Once you’ve chosen a niche for your food blog it’s time for the fun part — creating content for it! Hopefully, you have a long list of recipe ideas that you can create within your niche, but is there a strategy for writing within a niche? And should you consider writing some non-recipe content to round out your coverage of that topic? So glad you asked!

Writing for a Niche

Especially when you’re in the early days of creating content, your content should align with your niche. Makes sense, right? You want to clearly communicate exactly what your readers can expect from your blog and your brand.

So if you’ve set out to create a vegan dessert blog, you should only be developing recipes that are vegan and desserts. It sounds pretty straightforward, but it can be a helpful reminder to set those boundaries in the early days of blogging within your niche.

When you’re brainstorming new recipes or content, you want to create content that:

• Covers all of the most important categories within your niche (be thorough!).
• Helps establish you as a go-to resource within your niche.
• Communicates that you are an expert within the field.

When developing your content strategy, you want to ensure that you’re covering all of the bases within that niche. Vegan cookies Vegan cakes Vegan brownies Vegan ice cream Etc.

If a reader comes to your site looking for a vegan dessert recipe, you want to make sure that you can fulfill that need!

Adding in Non-Recipe Content

One of the perks of committing to a niche as a food creator is that it opens up a whole new category of potential topics to write about. For example, if your niche is French food, you could also write about travel to France, French restaurant reviews, or guides to French ingredients or techniques.

Adding non-recipe content to your food blog is a great way to cover every angle of your niche (and it’s sometimes nice to take a break from creating new recipes, right?!).

Here are some ideas for non-recipe content that you might add to your blog:

• Travel guides (like How to Find Vegan Food When Traveling from Veggiekins).
• Restaurant reviews
• Techniques/How to guides (like this guide on The Best Way to Store Bread from The Perfect Loaf)
• Ingredient deep dives
• Health-related articles (like this post on Intuitive Eating While Working From Home from fANNEtastic Food)
• Exercise routines
• Tips for family meals/toddler eating habits (like this post about The Secret to Happy Family Meals from Yummy Toddler Food)
• Grocery store hauls
• Favorite kitchen tools (like this post on 10 Essential Cake Baking & Decorating Tools from Sally’s Baking Recipes)
• Lifestyle posts
• Cleaning/organization
• Sustainable living/fashion (like this post on 12 Easy Ways to Become A More Eco-Friendly Vegan from World of Vegan)
• Crafts/activities
• Etc.

Another place to look for non-recipe content inspiration — search engines! The ‘People Also Ask’ section is a great place to see what your audience might be looking for. For example, when I searched for ‘French soup recipe’ on Google, I found two possible ideas for non-recipe content: “what is the most famous soup in France” and “what are the 4 categories of French based soups.”

And remember, all of these content ideas should be viewed through the lens of your niche.

Some food creators enjoy creating non-recipe content but don’t feel like their blog is the right place for it. If that’s you, too, don’t despair! You can always share non-recipe content in your email newsletter or on social media.

There are countless ways to approach writing for a niche and adding in non-recipe content as a food creator — this is an opportunity for you to put your spin on it and let your personality and voice shine!

We’re curious… Do you have any non-recipe content on your site? What types of content do you like to share?

The post Writing for a Niche & Adding in Non-Recipe Content appeared first on Food Blogger Pro.

Establishing a food niche is one of the most important aspects of starting a food blog. But it can be so difficult to choose a niche — it’s a big commitment. We’re breaking down everything you need to know about picking a niche as a food creator in this post — keep reading!

What is a niche?

In the context of food blogging, a niche can be defined as a “specialized market” within the very broad category of food or recipes. For example, a niche within the food blogging space might be a vegan baking blog.

But Merriam Webster also provides an alternative definition (“a place, employment, status, or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted”) which feels very appropriate when you’re setting out to choose your niche. What type of content are you best suited to?

Why pick a niche for a food blog?

There are hundreds of thousands of food blogs. A niche is a way for your blog to stand out amongst the masses. What will your food blog be known for? What resources will you provide for your readers?

Establishing a niche helps to narrow your content strategy and provide a more concrete vision for the type of content you will create. This can be helpful as you brainstorm new recipes for your site because it gives you lanes within which your content will stay. You won’t just be developing a recipe; you’re developing vegan baking recipes.

A niche can also help to define your audience and provide a sense of community for your readers. A reader might think, “when I come to this site, I know I’ll find recipes for beginner bakers, just like me.”

Just as your niche may welcome in readers who align with your recipes and philosophy, it may also discourage certain readers from frequenting your site. And that is okay! You can’t please everyone. You want your readers to come back for more recipes and become a part of your food blog community.

Establishing and committing to a niche also allows you to become an expert in your field (and we all know that Google likes experts)! One of our favorite food creators, Maurizio at The Perfect Loaf, is a perfect illustration of this. His niche is sourdough, and he is an expert at all things sourdough (P.S. he was on the podcast in 2023!). In addition to publishing recipes that feature sourdough, he also shares guides and baking tools that are related to his niche.

Last but not least, choosing a niche can help narrow your focus when reaching out to brands for partnerships. If you’ve established yourself as an expert in the vegan recipe field for example, it is much easier to reach out to brands that align with that space (think vegan cheeses, nut milks, etc.).

How to pick a niche for a food blog

The most important factor in selecting a niche for a food blog is YOU. You’ll want to pick a niche that you’re passionate about. Can you envision yourself sharing content about that topic for years (decades?!) to come?

Look for a niche that:

• You have experience with.
• You have a unique perspective on.
• You’re interested in.
• You enjoy.
• Has longevity.
• Serves a purpose.

If you can’t easily think of dozens of recipes that you could create within your niche… maybe it isn’t the niche for you!

It’s also a great idea to research the competition when you’re brainstorming a niche. You won’t want to pick a niche in a totally saturated market (unless you can bring a unique perspective to it!).

Lastly, it’s always best to avoid any trends or niches that might not last the test of time. For example, starting a food blog about a new piece of kitchen equipment might not be the best option for longevity.

Examples of niches for food blogs

Looking for some inspiration when it comes to food niches? Here are some examples of niches in the food space:

• Diet-based
  • Vegan
  • Gluten-free
  • Vegetarian
  • Keto
  • For chronic illnesses (i.e. hypertension or diabetes)
  • Healthy
  • Nut-free
• Cuisine-based
  • Italian
  • Mexican
  • Japanese
  • Etc.
• Technique-based
  • Baking
  • Meal prep
  • Equipment (i.e. slow cooker)
  • Easy
  • 30-minute
• Lifestyle-based
  • Cooking for one/cooking for a crowd
  • Seasonal
  • For families
  • Travel
  • Budget
• Activity-based
  • Running
  • Weight-lifting
  • Yoga
• Meal-based
  • Breakfast
  • Lunch
  • Dinner
  • Dessert
  • Snacks
  • Beverages
• Source-based
  • Pantry
  • Freezer
  • Farmers market
  • Grocery store (i.e. Trader Joe’s)

As you can see, the sky is really the limit when it comes to choosing a niche. And you can even combine them! A vegan freezer meal blog could be a great way to offer plant-based eaters bulk, make-ahead recipe ideas.

Remember… if you’ve already started your food blog without a niche focus, that is OKAY! You can always specialize down the road based on the content that is resonating with your readers, performing well on search engines, and/or that you enjoy creating the most!

The opposite is also true. If you start with a niche and years later decide to branch out, that is OKAY too! Once you have an established audience, it is much easier to try new types of recipes. That’s part of being an entrepreneur — experimenting!

We’re curious… do you have a niche for your food blog? How did you choose it?

The post Establishing a Niche as a Food Creator appeared first on Food Blogger Pro.

And a lot goes into the recipe writing process: coming up with ideas for new recipes, testing a recipe until it’s perfect, writing down the instructions in a concise way, formatting the recipe on a blog post, and so on.

The more you create recipes, the more you’ll perfect your process, but in this post, we wanted to share some common recipe writing mistakes we see bloggers make. Hopefully you’ll be able to learn a thing or two to help level up the recipes that you share online!

Mistake #1: Not Testing Recipes Enough (or Properly!)

Picture this: You baked a delicious triple-layer chocolate cake last weekend that turned out absolutely perfect. But when you make the recipe again this week to share it on your blog, it’s a complete fail. The cake tastes dry and crumbly, and you’re not sure what you did differently the second time.

That’s why it’s so important to test your recipes! Before you even put pen to paper, recipe testing is one of the most crucial things you’ll do.

Testing a recipe helps ensure that the recipe works, that the ingredient amounts are correct, that the instructions are easy to follow, and that the recipe yields a consistent result every time it’s made. And most importantly, it helps to make sure that your readers end up with a delicious result!

We recommend testing your recipes at least two to four times before sharing them online, but keep in mind that every recipe is different. You want to test each recipe as many times as needed until it’s perfect, and sometimes that might be more than four times.

One last tip when it comes to testing recipes: When testing your recipe, be sure to only change one ingredient or step at a time. This lets you know exactly what effect making that change had. For instance, in one test, you might tweak the amount of salt in the recipe, whereas in the next test, you might increase the cooking time.

Mistake #2: Not Listing Ingredients in the Order They’re Used

This is a short and easy one, but as a best practice, it’s recommended that you list ingredients in the order they’re used when writing a recipe. This lets your readers follow the recipe in a progression from top to bottom, and it helps make the recipe as clear as possible.

Before you publish a recipe on your blog, double-check how you’ve written the ingredients and instructions to see if you’ve done this! If you’re not already writing your ingredients like this, it’s a super simple switch to make, and I bet your readers will thank you later.

Mistake #3: Not Being Specific Enough in the Recipe Instructions

When writing recipes, it’s important to be as specific as possible. When someone makes your recipe at home, you don’t want them to have any confusion when they start the cooking process.

There are many different areas in a recipe where you want to be as specific as possible, including:

• Ingredients: Be sure to list precise amounts for all ingredients needed to make the recipe (including small ingredients like salt and pepper).
• Cook Time: It’s important to accurately write the time needed to make the recipe. If applicable, be sure to include prep time and chill time as well!
• Yield: After making the recipe, calculate the amount that it yields, and be sure to include this information in the recipe card. Instead of writing, “Yields 12 servings,” try to be a bit more specific and write something like, “Yields 12 2-inch slices.”
• Tools and Equipment: When writing the instructions for a recipe, be sure to clarify what type of tool or cooking equipment should be used for each step.
• Doneness: Instead of writing “Cook until done,” aim to provide a length and indicator of doneness for the recipe. Here’s a good example: “Bake for 15 minutes, or until the chicken is crispy and cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit.”

The more specific you are when writing a recipe, the more success your readers will have recreating it!

Mistake #4: Not Offering Substitutions

If you’ve published a recipe online, chances are you’ve seen a comment or two like this before:

I made this recipe the other day but didn’t have milk in my fridge, so I used almond milk instead, and the muffins turned out SO dry. Major fail.

While we can’t always prevent our readers from substituting every ingredient in the recipe, we can offer substitutions when possible. However, be sure to test any substitutions before recommending them for a particular recipe!

There are many different places you can add substitution suggestions within your posts. You can write them on the ingredients list or notes section of the recipe card, or you could add a dedicated section with its own heading for substitutions within the blog post itself.

Here’s an example of a substitution suggestion for a recipe from our sister site, Pinch of Yum:

It doesn’t take long to write out a few substitution ideas for each recipe, and your readers will undoubtedly appreciate having the information handy.

Mistake #5: Not Offering Storage Suggestions

Chances are your readers might not be able to eat all the portions of an entire recipe in one sitting when they recreate it at home. That’s why it’s so important to share storage suggestions for your recipes!

You can include these storage instructions either at the bottom of the instructions list or in the notes section of the recipe card. It can be helpful to include information like:

• Should leftovers be refrigerated, or can they stay at room temperature?
• How long will the leftovers stay fresh?
• Can you freeze leftovers? For how long?
• What container should be used to store leftovers?
• If applicable, how should the leftovers be warmed up again later?

You don’t have to go crazy when writing storage suggestions for each recipe! A little information goes a long way. And if you’re looking for an overview of how long different types of food can be stored, we recommend referencing this handy guide as a starting point.

Mistake #6: Not Attributing Recipes Properly

When you come up with a new idea for a recipe, you most likely found inspiration for that recipe from somewhere. Maybe you’re recreating your favorite linguine recipe from the Italian restaurant down the street, or perhaps you’re getting inspiration from another blogger’s chili recipe.

In all of these cases, it’s important to give credit where credit’s due. When you publish the recipe on your site, we recommend including a complimentary mention of the original source (in the blog post and/or in the recipe card), as well as a link back to that source.

Here’s an example of recipe attribution from Pinch of Yum:

There are a lot of considerations to keep in mind when attributing recipes, so to learn more about this topic, we recommend checking out this blog post.

Mistake #7: Not Using a Recipe Plugin

Last but not least, if you’re using WordPress to run your food blog, you’ll want to make sure you’re using a recipe plugin. Recipe plugins help format your recipes in a visually appealing way, and they also add special code to your recipes that help search engines understand the content and display it in search results.

Here are a few examples of what recipe plugins look like in action:

While there are tons of recipe plugins on the market, some of the most popular ones used by food bloggers are:

• Tasty Recipes
• WP Recipe Maker
• Create by Mediavine

If you’re not using a recipe plugin yet and you’re unsure where to get started, this post goes over how recipe plugins work and walks you through how to choose the best recipe plugin for your site.

And that’s a wrap on this post all about recipe writing mistakes! We hope that you found this post helpful and that it gave you a few factors to consider when sharing recipes on your blog.

Like anything else, recipe writing is a skill that you’ll develop and nurture over time, and with each recipe you create, you’ll continue to learn and improve your process.

Now let us know in the comments: What are some of your best tips when it comes to writing recipes? Have you made any of these mistakes before?

The post 7 Mistakes Food Bloggers Make When Writing Recipes appeared first on Food Blogger Pro.

There are lots of food blogs and cookbooks out in the world, and it’s only natural that you take inspiration from them. Whether you need a little guidance on the process for a complicated baking technique or want to riff on a unique flavor combination in someone else’s recipe, recipe adaption can come in many different forms.

But how exactly do you go about properly attributing your recipe to the OG recipe creator? That’s what we’re here to discuss! 

P.S. We’re not going to get into the nitty-gritty details of recipe copyright in this post – though if you’re curious to learn more, check out this article and podcast episode!

What is recipe attribution?

Put simply, recipe attribution is when you share where the recipe originated from with your readers. Let’s explain recipe attribution with a little example:

Food blogger Lillian sees a recipe for pasta with butternut squash, spinach, hazelnuts and parmesan cheese in a cookbook. “How delicious does that sound?!” she thinks. She makes the recipe for her family, but makes a few substitutions based on what she has in her fridge and pantry. Lillian decides to swap out butternut squash for acorn squash, spinach for kale, and hazelnuts, for walnuts. She also adds some canned tomatoes. Lillian loves the final product, so she writes out the recipe in her own words, instructions and all. Lillian wants to give credit where credit is due, so she includes a sentence at the beginning of her blog post and in the recipe card, sharing that she found inspiration for this recipe from a cookbook, and links to the cookbook. 

The last sentence in that example is a great model for recipe attribution. A complimentary mention of the original source (in the blog post and/or in the recipe card) is a good starting point, but a link back to that source is even better. 

Here are some examples of recipe attribution from our sister site, Pinch of Yum:

Of course, there is a lot of gray area when it comes to recipe attribution. There is even a Food Blogger Pro forum thread all about recipe attribution that has been going strong for almost 10 years! One of the main causes for debate is about when, exactly, recipe attribution is necessary…

When do you need to provide recipe attribution?

A general rule of thumb is: if you change three or more ingredients in the recipe, and rewrite the recipe instructions in your own voice, you can consider it your own. Even so, stating that the recipe was “adapted from” or “inspired by” the original recipe is a good idea. 

If you’ve altered a recipe so significantly that no one would recognize it as an adaptation of another recipe and written everything in your own words, attribution is not necessary. And, of course, some basic recipes are considered common knowledge (like mayonnaise, salad vinaigrette, or a simple pie crust), and don’t merit attribution.

Psst! David Leibowitz has a really thorough post on recipe attribution if you’re looking for more reading on the subject!

Why worry about recipe attribution?

There are so many recipes out there, it could be easy to think that no one would ever notice a little *borrowing* of a recipe. 

But beyond the ethical implications of failing to disclose your sources, you would also be missing out on a potential SEO boost for your food blog.

You can think of proper recipe attribution (with the link to the original recipe) as an easy SEO strategy. Linking to relevant and helpful external sources makes your content more valuable and useful to the reader, which is always a win (both for your brand and for SEO)!

Another potential bonus of recipe attribution is that, often, the story of where you found inspiration can make for interesting blog post content. Tell your reader about the recent visit to your favorite local restaurant that inspired the recipe, or share more about an incredible new cookbook you discovered. Recipe attribution doesn’t have to be boring!

When it comes down to it, we like to follow (and recommend!) the “better safe than sorry” mantra when it comes to recipe attribution. 

But we’d love to know… what’s your strategy when it comes to recipe attribution? 

The post How to Correctly Attribute a Recipe appeared first on Food Blogger Pro.

Recipe testing is one of the most important parts of recipe development. While it may sometimes feel tedious, frustrating, or repetitive, it’s a necessary step to produce high-quality, consistent, and trustworthy recipes.

What is recipe testing?

Recipe testing is the process of repeatedly making a recipe to perfect it and ensure that it is foolproof for your readers to recreate in their own homes. 

Recipe testing is also a great way to provide you with feedback during the recipe development process and can provide answers to questions like:

• Does this curry recipe need more spice? 
• Does this cake need to bake at a lower temperature or in a different pan? 
• Would these cookies be better if they were smaller?
• Should the chicken in these enchiladas be baked, grilled, or pan-seared?
• Are my recipe instructions clear enough for my readers to follow? Do I need to be more specific? 
• Etc., etc., etc.

Why is recipe testing important?

Instead of making a recipe just once before posting it on your blog, thorough recipe testing ensures that your readers will get a consistent, delicious final product every time they make your recipe (as long as they follow the recipe closely!). 

Properly testing your recipes helps ensure that you are a credible resource for your readers. While some un-tested recipes might happen to turn out well for readers, that may not always be the case. Recipe testing serves as quality control by helping to prevent unnecessary bad reviews and keeping readers of all skill levels coming back to you time and time again for recipes.

Chefs, cookbook authors, food bloggers, and many others working in the food industry rely on recipe testing as part of their recipe development process.

How do you test recipes?

When you make your recipe for the first time, write down every ingredient, measurement, and direction as clearly as possible. Once you’ve finished the first run-through, ask yourself: 

• What worked well in this recipe?
• What could be better?
• What changes can I make in the next version?
  • Ingredients?
  • Quantities of ingredients?
  • Cooking method or temperature?
  • Directions?
  • Equipment?

It is critical to only change one ingredient or method at a time when recipe testing. This helps you determine exactly what effect the change is having on the final product.

Repeat this process as many times as needed until you are satisfied with the result. Which brings us to our next question…

How many times should you test a recipe?

This question will vary widely depending on the type of recipe, but it is best to test a recipe a minimum of two times. Even if a recipe is a tried-and-true family favorite, recipe testing ensures that your ingredient measurements and directions are as precise as possible. And, who knows, you may even discover a way to make the recipe even better through your recipe testing process!

Certain types of recipes will require more testing than others, and generally, the more complex the process, and the longer the ingredient list, the more thorough you will need to be in your testing process. For example, a cocktail recipe might only require two tests before it is perfected, while a recipe for a layer cake with homemade frosting might require 5+ run-throughs!

High-quality recipe content takes longer to create, but will benefit you both from a brand loyalty and SEO perspective (and hopefully you’ll feel better about putting it out into the world, too!). Google wants to provide users with the most helpful, easy-to-follow, and dependable recipes and rewards websites that meet those criteria by potentially ranking them higher on the search engine results page. Recipe testing is a great way to ensure that you’re creating the type of content that search engines prefer.

We asked our Food Blogger Pro members how many times they usually test a recipe before publishing, and you can see that the vast majority test each recipe 2-3 times on average.

The longer you are developing recipes, the more you will find a routine that works for you!

Recipe testing best practices

1. Test each recipe at least 2-4 times.
2. For each test, change only one ingredient or step at a time. This allows you to determine exactly what effect each change has.
   • I.e. change the type of flour in one test, and the amount of flour in the next test.
3. Write down everything (including observations from the cooking process).
   • Document every change you make to the recipe.
   • Take notes as you cook if anything in the recipe requires more detail or clarity.
     • How finely should you chop the onion?
4. Enlist taste testers!
   • Try to find taste testers with a variety of preferences – everyone has different levels of spice, salt, sweet, etc. that they prefer.
   • Ask your friends, family, coworkers, neighbors – anyone goes!
5. Consider having someone else prepare the recipe in their home kitchen.
   • Could they find all of the ingredients listed in the recipe?
   • Were your instructions clear and easy to follow?
   • Did their final product look and taste the same as yours?
6. Bonus: test recipes in different kitchens with different appliances/cookware.
   • If you live at a high altitude, it would be best to have someone test the recipe at a lower altitude to see if you need to make any adjustments.

Additional recipe testing resources

Last but not least, we wanted to share some other recipe testing resources that we love with you:

• Sally’s Baking Addiction’s Recipe Testing blog posts
• Well Plated’s detailed The Making of a Cookbook: Recipe Testing blog post
• A Duck’s Oven Cookbook Lab Chronicles, Episode 5: Recipe Testing for Book vs. Blog
• Dorie Greenspan’s Making a cookbook: Recipe testing newsletter

That wraps-up our Recipe Testing 101 blog post! We hope you learned something new and that you can apply these tips to your next recipe development project. 

We’d love to hear from you… what does your recipe testing process look like?

The post Recipe Testing 101 appeared first on Food Blogger Pro.

Welcome to Part 3 of our Republishing Content blog series!

So far in this series, we’ve covered why you should republish content, as well as how to identify the right posts to update and republish.

And last but not least, we’re going to discuss what to update when republishing content! We’ll explore how to actually republish a post, some key areas you might want to consider updating, and more.

Some Tips for Republishing Posts

Before we jump into the nitty-gritty details of what exactly to update, here are a few tips to keep in mind when republishing content:

1. Give each post a personalized treatment. Each post on your blog is unique, so any changes you make when republishing should be specific to that particular post.
2. Decide if you’re going to republish a post or just make a few small updates. If you’re just making a few small tweaks on a post, you might not want to adjust the date. But if you’re giving it a major overhaul, you might want to push it to the front of your blog (more on how to do that below).
3. The higher the rank, the more conservative the changes. If a post ranks in the top 4 on Google, be careful not to change too much since it’s already performing really well. If a post isn’t ranking as high, you don’t have as much to lose when making updates.
4. Look at some high-ranking content on Google to discover topic areas that might be important to include. You don’t want to directly copy someone else’s strategy, but it’s a good place to get an understanding of the broad categories that might be important to cover when writing a comprehensive blog post.
5. Don’t change the date on a post if you’re not making updates to it. According to Google, changing the published dates on your posts without making changes to the content will not help improve your rankings. So if you’re not making significant changes to a post, don’t touch the date!

How to Republish Posts on Your Blog

When it comes to republishing existing blog posts, there are a few ways you can go about it. Here’s a quick overview:

Make updates to a post and just click ‘Update’

Let’s say you want to make a few changes to a post, but you don’t necessarily want to adjust the date or bring the post to the front of your blog.

In that case, all you would do is make the updates within the post editor in WordPress, then click ‘Update’ in the top righthand corner.

Your updates will appear on the blog post for your readers, but the post date won’t change!

Make updates to a post and push it to the front of your blog OR update the published date

If you want to push a republished post to the front of your blog, you would want to adjust that Published Date here, then click ‘Update.’

Adjusting that Published Date will jump the post to the front of your blog, and the new Published Date will update on the frontend of your site for your readers to see (except if you have dates in your URLs… more on that in a sec).

Quick tip! If you don’t have a traditional feed for your blog homepage, you’d need to update your homepage to feature that republished blog post.

If you’d like, can also choose to show both the ‘Published Date’ and the ‘Last Modified Date’ at the top of your posts. If you’re using a Genesis theme, you can use shortcodes to display this information.

An important note for those with dates in their permalinks!

Also! Take a quick look at the permalinks (aka URLs) on your site. You can find this information within WordPress by going to the Settings area → Permalinks tab.

If you have dates showing in your permalinks, you won’t want to adjust the Published Date on your posts when republishing.

If you have dates showing in your permalinks, adjusting the published date on your posts would change your republished post’s URL, which we don’t recommend. If you changed the URL for that post, you would have to add redirects to the new URL, and it could get really messy really fast.

Instead, you’d just want to follow the process of making changes to a post and just click ‘Update.’

Items to Update When Republishing a Post

Now that we’ve covered how to republish posts on your blog, let’s dive into what to actually update when republishing a post.

And when it comes to republishing content, there are a lot of areas you can look at to make improvements. We’re only going to cover a few of them here in this post, but if you want to access our full Republishing Checklist, you can snag that by joining Food Blogger Pro.

In the meantime, here are a few key areas we encourage you to start with:

Add Headings to Divide Up the Post

First things first, it’s important to add headings to naturally divide up the post. Chances are, your readers will be more engaged and interested in your posts if they’re not just reading a huge wall of text.

And remember! You only want to use one H1 heading per page, and that should be for the title of the post. After that, you can use H2 and H3 headings to introduce different sections throughout the post, like this:

Adding headings can also make your site more accessible, and it can improve SEO. Headings help your readers understand what your post is all about, which can decrease your bounce rate and increase your rankings.

Here’s what Yoast has to say about headings:

With headings, you should always put the user first. Use them to add structure and signposts to your content, and to describe what each section is about. If your headings let users know what your article is about, they’ll help Google understand your content, too.

Shoot New Photos

As I’m sure you know, photography is a skill that’s learned over time. And that means that some of your old photos from several years ago might not be as polished as you want them to be.

If that’s the case, you might want to consider shooting new photos when republishing a post.

Adding fresh, crisp photos to a post will make it seem new and exciting to your readers, and it will give you new content to share on social media. After shooting new photos for a recipe, you can create new pins for Pinterest, share a new photo on Instagram… the list goes on and on!

Add Internal and External Links

If you haven’t already, you might also want to consider adding internal and external links to posts that you’re republishing.

Internal links are links from one page of your site to another, while external links are links on your site that go to an external source.

You don’t want to just drop in links anywhere, but if they’re relevant and helpful for your readers, they can help improve both your user experience and SEO.

Plus! Don’t forget to add internal links on your other posts back to the republished blog post. That’s a great way to add more internal links to your site and get readers to check out the content you’re republishing.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!

We’ve talked about a few of the different areas you should look at when republishing posts, but there are many other items you might want to consider focusing on to optimize your posts as much as possible.

That said, keep in mind that each post is unique, so one post might need a lot of updates, while another might just need a few small tweaks. Make sure to give each post a personalized treatment when republishing!

And that’s a wrap on our Republishing Content series!

We hope that this series showed you that growing your blog isn’t just about creating new content. It’s also about looking back at your old posts and making them the very best they can be.

I know we covered a lot in this series, so if you have any questions about the republishing process, let us know in the comments. Or if you’re a Food Blogger Pro member, come start a conversation in the FBP forum!

Now we’re curious: What do you like to update on your posts when republishing? What’s the next series you want to see here on the blog?

The post What to Update When Republishing Content as a Food Blogger appeared first on Food Blogger Pro.

Welcome to Part 2 of our Republishing Content blog series!

In the first post of this series, we talked about the why –– why is updating and republishing old content a solid strategy for online creators?

That’s a great place to start when you’re thinking about your republishing strategy, so be sure to check out that blog post first!

But today I’m excited to talk about the process of identifying the right posts to update and republish.

Not every blog post that you’ve ever written is a good candidate for your republishing goals. Why?

1. You don’t want to fix what ain’t broke, so a good rule of thumb is to avoid updating high-performing content.
2. You don’t want to waste your time updating and republishing low-performing content that doesn’t have a good chance of making a big impact on your traffic.

So you’re looking for that sweet spot –– aka the posts that have an opportunity to really move the needle in terms of search traffic if they’re given a little extra TLC.

But how do you find those diamonds in your ever-growing content bank? Let’s discuss:

First, a few terms

For the rest of this article to make sense, it’s important that we’re all on the same page, so we wanted to define a few easy-to-confuse terms that you’ll need to understand:

• Keyword –– The search term or phrase that users are typing into Google
• Position –– How your content ranks in a Google search result for a given keyword
• Impressions –– The number of times the link to your content was seen in search results for a given keyword
• CTR or Clickthrough Rate –– The number of clicks to your content divided by the number of impressions for that piece of content, multiplied by 100 (clicks / impressions * 100)

Here’s a quick example of these four terms:

• People are searching for ‘pumpkin pie’, so that’s the keyword.
• On average, your pumpkin pie recipe shows up 5th in search results for that keyword, so that’s your post’s position.
• For the 100,000 searches of ‘pumpkin pie’ that happened in a given timeframe, searchers saw the link to your pumpkin pie recipe 10,000 times. That means that your recipe had 10,000 impressions for that keyword in that time.
• If your content was clicked 1,000 times, your CTR would be 10% (or 1,000 / 10,000 * 100).

Make sense? Awesome! Now let’s talk about actually identifying the best post candidates for republishing.

Which blog posts should I republish?

Before we start here, I wanted to highlight the fact that these are just guidelines. The results you’ll see after you update and republish depend on so many different factors, including how long you’ve been publishing content and how much traction your site has.

In general, however, there are a few different ways that you can spot the best candidates in your post archive for updating and republishing:

1. Identify medium-to-low ranked content with high search volume
2. Identify posts with decreased traffic in the past 90 days
3. Identify previously published seasonal content

Let’s take them one by one:

Identify Medium-to-Low Ranked Content with High Search Volume

With this strategy, you’re looking for the content that will have the best chance at climbing in search result rankings (and, in turn, increase your traffic) if that content:

• Is in position ~4 to ~30 for a specific keyword
• Has high search impressions for a specific keyword

So what we’re essentially saying here is that we want to focus on the content that’s almost performing well for high-volume searches.

According to Backlinko, “moving up one position [in search ranking for a specific keyword] increases CTR by [an average of] 30.8%.”

Of course, moving from position 100 to position 70 won’t increase your CTR all that much since the number of impressions on content that ranks 100th and 70th aren’t going to be that different.

But moving a piece of content from position 10 to position 4? That has the opportunity to increase your CTR (and pageviews, ad revenue, email subscribers, and more!) quite a bit since impressions are so high on that first page of search results!

Tools That You Can Use to Identify This Type of Content:

So now you know what you’re looking for, but how do you actually find it? There are a few tools you can use to get the job done:

Semrush or Ahrefs (both premium tools)

• You can filter your content by Position and Volume.
• To keep track of your efforts, export potential candidates for republishing into a spreadsheet.
• You can also see Rank Position change in Ahrefs.

Google Search Console (free!)

• Click the Search Results tab → Turn on Average Position → Show last three months → Sort by Position.
• You can’t easily see search volume within Google Search Console itself, but you can export the data as a spreadsheet and filter from there.
• Delete any results that rank in positions 1, 2, or 3.

Identify Posts with Decreased Traffic in the Past 90 Days

Why would you want to use this strategy? It’s great to help you identify which of your posts have just generally lost some traction over the last three months.

Sometimes there’s an obvious reason for a drop in traction/impressions/click throughs from search. For example, if your chicken dumpling soup isn’t doing so well in the summer months, that probably just means that people aren’t making hot soups in the summer, not that the recipe isn’t performing well overall.

Other times, it’s a super trendy recipe that’s getting loads of attention at a specific point in time but the interest and search volume has decreased. Think of that baked feta pasta recipe from TikTok –– searches for “baked feta pasta” spiked at the beginning of February and diminished pretty quickly thereafter.

But maybe there’s something else going on, and that’s what you’re aiming to figure out with this strategy!

A Tool That You Can Use to Identify This Type of Content:

Google Analytics (free!)

• Click the Behavior tab → Site content → All pages, and then change the timeframe to show a 90-day to 90-day comparison of the previous period.
• You can then sort based on the content that has had the biggest decrease in pageviews in the current 90 days as compared to the 90 days prior.

Identify Previously Published Seasonal Content

An easy one! We talked about why traffic might be down for seasonal content throughout the year –– there’s a specific time when people are searching for this content, and a specific time when they’re not.

But do you know how well that content is performing when it should be performing well? That’s what we’re aiming to find out here!

The general process here is to identify posts you published in the same month in years past, and then within that list of posts, identify content that could benefit from a refresh.

Maybe it’s a really killer recipe that you think your audience would love revisiting, or maybe it’s already a decent post that could be made even better with a few tweaks, changes, or updates.

Or maybe you know that kind of recipe should be trending right now from a helpful monthly blog post series called, “Trending Now in Food Blogging.”

Tools That You Can Use to Identify This Type of Content:

Google Analytics (free!)

• Click the Behavior tab → Site content → All pages, and then change the timeframe to show a 90-day to 90-day comparison of the same period in the previous year.
• You can then sort based on the content that has had the biggest decrease in pageviews in the current 90 days as compared to the same 90 days in the prior year.

Semrush or Ahrefs (both premium tools)

• Use these tools to find current position, search volume, and keyword difficulty (aka how hard it will be to rank in the top 10 for a specific keyword).

Google Search Console (free!)

• Click the Search Results tab → Turn on Average Position → Change the Date Range to a Custom Comparison → Sort by Clicks Difference.
• Export the results and filter out anything with a current position of 1–4.
• Identify the posts on the list that have been published in the season you’re evaluating.
• Add a new column and calculate the difference between the content’s current ranking and the content’s prior date range ranking (previous ranking – current ranking).

Remember: Don’t touch what’s already doing well!

If you don’t take anything else away from this post, remember that you don’t want to update any posts that are already performing well.

It may seem tempting to try and update and republish a piece of content that is ranking in position 3 to see if you can get it to rank in position 2 or position 1.

Since that piece of content is already ranking well, you’re doing something right –– you don’t want to risk turning that right into a wrong because, as we know, there are no guarantees with Google. It’s entirely possible that you could update and republish a post and see a decrease in search position.

Instead, you can use that piece of content to see what makes it so valuable for that keyword and try to replicate it on some of those better candidates for updates and republishing.

That does it for Part 2 of our Republishing Content series! Next up, Leslie will talk about some of the ways that you can update (aka add additional value to) the content you’ve identified.

And let us know in the comments: Which strategy are you going to try for updating and republishing your own content? Why is it the best strategy for the content you’re evaluating?

The post How to Identify Posts to Update and Republish as a Food Blogger appeared first on Food Blogger Pro.

Hello, hello, and welcome to Part 1 of our Republishing Content Series!

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to be focusing on why you should be republishing posts on your blog to get the most out of your existing content.

We’ll be covering:

1. Why you should republish content (this post!)
2. How to identify which posts to update and republish
3. What exactly to update when republishing content

Without further ado, let’s kick things off by going over a few reasons why you should consider republishing content as a food blogger:

1. It can save you time and be an easy win.

As food bloggers, we oftentimes have a lot on our plates (pun intended). We’re constantly testing recipes, shooting photos, filming videos, drafting blog posts, sharing new content on social media… the list goes on and on.

But when it comes down to it, creating new content can take a lot more time than we realize. Over the years, we’ve talked to a lot of food bloggers on The Food Blogger Pro Podcast, and we’ve heard time and time again that it can take hours (if not days!) to produce one single blog post.

By republishing some old content on your blog, you’re able to gain back some of the time that you would have spent creating a post entirely from scratch. Republishing specific pieces of content can help you be strategic with your time and help you maximize your productivity as a food blogger.

2. It refreshes older content you want your audience to see.

If you’ve been blogging for a while, you probably have quite a few posts on your site that you’ve created and published, but then haven’t touched since.

And for some of those posts, maybe the photos are a bit blurry and the copy is outdated. Or maybe you didn’t quite understand the basics of SEO back then, so the post isn’t optimized as much as it could be. Why not make some small updates to that post and republish it to the front of your blog?

Republishing these older posts can help breathe some new life into some of your older content and bring it front-of-mind for your audience.

3. It can potentially improve your Google rankings.

If you have a post that’s just on the edge of ranking well for a keyword, you can potentially boost that ranking by making some small updates. In turn, this can drive more traffic to your site, potentially increasing your revenue as well.

It’s usually easier to get more traffic from a post that’s almost performing well rather than creating a brand new post and hoping it performs well.

Curious to see how this works? Let’s take a look at this Spicy Sofritas Tofu recipe on Pinch of Yum. It was originally published way back in 2014, but the Pinch of Yum team republished it in 2020.

Before republishing, they changed the recipe title from ‘Spicy Sofritas Veggie Bowls’ to ‘Spicy Sofritas Tofu Recipe’ to help people find it a bit more easily on Google. They also updated the copy of the post, added in some more headings, and even added videos to provide readers some helpful visuals when making the recipe.

And the result? The post jumped from position 14 to position 4 on Google. And in 2021, it’s now ranking first on Google for the keyword ‘spicy sofritas tofu.’ That’s the power of republishing content in action!

In the next post in this series, we’ll dive a bit deeper into this topic and explore how to determine the rankings of your posts, so stay tuned for that.

But keep in mind that republishing content doesn’t automatically guarantee better rankings! As we like to say, Google does what Google wants — all you can do is optimize your content to the best of your ability, then be patient and leave it in the hands of Google.

4. Small changes you make now can have a big impact on the growth of your blog.

Here at Food Blogger Pro, we’re big fans of the idea of 1% infinity, and we believe that long-term, noticeable growth comes from taking consistent, small, and intentional actions over time.

So as you’re going through and making small improvements to your older posts, these small changes can have a multiplier effect on the growth of your blog.

Optimizing one post can help bump its position in search rankings, causing more people to stumble upon your blog, which can help you grow your email list, gain social media followers, and increase your revenue over time.

Republishing your content and taking these small steps to make your posts the best they can be will help you make progress on achieving your overall traffic and growth goals.

And that’s a wrap for Part 1 of our Republishing Content Series!

When it comes down to it, republishing posts on your site can help you save time, optimize your existing content, and reach your goals. And in this series, we hope to give you the knowledge and tools you need to republish posts on your blog with confidence.

However, you don’t necessarily want to update content that’s already performing well. Up next, Alexa will cover how to identify which posts you should update, as well as which ones you should leave alone.

Now we’re curious: Do you like to republish content on your blog? Let us know in the comments!

The post Why You Should Republish Content as a Food Blogger appeared first on Food Blogger Pro.

Hello! Team FBP here! Back with another brand new food blogging course we know you’re going to love.

One of the biggest trends in food blogging these past few months is republishing old content, i.e. taking previously published posts and making them stronger and more optimized so that they rank higher in search results and are more helpful for your readers.

That’s why we’re excited to announce the release of our new course, Republishing Content!

We’re all-in on republishing content. In fact, Pinch of Yum is republishing old posts every single month this year (about 20% of their “new” posts are actually updated old posts!).

You’ve already done most of the work; republishing just allows you to fine-tune and breathe new life into your older posts.

But how do you decide which posts to update? And what exactly do you update? That’s what we’re covering in this course! You’ll learn:

• Why you might want to update and republish old posts
• How to identify the best posts to update
• What you should update in each post
• How to use popular tools like Ahrefs and Google Analytics to update older posts
• And more!

Plus: you’ll get access to an exclusive Republishing Checklist that you can download and use as you’re working through updating your old content!

We just love this course, and we think you will too.

Check out the full course here: https://www.foodbloggerpro.com/courses/creating-content/republishing-content/

As a reminder, Food Blogger Pro courses and tools are available for all Food Blogger Pro members. If you used to be a member, you can rejoin by following these instructions. If you’re not a member, you can join today!

The post New Course: Republishing Content appeared first on Food Blogger Pro.