National Homemade Cookie Day Made Me Hate Food Blogs

If you’ve ever searched for a recipe online, chances are you’ve stumbled across someone’s dissertation on why fall is their favorite season, followed by a quick run-down of how to make spaghetti squash boats. I’ve always noticed that food blogs do this, but never really thought much of it. And then October 1^st rolled around.

October 1^st is also known as National Homemade Cookie Day. I thought, “Well, that’s a holiday worth celebrating …”- and set out to track down an oatmeal chocolate chip recipe. I came across one with a promising picture attached—the cookies were delightfully lumpy and perfectly round—and clicked the link. The picture was the first thing I saw, followed by a few paragraphs about what I could expect from the recipe. Then another high-res picture almost identical to the first. Then another couple paragraphs about the author’s home life. And so on and so on until I finally—finally—reached the actual recipe.

As frustrating as this is on a desktop or laptop computer, it is infinitely more so on a cell phone. Especially when the page reloads itself after sitting dormant for too long, forcing me to scroll endlessly again to find where I left off. So why do food bloggers insist on adding all this extra information if this practice annoys their readers so much?

Even food bloggers want you to find them on the internet

The answer is SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. Essentially, bloggers are live journaling their thoughts in an effort to drive readers to their websites and blogs. By talking about last night’s episode of “The Good Place,” they can tap into the market for fans of comedy and clam chowder. Bloggers (and any high-functioning web users) use SEO to tap into “long tail keywords”, a list of a few words connected into phrases that allow readers to find information.

For example, if you Google a search for the keyword, “shoes,” you’ll come up with nearly 3.4 billion results because Google doesn’t know what kind of shoes you’re asking about. Do you want men’s, women’s, kids' shoes, the history of shoes for a school project? Google doesn’t know because you haven’t told it, so it gives you everything. However, type “Sam Edelman Hilty Booties black” into your search and you’ll get 93,000 results with plenty of places to buy these women’s boots. So that explains why the more words you have in your blog post, the more long tail keywords you can form, which leads to greater chances your blog will be found.

My advice for not making your readers pass you up? Be relevant …

The problem I have with bloggers journaling their every thought and feeling before a recipe is that the average reader—hello!—is likely to get frustrated with the sheer number of words you’ve included. I bring all this up because this is applicable to entrepreneurs or blog writers in any business out there.

Here are a few tips for the bloggers out there:

• Make sure the story is relevant. Food bloggers will generally tie their story back to the food they’re making, but it ends up feeling forced most of the time. If I can’t understand why you’re telling me about the groceries you accidentally left in your car that went bad overnight, I’m going to be inclined to skip over the story. On the other hand, if you tell me an adorable story about the first time your son ate oatmeal before the oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe, I’m more inclined to stick around. If you want to tell a story, make sure your audience understands why. 
• Don’t be afraid to edit. You may be an influencer or subject matter expert on confections, but that doesn’t mean you need to post your every thought to your blog post. Be honest with yourself. Does this paragraph add to what I’m trying to say? What would happen if I cut this? The ideas are still there and you’re still crafting the narrative you want to tell, but now it’s in a more palatable package.

SEO is important to keep in mind, but don’t lose your reader just to add more copy and rank higher on Google. Your reader isn’t going to get to your blog and think, “Oh, I see. They just wanted that keyword in there to drive traffic to this site. Let me keep reading until I get to what I need.” He or she will just tune out. Keeping your posts focused and relevant will help ensure your readers get the most out of your content and keep them happy.

Now, let’s get to that oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe…     

Artsy and Verbose Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Approximate times and sizes:

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 11 minutes

Serving Size: 10 cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ cup unsalted butter (1 stick)
• ½ cup light brown sugar, packed
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• 1 ½ cups rolled oats
• ¾ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 rounded tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp baking soda 
• 1-½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• A pinch of salt

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350F 
2. Combine egg, vanilla, butter, and sugars until smooth 
3. Add in dry ingredients (minus the chocolate chips) and beat until just combined
4. Fold in chocolate chips 
5. Form dough balls. (I used my ¼ cup measuring cup for this and it worked great; fair warning, they are massive.) 
6. Bake for about 11 minutes. Longer for firmer, crispier cookies, but what kind of monster likes hard cookies? 
7. Let sit for about 10 minutes, or until you can’t wait any longer 
8. Cookies will keep for about 1 week in an airtight container, or 6 months in the freezer (but you'll never want to put them in the freezer!)

*It is technically best practice to let the dough cool in the fridge for about two hours (or up to 5 days) before you bakeit, but I almost never have the patience. Which should not come as a surprise to you if you’ve read the rest of this recipe.