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.Β 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
Natasha Moore
Thank you for this post. It is very helpful!
C. Lai
Thank you so much! This is really useful to new food bloggers like me!
Mikaela
Hi again.
very helpful post.
Just wondering, how do you become a featured publisher on those food sites?
Mikaela from http://dertischblog.blogspot.com.au/
Natasha Moore
Hi!
Thank you again for these great tips! Foodgawker is indeed a tough one – 4 rejections so far. But Tastespotting seems a lot kinder! There is another one http://tasteologie.notcot.org It’s hard to figure out though if they’ve published you or not on tasteologie.
I’ll be following you on FB. What a lovely blog you have!
Best,
Natallia Moore
Aparna
Insightful tips. Thanks!
All Hot Recipes
A good job. You can post yoour recipe at http://www.allhotrecipes.com and became the recipe of day !
I Cook AND Code
Thanks for all your tips π
Rachael
Thanks for sharing! I’ve had my food blog a couple years now but I have just started tending to it again after a few months of going AWOL. This time, I’m sticking around π
Anyway, I have heard of the All-In-One SEO pack before… I’ll have to give it a try.
Jake
Great advice! as a new blogger, I think I’ll be proactive and start off commenting with this very blog post. Thanks
http://www.joyandfeast.com
Ambar
This post was so helpful thank you!
Niels
Hi!
Thanks for the tips! I just started out and my site went live last week. I immediately posted some pics to foodgawker etc. and I must say that I was surprised by the number of visitors they bring.
As others are wondering I wonder as well how you managed to become a featured publisher on other food sites?
Thanks!
kavita
Hi,
Very helpful post. thank you
Priyanka
Excellent tips…Very helpful article.
Sara @ Know More Veggies
Thank you for the helpful post!!! I will definitely be making a few changes based on your SEO suggestions. Just got my first two pictures on Foodgawker last week. It is so exciting to start figuring some of these things out!!! My blog is three months old and I am learning so much.
Thank you!
Mona @ Queen of My Kitchen
Thanks for the great info! I’ve been blogging very casually since the beginning of the year but just go around to submitting photos to the food porn sites. Just got my first photo accepted by Foodgawker and could not believe the traffic from just one post. Can’t wait to try some of your other advice.
Amy
Thank you so much for this information, I’ve had my site for a while now and never tried to get it more traffic anywhere so this is super encouraging!
Amy from http://www.mountainskillet.com/
Citycupcakes
Such a great and helpful blog post! Thank you for all the tips and tricks! Best, Marina
Spoonstix
Thanks so much for all these insightful details!
I’m new to blogging and this is helping me a lot.
lisbeth | spoontang
i really appreciate the thought and care put into this list! thank you.
Ali
Thank you so much for the tips! I’m just starting out in my food blog journey and they were awesome!
Natalia
Thank you so much for the article. I just started blogging and didn’t know anything about it. Your tips helping me a lot. I found more answers here than anywhere else.
Thank you again,
Natalia
Shelby Plude
Great post!! Thank you so much for the information π
Chrisy
Great tips – thank you!
Patricia
Thank you so much for these tips. My blog is new and it’s time to work on the promotion! I don’t feel quite as lost now!
Patricia
Woooo Hooo… Gawker finally accepted one of my photos after rejecting a few. Thanks again for the info1
Mary Wilson
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Dewi
Thanks for these tips – I’ve just spent the last hour making my site way more google-friendly and I’m looking forward to the benefits!
useyourgrains.com
Cavoletto
Well, that was a tasty read indeed, thanks for posting this ! ;-))
Krysta Wirkala
Hi there,
Thank you for the awesome post! I went through and did a couple of the tricks you spoke of! One question – how do you make it so that when you search for your blog, the homepage website shows in Google? Mine is showing “Comments In” my blog, but not the actual homepage.
Thank you!
Krysta
Becky Mollenkamp
Thank you for sharing this. My blog is only a week old and I’m seeing some traction, but most is from my personal networks. I’m hoping to use some of these tips to help me get more organic traffic from people I don’t already know!
Heather
Great tips! I’m always looking for help on how to get better exposure. Hopefully I can reach your blogging status someday! Any other tip or insights you can provide would be much appreciated.
Thank you!
Heather
Sharon @ savormania
This was super helpful! Thanks for taking the time to write this post.
ree
Nice article
Huan
Thank you so much for this extremely helpful post.
I almost gave up on food blogging, but I’ll give it another try!
Mrs. Leal
Thank you so much for this post!
I have full time job 9-5 and kids, not a lot of free time for food photography… I recently got a Nikon DS3200 and learning how to use it.
Any resources on how to improve my food photography? And how to fix it in my schedule?
Joanna
Hi!
Thank you for such an informative post! I am getting right to putting your advice into action.
It’s very encouraging to see how helpful the food blogging community is. π
Joanna
Tastyshare.com
Great blog post, I’ve started using Pinterest a lot more now and seen a big increase in traffic!
I’ve just added a new feature on my site calledTastyShare where you can add your own recipe, very easy to do as well π
James Morrish
Thanks for this post – really helpful. Love the blog.
James (www.isnapfood.co.uk)
Jamie Miller
Following your advice and commenting! π
Thanks for the tips and tricks.
faganeatspaleo.com
Katie
Hi
Great article. I love that it wasn’t as vague as many other posts I’ve seen π
Do you still see traffic from StumbleUpon, or is that a lost avenue?
admin
Here’s an old post I did on food photography tips http://betterwithbutter.com/my-top-10-tips-for-food-photography/. Also, checkout my pinterest boards–I pin a lot of food photography posts there! Good luck!
admin
It may just take a little while for Google to index your blog!
Yasin Rishad
Very much helpful article to increase traffic on blog. Seo, commenting and social sharing these are can say as primary tips for increase traffic on blog. Amazing content. great effort and thank you so much
ValΓ©rie
Getting started is relatively easy but driving traffic constantly from outside your personal network is the real challenge! Thanks for putting together these insights, there are definately some I haven’t considered yet and I’ll try to put them into practice.
http://www.globalspicedblog.tumblr.com
Riz
This is such a brilliant article! I love that it lists everything without a whole lot of unnecessary exposition. It’s been really helpful to me as someone brand new to food blogging (or blogging… or the internet… yeah, I’ll stop talking now)!
Thanks!
Jessica
Thanks for this post. I recently started a recipe blog and found it very helpful. The SEO tips are great too.
maiyskitchen
Article is really helpful I’m new to foodblogger and need traffic too. Thanks for helping
Shruti Shrivastava
I agree on your point about foodgawker, very tough to get through. I have had a plenty of rejections myself. The images you showd here with #1, seemed pretty good really. Had to believe they weren’t loved though!
Thanks for the post and the other links I think there were quite a few points to be learned!
Les Shockley
Thanks for the tips. I’m just starting my new blog so this is a great help. Cheers. http://www.shockleysplate.com or https://www.facebook.com/shockleysplate
Suby
Thanks. This is pretty good info, will definitley give a try.