The last time I was at the bank, one teller was nice enough to insist I take a piece of candy from her private stash.  That made her my favorite banker, and by including recipes on your site or blog, you may be able to create some similarly positive feelings.  Plus receive more traffic.

Debra Miller explained today on the Compete Blog, “Last month, people conducted 18 million searches that included the word ‘recipe,’ more than a 50% increase in the number of searches from the year prior.  Searches for ‘casserole’ and ‘pasta,’ both easy and low cost meal options, rose by 56%.”

You can, of course, thank the recession for this trend.  Meaning the tactic of luring searchers with recipes is likely to become less effective if/when the economy recovers, and you’ll have to consider whether changing your site’s content and/or layout is worth the trouble in the meantime.

Also think about what you’re going up against.  BettyCrocker.com, KraftFoods.com, Pillsbury.com, and EatBetterAmerica.com all get a lot of traffic from recipes searches, so if you provide recipes, at least try to provide ones they don’t.

But in the end, this looks like a pretty easy and cheap way to get your site in front of a few more eyeballs.  So long as the food’s good, people are liable to wind up feeling deeply appreciative, too.

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