A lot of sites feature content that can be placed in one of two categories: evergreen or trending/news.
Evergreen content can be thought of as content that, at least in principle, is just as relevant and applicable now as it was last year, and as it will be in five years from now.
Yes, evergreen content may have to be updated from time to time (ie: maybe there was a cosmetic change that needed to be made, or there’s been a change to the visuals of some software, or a certain tool isn’t available anymore). But, the content is more or less still relevant.
Trending and/or news content is content that might be timely and short-lasting. That is, it might be based on something that’s only relevant today, and not as relevant tomorrow (or only relevant for a short time).
This Holiday’s hottest kids’ toy is probably not going to be the same hottest kids’ today next Holiday.
To be completely thorough, this site has content that can be considered both evergreen and trending. A good example of this is when we write about a Google search update, such as Page Experience.
At the time of its release, it’s a trendy topic, because people in our industry want to know about the latest update. However, it can also be considered evergreen content, particularly if it’s an update that people will be referring to for years. The Page Experience update is just such an example.
During the most recent English Q&A session that Google held with webmasters, one of the questions that were asked had to do with whether to remove trending/news pages and focus more on evergreen content.
You can hear the exact question below (the video should be queued to the appropriate spot).
John’s response was:
“I think that’s almost like a strategic question. It’s less of something where I’d say that there’s an SEO effect that you would see there. I mean, obviously, if you stop producing content (you just have older content in one part of your website) then that part of your website won’t be visible as much for kind-of newer type queries…”
So, there isn’t a clear right or wrong answer per se. But, what determines the choice you make…?
Do The Best With What You Have
John continues:
“…but you only have limited resources and you have to focus your work on something, so if you decide that the other part of your website is more important– it brings in more visitors or more revenue or whatever–then focusing your efforts there, I think is a perfectly legitimate decision.”
So, consider the resources you have and try to leverage them to the best ROI you can get. Sure, it’d be great to publish both, but in this case, you have to make a choice, so choose the best option.