Cooking Up What the Search Engine Ordered

In today’s world, most people depend on search engines to answer almost every question. How far is my house from the nearest office supply store? Where does the running of the bulls take place? What is Eric Clapton’s middle name? But have you ever tried: What’s for dinner?

A recent article by Julia Moskin in the New York Times discusses the rise of the recipe search engine. This year, Google introduced what they call “Recipe Search.” Bing has had their recipe function up for over a year and smaller domains are taking advantage of this craze as well. Recipe search engines are popping up everywhere on the web. But do they work?

Moskin is hesitant to ring their praises. In the age of search engine optimization, sites may become more popular based on criteria unrelated to the most important aspect of a recipe: taste. Search engines use criteria such as cooking time and nutritional information, therefore it is easy for people to have their mediocre recipe surpass a great one in a search by simply having a better understanding of search engine optimization.

In order to optimize, recipe sites need to be aware of what search engines are looking for. Even the greatest recipes can be ignored if you don’t enter the right information. Blogger Deb Perelman is quoted in Moskin’s article saying, “I think we all believe that there should be something fair and democratic about search.” Unfortunately a search engine only knows what it is programmed to understand. Knowing your search engine is the first step in making your website known.

Whether you are creating a website or a blog for your business, it is important to know what search engines are looking for. Even if your company is the best at the services you provide, people won’t know that unless you optimize your site. Don’t get lost in the search engine shuffle. Identify your keywords for maximum return on your investment of time and money!

Click here to view Julia Moskin’s full article.

Published on: June 14, 2011