As with this beautiful congregation of eggplants, more is always merrier.
For a fairly new blogger, there’s nothing more exciting than logging into Google Analytics to see a big spike in traffic.
After only seven days of having this little ol’ blog up and running, I actually brought in 916 unique visitors in a single day. I swear I’m not bragging. There is a point to all of this.
How does such a new blog attract so many people? Pull up a chair and listen closely.
1. FoodGawker, TasteSpotting, PhotoGrazing and other “food porn” sites. I discovered these sites early on and immediately realized their power. Here are a few things to keep in mind when using them:
– These sites can be very picky with the images they accept. I’ve already spoken about the virtues of having a good camera, and it’s my belief that if you are serious about food blogging, you should invest in one. Food and aesthetic are directly related—it’s no coincidence that the most popular and well-known food blogs have beautiful pictures. I use a Canon Rebel XS, which is a great digital SLR starter camera.
– The more interesting your submission, the more traffic you will receive. One of my biggest traffic drivers was my Top Ten Photography Tips post that appeared on TasteSpotting. People see a million recipes for banana bread (mine included), but this particular article caught their eye because it was unique and helpful.
– If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. If your submission is declined you have three choices: a) sulk and beat yourself up for being an awful cook/photographer; b) get back on the horse and submit your post again with a different image; c) Submit your image to TasteStopping. TasteStopping is a blog that accepts all the food-porn site rejects and pairs them with clever little headlines.
Don’t get discouraged. I thought these were pretty good, but the editors at TasteSpotting weren’t so convinced:
2. SEO, SEO, SEO. I repeat it thrice because this is very important. Thanks to Dave’s SEO-guru coworker at Cars.com, I’m getting a significantly higher amount of traffic from search engines. SEO should really be a post in itself (and hopefully it will be soon), but here are the basics:
– First and foremost, if you host your blog through WordPress, download the All-In-One SEO pack. SEO is a piece of cake with this plugin, and you can use it to do almost everything you need in terms of basic SEO.
– Check your title tag. This is what showa up in the frame of your browser when you are on a site. It should be your blog name, as well as a few descriptive words. Mine is “Better With Butter, A Blog About Adventures in Food, Recipes, Eating Out and Entertaining.”
– Update your meta description (I did this with the All-In-One SEO plugin). This is the sentence that you will see in Google when your blog comes up in a search (after the title tag). By default it’s usually the first few words that appear on your home page—not ideal.
– Make sure your URL structure is optimized. By default, your permalinks, or the links that go to each individual post, will usually start with your blog URL and end with a series of numbers/letters. Google and other search engines use these URLs, along with meta descriptions and title tags, to decipher the content of your blog. You can typically change your URL structure in the settings area of your blog admin page. Change it to “title” or “date and title” for best results.
Here’s an example: http://betterwithbutter.com/guac-it-out/. This is a good example of a post that has a more inconspicuous headline. In this case, I’ll add a more logical title tag to the individual post so Google will see “Guacamole | Better With Butter,” rather than “Guac it out” which, needless to say, probably isn’t an oft-searched phrase.
– Name your images accordingly. For a while, I was adding images with the file name “Image 1234.jpg,” for example. Naming photos, I soon found out, can be good for SEO when it comes to Google Image searches. An image titled “Guacamole” will come up in an image search for the term, where as “Image 1234.jpg” will not. And to think, all this time you thought that Google was actually SEEING your images.
3. Blog communities. I am a FoodBuzz featured publisher, and I also contribute to Yahoo Shine’s Food Blog—both offer additional exposure for my blog by allowing me to publish my posts. Putting your content on other sites may seem counterintuitive, but it can actually drive traffic. Especially if you try this little trick: link to back to your blog within the content you publish on other sites. Because most of these sites do not have your blog name and link in plain view, readers would actually have to click on your name and read your profile to get your blog’s URL. If you have a link back to your blog within the post however, you are much more likely to get traffic.
See that “food pick of the day” below? That baby got me more than 200 unique visitors in one day. There’s no telling how much less that would be if I didn’t have a link to my blog in the post.
Oh, and the “Gorgeous” part of the headline came from the Shine editors. OK, now I’m bragging a little.
4. Social Networking. Yes, it’s an overused buzz phrase. But you may be surprised by the amount of traffic you can get from sites like Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Delicious and more. Add social media buttons to your posts so readers can easily add your posts to these sites, and don’t be afraid to be a little self-promotional. “A LITTLE” being the operative words. I use Twitter and Facebook to occasionally, but only when I have a post I’m really proud of that I think other people will actually enjoy.
5. Comment on and link to other blogs. The foodie blog community, like most niches in the blogosphere (Did I really just say “blogosphere?”), is fairly tight-knit. I find new blogs through Tastespotting and blogrolls/links on blogs I read.
Start commenting now. And don’t stop. You’ll not only get traffic from the blogger, but they may return the comment love.
So what are you waiting for? Go get blogging.
262 Comments
Michele from Food to dye for
Thank you so much, as a newbie-ish blogger it’s hard sometimes to know what to do next!
admin
You’re very welcome! I’m working on a photo tip series (first post on props is up now) so check back for more!
Christina
Great post! Thanks for sharing all this info. I’m a new food blogger and I am loving it but definitely struggling with getting word out. I have yet to be accepted to the foodgawker/tastespotting. I will keep at it!
admin
Glad to help, definitely keep at it!
Katie | Healthy Seasonal Recipes
This is really helpful. I agree useful and helpful content is great and will ultimately bring in the readers. You’ve managed to do just what you’ve recommended to do;) I also am glad to be reminded about linking to other blogs from my posts. Thanks!
Pumpkin Bits
Thank you! I’m a new food blogger and I’ve gotten a mere 20 something views at most on some of my posts. This will surely be helpful!
admin
Glad to help, good luck!
Selena (GarnishFood Blog)
Thanks for the tips. Yahoo Shine does not accept articles from bloggers anymore.
Maria
There are great tips! I love to hear from experiences bloggers because I don’t want to stagnate and not continue to grow. You mentioned some sites for food bloggers I wasn’t aware of.Thanks! I’m putting your ideas to work right away. 🙂
admin
Thanks Selena–really? I’ll have to update this!
Chrissy
I am a new cooking blogger and this is very useful. thank you! (i “figured” out a step 6: work on food styling! i soooo need to work on mine!)
Emily
Wow, I am so grateful for your comment about naming images! I always leave mine as they appear on default, seeing no reason to do otherwise. Thank you, that has made my day.
admin
Glad it helped!
Clairellyn
Such a great post and exactly the kind of advice I was looking for! I honestly NEVER thought to name my pictures (although now that you mention it really makes perfect sense…) and I particularly like the tip about TasteStopping. 🙂
kais
thank you for your recipes, i invite you to try my recipes you something new for the summer you will like have a great day
Millie
Thanks for these great posts! I’ve just started food blogging and needed help! If you have a moment, it would be great if you could check out my blog! 🙂
Rali
Awesome info, I am already implementing most of the tips but will try all
Priyanka
Great piece of information here. I am not even a month old into food blogging and trying to get a hold of it. Your post was quite a good read. I will surely try and implement your tips. Thanks! Do visit my blog.
Zoenin
Thanks for the great tips! And your photos are so beautiful! They really inspired me to keep trying and take better photos! 🙂
Ali @ Solano's Kitchen
Thanks for the great post! Can’t wait to go try out some of these tips – just downloaded the All in One SEO Pack!
Sheila @ Sweet Baked Life
Thank you for posting this great information. I am fairly new to blogging and every bit helps! Love your site — wonderful recipes and beautiful photos!
Smita
Thanks for the great info..and tips on food blogging.
Georgia
Thanks this was really helpful
Mary @ Its All About The Yummy
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Your tips are wonderful advice. Can’t figure out why my title tag name shows up twice but, I’m working on it. Hope to find an answer soon. Please keep the great advice coming!
Mikaela
Thank you!
I’m slowly getting there.
Any tips on making the blog more user friendly and easier to browse recipes?
Mikaela
Shalga @ Queen Bee'sKitchen
Hi, thanks for the tips…I’m heading in to my third month of food blogging and hopefully will get the hang of all the above soon 🙂 These are great, its hard starting out but its my passion so I love doing it.
Priya Shiva
great info for new blogger like me – http://priyakitchenette.blogspot.in/
admin
Mikaela, There are lots of great free plugins on wordpress (not sure about blogspot) that allow you to easily incorporate recipe formatting and functionality on the blog (like letting people more easily print and save recipes). I also categorize all my posts, and then have a page on the blog where I list each category and link to the category results so people can browse more easily. Hope that helps!
Niklas
I don’t have a food blog but great advice for anybody who is starting out!
Amanda @ The Lucky Kitchen
This is great info, especially for a new food blogger like myself! Thanks so much 🙂
Vittorio
Thank you so much for your great advices. You really helped me a lot especially with the food porn sites 🙂
matthew
Thanks for this post. I am a new food blogger, writing a lot of content but not getting very much attention. I hope I can improve the look of my blog to be somewhere as beautiful as yours. Going to try to get something of foodgawker next.
Thanks
Matthew
Kelly @ Only From Scratch
I had never heard about TasteStopping. Love it, especially after getting that first rejection from foodgawker handed to us tonight!
RIckie
This article was super helpful and encouraging to keep at it. Being new to the food blogger world is tough but after reading your post just now I’m pretty excited to build a name for myself! Thanks
Amy Thayer
Thank you! There were some useful tips on SEO that I didn’t know, like the image name- who knew!
Sweet Matter Physicist
Thanks for sharing some ideas… let’s see if that helps. I mean the food porn…
Nayantara
Wowza! I came across these foodporn sites through this post of yours and I tried my luck submitting one of my images to FoodGawker immediately. 24 hours later I’ve been selected and featured on their site, and traffic to my blog has shot up considerably! Thank you so much for the tips!! 🙂
Cindy Swain @ italicana kitchen
Great post, thanks for all of the great info. I’m a food blogger newbie and just started using Foodgawker and Tastespotting and in the last two days my daily traffic went from around 50 to over 500! I highly recommend using the photo sharing sites.
maiyrah
Maiyrahskitchen.blogspot.com this my food blog and I need some followers who love cooking
Baby June
What a great post! I am just beginning to blog and am seeking advice from other websites about what food bloggers should attempt in the early stages of their blogs. So far I’m just having fun, but it’s nice to know what kinds of things I can look forward to. Thanks for the advice!
Ataur Rahman
Thanks for your valuable post. Great Post, I love to read articles that are informative and actually have good content. I was looking for such information on my blog.
Kav
I just published my first post and I’m so excited to moving on to the next challenge which is inviting people to read my humble attempts at food blogging. Thanks so much for sharing, this is a great resource for beginners like me.
Michelle @ Healthy Recipe Ecstasy
Thanks for the tips! I’ve been blogging for two years, and my traffic has been steadily increasing, but I would love for it to jump faster. I was glad to read your suggestion number 3 because I worried about posting my full recipes and posts on other sites – you know, what’s in it for me? But linking to yourself within the post is a great idea! Thanks again!
Ataur Rahman
Thank for mail my email inbox. Writing good content is the best way to create a successful blog. I really like it.
Joy @ Baking-Joy
Thanks for this article, really good tips. I feel the photo website pain, still find it frustrating sometimes as I’ve had lots of photos accepted, but haven’t got to a stage where they’re all accepted yet 🙂
Brian
Nice advice. I would recommend using WordPress for new food bloggers, especially for SEO purposes. Although you’ll pay for hosting, it is way more user friendly than something free like blogger.
Michelle
Exactly what I was looking for! I’ve been focusing on Pinterest, and it’s been slow getting the word out!
RIchard Bewley
Great advice – thank you. The greatest challenge is to find the time to dedicate to my blog – the full time job is unrelated. One thing I never even started to consider is how talented good food bloggers need to be – to be a good cook is one thing, then trying to write it up in an interesting/compelling style, take great pictures and promote online is quite the swiss-army knife skillset required.
I
Anju
Thanks for sharing these info. It would be a great help for the blog starters like me. 🙂
Mira L
Very helpful! Thanks a lot!