If you’ve got a food blog or a digital magazine that features food or recipes, you’re on to a good thing, because these are some of the most searched items on Google. In fact, a 2022 study showed that more than 40% of the most popular lifestyle blogs are about food – more than twice as many as the second-most popular category.
But, given the huge success of food blogs, how do you make your site stand out from the crowd? We’ve brought together a list of top tips for improving the SEO on your content and attracting more readers!
Long Content is Good
The best-performing food blogs and recipes are long – as much as 1000 words, which is even longer than the standard recommendation for blogs with other themes (usually 600-800). There are lots of reasons why long content works for recipes: they provide the back story and context that will draw readers’ interest; they give you the chance to insert the long-tail keywords (see below) that drive up your SEO results; and they also provide an opportunity for you to display ads and/or include affiliate links.
Build those Backlinks
Backlinks – which are links from external websites to yours – are one of the most reliable ways to optimise your SEO and organic traffic growth. (If you’re new to this, Moz provides a useful introduction to link-building here.) Link-building takes time, but is well worth the effort – in fact, it’s one of the single best ways to boost your ranking on Google. The higher the authority of the page that links to your site, the better, so focus your attention on popular, trustworthy sites. There are several tools available to help you target the most useful websites, including Google’s Search Console, Ahref’s Backlink checker and Moz’s Link Explorer (note that Ahref and Moz offer free versions of their premium tools).
It’s worth noting that outbound links – i.e., when you insert links in your content to external websites – have no direct SEO value, but they can contribute positively to the overall user experience and should not be overlooked.
Keep the Long-tail Keywords Coming
Long-tail keywords are highly targeted search queries, usually a phrase of three or four related words, that get a low monthly search volume. And low search volume means not only fewer competitors, but also higher quality views, as it will bring readers who are looking for exactly what you’re offering to your site. The key is being specific: for example, you will never rank highly for “chocolate brownies”, as there are just too many competitors. But you could rank a lot higher for “vegan chocolate brownies with pistachios”. Start by listing potential long-tail keywords that would fit what you are considering blogging about, then check the search frequency and competition for each of those words and phrases. There are several tools available, including tools from top SEO specialists like Moz, Ahref and Semrush, which will help you find the best long-tail keywords for your site, both by searching for queries with a low search volume and by analysing competitors’ websites to see which keywords perform best. More about that here.
Structured Data for the Win
Google loves content that is easy to recognize and index – in other words, pages which use structured data. Simply put, this is a standardised categorization system which allows search engines to classify your page with ease. One of the easiest ways for food writers and bloggers to incorporate structured data into their content is through recipes: tagging recipes – for example, by adding a cuisine type or preparation time – is a convenient way to include structured data. And Metro Publisher makes it easy, thanks to its useful recipe search feature: this convenient tool brings your recipe content together in one convenient place, making it easier for readers to search for exactly what they want and easier for search engines to index your page.
Picture Perfect
Gorgeous pics can play a starring role in any food-related content. But your photos are not just good to look at: a few tweaks can also improve your SEO in a number of ways. First of all, make sure that they are not too heavy. Google penalises slow-loading web pages and so it’s worth reducing the size and quality of your images just enough to make them load quickly while still looking amazing. Second, make sure you add alt text to your images: alt text describes the image in detail and helps search engines categorise and index your page. It also improves accessibility, and is read aloud for vision-impaired visitors. Also, bear in mind that the future for SEO is video, which is already the most popular way to consume content. There’s no better way to attract and retain viewers.
