SEO for Food Bloggers (Beginner Level)

Stephanie Stiavetti and Stephanie ManleyTwitter

@sstiavetti @copykatrecipes

www.wasabimon.com/seo-for-food-bloggerswww.copykat.com

What Is SEO?SEO = Search Engine

OptimizationIt’s a way of writing so that

search engines can easily understand and classify your content.

It is the way of naming files, file structure, and the selection of content you write about.

What Is A Keyword?A keyword phrase is a specific

word or term that people are searching for

• A keyword can be one word or two words.

• Long-tail keywords are keyword phrases of three or more words

Crafting Posts You don’t need to write like a

robot to have good SEO! Good content is easy to produce

if you keep a keyword phrase in mind while writing.

Stick to a few basic placement rules

SEO Guidelines: Keyword PlacementKeyword should appear

throughout the post:◦In the post title◦Once in the first sentence of the post◦Once in a primary header◦Keywords should be used several

times throughout the post in key locations.

SEO Guidelines: MetadataMetadata is the information about your

post that shows up in the search engine’s search page◦Keyword phrase should appear in both

the metatitle and the metadescription of your post These text fields may differ between blogging

services◦ The keyword phrase should also appear in

the post URL Ex:

http://www.wasabimon.com/archive/vegan-truffle-recipe

Linking Is Important!Link to internal relevant contentOutbound links should be

relevant to contentUse relevant keywords as link

anchors◦Bad: <link>Click here!</link>◦Good: Click here for my <link>grilled

pork loin</link>.

Guided PracticeKeyword – what

are you writing about?

TitleFirst SentencePrimary Header Name of PhotoMeta Data – Title

and Description Photo from

http://www.twicebakedtwins.wordpress.com

Why Exploit the Long tail?Long Tail Key Words Traditional SEO

Phrase Example Easy Crockpot Recipes for ground beef

Recipes

Competition Low Very High and Growing

Basis of Ranking Keyword and Text (easier)

Domain Authority, age, and link profile (hard – no control)

Speed of Ranking Months YearsNaturalness of link profile

Very natural and lots of variety

Unnatural bias to keywords phrases containing one to two keywords

Naturalness of the content

Lots of Synonyms well targeted

Overused phrases, can appear to be spammy

Depth Well distributed content

Primary focus is the home page

Graph of Long tail

General Search Data

Search Data Optimized for Long tail

Tools for Finding Keywords

ScribeMarket Samurai

Strategizer - WordtrackerGoogle AdSense Tool <-- Free!

Links at wasabimon.com/seo-for-food-bloggers

Warning! – Search Engines are Cruel Masters• If you have a lot of traffic, be judicious

with your SEO changes – drastic changes results in penalization. Make changes in small batches and see

how Google responds Results are not overnight, growth is slow Avoid overuse of keywords called

“stuffing” When in doubt, ASK.

www.foodblogforum.com

Additional Strategies

Back linking Strategy – endorse your community.

Internal Linking – link within your blog.

Write consistently – search engines favor fresh sites.

Write to the overall content of your site.

More InformationFor more information on SEO for

food bloggers, including tools, resources, a cheat sheet, and a copy of this presentation, visit:

www.wasabimon.com/seo-for-food-bloggers