Modern food websites are far less likely to feature complex, editorial-inspired designs and clever layout schemes for more than their diners are sat at them. Yet good food websites, like all good business websites, need to make a point of being visually stimulating, engaging and intuitive for visitors. This is where editorial-style design comes into its own. Here are the basic ingredients you require for a great food website.
Bluehost is a brilliant example of an excellent food website. At first glance, the site may appear to be extremely simple with a few text boxes and a couple of images. On further inspection however, you’ll realise that Bluehost takes its design prowess for granted. The font is clear; the design has a sense of place rather than being haphazard. Bluehost manages to combine good looks with great functionality which makes it a very good example of what makes for a great food blog or recipe website.
The next thing you want to have on your food and recipe website is keywords. Keywords can help you rank better in Google, Yahoo and Bing search results. Good quality, fresh content is obviously the best way to attract readers to your site so ensure that you’re adding new content regularly. You can do this by writing short posts about certain recipes or dishes using the recipes as the subjects or by writing a series of articles based around a single recipe. Remember though, the keyword needs to be relevant to your target audience. If you’re targeting the younger generation then you might consider using “kids recipes” rather than “dish recipes”.
Images can make or break your food blog or recipe website’s success. However, don’t overload your page with images as this will cause search engines to take you much further down the search rankings. Try to use the largest image that you can fit into the designated space, ideally placed at the bottom of your page.
Getting your site themed is an important first step. Food site themes are widely available on the Internet so you shouldn’t struggle to find one that suits your particular needs. There are literally hundreds of different food website theme options available so it’s recommended that you spend some time looking through them and choosing the best one for your requirements. The best theme options include professional, classic, country, contemporary and even vegetarian.
Once you’ve found a suitable theme, it’s time to get started building your site! For many people, this tends to be the hardest part of the process as it can seem like a daunting task to build a food site from scratch. The good news is that there are numerous resources available to help you along the way. These range from tutorials and how-to guides on how to get started to full-on cookbooks that have everything you need to create awesome recipes.
If you’re not too confident about the subject or just don’t know where to start then there’s no need to worry. There are literally hundreds of free recipe websites available on the Internet so if you don’t feel comfortable with the idea of creating a website then there’s no need to panic as there are literally hundreds of sites out there for your perusal. However, you do need to remember that most free sites aren’t as advanced and user friendly as the paid sites. It’s also worth bearing in mind that you can find some great deals by signing up to paid membership sites which offer a huge range of benefits and tools. Some examples include forums, social media sharing and social bookmarks.
Once you’ve got your site looking professional, it’s time to move onto the fun stuff. One of the best ways to get started with a food and recipe website is to join one of the online communities and community groups. These groups usually focus on cooking and provide a place for people to share ideas, tips and recipes. It’s a great place to meet like minded people and make friends – so don’t hesitate to stevehacks