Blog Recipe Search

Have you ever Googled one of your recipes and been disappointed with how the result is displayed in Google (if it even displays at all)? This happens for one of two reasons:

You can’t do much about #1. Even if your blog is perfectly formatted Google might still decide that they’re going to leave out certain information from a search result. Google does as Google pleases. There’s not much you can do about it except make sure that you’re not falling victim to #2.

Something that you can do about #2, asthere are multiple components that factor into the ideal, rich search result for food bloggers.None of them are complicated, but they do require some timeto set them up properly.

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Keep in mind, this post is not necessarily about how to get your food blog to rank high in Google. It’s about how to set things up so your food blog has as many “bonus”search elements as possible.

I’musing the Vegan Crunchwrap Supreme recipe from Pinch of Yum as an example for this post. You can view the original post here and the search result here. Otherwise, here’s a screenshot of the search result:

Note #1: It’s important to know that Google doesn’t automatically reflect updates in the search results (remember, Google does as Google pleases). If you want to check to see if things are formatted correctlyyou shoulduse Google’s Rich Results Test.

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Note #2: We’ll be using the term “keyword” or “keyword phrase” in this post. Your keyword phrase is the phrase that you’re trying to rank for in Google. The keyword phrase for a recipe post is usually just the name of the recipe. In our example, the keyword phrase is “vegan crunchwrap supreme.” If we wanted to try to rank for a more competitive (and harder to rank for) keyword we could use “vegan crunchwrap” or just “crunchwrap.”

Note #3: This is considered a “rich result” or “rich snippet” because it displays all of these fun “extras” – ratings, calories, a description, an image, etc.

Here, rather than the title of the recipe, so it’s important to title your posts with the name of your recipe whenever you can.

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Not only that, title is also a ranking factor, so you’ll want to make sure your post titles are optimized and include your keyword.

We have this set up in the SEO plugin we use, Yoast SEO. If you download the plugin and go to SEO > Search Appearance > Content Types, you’ll see this:

. We upload the photo directly into our recipe plugin, Tasty Recipes, and that’s the image Google will show in search results – most of the time.

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Why do I say, “most of the time?” Google does what Google wants. Even if you upload an image there, it’s up to Google to show it in search results.

That said, you’ll want to make sure your image is optimized for search results on Google. Here’s a quick support article from our friends over at WP Tasty all about choosing the best images for SEO.

👉Want to learn more about structured data? Check out this article: “What is Recipe Schema and How Does it Impact My Blog?” 👈

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The recipe ratings functionality usually comes bundled with a recipe plugin. Since we use Tasty Recipes, it allows readers to leave recipe ratings whenever they leave a comment on Pinch of Yum.

Time and calories are what Google calls “recommended” properties, but we always like to give Google as much information about our recipes as possible.

Filling out this information is simple, is quick, and it gives our readers and Google more information about our recipes. See how important a recipe plugin is?!

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👉If you need help figuring out which recipe plugin is best for you, check out this article: “Choosing a WordPress Recipe Plugin.” And if you’re a Food Blogger Pro member, be sure you check out our Understanding Recipe Plugins course! 👈

Notice how the description under the search result is an actual description of the recipe rather than the first few sentences in the post or an ingredient list?

The Meta description should be descriptive of the recipe, it should include your keyword, and it should entice the reader to click on the result.

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That’s a [crunch]wrap! You can check to see if your updates were successful by pasting in a URL for one of your posts into Google’s Rich Results Test. If there are no Errors and no Warnings in the Recipes area, you should be good to go!

One thing to note is that Warnings won’t necessarily hurt you; a warning is just telling you that you’re not including a certain value that Google recommends. So if you’re not shooting recipe videos, you’ll have a warning for that.

If you’re not seeing updates to your search results immediately, you can nudge Google to show your updated information by submitting your URL for reindexing in Google Search Console. If you want to learn more about this free tool, we have a whole course about it on Food Blogger Pro!

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Get instant access to on-demand webinars now! They cover topics like keyword research, creating and sharing content, and more and feature experts like Aleka Shunk and Lindsay Ostrom!Some of the key characteristics of most-read recipe blogs are high-quality visual content, user-friendly navigation (and recipe index) and clean, readable design.

Luckily, you can cover all these and more by building yours with a WordPress food blog theme or a website builder for blogs.

Instead of using a right sidebar (which is more common), My Name Is Yeh created a left version. The whole recipe blog sticks to plain white background, which ensures brilliant content distribution and makes visuals stand out more.

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The main thing that differentiates Sprouted Kitchen from the rest of the recipe blogs on this list is the sticky left sidebar header/menu.

Surprisingly, the blog displays entire posts without the “read more” button, which may be a bit overwhelming. However, you can always access the recipe index to search for something specific.

A Fork & A Pencil has a clean and modern responsive web design with a parallax effect and content loading while you scroll.

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This recipe blog has a minimalist header with social icons, menu links and a search bar. Moreover, the footer contains additional quick links and a newsletter subscription form just above it.

Martha Stewart is a magazine-style food and recipe website with a light design and one of the most unique navigations we’ve ever seen.

While the main quick links are in the header, an additional “explore” button opens up a pop, which almost feels like a website within a website.

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Flourist Recipes is an elegant recipe blog example with a grid layout. It features a top bar notification with sliding text and a floating header, so you don’t have to scroll back to the top to get to the menu links.

101 Cookbooks has a clean appearance that makes all the tasty content pop more. The blog uses a traditional right sidebar layout, which Heidi uses for banner advertisements.

101 Cookbooks also uses pretty original navigation that opens after clicking on the hamburger icon. Instead of displaying only menu links, you’ll find the welcome text and a section promoting the membership area. But you can always use the search bar to find the necessary recipes.

Mindful Chef Blog

This recipe blog has a full-width slider that advertises products, recipes, guides, and more. Besides a recipe grid and a section promoting a cookbook, you’ll also find multiple embedded YouTube videos.

One handy feature that Sailu’s Food uses is the Pinterest button on each image, so readers can save them and spread the word.

What we like about Vegan Richa is that even though it uses a floating banner ad at the bottom of the screen, you can still close it (so it doesn’t disturb you when reading through recipes).

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The home page displays various categories with links to the latest recipes, promotes a newsletter and has a quick “about me” section with links to social media and a more extensive bio.

Similar to Martha’s, The Kitchn is also an online recipe magazine website with a pleasant color scheme for a more enjoyable experience.

It features a hero area with the latest posts and a hamburger icon that opens a full-screen overlay with organized navigation and a search bar.

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Willow Bird Baking is a simple recipe blog with a slider and a top bar with social media icons. It also has a sidebar with multiple widgets, including banner ads, featured recipes, a subscription form and an IG feed.

The header/menu section is very plain, followed by a large area that promotes the latest post before the base of the blog begins.

This recipe blog’s home also has an embedded video for more engagement and an interesting recipes banner in the header section when scrolling back to the top.

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Picky Palate has an organized home page into multiple sections that display the latest recipes and posts and promotes a newsletter subscription form, to name a few.

Between the top bar and the header is a large banner ad and there’s another sticky one at the bottom of the screen. Picky Palate uses more advertisements inside each post and in the