Some legend on TikTok wrote a song that roasts people who complain that recipe blogs on Google are way too long.
If you’re feeling very confused right now, let me explain what I mean by “recipe blogs”. Say you’re looking up a basic recipe for choc chip cookies and the first article that comes up is some random blog that opens with a long-winded essay about how the recipe was handed down to the blogger by their grandma… blah blah blah. You get the picture?
Of course, the actual recipe is all the way down the bottom of the blog and you think to yourself: “Why did they make me read that random story just to find a cookie recipe?” You think: “I’m going to post this observation on Twitter ha.” Well, turns out 1000 other people had the same idea, and your clever joke isn’t so clever after all.
As this TikTok by Benny Davis points out, the reason recipe blogs are so long is for better “SEO” (search engine optimisation), “intellectual property” and “advertising rights”.
Peep the vid below:
@bennymofodavis I spent more time on this than I should have. #musiccomedy #onlinerecipes #fypシ
Basically, if you want people to read your recipe you’re going to need good SEO. That means writing a 700 word blog, with the key word ‘chocolate chip cookie recipe’ littered throughout. This is why the top recipes on Google always feel like you’re reading someone’s really boring diary.
The second thing Davis points out is intellectual property. Under the Copyright Act, a recipe itself isn’t protected but a written recipe with your own instructions and descriptions is.
That means if someone wanted to copy a blog recipe, they’d need to get permission from the author. Longer recipe blogs also means more ad space, which is ideal for companies looking to advertise on someone’s food blog.
So next time you see a long-ass story accompanying a recipe, you’ll know why.
