When you’re trying to come up with content for your website, the question of green topics versus hot topics often comes up. Green topic, often referred to as “evergreen” content, is content that will usually be good for many months or even years, while hot topics are immediately “old” after a short period of time. Even a day or two might be too long for hot topics.

The very fast answer as to which kinds of topics are best, is that you definitely want to have a website full of green topics, interspersed with some hot topics.

Most of the things you write about should be evergreen, which makes green topics more important than hot topics. However, you should still use hot topics. The right mixture of both evergreen and hot topics depends entirely on your niche. You might have 80 percent evergreen and 20 percent hot topics in order to put some new information into the mix and excite your readers. Try different percentages to see what works best for your niche.

Green topics last longer than hot topics in terms of how long people can read them without feeling like they’re reading something out of date. That isn’t to say that you won’t eventually have to update and freshen up your evergreen topics – you will eventually. But with hot topics you can’t freshen them up. As soon as they’ve expired their shelf life, they’re just content that’s basically taking up space.

Having plenty of green content on your site will pay off, month after month and even year after year. Plus, writing regular green topics is a great way to show off your personality, and tell stories that are interesting to your audience. But, people are much more likely to share hot topics with their friends. A well-timed hot topic post will be shared more immediately with friends across social media. Also, hot topics are terrific for when you just can’t think of anything to write about. You can search industry news and come up with a hot topic off the cuff to add some excitement to your content.

Hot topics are a great way to bring excitement to your blog posts and content on your website. They are great for getting discussions going. However, it’s important not to be behind the curve when writing about a hot topic. You have to get to the hot topic right away because it’s not going to be relevant tomorrow or next week. Writing about hot topics requires you to stay aware of industry trends so that you can be fast on your feet with getting the information out there.

In summary, to create a well-rounded and interesting website the content should be mostly green topics with a splash of hot topics. By doing both green and hot topics, you’ll provide your audience with more well-rounded choices of content. In addition, having a variety of content to choose from will make your blog or website that much more interesting, current and relevant to your target audience.