’t be worth much if no one visits your blog.

Creating evergreen content that ranks well on Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) can be a game-changer for your blog because you would have guaranteed income all year long.

The good thing about topical content, especially when it is about something that is currently trending, news, or the holidays, is that you can make one good post and get a huge traffic spike.

The ads served during the holidays have a much higher CPM and CPC than any other time of year, meaning that if you are lucky to get the traffic spike, then you stand to earn much more with your blog at this time.

Also, if you have joined an affiliate program such as AWIN, you will notice that many brands offer discounts on their products during the holidays. Hence, to increase your earnings from topical content, you can create gift guides or make product recommendations and earn a commission through affiliate marketing.

The problem is that you can never be 100% sure your post will bring that spike of traffic, and some of your topical content might flop, and they will only be relevant for a short period.

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So, which is best for your blog: evergreen content vs. topical content

The debate on whether you should create more evergreen content or seasonal posts is an ongoing one in the blogging community. But whether evergreen content or topical content is the best for your blog, the decision is entirely up to you.

Depending on what you want to achieve with your blog and what works best for you, you can create either more evergreen posts or topical content, or both.

If you were to ask me, I would advise that one should create more evergreen content than topical because it can sustain your blog better.

Creating evergreen content is better for your blog because you are assured that the topics you choose won’t suddenly lose relevance, and with the guaranteed traffic, you can make better plans and predictions for what you want your blog to be like in the future.

However, that is not to say you should never create topical content for your blog. If you can find the right mix of evergreen and topical content, that would be the best strategy for you because both types of posts benefit your blog in different ways.

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