Yup! I already signed up for both. Thank you so so so much for the reply! I will follow your advices! SEO is indeed confusing.

I’m so excited to start working “properly”. I ordered new photography props ( which I adore doing ) and can’t wait to receive everything! I will start posting more recipes once I have them.

OH! And one more thing. Have you signed up for Google analytics and Google webmaster tools yet? Those are helpful as well for making sure that the Googlebot is able to “crawl” your site (isn’t that the cutest thing ever? Googlebot?) and will help you get better analytics than the WordPress statistics.

Cristina- I am MORE than happy to answer these questions!! Seriously, keep them coming. And thank you so much for the kind words about my blog!! It made my day :-)

It took me a while to see referrals from Google, and I’m still learning a lot about it. Google uses an algorithm to rank your site. The algorithm takes into account a lot of things- your content/keywords being one of them, but also the popularity of your blog and how long it’s been around. It’s kind of like a catch-22 in that way. What I suggest early on is that you:

a) Get an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) plugin that will help create good keywords for google (I use All in One SEO. I’ve also heard good things about YOAST).

b) SEO is confusing. I certainly do not know a lot about it and am still learning, so I recommend doing some research- there are tons of resources out there! But here’s one thing- to improve your SEO, try to use as many key words that you think people will search for in your post, and making your title specific to that. Don’t make yourself crazy over it- but here’s an example: if you are making homemade chicken fingers, don’t just title the post “chicken fingers.” Instead- what is interesting about them? Are they spicy? Are they quick and easy? Can you freeze them after? Then, title them something like “Homemade frozen chicken fingers” or “quick and easy spicy chicken fingers.” That will help people find your post on google if they search for that specific thing, which is more unique than something like “chicken fingers.”

c) Post regularly. Once, I did not post something for a whole week, and I saw what little traffic I had from Google at that time plummet. The algorithm takes into account how frequently your site is updated.

d) Try to get your links on other websites as much as possible. Sometimes this is just luck, but keep posting on foodgawker, start putting things on facebook and pinterest, and share other bloggers’ recipes on your facebook and pinterest sites- they may return the favor!

e) Encourage comments on your blog and respond to them! Like I said, I am more than happy to answer any questions you have but as a perk for me, this post now has a lot of key words involving google traffic and pinterest traffic thanks to your comments and my responses :-) So, people may find this post if they search for those keywords in google. So, thanks!!

I’m sorry if I’m annoying you with all these questions but you’re the only blogger I know that started recently and came so far. I kinda consider your my role model :)

Thank your for taking your time to explain in such detail! I think I understand better now!

Pinterest is AMAZING. And it’s perfect for food blogs.

The basic gist is that pinterest is kind of like a bulletin board- you “pin” pictures that you find inspiring (kind of like how you might rip out a page from a magazine with a good recipe, or good DIY project, and place it on a bulletin board). The pictures then link back to the original website. So if I pin a recipe from my site, like my BBQ chicken, it will show up as a picture of the BBQ chicken on pinterest and anyone can a) save the pin to their own boards, and/or b) click on it and it will bring them to my website. Pinterest is also searchable like Google- if someone searches for “BBQ Chicken” on pinterest, they may find my BBQ chicken pin, click on it, and come to my website.

So, people find my recipes on pinterest by searching, or by previously saving it to their boards. The more people that have pinned my pin, the more likely it is that others will find it and therefore drive traffic to my site. So I pin all of my recipes, and I pin others’ peoples recipes as well. I also have a pinterest button on my blog posts so people can save the recipe directly to their pinterest boards. This gets me more exposure on pinterest, which will increase the likelihood that others will see and click on my pins.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions :-)

Yet, it’s so awesome to see your traffic and income numbers growing. Congrats!

You’re welcome, Lisa! So happy it’s been helpful for you :-)

Thanks, Jean! I love NH so much- the White Mountains are one of my favorite places in the world! Glad to see you still like blogging after 3 years and I agree- a slow steady climb is great!

Thanks so much, Sandra! That means a lot :-)