How to Make Your Food Blog Posts Longer (Without Adding Fluff)

Have you ever stared at a blog post draft and wondered how to make it longer without stuffing it full of filler? You’re not alone, friend.

There’s no magic word count that Google requires. But longer, high quality posts do come with real benefits, and the good news is that you can get there by making your posts more helpful, not wordier.

Can’t listen to the episode? Read on for the transcript!

Why longer content is worth it

Most SEO and blogging resources suggest at least 500 words per post, so you avoid what’s called thin content. That just means a post that isn’t packed with the kind of information your readers are actually searching for.

When your content is longer and genuinely useful, a few good things happen:

• Google has more chances to understand your post and rank it for different keywords, including long tail searches
• Your readers get more room to learn, build skills, and solve whatever they’re struggling with
• You get more space to add calls to action and show your expertise
• You can place more ads throughout the post, which means more ad revenue

The key is that every added word needs to be relevant and useful. Here’s how to get there.

Add the right sections to your posts

If you’re stuck at a few hundred words, try building a few of these sections into your regular post routine.

1. The story behind the recipe

I know, I know. Some of you are thinking your readers don’t care. The truth is the story matters, but most of us tell it for way too long. We’ve all seen the memes.

Keep it short and sweet, and make sure it connects directly to the recipe you’re sharing. If the story doesn’t have a point, it’s just filler.

2. Substitutions and suggestions

Between diets, allergies, and restrictions, some of your readers will need to adjust your recipe, even if your recipes aren’t built around one specific way of eating. Maybe it’s for a family member, a dinner guest, or themselves.

You don’t have to retest the recipe fifty times. Logical suggestions are enough. You can say something like, “I haven’t tested this with gluten free flour, but a 1 to 1 swap should work well.” For a dairy free version, you can suggest dairy free butter, yogurt, or cream cheese, or simply leave the cheese out.

That last one matters more than you’d think. Readers who are newer in the kitchen often assume that leaving something out will ruin the dish. Giving them permission is a gift.

🌟 One more tip: Add your most important substitutions and tips to your recipe card too. Plenty of readers skip straight to the card, so you want them to see it there.

3. Frequently asked questions

An FAQ section is a great way to answer questions before your reader even has to ask them, which helps them get the recipe right on the first try. This is where a little keyword research comes in handy, because it shows you what people are really wondering.

A tip that makes all of this easier: create an outline of the sections you want to include in most posts. You don’t have to be robotic about it, and you can always switch things up. It simply gives you a starting place every time, and if you use the block editor, you can save it as a reusable template.

Style your posts so they read longer (and better)

Remember changing the font size on a school paper to make it look longer? These tips work in a similar way, except they also make your posts better to read.

Use shorter paragraphs

I write in two to three sentence paragraphs all the time now, even in my podcast outlines. Short paragraphs are easier to skim, they give ads more places to land, and they break up content naturally on mobile so readers aren’t scrolling through big blocks of text. They also lengthen your post. That’s a win all around.

Vary your content types

Most blog posts follow the same pattern: paragraph, image, paragraph, image. Mix it up with headings, bulleted lists, numbered lists, and collages of images.

Think about how your reader behaves. They’re usually trying to get down to the recipe card as fast as they can. A list or a photo collage gives them a reason to pause their scroll and actually read what you’ve written.

Link to related posts

Internal linking helps in a few ways. Your reader finds more content they’ll enjoy, Google sees how your posts connect, and your post gets longer in a natural way.

For example, if you have a blueberry muffin recipe, you can link to a post about how to store muffins. If one of your posts already ranks well and you link from it to a newer post, that can help the newer post too. Yoast SEO even has a name for posts that nothing links to. It calls them orphaned posts, and you don’t want any of those hanging around.

I’m a big fan of adding these links by hand, using the block editor. Plugins that pick related posts automatically can pull in content that doesn’t quite fit. When you choose the links yourself, you can think about which recipe your reader would want next and curate a set that really makes sense. You can also save that block and reuse it. Or skip the separate section altogether and work the links into your writing, like mentioning a dish that pairs well with the recipe.

A quick recap

1. Include helpful sections like the recipe story, substitutions, and FAQs
2. Use short paragraphs and vary your content types
3. Link to related posts in a way that feels natural and useful

Let me know if you try this and how it goes! I’d love to hear which of these tips helps the most. 

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