How a Family Food Blog Grew Traffic by 238% in 6 Months
https://www.howtocook.recipes/
Stats
329.8K to 1.1M Monthly Visits
Industry
Food & Drink
Niche
Food Blog
Reporting Date
January 2025
How to Cook Recipes is a blog by Megan Miller, a mom of two and self-declared recipe creation enthusiast. Since 2020, she's been sharing healthy, family-friendly recipes that please even the pickiest eaters.
Now, in 2025, HowToCook.Recipes features multiple authors, marking a new chapter for the blog and its online growth.
This year, the site achieved a major milestone, surpassing 1 million monthly visits thanks to a 237% surge in organic traffic in 6 months.
This SEO case study explores the strategies that made it possible, helping other bloggers learn what tactics make the needle move.
In This Article
The Catalyst: How How to Cook Recipes Reached 1.1M Monthly Visits
1. A Feast for the Eyes (and Search Engines): Image SEO
Visuals are undeniably crucial in food blogging.
HowToCook.Recipes understands this, showcasing its recipes with mouth-watering photography and helpful how-to snapshots.
However, strong visuals are just one piece of the puzzle.
To maximize reach and attract a wider audience, optimizing images for search engines is essential.
That’s because search engines can’t “see” images like you and me.
Instead, they rely on text elements to understand their content.
Let’s look at an example.
Here’s an image of a French toast recipe from Miller’s blog:
And here are the image optimizations Miller makes behind the scenes:
- Alt text: “French toast recipe”
- Image title: “Best homemade French toast recipe”
- Image file name: french-toast-recipe.jpg
Miller also includes ImageObject schema markup, which communicates your image details to search engines in a way that’s easy for them to understand.
Schema markup is a type of structured data in a web page’s HTML code. There are several schema types, and each helps search engines more easily understand a page’s content. Food bloggers often use recipe, review, and image schema.
Schema markup can also help you win SERP features, which are enhanced listings in organic search results.
And in the case of How to Cook Recipes, that’s exactly what happened.
The food blog received thousands of image snippets, which feature an image next to your search listing.
In total, How to Cook Recipes ranked for 37K keywords with image snippets in SERPs in January.
It also ranked in the Google Image Pack, which shows a handful of images among standard search results.
Did you know? Ranking in Google's Image Pack also means your website is ranking in Google Images, which receives over 1 billion searches daily.
Image Packs are a recent acquisition for How to Cook Recipes, and, by January, they had 2.5K of them.
Why this matters:
Image SEO is one of the cornerstones of a robust SEO strategy. It helps you stand out in search results and rank in Google Images.
How to Cook Recipes is just one example of its effectiveness when implemented properly.
You, too, can achieve similar results by following the steps we outline below.
How to optimize images for search engines:
This tutorial gives you an in-depth guide to image SEO. Here’s a quick recap of some of the strategies we see in the article and from How to Cook Recipes:
- Use descriptive image file names.
- Write alt text that accurately describes the image.
- Include image captions when helpful to users.
- Optimize your H1 tag (page title) with your primary keyword.
- Implement ImageObject schema markup on your web page.
Tools for image SEO:
Image SEO is essential but time-consuming, especially when running a food blog with a lot of photography.
To streamline the process, All in One SEO, a popular WordPress plugin for SEO, has an image SEO tool that makes image optimizations much faster.
You can automate specific tasks like writing alt text or title tags using smart tags. This puts much of your image SEO on autopilot, freeing valuable time to focus on other areas of your site or business.
2. The Secret Ingredient to More Visibility: Recipe FAQs
Miller understands that cooking isn't always straightforward.
That's why she's sprinkled FAQs throughout her recipe posts, providing helpful answers to common cooking questions.
This not only assists users in successfully executing the recipes but also serves as a powerful SEO tactic.
Let’s see how.
Here’s an example of an FAQ in a tiramisu recipe post:
It’s natural, relevant to the topic, and genuinely helpful for users trying to execute the recipe.
It’s also written in a way that’s easy to grasp a user’s attention (bold subheading) and quickly access the answer (concise body copy).
These optimizations are so easy to do, that you might not even realize you’re doing them.
But search engines notice.
Google loves FAQs.
They provide quick answers to popular user questions. And when done correctly, can you land in the People Also Ask (PAA) section of SERPs.
Like the name suggests, this area of the SERP presents users with questions related to their query. It also gives the answers, and, at times, highlights what it thinks is the most important part.
Here, we see a Google PAA result featuring the earlier FAQ:
And this isn’t the only ranking of its kind for How to Cook Recipes.
It received more than 31.5K PAA results in January alone.
Why this matters:
Visibility in People Also Ask significantly boosts a website's visibility. It positions HowToCook.Recipes as an authority on the topic, driving more organic traffic to the site.
When a user clicks on a question in the PAA, they're often taken directly to the relevant section of the page. This helps the user access the key information they're looking for while also boosting the discoverability of the rest of your content.
Moreover, optimizing for PAA is rather simple.
FAQs are one of the best ways to rank in this SERP feature and gain visibility in search results.
Let’s see how to write them.
How to optimize for Google People Also Ask:
This article teaches you how to optimize for People Also Ask, but let’s recap the process here:
- Perform keyword research, focusing on question-based keywords.
- Create high-quality content that fulfills search intent.
- Include relevant FAQs on web pages.
- Add FAQ schema markup.
- See how your competitors are ranking in PAA.
Tools for People Also Ask:
AIOSEO provides a winning combo to ranking in People Also Ask: FAQ blocks + FAQ schema.
To reap their benefits in PAA, all you have to do is locate the AIOSEO – FAQ block in the WordPress editor. Then, add it to your post or page.
From here, you can write your question and answer in the appropriate fields.
All in One SEO (AIOSEO) will then format and implement the FAQ schema for you, ensuring search engines can read it properly.
And that’s it!
An easy, no-coding-required method for writing FAQs and optimizing for SERPs.
3. Serving Up Social Proof: Review Schema Markup
When it comes to online recipes, social proof is a powerful ingredient. It helps your website stand out from the rest, building trust and enticing users to give your recipe a try.
HowToCook.Recipes understands this and leverages user reviews to stand out in search results and get more visitors to its blog.
How do they do it?
With the help of recipe and review schema markup.
These schema types provide important details about your recipe, from nutritional information to cooking time and how-to steps.
You can also include AggregateRating schema, which gives an average rating for customer reviews.
Search engines can use this information to generate star ratings in SERPs and showcase the total number of reviews, as shown below.
Think about it: When you're searching for a new recipe, seeing star ratings alongside the listing can make all the difference. It's a quick visual cue that signals the recipe's quality and popularity. Wouldn’t you prefer to cook (and eat) a recipe with 5-star ratings vs. a recipe with no ratings?
Star ratings also have a direct influence on the page's clickthrough rate (CTR) and organic traffic.
By implementing the appropriate schema, How To Cook Recipes showcases its ratings prominently and gives its recipes a competitive edge in SERPs.
Why this matters:
Review schema not only enhances the visual appeal of search listings but also builds trust and credibility.
Seeing positive reviews from other users acts as social proof, encouraging more clicks and visits.
These rich snippets, with their eye-catching star ratings, make search listings stand out from the competition, increasing visibility and attracting more traffic
How to implement schema markup:
You can add schema markup to WordPress manually or with a plugin.
If you go the manual route, this tutorial shows you how to implement schema markup without a plugin. You’ll get 3 different methods, each requiring you to obtain code snippets. You’ll then paste these snippets into the appropriate fields in WordPress.
If you prefer a code-free route, we recommend using a schema generator plugin.
These plugins simplify the process, so you don’t have to worry about formatting schema markup for search engines.
Let’s look at which tool we recommend next.
Tools for schema markup:
The AIOSEO Schema Generator is the easiest and most comprehensive schema plugin for WordPress.
After locating your desired schema (if you have a food blog like How to Cook Recipes, this would be Recipe), just click the plus (+) button.
Based on your selection, the tool may ask for additional information about your page.
For example, for recipe schema, you can add the following elements:
- Ingredients
- Dish type
- Nutritional information
- Instructions
- And more
You can also easily create custom schema markup to include your recipe’s user rating.
(Although, a little bird told me that AIOSEO is working on adding review schema as an option to its current recipe offering. This would make the process even easier.)
Standout SEO Wins
Beyond the core SEO strategies discussed, How to Cook Recipes uses other tactics to grow the blog.
One notable example is the site's recent expansion to feature multiple authors, in addition to its founder.
Let's take a closer look at how this move contributes to the blog's recent success.
Fresh Voices, Fresh Content, Fresh Results
In the second half of 2024, a few new authors started to publish content on How to Cook Recipes. Each author took on a specialty (like meatloaf or chili) and focused their content creation efforts on that specific topic.
This approach expands the blog's culinary repertoire while also strengthening its topical authority.
By bringing in writers with knowledge in specific culinary areas, users are more likely to be drawn to How to Cook Recipes.
For example, someone searching for “best chocolate chip cookie recipe” is more likely to trust a site with a dedicated baking expert and a collection of cookie recipes than a general food blog.
The same is true for search engines.
Google likes to see websites that demonstrate E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness).
Specialized authors are a great way to achieve this.
Ultimately, this targeted content strategy positioned HowToCook.Recipes as a go-to destination for specific recipe types and expanded its keyword rankings.
Tool: Did you know you can create, optimize, and showcase author bios in WordPress? AIOSEO makes this possible with its Author SEO addon. You can add credentials that support Google E-E-A-T, like education and employer. You can also upload a photo for a personal touch that stands out in the era of AI-generated content.
Takeaways
Let's recap the key lessons from our analysis of HowToCook.Recipes.
These actionable takeaways will help you implement and improve similar tactics on your own website.
Remember, building a successful online presence takes time and consistent effort, but by focusing on these core strategies, you can significantly enhance your site's visibility and reach.
Top 3 Strategies to Emulate
- Optimize your visual storytelling. High-quality images are essential for attracting and engaging your audience, especially in the world of food blogging. But simply having beautiful photos isn't enough. Prioritize image SEO by writing descriptive alt text, using relevant file names, and implementing schema markup. This makes your images discoverable by search engines and improves accessibility. It can also help your site rank in Google Images, where there are over 1 billion searches daily.
- Answer your audience's burning questions. Anticipate the questions your readers might have about your content and provide clear, concise answers. Incorporating FAQs is an easy way to address common queries and provide quick access to key information. Search engines also tend to use FAQs in SERP features like Google People Also Ask, making them valuable in SERPs.
- Harness the power of social proof. Leverage the persuasive power of reviews and ratings by implementing schema markup. Showcasing positive feedback from other users directly in search results builds trust and credibility, making your content more appealing and increasing clickthrough rates. Encourage your readers to leave reviews and make sure those reviews are displayed on your site and optimized for search engines.
Bottom 3 Strategies to Reconsider
- Not assigning an H1 tag to every indexable page. Several collection pages are missing H1 tags on HowToCook.Recipes. This is a missed opportunity because H1 tags signal the main topic of a page to search engines. Every indexable page should have one. Your H1 should be unique and descriptive, accurately conveying the content of your page. AIOSEO can help with this task, thanks to the TruSEO tool, which analyzes your on-page SEO. You'll get an incomplete checklist when it scans your page and finds an unoptimized H1.
- Omitting meta descriptions from content. Meta descriptions are the snippets of text that appear in search results below the blue, hyperlinked title. They provide a preview of your content, enticing users to visit your website. They also directly influence clickthrough rates. Unfortunately, many of How to Cook Recipe's pages are missing them. For your site, write a unique and compelling meta description for every page. You can use a meta description generator to write them and save time.
- Using non-descriptive anchor text for links. Anchor text (the clickable text in a link) should be descriptive and relevant to the linked page. Generic anchor text like “click here” or “learn more” provides no context to search engines. To avoid this same mistake on your website, use keywords naturally in your anchor text. This strategy helps users and search engines understand what your linked page is about. Link Assistant can also suggest relevant links and anchor text for you, streamlining your linking strategy.
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Make Your Blog Stand Out in SERPs With AIOSEO
How to Cook Recipes' success story demonstrates the power of a well-executed SEO strategy in the competitive food blogging landscape.
Whether you're a blogger or small business owner, you, too, can achieve similar results with the right tools.
Take All in One SEO (AIOSEO), for example.
This WordPress SEO plugin was designed to help you get the most out of your website's SEO and increase its visibility in search results. You’ll get a suite of powerful, beginner-friendly tools that make SEO easy for even the busiest website owners.
Here are a few customer favorites:
- Link Assistant: Get link suggestions, edit anchor text, and add internal links to your content in just 1 click. Link Assistant helps you effortlessly build a better linking strategy.
- Image SEO: Turn on automatic image alt text and title attributes with a single click. You’ll save time from manual entries while helping users and search engines understand your images.
- Rich Snippets Schema: Win more rich results with AIOSEO’s user-friendly schema generator. Just pick the schema type you want, and we’ll format the structured data properly for Google.
- FAQ Blocks: Add FAQs to your content to increase the likelihood of appearing in Google’s People Also Ask box. These results help boost brand awareness and increase clickthrough rates.
- Author SEO: Create powerful author bios that showcase your experience and expertise. This addon aligns your content with Google E-E-A-T guidelines and builds trust with readers.
- TruSEO Score: Level up your content and go beyond a simple pass or fail. TruSEO analyzes your on-page SEO, giving you real-time recommendations to maximize your content's reach and readability.
