Why evergreen content expires faster in an AI search world - and what to do about it | MarTech

"Your best-performing article from last year just disappeared from ChatGPT's results. The one that took three weeks to research, ranked in the top three for your core keyword and drove 40% of your demo requests last quarter. A competitor published something similar two weeks ago. Now their post shows up in AI-generated answers. Yours doesn't exist. This isn't because your content got worse. The definition of evergreen changed."

"Content that once stayed relevant for 24-36 months now feels outdated in six to nine months. A marketing automation guide from 2022 may accurately cover core concepts, but it will likely overlook AI-driven workflows and the latest platform integrations. An updated 2025 version includes those details. LLMs treat that version as more relevant, even if the older guide is longer. LLMs track market changes faster than traditional search engines. When freshness signals fade, your content loses ground to the LLMs and visibility drops."

"What to do: Treat every piece of content like it has a built-in decay timer. Assume a 90-day shelf life unless data proves otherwise. Add expiration dates to your content calendar. Schedule audits before content goes stale, not after traffic drops. A team publishing 10 new articles monthly needs bandwidth to refresh 10-15 existing pieces at the same rate. If that pace is unrealistic, publish less and focus on keeping your best assets current."

AI-driven search prioritizes recency and treats recently updated content as more relevant than longer, older guides. Large language models surface newer versions that include AI-driven workflows and recent platform integrations, causing formerly evergreen content to lose visibility. The effective shelf life for many topics has shortened from 24–36 months to roughly six–nine months. Content teams should assume a 90-day decay window unless analytics indicate otherwise, add expiration dates to calendars, schedule proactive audits, and refresh existing assets at a rate comparable to new publishing or reduce output to maintain core pieces.

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