SEO Tips For Writing And Publishing Recipes Online

Some recipes do better than others.

Some recipe hubs do better than others.

Some recipe hubs get a lot of Google traffic.

This hub is specifically written for people who publish recipes on Hubpages and other online medium. This hub is written for those who want to increase organic traffic to their recipes and perhaps gain some recognition on HP or followers to their blogs in the process.

There have been a lot of speculation about recipe hubs being featured as "Hub of the Day" and I am here to say that it's not just the uniqueness of the recipe that makes the hub stand out but the quality of the hub itself.

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Here is a little personal story

When I first joined HP I wrote cooking lessons, then later on I posted recipes. After a while those hubs would stop getting views. I had decided not to post recipes anymore until I came upon a forum post where a very special hubber said her recipes did well.

I didn't copy her style, I decided to create my own style because whenever I try to imitate something or someone I always make an *ss of myself. It wasn't hard to do my recipe hubs the way I wanted them and I had a lot of fun. So I will tell you what I have done not only to capture the attention of HP viewers but organic traffic as well. Around 80% of my traffic are to my recipes.

Photos

I have so many recipes I want to share but I realize that I really hate reading recipes without photos. A photo of the finished product is also good enough if you forgot to take production photos.

I also don't like reading recipes that have internet photos (for want of a better term) instead of your own. It looks like you didn't put much work and thought into your recipe article. I did it once and I regret it. My hub on salad dressings have internet photos but I hate looking at that hub so I will change them as soon as I get the chance.

So what I am saying is that using your own photos make your hub looks more professional. A slide show of the production of your meal also looks quite impressive.

What I do is take photos almost every time I make a meal so that if I need to post a recipe I have the photos all ready. Keep your camera handy for taking pictures. You never know when you will need them.

Videos

The Video thing for HP is fairly new but you have two choices for your videos. You do the video specific for HP or create a YouTube account and upload it there then linking the YouTube video to your hub.

I must tell you that I have about six hubs with my personal videos and they are some of the best hubs I ever did. So having a video will definitely stand out but not absolutely necessary for a great hub so if you can't make a video don't worry about it.

When writing almost any hub it is good to ease the reader into the story by introducing the subject. Take for instance if you are writing about "Dermatitis" you need to tell what dermatitis is. So answering "What is dermatitis" would be your introduction to the condition.

The same goes with writing about food and cooking. Suppose your reader doesn't know your culture or your ingredients, it is good to tell them a little about the food you are presenting.

I didn't always do that but as I gained more experience writing I have developed the love of writing a little something about my food culture in my recipe hubs.

Tips

When writing the recipe you know about listing the ingredients and writing out the method. It is also good if you give tips for doing a certain thing. Tips will include stuff like-

• The best way to mince onions
• How to dice onions
• What is the best way to prepare the meat before cooking

You know stuff like that. People like these tips. For example cooking chicken. I usually add how I cleanse my chicken and how I prepare it by removing the skin.

Variations

If you have variations to your dish you can name them too. Sometimes the variations are a result of the change in an ingredient. So name the substitute for your ingredients and list the different ways the dish can be accomplished.

Cooking times

If you can, display the amount of time the dish takes to be made. You can do this by timing the preparation and cooking times. People like to know how long a dish will take to prepare before hand so they can set aside the appropriate time. They also like to know how many the dish will serve.

If at all possible you can add the nutrition information for your dish. I don't always add it but my hub that was displayed as hub of the day had the nutrition information in it. Don't get me wrong, I am not using that hub as a reference for a great recipe hub, but I do realize now that people are blown away when they know the nutrition facts of a meal.

You don't have to list the facts for all ingredients, you can choose the main or a rare ingredient to do so with.

OR

Instead of the nutrition facts such as caloric value, you could write a little summary on why the meal is nutritious. For instance if the dish has cranberries you could tell what cranberries great for.

Not only are you adding valuable information to your recipe hub, you are also adding more content!

Before I talk about the title and URL my advice is to always type your hub in a text editor before transferring to HP. This will give you several advantages including:

• using the best title for your hub
• using the best URL for your hub
• Your formatting will be better because you know beforehand what to place where.
• You get to check for mistakes before posting. You often miss these when working from HP.

Keywords

Yes! You also need to find the best keywords for your recipes. How do you do this? Using the Google adwords Keywords tool. Will explain how to use it below!

You will find about five or six of the best keywords for your recipes. Use the best one for the title and the second best one for the URL. When introducing the recipe you place a keyword in the first sentence. Try placing the keywords several times throughout the hub too.

I have broken down the steps for finding Keywprds into some simple steps. I hope they are easy to follow.

1. Type in "Google adwords keywords tool" in your browser and search.
2. If you have a Google account you will be able to log in with your Google ID. If not, you can sign up. If you don't want to do that you can still use the tool. So log-in if you are a member, if not then use the page as is.
3. In the 'Find Keyword" search box, type in the name of your main ingredient and the word recipe. For example if you are making Chicken Frankfurters you would type in "Chicken recipes".
4. Just below that you will see a link "Advanced options and filters" click that. In Locations and languages click United States. If you don't the Local searches will show searches from your own country, you don't really want that since most of the searches come from Google.com.
5. For Global searches simply remove your own country by clicking the "x" beside it.
6. Scroll down to "filter ideas" and in the drop-down box select competition. For Competition you are going to select "high". This is if you want to earn from Adsense. If not you ignore that.
7. Look over to you left you will see match types. There are three options; broad, exact and phrase. Un-select broad and phrase, than select "exact" instead.
8. Now you are ready to search. If you are not a Google member type in the code. Proceed in either case by clicking search just beneath the advanced filters box.
9. Many options will presents themselves. In the local searches to your right. Look for relevant phrases and words that have searches over 1000 per month. Write them down.
10. You are going to search again. Don't change the perimeters just the keywords for the exact recipe and see the results. Any keywords that come up with over 1000 monthly local searches is yours.
11. Now you have two sets of keywords so you will use them to your advantage.

When creating your recipe hub think of your reader and what you think might please them. These are just tips and guidelines. You don't have to follow them to the "t". For instance; you don't have to use a video but it would be better if you did. If you write about the origin and culture of the food you can leave out the nutrition facts and vice versa.

The secret is to add a little more content to your recipe hubs and make them pretty! The more info about the food the better. Good luck with creating your recipe hub.

BTW, the idea for the hub came while hopping the other day where I saw a recipe hub with ingredients I did not understand and the name of the recipe sounded like a different language. I couldn't make heads or tails of it. There was no intro to the dish and no additional info at the end either. I was not impressed and I don't think I would bother trying to figure it out.

Happy hubbing!