FoodFindsAsia | Attracting More Visitors to Your Food Blog: Tips That Work | So you have started a food blog because you are fond of cooking and want to share your recipes and small secrets with people from all over the globe. You make tasty dishes and post mouth-watering photos, but your resource doesn’t get any popularity and nobody is reading it. Don’t worry, it doesn’t mean that your recipes and photos are not good enough. In fact, it is very common for food blogs to have a small number of visitors. However, this doesn’t mean that your blog should stay unpopular as well.
There are some efficient ways to boost traffic and gain significantly more visitors and we are going to share some methods with you. Some are simple and don’t require either specific skills or money. The others – do, but all of them prove to be useful. Choose the ones that suit your schedule and budget, but don’t forget that they also need some time and patience. Let’s start!
SEO strategies for your food blog
-
Use keywords, especially long-tail ones
As you may know, relevant and popular keywords will make your blog visible to more users as it gets ranked by a search engine. At the same time, such keywords as “mushroom pizza recipe” are very common, therefore it is really hard to get on the top of the list with them. However, the long-tail keyword “home-made vegan gluten-free mushroom pizza” increases your chances to win first place in the ranking. Try to come up with specific and rare keywords and you will have fewer competitors.
-
Change a free hosting to your own
WordPress, Blogspot, and Tumblr are amazing platforms that provide professional writers and bloggers with a wide range of opportunities. It is pretty tempting to make a blog on one of such platforms, using their ready-made samples. At the same time, using samples and having those .wordpress.com in your domain might look unprofessional and decrease the authority of your blog. What is more, a self-hosted blog will provide you with more customization options. Think about it. And while you are thinking, you can go to hostadvice and look at the prices for WordPress hosting.
-
Increase your blog’s speed
One of the main aspects Google takes into account when ranking web pages is speed. Not only Google, but your potential visitors dislike slow sites for sure. This is especially important for a food blog, because such resources usually include a lot of photos. Photos are heavy and have a negative impact on the speed. Make sure that you make them small and lightweight enough (still, high-quality) and optimize your resource’s speed to get more traffic.
-
Make long posts
Google believes that the larger your article is, the more useful and detailed it might be. Posting 1000-2000 words texts make your resource reputable. What is more, this will bring you better conversion and more backlinks. Just don’t forget that large texts must stay high-quality, because the word count is nothing when your content is mediocre.
-
Don’t forget about metatags
Include SEO title, description, and subheadings that have main keywords. Tags will increase your chances to make your way to the top, while subheadings will also make your texts easier to read.
Social media strategies to try
-
Post the right content in your social media group
A lot of social media platforms can support your food blog. Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook must be the most efficient ones. Remember, that different types of content work best on these sites. For example, Instagram is for eye-catching photos, while Facebook requires both photos and appealing/useful text. Make sure that you know what type of content works better for every specific platform.
-
Know your audience
At the same time, you don’t have to cover all the social media platforms. The perfect move here is to find out which platforms your users prefer and stick to them. You have to make research, understand your audience, and use social media smartly. This way, you will have more chances to reach those people, that are really interested in what you do.
-
Make attractive visual content
As we have already said, food blogs cannot do without eye-catching photos. However, don’t limit yourself to photos only. Try making infographics, illustrations, and videos, and don’t be afraid to experiment with visual content in any way.
Content curation methods
-
Use tags in a smart way
Tagging your posts with related words is crucial. You can also try adding some tags that will work for your particular audience but are not directly connected to food. For instance, if you know that your target audience is fond of Disney cartoons, you can think about making a Disney-themed recipe and add this tag to a post. This will increase your chances to reach more users.
-
Definitely make a Pinterest account
The most popular Pinterest category is “food”. So if you don’t have an account yet, then make it immediately.
-
Make shareable content
When users like and share your content, their friends and followers see these posts in a newsfeed. This way, more eyes will see your posts and more potential visitors will come to your blog. Encourage sharing and your chances to make your audience wider will grow.
-
Experiment with Twitter
At the first sight, Twitter is not a very good option for a food resource. You cannot post a detailed recipe with instructions there or locate photos. Still, when your blog grows, it is great to have a channel for communication between your readers and you. Twitter is a perfect place, where you can talk to people and learn more about them. Twitter is not for promotion, but for chatting. What is more, you can use this platform to find people with relevant interests. For example, if you have a vegan food blog and your last recipe is about a home-made mushroom pizza, you can enter “home-made mushroom pizza” to Twitter’s search bar and see users, who have been posting something related to the topic. Your next step might be starting a chat with these people. In turn, they will check your page, so don’t forget to locate a link that leads to your blog there.
So these tips will certainly help you increase the amount of visitors. Hopefully, your 100 followers will turn into 1000 soon! Good luck with your blogging!
—
About the Author
Jennifer Pauli graduated from Corvinus School of Management and finished the faculty of Journalism at Corvinus University of Budapest. Currently, she is an editor, business writer, and copywriter, working with well-known companies, blogs, and personalities. Follow her on Twitter, G+ and read the personal blog.
