Hi there!

In my last email, I showed an over-the-shoulder view how I analyze while updating a post. Missed it? You can watch it HERE.

Over the last few weeks, I've been consuming a TON of information about what it means to truly create HELPFUL content. I recently purchased a 70 page workbook by Marie Haynes called "Creating Helpful Content" and finally finished absorbing all the information.

😅 And I'm not going to lie...my head hurts. Trying to decipher what Google realllly wants is not easy primarily because it's hard to relate their standards to food blogging.

But personally, I'm fully motivated to create better "more helpful" content moving forward and feel the need to share some thoughts with you too.

The goal is to offer more guidance around this topic so we all can create content that is truly "helpful" moving forward. *It's important to note that these tips are just speculations since there is a lot of gray area and assumptions around this topic. Trial and error is how I am currently testing what works and what does not.

So here are today's notes...

One question stood out to me in the beginning of my readings...

"Does your page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in the SERPS?"

This is straight from Google's mouth and something I often struggle with myself. It's very evident that Google does NOT want us to create average content. In fact, one realization that hit me hard is that most of us have large amounts of medium quality content.

And medium quality is not good enough. Google wants high quality content. So then how do we make our content stand out? How do we take our content from medium to high (or better yet "highest" quality)?

For us food bloggers, it's hard to stand out when we're creating another cookie recipe that's been done a millions times already. So here are some ideas that may help to make your content substantially better.

1. The idea is to offer something UNIQUE to your content that is interesting/helpful. Ask yourself, "What are others NOT sharing/doing?" Think outside the box here!
   • Maybe share a different/unique way to use or repurpose an ingredient that no one in the top results are mentioning.
   • Consider sharing photos of the mistakes or tips on what not to do that you discovered during your recipe development.
   • Possibly highlight what ingredients are in season and when so users can have the best results possible.
   • Offer more than one standard way to freeze the food for later.
   • Are others missing a few process shots that you think would be helpful to include?
   • Maybe you add a short video showing how to julienne properly?
   • Provide interesting facts about the recipe or ingredients being used that will catch someone's eye. (Make sure to link to a trusted source!!)

These additions highly depend on the recipe of course so approach this on a post-by-post basis.

Here is a section taken from a food blogger ranking in the #1 spot for "eggplant parm". (Who does not have a SUPER high authority btw.) Instead of just offering 1 or 2 different sides like most of us do, why not offer a salad, side, veggie (and maybe even a DESSERT??)

We need to make our content stand out now more than ever with AI starting to take over the web.

So what does this have to do with keywords?

If a keyword already has multiple strong contenders in the SERPS, and there is little to no room for improvement or addition of "substantial" content, then keep researching! (This goes for new content). When updating older content, only add content that is 100% necessary and "beyond the obvious". You might want to consider removing content that is below average or that users don't really need.

Or consider tweaking your keyword (like I discuss in my course) to target another ingredient addition or cooking method you didn't originally optimize for.

I've personally lost about 20k keywords since the update. That's not easy an easy pill to swallow especially because keywords are my thing. But in all honesty, it's not because I chose poor keywords. It's because Google is going in a different direction and as content creators, we need to shift gears as well. I will discuss this in more detail next week.

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Was this helpful? Hit reply and let me know!

Smile and stay motivated!!

-Aleka

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