Refreshing Internal Links on Evergreen Content

Evergreen content—articles, guides, or resources that remain relevant and valuable over a long period—is a cornerstone of any successful content strategy. While the content itself might not need frequent updates, its internal link profile certainly does. As your website grows and new content is published, refreshing the internal links within your evergreen pieces is crucial for maintaining their SEO power, distributing link equity, and ensuring users discover your latest, most relevant information.

This chapter of the Technical SEO for Internal Linking series focuses on the vital practice of refreshing internal links on evergreen content. Building on our discussions of nofollow links and regular audits, we'll explore why this maintenance is essential and how to implement it effectively.

Why Refresh Internal Links on Evergreen Content?

1. Maintain Relevance & Authority: As new content is published, older evergreen pieces can become isolated or fail to link to the most current, relevant information on your site. Refreshing links ensures they remain connected to your evolving content ecosystem, reinforcing their topical authority.
2. Distribute New Link Equity: New, high-performing content often attracts fresh backlinks. By linking from these new, authoritative pages to your evergreen content, you can pass valuable link equity, boosting their PageRank and ranking potential.
3. Improve Discoverability of New Content: Evergreen content often ranks well and receives consistent traffic. By adding internal links from these popular pages to your newer, relevant articles, you help search engines discover and index the new content faster, and drive engaged users to it.
4. Enhance User Experience: Users landing on an evergreen piece might not know about your latest related articles or updated resources. Fresh internal links guide them to more comprehensive or current information, improving their journey and increasing time on site.
5. Prevent Orphan Pages: If old content is updated or removed, and its internal links aren't refreshed, it can lead to orphan pages or broken links. Proactive refreshing helps prevent this.

When and How Often to Refresh?

The frequency depends on your content publishing cadence and site size.

• Regular Schedule: Consider a quarterly or semi-annual review of your top 20-50 evergreen pieces.
• New Content Publication: Whenever you publish a significant new piece of content, immediately consider which existing evergreen articles could naturally link to it.
• Content Updates: If you significantly update an evergreen piece, it's a perfect opportunity to review and refresh its internal links.

How to Refresh Internal Links on Evergreen Content

1. Identify Your Evergreen Content:

   • Use Google Analytics to find pages with consistent traffic over time.
   • Look for content that addresses fundamental, unchanging topics in your niche.
   • Identify your "cornerstone content" or "pillar pages" – these are prime candidates.

2. Review Existing Internal Links:

   • Go through the evergreen article. Are all existing internal links still relevant and pointing to live pages?
   • Are the anchor texts still descriptive and varied? (Refer to anchor text best practices).

3. Identify New Linking Opportunities (Outbound from Evergreen):

   • As you read the evergreen content, think about all the new, relevant articles, product pages, or resources you've published since the evergreen piece was last updated.
   • Look for keywords or concepts in the evergreen content that are now covered in more detail by newer content.
   • Use Google search operators (site:yourdomain.com "keyword from evergreen content") to find relevant new content on your site.

4. Identify New Linking Opportunities (Inbound to Evergreen):

   • Conversely, consider which new, high-performing articles could now link to your evergreen content. This helps pass fresh link equity.

5. Add New, Contextual Internal Links:

   • Integrate new links naturally within the body of the evergreen content.
   • Ensure the anchor text is descriptive and varied.
   • Focus on contextual links that genuinely add value for the reader.

6. Remove or Update Outdated Links:

   • If an existing internal link points to content that is no longer relevant, has been deleted, or is significantly outdated, update it to a new, relevant page or remove it.

7. Monitor Performance:

   • After refreshing, monitor the performance of both the evergreen content and the newly linked pages. Look for changes in traffic, rankings, time on site, and bounce rate.

Tools to Assist with Refreshing

• SEO Crawlers (Screaming Frog, Sitebulb): To identify all existing internal links on your evergreen pages and check for broken links.
• Google Analytics / Google Search Console: To identify evergreen content, track traffic, and monitor keyword performance.
• AI-Powered Internal Linking Tools (like Meshr): These tools can analyze your evergreen content and your entire content library to suggest new, highly relevant internal linking opportunities automatically, saving significant manual effort.

Conclusion

Refreshing the internal links on your evergreen content is a powerful, yet often overlooked, SEO maintenance task. By periodically updating these crucial connections, you ensure your most valuable content remains relevant, continues to distribute link equity effectively, and guides users to your latest and most comprehensive information. This proactive approach maximizes the longevity and SEO power of your evergreen assets, contributing significantly to your site's sustained organic growth.

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Keep Your Evergreen Content Fresh with Meshr

Manually identifying and updating internal links across your evergreen content can be a time-consuming and complex task, especially as your site grows.

Meshr streamlines this process. Our AI continuously analyzes your content, including evergreen pieces, to suggest new, highly relevant internal links to your latest and most valuable content. Ensure your evergreen assets remain powerful SEO drivers without the manual overhead.

Keep Your Evergreen Content Optimized with Meshr - Start Free Trial →

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References

[1]: Ahrefs - Discusses evergreen content and its maintenance. [2]: Yoast - Mentions updating evergreen content for SEO. [3]: Neil Patel - Covers content refreshing strategies.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why should I refresh internal links on evergreen content?

Refreshing internal links on evergreen content is crucial to: 1. Maintain its relevance and authority. 2. Distribute new link equity from newer, high-performing pages. 3. Improve the discoverability and indexation of your new content. 4. Enhance user experience by guiding them to the most current and comprehensive information.

How often should I update internal links on evergreen content?

The frequency depends on your content publishing schedule and site size, but a quarterly or semi-annual review of your top evergreen pieces is a good practice. Also, consider updating links whenever you publish significant new, relevant content.

What kind of internal links should I add when refreshing evergreen content?

When refreshing, add new, contextual internal links to your latest, most relevant articles, updated resources, or high-value pages that expand on concepts mentioned in the evergreen piece. Ensure the anchor text is descriptive and varied, and remove or update any outdated or broken links.