Food Media is Dying and SEO is Killing it
When I started in food media in 2015, print was still king. At this point, every magazine had an online presence but the programming and creative development of the brand’s online voice was still considered the wild wild west. What happened on the website was an after thought compared to what happened in the print form. I remember a former colleague being thrilled to work on digital saying something to the effect of “I’m not beholden to the confines of print, I can do whatever I want!” Looking back, I see this time as the beginning of the end of what was the former version of food media.
By 2017, that sense of independence began to fade. Data scraping sites like Semrush emerged and began to pull detailed analytics that provide insight as to what questions people were asking as well as what keywords or variations of keywords they were using. The same editor, who once enjoyed full creative freedom to ideate how they pleased, now started to receive guidance on what to create based on data scraping.
Soon after that, there seemed to be a boom in food media. Video exploded, clicks increased, personalities became popular, and now there was a need to capitalize on it all. There was a quick crescendo in how much Google Analytics (GA) and data scraping sites started to drive and inform the creative output of food media websites. Currently over 55% of ALL websites on the internet use GA, that’s over 4 million sites in the United State alone. That means all of those websites are receiving the same information from their respective SEO managers.
When all the food media is receiving the same data about the most popular recipe searches, media personalities, or food terms, what do you think happens to the creative freedom of these sites?
Let me tell you little bit about how modern day digital food media operates and how a search term becomes a published recipe. SEO managers will give food editors and directors a list of the most popular food related search terms (Ina, pasta, chicken breast!). Editors then choose the search terms with the highest search volume and create recipes based on that information. The idea is that brands are publishing what you are already searching for and have somehow called this sort of food writing “service journalism”. The problem isn’t that they are doing this. It’s that they are almost exclusively doing this therefore creating homogeneousness across all food platforms. Allocating little to no budget or time to ideate fun and fresh recipe concepts, most digital food media create their programming based upon the list that SEO managers pass along.
Ever notice that across several food sites you will see the similar “Eggs Benedict Recipe” or “Banana Bread Recipe”? And across the brands the recipes are titled in the same exact way and the information is styled in the same but slightly different way? All of these digital food sites are given the same template of what works. SEO managers and consultants inform editors what food terms and questions have high search volume and how the keywording should be injected on the page.
What if all these companies are basing their profit streams on the search terms of a tween?
Semrush will tell us how much search is around a specific recipe and what and where the most popular questions are around that particular subject. What it does not tell a brand is who these people are or their demographic. Every digital food site, even the one with a print facing platforms base their digital content creation in this way.
My 12 year old child regularly searches for “chocolate chip pancake” recipes on the internet. What if all these companies are basing their profit streams on the search terms of a tween?
Why is this a problem?
Notice a theme to the recipes you see in your feed? How many recipes with chicken breast, potatoes, or pasta (aka beige foods) pass through your timeline? While yes, these ingredients are beloved by many people and, according to data scraping, a certain percentage of the population is searching those terms, it’s not really representative of our nation’s diverse cultural landscapes or what the folks who live in those communities are searching for. SEO terms are representative of the white gaze.
Food writing has turned into commodity writing. It’s now a volume business where quantity over quality is favored.
How are companies prioritizing equitable stories when the white gaze is dictating the stories that food media tells? While some can strike a balance between organic storytelling and recipe writing and SEO-facing posts, the trend I see across all food media as a viewer and as someone that has worked inside multiple platforms, is that companies are prioritizing posts based on SEO feedback, essentially gaming the system for clicks (aka money). Food writing has turned into commodity writing. It’s now a volume business where quantity over quality is favored.
Take a look at your favorite food sites. Can you tell what articles are trying to sell or promote something to you? Commerce writers aren’t the only folks doing this. How much of the food writing you consume is just a reworded PR pitch? Most food recipe headnotes and explainers are regurgitated text from another similar explainer on another site. The way things are headed, AI sites like chatGPT will largely take over this part of “food writing”. It’s doing the same things current writers are doing: taking information from one site and mixing it up in a different way. Modern day digital food media has become homogenous, white washed, and quite frankly uninspiring.
Equity is not a passion project
My goal as a long time food editor, has been to not only build programming based on those given search terms but also to look outside what these search terms offer the brand and seek out the terms that folks of America’s diaspora are searching for. Food media sites do not view diversity as a profit engine. From my experience working in this industry, profit plans are mostly based on search terms built in the white gaze or what white America is cooking. The bottom dollar doesn’t give a shit about equity and neither does modern day food media. Programming around diverse terms and themes are pushed to the side and relegated as “passion projects”. Equity is not a passion project or something relegated to a month or day, it’s a necessity and a tool for creating peace.
I believe this is why platforms like Substack and Patreon have taken off. They are one of the few places you can read original work that exists outside of the search terms. Magazines are also seeing a boom in subscriptions, attracting folks who do actually love the story telling aspect of food. This is also why I believe that magazines like Saveur are going private. It offers them freedom from the clutches of these oppressive paradigms.
What happened to the days when food media was driving the conversation and setting the trends, not simply reacting to them?
I understand that you have to play the capitalist game to a degree but there has to be a balance. Otherwise, you just fall into a pit of greed. There has to be creative innovation. What happened to the days when food media was driving the conversation and setting the trends, not simply reacting to them? My hope is that people finally open their eyes to the fact they are being spoon fed content that is driving their everyday lives. And to remain asleep is to be a sheep to the system. It’s dumbing the whole system and subsequently the people down.
There is a solution: intentionality
I can tell you from personal experience, that working to create change from the inside does not work. It’s pissing in the wind and the victories are few and far between. But there is a way out. It starts with being intentional. Media brands have be intentional about organic and innovative storytelling. That directive doesn’t come from the editors but the directors and the people above them in the business structure.
The other part of the solution is the consumer. There needs to be a bigger desire from the reader to want to consume and search for diverse content. Consumers need to be asking more of the brands that are curating content for them. Instead of talking about about how you want to see diversity in your content within your friend groups, try reaching out to the brands themselves or call them out on social media. If the brands are hearing from their readers that there is a desire for more, they might intentionally create it. Let your voice be heard.
The final part of the problem is the advertisers. It all comes down to money. Advertisers need to demand more diverse content as well. They need to set parameters within their systems in how and who they choose to advertise with and let inclusion be its priority. In a capitalist world, money doesn’t just talk, it screams. Is the brand you are investing your dollars into mostly outputting the white gaze? Maybe don’t give them your dollars.