Memes and tweets like these show that the internet has a big problem with recipe blogs- why do these sites force readers to sit through a long wall of text before even giving an ingredient list
These long introductions are actually very important to bloggers for many reasons. Bloggers often give valuable personal background, tips, and tricks to help readers make recipes better or more easily. Bloggers can also let their personality and creativity shine in these introductions, which helps them build a brand and fanbase.
Bloggers have good reasons for what they do and must find ways to make money- as anyone does. In order to do this, these creators must focus on increasing traffic to their website and earning money from advertising.
This practice known as SEO, or search engine optimization is crucial to any blogger who wants to drive traffic to their site. Most people will look for recipes on google, and SEO makes it more likely for a page to appear higher in search results.
Search engines use keywords to determine the order that results appear. Bloggers know this, and by including a lengthy paragraph at the beginning of their recipe they increase their chances of appearing higher in search results. This will then attract more visitors to their website, allowing them to make more money from advertising.
Another benefit of these walls of text is that they provide more space for advertisement, offering yet another opportunity to make a better living while doing what they love.
Food bloggers are also in a unique position as it is harder to use tools like affiliate links. For example, fashion bloggers may be able to link to a pair of jeans that costs hundreds of dollars and results in a large volume of orders while cooking bloggers do not have as much of a straightforward path. The merchandise they can link to is often bought as daily groceries or are very large and expensive like kitchen appliances. Readers often forget that these recipes are free as well besides the small obstacle of ads, which are a small obstacle in the grand scheme of the world.
