Arcalea suggests starting with about 70% evergreen and 30% seasonal content for a B2B site, and 60 to 70% seasonal for consumer brands, with seasonal pieces planned 6 to 8 weeks before the peak.
Those ratios are starting points, not laws, but they highlight a real trade-off. Evergreen posts build steady traffic over years. Seasonal posts, such as Diwali guides or tax-filing explainers, can bring large short bursts but expire quickly if you let them. A blog that only chases seasons rebuilds from zero each year, and one that ignores them misses predictable demand. This guide shows how to split your calendar and how to keep seasonal posts working year after year.
Evergreen and Seasonal: What Each Does
| Type | Examples | Strength | Weakness |
|---|---|---|---|
| Evergreen | How-to guides, definitions, checklists, templates | Steady traffic, compounds over time | Slow to start; needs refreshing |
| Seasonal | Diwali gift guides, festival dates, tax deadlines, holiday travel | Predictable demand, high intent at peak | Short window; expires if not maintained |
| Hybrid | Annual guides on one URL, such as “Diwali gift ideas” updated each year | Builds authority across years | Needs yearly editing time |
The best content plans use all three. Hybrid pages are especially useful because the URL keeps its history, links and ranking while the details change each year.
How to Split Your Calendar
Start from audience behaviour, then adjust. Arcalea’s guidance suggests 70/30 evergreen to seasonal for B2B, and more seasonal weight for consumer brands whose sales cluster around festivals and holidays. A blog about personal finance, for example, can lean evergreen with seasonal peaks around tax time and festive shopping.
- List your yearly peaks: festivals, exam seasons, tax dates, travel seasons and sale events.
- Count what you earn from each: use Search Console to see which months bring traffic and clicks.
- Set a starting ratio: for example 70/30, then adjust quarterly based on results.
- Reserve time for refreshes, not just new posts.
- Leave room for news and trends, as we describe in our newsjacking guide.
Timing Seasonal Content
Searchers begin looking weeks before the event. Publish seasonal posts 6 to 8 weeks before the peak so they can be indexed, gain links and rank in time. For a festival like Diwali, that means starting in September, and updating dates and details as the festival approaches. Shopping interest in India tends to peak two to three weeks before Diwali, according to earlier Think with Google research.
| Weeks before peak | Action |
|---|---|
| 6 to 8 weeks | Publish the main guide; submit for indexing; plan supporting posts |
| 4 to 6 weeks | Add internal links, images and FAQs; share on social media |
| 2 to 3 weeks | Update dates, offers and details; promote in email |
| Peak week | Fix errors; publish a short last-minute version if needed |
| After the peak | Add results or lessons; schedule next year’s refresh |
Keep Evergreen Fresh and Seasonal Alive
Refresh Evergreen Pages
Review your top evergreen pages at least quarterly. Arcalea reports that substantive updates earned about 3.8 times more AI citations than date-only changes, so verify facts, replace outdated examples and improve the answer, not just the timestamp.
What to Do With Expired Seasonal Posts
- Turn it into an annual resource: update the same URL every year with new dates and details.
- Redirect with a 301 to a relevant evergreen hub if the topic will not return.
- Leave it if it still gets visits and is clearly dated, with a note that points to current content.
Avoid creating a new URL every year for the same topic, which splits links and creates the overlap described in our keyword cannibalization guide.
