This document discusses the importance and lifespan of evergreen content. It summarizes a case study by Condé Nast where they refreshed over 400 evergreen articles across 6 brands, which led to significant increases in traffic, ranked keywords, and average search position over a period of years. The presentation outlines an 11-step process for identifying underperforming evergreen content, analyzing search and competitors, updating content, optimizing links, and promoting refreshed content to maximize its lifespan and traffic.
10. Most of the Content Gets No Traffic!!
10
Stories Total Search
Traffic
First 14 Days
Search Traffic
Traffic after
First 14 Days
Total 100% 100% 100% 100%
News 43% 55% 86% 20%
Evergreen 8% 43% 11% 77%
< 100 Visits 49% 3% 3% 3%
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11. IMAGE
GOES
HERE
Why?
● Increased Competition
● New Information/Data
● Freshness is a ranking factor
● Backlinks Decay
● Content Quality
● Technical Issues
● SERP Changes
● Search Algorithm Changes (E-A-T for example)
Content Decays!!
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15. 15
Evergreen Content Newsy Content
Caters to users anytime of the day, month & year.
Examples:
● Recapping HBO’s Game of Thrones Season 7 Finale
● How to get rid of blackheads
● Best action movies
● Most beautiful beaches of all time
Newsy content is anything that will become obsolete within few
days of publish.
As news cycles evolve or die down, newsy stories tend to
see their peak in traffic within 1-2 days after publish.
Examples:
● Recapping HBO’s Game of Thrones Season 7 Finale
● famous deaths
● cover stories
● movie reviews
● award shows
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16. IMAGE
GOES
HERE
In-depth:
● How-to
● Answering Questions (why, when, what, how, where, who)
● Checklist
● Lists (ideas, resources, etc)
● Tips
● Best, Top, Worst, etc
● Complete Glossary
● Everything you need to know (Guide) about a topic
● Tutorial
What Evergreen
Content is:
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17. IMAGE
GOES
HERE
● News articles
● Pieces about a specific holiday or season
● Articles focused on a current trend or pop culture fad
● Latest clothing and fashion trends
What Evergreen
Content is Not:
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18. “Can I repost this content
on Facebook
3 - 6 months from now?”
If YES >> Evergreen
18
Confused, Ask yourself:
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19. IMAGE
GOES
HERE
1. Provides Sustainable Traffic: Keeps the lights on for slow-newsy days.
Delivers fresh traffic days, weeks, and months later after republish.
2. Creates more quality in-depth content.
3. Drives prospects into sales funnel.
4. Improves Rankings.
Why is Evergreen
Content Essential?
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20. Prolonged Shelflife
20
Stories Total Search
Traffic
First 14 Days
Search Traffic
Traffic after
First 14 Days
Total 100% 100% 100% 100%
News 43% 55% 86% 20%
Evergreen 8% 43% 11% 77%
< 100 Visits 49% 3% 3% 3%
#C3NY |
22. IMAGE
GOES
HERE
The Pinetree project was kicked off in 2016 as an
SEO Initiative to update (refresh) existing content
while consolidating old content.
The goal is to make our existing content work harder
for us as well.
● Identify potential underperforming evergreen
content
● Refresh existing evergreen content on multiple
brands
1. Expand Scope
2. Add In-Depth Content
3. Merge Similar Content into 1 in-depth article
4. Optimize SEO
Pinetree Project:
22 @JShehata | #C3NY |
25. 25
SEO Process
Refresh Every
9-12 Months
Or when new
updates are available
Audience
Dev
SEO
Analysis
SEO
Manager
SEO
Writer
SEO
PINETREE
Edit
Team
Visibility
SEO
Analyst
Select
Pages &
Keywords
Page
Analysis
Similar On-
Site
Content
SERP
Analysis
Featured
Snippets
TF*IDF
Content
Characteris
tics
Conversion
s
Content
Update
Backlinks
Publish &
Promote
@JShehata | #C3NY |
26. STEP 1
26
Select Keywords (topics)
● Select Keywords & Pages Based on Goals (traffic,
subscription, commerce, editorial calendar, seasonality, etc)
● Ex: Select “striking distance” URLs: mid-performing
stories that rank in position 5-20 with High Search
Volume KWs
● Generate an automated report of evergreen content
published a year ago that dropped in traffic
● Make sure to check Seasonality
Select
Keywords
Select
Main Page
Similar On-
Site Content
SERP
Analysis
Featured
Snippets
Relevancy
“Must Have
Terms”
Content
Characteristi
cs
Conversions
Content
Update
Backlinks
Publish &
Promote
@JShehata | #C3NY |
29. STEP 2
29
Select Main Page
● Find all pages that rank for selected keyword(s) > These
stories have the highest chance of ranking
● Select the main page based on SEO metrics (traffic, CTR,
backlinks, etc)
● Confirm with the brand that chosen stories are approved
to refresh
Select Pages
& Keywords
Page
Analysis
Similar On-
Site Content
SERP
Analysis
Featured
Snippets
TF*IDF
Content
Characteristi
cs
Conversions
Content
Update
Backlinks
Publish &
Promote
@JShehata | #C3NY |
30. STEP 2 – Cont.
30
Select Main Page
● Analyze page traffic, top keywords
● What keywords are readers currently using to find this page?
● What other keywords should be driving traffic to this page?
● Ensure that we are targeting a relevant, high volume keywords
● Does the content address the intent of the keyword search?
Select Pages
& Keywords
Page
Analysis
Similar On-
Site Content
SERP
Analysis
Featured
Snippets
TF*IDF
Content
Characteristi
cs
Conversions
Content
Update
Backlinks
Publish &
Promote
@JShehata | #C3NY |
31. 31
Top Pages Ranking for Selected Keyword Top Keywords Ranking for Selected Page
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32. STEP 3
32
Similar On-Site Content
● If there are multiple stories on the same topic, analyze these
pages and merge similar underperforming 5-10 into one
strong authoritative piece. Use any relevant content from
older stories in the updated article
● Make sure the merged Stories don’t rank for other sub-topics
● 301 Redirect lower performing stories to updated page
● This consolidates authority into one place, which gives us a
higher chance of ranking well on that topic (as opposed to
spreading authority thing across several URLs)
Select Pages
& Keywords
Page
Analysis
Similar On-
Site Content
SERP
Analysis
Featured
Snippets
TF*IDF
Content
Characteristi
cs
Conversions
Content
Update
Backlinks
Publish &
Promote
@JShehata | #C3NY |
36. STEP 4
36
SERP Analysis
● Evaluate the SERP for that selected topic/keyword(s)
● With a constantly changing SERP, it’s important to understand the
type of content Google is promoting for specific search queries
● This gives us an understanding of how we should present our
content in order to rank for this query
Select Pages
& Keywords
Page
Analysis
Similar On-
Site Content
SERP
Analysis
Featured
Snippets
TF*IDF
Content
Characteristi
cs
Conversions
Content
Update
Backlinks
Publish &
Promote
@JShehata | #C3NY |
37. STEP 4 – Cont.
37
SERP Analysis
● What types of sites are ranking in the top positions for
this keyword? Ecommerce or Editorial?
● Are there shopping ads/Local results pack at the top?
● Is a news carousel present (top stories)?
● Is video content ranking?
● Is there a featured snippet?
● Recency: when were the top results published?
● Titles & descriptions: are they optimized?
● Backlinks
Select Pages
& Keywords
Page
Analysis
Similar On-
Site Content
SERP
Analysis
Featured
Snippets
TF*IDF
Content
Characteristi
cs
Conversions
Content
Update
Backlinks
Publish &
Promote
#C3NY |
39. STEP 5
39
Featured Snippets
● Aim to get FS if possible
● Get the most relevant questions around the topic
Select Pages
& Keywords
Page
Analysis
Similar On-
Site Content
SERP
Analysis
Featured
Snippets
TF*IDF
Content
Characteristi
cs
Conversions
Content
Update
Backlinks
Publish &
Promote
@JShehata | #C3NY |
43. STEP 6
43
Competitors: Relevancy
& Must Have Terms
● TF*IDF: term frequency–inverse document
frequency, is a numerical statistic that is
intended to reflect how important a word is
to a document in a collection or corpus
Select Pages
& Keywords
Page
Analysis
Similar On-
Site Content
SERP
Analysis
Featured
Snippets
TF*IDF
Content
Characteristi
cs
Conversions
Content
Update
Backlinks
Publish &
Promote
@JShehata | #C3NY |
45. STEP 7
45
Competitors: Content Characteristics
Google consistently notes that content quality is a top ranking factor
& ML is heavily used in Google since 2018.
● What is the common characteristics of ranking pages?
● How long is the content?
● How are we using images/videos? Should there be more?
● How many items per list?
● What Questions to answer?
● Are they using images/videos?
● What type of content templates ranking well (galleries, articles,
videos, etc)
● How fresh is the content?
● What are the common CTAs?
Select Pages
& Keywords
Page
Analysis
Similar On-
Site Content
SERP
Analysis
Featured
Snippets
TF*IDF
Content
Characteristi
cs
Conversions
Content
Update
Backlinks
Publish &
Promote
@JShehata | #C3NY |
46. 46
Listicle - Gallery
Horizontal Gallery
Index Page
Index Page
Listicle - Gallery
Index Page
Listicle - Gallery
Youtube
Horizontal Gallery
Index Page
Listicle - Gallery
48. STEP 9
48
Update Content
● Expand and Merge Content
● Update Publish Dates
● Update titles, headlines, sub-heads, body, rich media, etc
● Update Layout & Template
● Is it imminently clear what our purpose is for this article?
Select Pages
& Keywords
Page
Analysis
Similar On-
Site Content
SERP
Analysis
Featured
Snippets
TF*IDF
Content
Characteristi
cs
Conversions
Content
Update
Backlinks
Publish &
Promote
@JShehata | #C3NY |
49. Merge low performing stories on same topic
http://www.teenvogue.com/story/how-to-contour-by-skin-tone http://www.teenvogue.com/story/how-to-contour-makeup
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50. STEP 10
50
Internal Links
● Find high authority relevant pages to link to
the updated page
● High relevancy/authority article pages
● Hub pages
● Channel/Sub-Channels rivers
● etc
Select Pages
& Keywords
Page
Analysis
Similar On-
Site Content
SERP
Analysis
Featured
Snippets
TF*IDF
Content
Characteristi
cs
Conversions
Content
Update
Backlinks
Publish &
Promote
@JShehata | #C3NY |
51. 51
Internal Links
● Article Pages
● Hub Page
● You can also optimize linking
structure and remove
cannibalizing anchor links
STEP 10
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52. STEP 11
52
Publish & Promote
● Editorial team reviews updated content and
provides feedback
● Publish final version with new date & resurfaces
story in channel pages
● Inform Social/Email Teams to promote
Select Pages
& Keywords
Page
Analysis
Similar On-
Site Content
SERP
Analysis
Featured
Snippets
TF*IDF
Content
Characteristi
cs
Conversions
Content
Update
Backlinks
Publish &
Promote
@JShehata | #C3NY |
60. 6060
Why Evergreen Content
Lifespan Matters
Now that perfectly optimized evergreen stories are published,
we kicked off case studies to ask the question:
How long does it take for it to reach its
peak in traffic before it starts to decline?
Without annual revisits to evergreen content,
daily search traffic can fall off the radar.
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62. Refresh Content Once a Year!!
Or when traffic starts to drop
Traffic Peak
10-12 months
after republish
1-3 months
after republish
Rapid Traffic
Growth
Evergreen Content Lifespan
62
4-9 months
after republish
Slow Traffic
Growth
Gradual Traffic
Drop
13-18 months
after republish
New Norm
(Or continues to
drop)
19+ months
after republish
0
50000
100000
150000
200000
250000
300000
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84
First 100 Pinetree URLs Published & Weekly Search Traffic Since Date of Republish
Series1
1
2
3 4
5
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63. IMAGE
GOES
HERE
1. Identify Goals (Traffic, Revenue, Subscriptions, etc)
2. Identify existing stories that brands have published
since dawn of internet (ex: 20 Best Summer
Hairstyles done each summer) & overcome high
turnover rate in editorial staff.
3. Research topics, SERPs, competitive landscape,
& content characteristics
4. Update/Refresh Content
(expand, merge & optimize)
5. Republish the content optimized for Search.
6. Promote the Content
Pinetree Project:
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