The LLMs have changed the SEO game, and Google’s AI overviews released in 2024 have further brought revolutionary change in the competition and competitors.
Being an indispensable part of SEO, content still matters to drive traffic.
Here, a dilemma arises about whether to use evergreen content or consider trending topics to stay connected to the audience.
Both come with certain merits and demerits, which require exhaustive analysis to reach a conclusion.
Evaluating Evergreen Content
As the name suggests, it is content that remains relevant irrespective of time. For example, “Explaining Pythagoras’ Theorem” or “What is a Mutual Fund? ”.
The merits of harnessing it in SEO are:
- Don’t Demand Constant Updating: You write it once, and it will attract traffic for the coming years.
- Multipurpose Content: Evergreen content can be easily transformed into multipurpose content as well. For example, a topic “10 Templates of Appointment Letters” can cover topics like “Tips to Get Hired,” “CV Making Strategy,” “Interview Tips,” etc.
- Ensure Consistent Lead Generation: Such content keeps generating leads in the long term and makes your business future-proof.
- Saves Time and Resources: It requires a one-time effort and brings traffic in the long term. So you apply less effort and gain more profit.
- A Single Explanatory Video Remains Relevant: Google suggests uploading high-quality video and photos to the content to optimize it for generative AI, so such static topics can be better covered through videos or infographics, as they don’t require constant updates.
In this perspective, SEO Expert Neil Patel opined that:
“It doesn’t matter what season we’re in or what year it is: There’s always a healthy number of people searching for content on these topics.”
The key point here is choosing the right topic. If it is not relevant, it will gradually get buried and won’t give any returns.
Here you can go with the keyword research guide in 2026 and opt for medium- or high-traffic keywords with static context.
Suggested Read: Google AI Search Optimization Guide: Strategies to Improve Visibility
Assessment of Trending Information
The trending topics generally have a contemporary traffic potential, which fades with time. For example, “FIFA 2026” or “Europe Heatwaves”. These hotbeds give a push to the website to allow it to make a place in tough competition.
The noteworthy advantages of such content are:
- Provides Avenues for Google Discover: The Google Discover feature available on smartphones heavily relies on trending topics having accurate and updated information.
- Give Burst Traffic: The searches about current events might give your site a much-needed initial thrust. Like people these days, they keenly search for Erling Haaland, a Norwegian footballer, a new face in FIFA.
- AI Prefers Fresh Content: A study by Ahrefs has come to the conclusion that AI favors and cites updated content, making it a good opportunity for those targeting AI traffic. Google also considered content freshness as a key marker in its AI overview.
The only issue with such content is the constant updating process to keep it hooked in top rankings and AI citations. If you don’t, others with updated information will outrank you.
How the SEO Community Responded?
The SEO community has extended its views that demand attention to understand the relevance of the 2 contrasting topics in question.
Harry Clarkson-Bennett, a renowned SEO consultant and ex-Telegraph SEO director, has suggested focusing less on evergreen content. He said:
Publishers say it will be important to focus on more original investigations and less on things like evergreen content (-32 percentage points—Reuters Journalism Predictions 2026).
Evergreen’s not dead, but if you’re creating content ‘just for SEO,’ I’d kill it.
But he didn’t outrightly negate the importance of evergreen content. In a podcast with Shelley Walsh, he affirmed that recent news is hard to appear on AI chatbots until it reaches a significant threshold.
He added that news publishers sustain themselves on evergreen content, which still makes it a reliable option.
But here is something more important. Neil Patel has advised updating the old content to boost your ranking. Hence, evergreen content is not absolutely a one-time effort.
Concluding Remark
The best tip here is to keep a harmonious blend of evergreen and trending content on your website, which will give you a boost while providing long-term and stable traffic as well. Such synthesis further stimulates the relevance of SEO for AI. However, you need to consider the fact that even the evergreen content requires updates semi-regularly to add contemporary relevance and to make it outperform competitors.
Next Read: Google’s June 2026 Spam Update: Does it Mean AI Manipulation Is Now Officially Spam?
