Why Do Food Bloggers Write a Novel in their Recipes?

Have you ever wondered why recipe blog posts seem so unnecessarily long? I know this has become somewhat of a joke about food bloggers. We’ve probably all seen that meme floating around about how they could write where they hid a dead body and no one would ever know, because no one actually reads the paragraphs before the recipe. There is actually a pretty simple reason, and it’s not because bloggers want to string you along and bore you to death. Don’t worry, this post in itself is not going to be long winded.

SEO

So why DO food bloggers write a novel in their recipes? The number one reason is search engine optimization (SEO.) If you have a website yourself, you probably already know that. I didn’t know any of this until I started blogging. If you’re a new blogger you might not know that either and it’s time to start doing some SEO research. I still pretty much have no idea what I’m doing but that’s another post.

When I first started working on Catnip & Kombucha, I was all like “I’m not going to be annoying and write super long articles, and I’m just going to plow through and post the recipe straight to the point. People will love it because they don’t have to read a stupid novel.” HA! Oh how naïve I was. It just doesn’t work like that. Google will never find you.

Long story short, if someone posts a recipe with very little text, it’s much harder to show up in search engine results. This is obviously a problem if you want anyone to read your blog. As much as I enjoy talking to the wall, I would like people to be able to find my recipes some day!

Advertising

You have to keep in mind that blogs don’t run on good looks, they cost money. Plus people do in fact enjoy a little compensation for their hard work, as they should. The good news is it usually costs the reader nothing. It’s also a place for us to promote helpful products we can make a commission on via affiliate links. Another reason for writing so much is for the ad space itself. If there wasn’t any text, where would ads go? Some sites could do a much better job at placing said ads but they are kind of a necessary evil.

Let’s be honest though, scrolling a recipe absolutely sucks when you’re hit in the face with ad after ad and you can’t read it anyway. In fact, that’s usually the biggest reason I never return to a site ever again. I despise pop ups I can’t get rid of. However if I’m ever successful enough to have a high traffic blog, of course I’m going to want to monetize and use ads. Hopefully just a light sprinkling that doesn’t interfere with the reader experience but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Writers Like to Write

Well duh, this one should be obvious. If someone has a blog, chances are it’s because they enjoy writing and sharing personal experiences. There is no one out there blogging if they hate writing. Food definitely gets personal too. People get excited. I know I am prone to rambling sometimes. I don’t think I quite realized how I would have so much to say about what goes into a making a pot of soup or some condiments I found at the Asian grocery store. Thankfully we now have that handy JUMP TO RECIPE button. I use it liberally myself on blog recipes. I’m not usually a fan of long personal stories especially when I’m just trying to get dinner on the table for screaming hungry children, however I get why some bloggers do it.

Maybe We Should Slow Down?

When you have time you should give the pre-text a chance. I know for me if I’m reading an enjoyable blog, chances are better I will come back because I like the person, not because of whatever random recipe I was looking for at the time. Sometimes I even learn something I wouldn’t have just from the condensed version.

I know how this goes, we live in a world where we are trying to cram as much as possible into every second of the day. I think we are all guilty of having a short attention span or being in a huge rush at times. If I can’t find something in 3 seconds I get frustrated. Then again most of us are also guilty of scrolling social media for hours at a time. If we can do that, we can take a few minutes to read a blog post. Haste makes waste anyway. I end up spending more time in total when I try to rush. It’s something I’m working on. Try to slow down, take things in, and stop mindlessly scrolling.

So that is all. Those are some of the reasons food bloggers write a novel before the recipe. I have a small challenge for you. Next time you’re flying through Pinterest looking for something to cook for dinner, read the whole recipe novel. Maybe you will actually find out where that dead body is hidden. 

Looking for something to eat? How about some Thai Curry Soup? It won’t offend me if you jump right to the recipe.