Top 10 Ways to Promote Your Food Blog
Food bloggers have to do a little bit of everything in order to be successful. Not only do you have to create amazing content, but you also need to promote it in the right ways.
Food blogging is very competitive and just posting a recipe with images alone will not get you a lot of traffic. You can have the most amazing recipes (and pictures) but if you do not promote it, nobody will ever see it. There are a lot of food blogs online, you need to stand out in the crowd!
In this blog post, we will discuss 10 different ways that you can promote your food blog. Some of these methods are obvious, while others may be new to you. But no matter which ones you choose, they will all help you generate more traffic and better results for your blog!
This post may contain affiliate links which means that we may earn a commission if you make a purchase through one of our links. This is at no extra cost to you, thank you for your support! Please see our disclaimer for more details.
Social media
Social media platforms are a great way to promote your food blog. You can share your latest recipes, post photos of your food, and even do live cooking demos! There are so many different ways to promote your blog on social media, so be sure to experiment and find what works best for you.
Pick your favorite social media channels and master them. Do not try to master them all at once or you will get overwhelmed! After you master 1 or 2, then you can add another social media channel to the mix.
My favorite is Facebook, but many people have success with Instagram and TikTok as well. Facebook you can create groups for your readers to interact with you and each other.
Guest Posting
Another great way to promote your food blog is through guest blogging. This is when you write a blog post for another website or blog in exchange for them linking back to your site. This is a great way to get exposure to new audiences and build up your backlink portfolio.
Please note that I do not do guest blogging so I do not have much advice on it. I do not allow guest posts on my food blog nor do I do them on others. But many people love it, it works for many bloggers and I wanted to mention it.
Commenting on other blogs
You can also promote your food blog by leaving comments on other blogs. This is a great way to start a conversation, build relationships, and get your name out there. Just be sure to leave thoughtful and insightful comments that add to the conversation.
Do not drop a link in the comment, but add it to the website field if the blog allows urls. Note that comment links are almost always no follow, but it is not about backlinks when commenting. It is about building relationships with other bloggers and starting conversation.
I do not allow people to add their website on our blog. But when a blogger uses their email address linked to their domain I know where to find their blog. I love it when they take the time out of their day to comment and I often will go visit their blog too!
SEO
Search engine optimization is a must if you want to promote your food blog. This is the process of optimizing your site and its content so that it appears higher in search engine results pages. This is important because it will help you get more traffic from people who are searching for keywords related to your blog.
There are many different ways to optimize your food blog for SEO. You can start by doing keyword research and using relevant keywords throughout your site. You should also make sure that your website is fast, mobile-friendly, and easy to navigate. And have a recipe plugin like WP Recipe Maker that provides the proper recipe schema.
Also be sure to name your images properly so they show up in image search. Make sure you have alt text on all your images, this isn’t just for SEO but for accessibility. You want your site to be accessible to everybody.
Do not over optimize – this is very important! Do not stuff your post with your keyword in hopes to rank. NEVER try to trick Google to try to rank, Google will know.
Google web stories
Web stories are a new way to promote your food blog and one of our favorites. It is a very visual format and easy for mobile users. Web stories are fun to make and usually pretty easy.
People have mixed results, but overall they have been great for us! They can show up in search results and Google Discover. Basically you create a great piece of content and Google gets it out there in front of people. But be sure that it is a great piece of content and not just a teaser.
If you are new to them, check out tips for creating Google web stories.
Email marketing
Building an email list is crucial. Email list is a perfect way to get traffic to a post quickly, send it to your list of fans and they will want to check it out. You can also promote products or services through your email list.
There are many ways to grow your email list. You can start by offering a freebie in exchange for people’s email addresses. You can also promote your sign-up form on your social media channels and on other websites. On our Etsy shop we have inexpensive templates for sale that you can use to create a freebie to grow your list.
Make sure you are using an email marketing service like MailChimp or ConvertKit so you can easily create beautiful emails and track your results. Please note that ConvertKit is our favorite and is the only service we are familiar with, but MailChimp is popular. We are not endorsing MailChimp as we never used them, research before using please.
Facebook sharing and round-up groups
Both of these types of groups can help promote your food blog and get you more traffic. Be sure to read the rules of each group before posting so that you don’t get kicked out or banned.
Facebook sharing groups are great because you can share your recipes with the whole group. People usually join recipe sharing groups so they can find and try new recipes.
We have a recipe sharing group called Homemade Family Recipes. You are welcome to join, be sure to answer the questions and let me know your blog in the questions. Food bloggers are allowed to share their recipes in our group!
Recipe round up groups are groups where people request different recipes for a round-up they want to add to their site. You can post your recipes in relevant requests. If somebody is looking for side dishes for a cookout, you can post 1 or 2 recipe links if you have side dishes for cookouts. This is a win win for you and the other bloggers. They know they can link to your recipe with one of your pictures and you can get backlinks.
I love roundup groups for when I am looking to do a roundup myself. It is easier then going to different food blogs and emailing them if it’s ok to use a photo and link. Some bloggers have a content policy (we do on our food blog and I recommend you do too) but many do not. In the group they come to you after you post what you are looking for.
As a note, never include any part of the recipe. You want to add a couple sentences to tell your readers why you love this recipe, add an image (as long as you have permission) and then link to their recipe.
Pinterest is perfect for food bloggers to promote a food blog. For many food bloggers, it is the main source of their traffic. While many people refer to it as a social media platform, it is actually a visual search platform.
You want to make sure you have great photos and that your photos are optimized for Pinterest. This means they should be tall and have little text on them. Your photos should be appetizing and be an image of the recipe you are linking to. If your recipe is shrimp scampi, the image should be shrimp scampi.
You also want to make sure you have keywords in your title and descriptions. Be sure to use rich pins if you are on WordPress so that your recipes include all the information when people pin them.
If you are not on WordPress, check to see if your platform has rich pins. If not, there are some great tools like Tasty Pins that will help you add this functionality to your site.
Link to other recipes
One thing you should always be doing is linking to your other content (internal linking) that is relevant. When you are writing a blog post, be sure to link to other recipes. For example, if you are writing a post about side dishes, be sure to link to some of your other side dish recipes. This will help promote all of your recipes and get people to click around on your site.
But another great way to promote your food blog is by linking to other blogger’s content. Do NOT use pictures without permission, but you do not need permission to add just a link to their recipe with anchor text (I use the name of their recipe post.)
An example of what is allowed: These are the best baby back ribs I have ever had by The Kitchen and a Latte. You would hyperlink the best baby back ribs with my recipe for the ribs.
You can let them know in an email but never ask for a link back. Link swaps are a bad practice that should never be done. But by letting them know, you will make their day and they may share the post on social media.
Add a content policy to your blog
When you promote your food blog, one thing you can do is add a content policy to your site. This will help other bloggers know if they can use your content and how they can use it.
If you have a recipe on your blog, chances are other bloggers would love to share it with their readers. But if you do not have a content policy, they may be hesitant to use your recipe. They likely will not want to email you, they will use another food blogger’s recipes instead.
By having a content policy, you can let other bloggers know that they are welcome to use your recipes as long as they link back to your original post and give you credit. This is a great way to promote your blog and get more traffic.
It is simple to draft up and it let’s them know what they can and cannot do. Do not copy this exactly as our site is copyright protected, but you are welcome to look over our photo use policy to get an idea of how to create one!
Conclusion
There are many great ways to promote your food blog. We will have more in other posts as there are a lot of ways to promote a blog, but this is the 10 top ways that many people use!
By implementing some of these first, you can start to grow and experiment with other methods. Do not overwhelm yourself with too many things at once.
What are some other great ways you promote your food blog? Let us know in the comments below!
Pin it for later!
