Objectives Overview

The Objectives section in Evergreen is all about setting goals and measuring success. In any content strategy or website project, it’s crucial to define what you’re aiming to achieve – be it higher traffic, better engagement, or improved SEO metrics. Objectives in Evergreen let you record these goals directly in the app, link them to your content efforts, and track progress over time.

What are Objectives: An Objective is a specific goal or Key Performance Indicator (KPI) that you want to achieve within your project. Objectives are usually measurable and time-bound. For example: “Increase organic search traffic by 20% in Q4” or “Publish 15 new blog posts by June” or “Improve Accessibility score to 90% within 2 months.” By listing these in Evergreen, you create a constant reminder of your targets and can associate your work with them.

Adding an Objective:

1. Go to the Objectives section from the sidebar. Here you’ll see either an empty state (if you have none yet) or a list of existing objectives.
2. Click Add Objective (or a similar “+ New Objective” button).
3. Fill in the details for the objective:
   

• Name/Title: A short description of the goal (e.g., “Boost Monthly Organic Traffic” or “Improve Mobile Page Speed”).

• Detailed Description: (Optional) Explain the objective in more detail. For instance, “Aim to raise organic sessions from ~10k to 12k per month by the end of 2025 through content optimization and new content.” This can include why the goal is important or what strategies you plan to use.

• Target Metric: Specify what you’re measuring. This could be a number or percentage. If it’s something like traffic or conversion rate, state the current baseline and the target. E.g., “Current bounce rate 70%, target 55% or lower.” Or “Current Core Web Vitals Performance score 50, target 80.”

• Due Date/Timeline: Set a deadline or timeframe for achieving this objective. Some objectives are quarterly, some yearly. Having a date helps keep it time-bound (e.g., “by Dec 31, 2025”). Evergreen might display a progress bar relative to time passed vs progress made.

• Related Metric Source: (If integrated) If you have connected analytics, you might be able to link this objective to an actual metric source. For example, if it’s about organic traffic, link your Google Analytics metric for organic sessions. If it’s about search ranking, maybe link to Search Console average position. This could enable Evergreen to auto-fetch progress (more on that below).

• Assigned To: (Optional) If a specific team member is accountable for this goal, note that.

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2. Save the objective. It will now appear in your Objectives list.

Linking Objectives to Content Efforts: When viewing an objective, Evergreen lets you associate related items from your Roadmap or Pages that contribute to it. For instance, if your objective is “Increase organic traffic by 20%”, you might link the initiatives “SEO Content Audit” and “Publish 5 New Articles” from your Roadmap, as those tasks are meant to drive the traffic increase. You could also link specific pages (perhaps the ones you plan to optimize). This linkage is useful for two reasons:

• It reminds you which work streams are for which goal. Anyone looking at the objective can see what tasks are in play to achieve it.
• It provides a way to gauge if the objective is on track – if the linked tasks are behind, likely the objective might be at risk too.

To link content to an objective, open the objective details and look for an option like “Add Related” or “Link to Roadmap/Page”. You can then choose from your existing pages or initiatives and attach them. These might then be listed under the objective’s detail view.

Tracking Progress: Evergreen is designed to reduce manual reporting by integrating data where possible:

• Manual Update: For objectives that are qualitative or not directly measured via an integration, you might manually update progress. For example, if your objective is “Publish 15 posts”, and you’ve done 3 so far, you could update progress to 20%. Some users update the description or add a comment each time progress is made (like “5 posts published as of May”). If there’s a field or slider for progress, use that to indicate percentage complete.
• Automated Progress (if connected): If you’ve linked an objective to a metric and you have GA4/Search Console connected, Evergreen might auto-fetch the latest metric values. For instance, if the objective is tied to monthly organic sessions, Evergreen could pull the current value from Google Analytics and show you how close you are to the target (e.g., “Current: 11,000 sessions, Target: 12,000 – 91.6% of goal”). Similarly, if it’s about an SEO score that Evergreen itself calculates, it can display the current score vs goal. Check the objective’s entry – it may show a progress bar or current stat dynamically.
• Status & Outcome: You can mark objectives as Achieved or Not Achieved once the deadline passes or the goal is met. If you hit the number, mark it as achieved (perhaps Evergreen will give it a green check or trophy icon!). If the deadline passed and you fell short, you might mark it in a different way (or adjust the goal and deadline and keep going). Recording the outcome is valuable for learning – you can review what objectives succeeded and which didn’t, to iterate on strategy.

Viewing Objectives: On the main Objectives page, you’ll see all goals listed, likely with key info like the title, due date, and a progress indicator. This gives a quick project snapshot of “how are we doing on our big goals?”. You can sort or filter (maybe show only active vs achieved objectives).

Click on any objective to view the full details, including the description, linked content, and any charts or history of the metric (if tracked). For example, Evergreen might show a small line graph of the metric over time if data is available, so you can see the trend as you work toward the goal.

Tips for Setting Good Objectives in Evergreen:

• Be Specific and Measurable: Objectives like “Improve SEO” are too vague. Instead, specify what aspect to improve and how to measure it (e.g., “Increase average Google Search Console position from 20 to 10 for our top 50 keywords”).
• Use Realistic Deadlines: Give enough time to achieve the goal but not so much that it lacks urgency. Evergreen will visually show when deadlines are near, which can prompt action.
• Focus on Impact: Tie objectives to outcomes that matter for your business or audience (traffic, conversions, engagement, accessibility compliance, etc.), not just outputs (like number of articles, unless that is directly tied to a bigger outcome).
• Leverage Evergreen Data: Use the insights from Evergreen to inform objectives. For example, if the Insights show slow performance, an objective could be “Achieve all green (good) Core Web Vitals for key pages within 3 months.” If SEO Insights show many missing meta tags, an objective might be “Fix all high-priority SEO issues by next month.”
• Regular Check-ins: Don’t set objectives and forget them. Make it a habit to review the Objectives section in Evergreen perhaps monthly or during team meetings. If something is off-track, discuss what can be done or if the objective needs adjustment.

By clearly outlining your Objectives in Evergreen, you align your team on what success looks like. This feature transforms high-level strategy into tangible targets that stay visible and tied to your day-to-day work in the platform. It’s a great way to keep your content strategy outcome-driven and transparent.