WordPress & SEO for
Food Bloggers
Eugene Molari
Introduction
Wholegrain Digital is a WordPress design and development agency.
We design, build and SEO optimise WordPress websites for clients ranging from individual bloggers to large corporations like M&S and Reed Recruitment.
What is WordPress?
WordPress is a content management system (CMS). In simple terms, it provides an easy way to add/edit content on your website.
Started as a blogging system
Now the worlds most popular CMS
How popular is WP?
WordPress is used by 17.4% of all websites.
That is a CMS market share of 54.6%.
Source: http://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/content_management/all
Why use WordPress?
It is easy to use
It is free
It is infinitely flexible
It has a huge community
Google LOVES it
WordPress is a fantastic piece of software it solves some 80-90% of the mechanics of SEO Matt Cutts, Google
What is SEO?
The task of improving your website so that more people can find it in search engines
SEO Fundamentals
If anyone tells you there is an easy way to be #1 on Google, the are either lying or misguided
There are 4 main elements to SEO:Setup your website correctly
Focus your content
Write lots of good content
Encourage interaction
Basics: Keywords
Research popular search terms using Google Keyword Tool (filter to Exact Match)
Keywords are useful, but less critical for bloggers than passion and personality
Dont stuff too many keywords into your posts or the keywords will seem unnatural. Keywords should be used sparingly, so dont put keywords everywhere unless the keywords sound right.
Quality content first, keywords second
Basics: Clean URLs
In WP under Settings > Permalinks choose Post name
Basics: Titles and meta
Basics: Headings
H1 heading
Basics: XML Sitemaps
It automatically creates XML sitemaps and notifies Google & Bing of the sitemaps existence
It includes images from your pages/posts in the sitemap
Basics: Analytics
Monitor which posts people are finding and reading, and learn from it so that you can write more posts that people find and love
Basics: Webmaster Tools
Setup a Google Webmaster Tools account, submit your sitemap and make sure that Google is not reporting any problems crawling your website.
If problems are found, you can deal with them
Basics: RSS Feeds
Setup a Feedburner account and add RSS and email subscription links on your blog
Feed Stats for WordPress plugin
Basics: Linking
Create amazing content
Cross promote articles, recipes and reviews
Give love to get love dont be scared to link out
Guest blog for other people
DO NOT buy links
Image: http://www.leostartsup.com
Food Blogger SEO
There are some specific things that food bloggers can do to raise the profile of their blog
Author profiles
Photography
Recipes
Reviews
Usability
User Interaction
Image: http://www.lolfoodie.com
Author Profiles
Get yourself known as a food blogger, and attract more traffic
Create Google+ profile
Add you blog to your profile
Add your Google+ profile URL to your WordPress author profile (use Yoast SEO plugin)
Photography
Posts with images get 94% more views (Skyword)
Get found in image search
Use readable file names, titles and alt tags
UseYoast SEO plugin for image sitemap
Encourage sharingUse 'Pinterest "Pin It" Button'
Image: http://www.foodcoachnyc.com
Recipe SEO
Recipe Schema and hRecipe(wait for update)
Help Google, Yummly and SuperCook index your recipes
Get thumbnail images next to recipes in Google search
Cooking method, prep time, cooking time, cuisine, ingredients, yield etc etc
Plugins - Schema Creator by Raven, Recipe Schema, hRecipe(wait for update)
Review SEO
Review Schema
Review restaurants, cafes, bars
Google understands the site is a review and references it within Google local listings
Sites like Urban Spoon also pickup reviews
If review is genuinely favourable, contact the owners of the venue to suggest they to link to the review or quote something from the review on their website
Usability
Keep it simple
Break up text with lists and sub-headings
Use photography
Responsive design for mobile and tablets
Mobile important for restaurant reviews
Tablet important for recipes
User Interaction
Include sharing buttons prominently
Lots of plugins for WordPress
Engage with commenters
Engage with influencial bloggers/tweetersFind influencers using Followerwonk.com
Ask to interviewthem
Reference their site or work
Review their venue (e.g. chefs)
Look for trending topics such as hot / new venues or recipes getting a boost due to trends or celebrity chefs (e.g. recipes from Masterchef). Notify influencers via social media and interact.
WordPress Plugin List
WordPress SEO by Yoast (essential)
Feedstats for WordPress
Pinterest "Pin It" Button premium
Schema Creator
Recipe Schema
hRecipe (better to use Schema)
SEO Facebook Comment plugin
hRecipe Website: http://microformats.org/wiki/hrecipeSchema Website: http://schema.org/Recipe
Conclusion
Setup your website right
Figure out who you are and what youre about
Write great content
Include great photography
Use schema to tag recipes and reviews
Make your content easy to share
Engage with readers & influencers
Monitor performance
Learn and get better!
Click to edit the title text formatClick to edit Master title style
07/07/13