This newsletter is sponsored by Raptive. Running your business can feel like a constant balancing act. That's where Raptive comes in. They’re the team behind thousands of the internet’s top creators, helping you grow your traffic, boost your revenue, and protect your content in an AI-driven world. Raptive creates tailored growth strategies, supporting real, human-made content with help for SEO, email, and audience development. And now, if your site gets at least 25,000 monthly pageviews, it's easier than ever to join their creator community. ​Ready to get started with Raptive? Apply now to get a personalized growth strategy and join a creator community that’s shaping the future of the open web.

Hey Reader,

We are officially in spring! If you haven't already, now is a great time to update your homepage to reflect the change in season — recipes featuring spring ingredients, brunch recipes for the upcoming holidays, and barbecue recipes are a great place to start!

Before we jump into the latest news in the food creator space, we wanted to make sure you've tuned into our March podcast episodes (so many good ones!):

• ​Using AI to Eliminate Busywork and Unlock Creative Time with Jason Glaspey​​
• ​The Road to 1 Million Pageviews with Rachel Kirk from Laughing Spatula​
• ​How Food Dolls Turned Facebook Into Their Top Traffic Source​
• ​Strategically Launching a Food Blog with Jessica Wine​​

Without further ado, let's jump into some news articles!

1. Google updates AI recipe results to send more traffic

Finally, some good news from AI Mode for food bloggers! Earlier this month, Google made some important tweaks to AI Mode to include more links when users search for recipes.

As part of this change, Google has added a collage of recipe images that you can click to open a side panel that displays more recipe images and a summary of each recipe with a link to the recipe post itself.

Alas, this "fix" is not perfect — many have pointed out that it is not very clear or intuitive that the collage of images are clickable, so users may not take advantage of this new feature. But, it is hopefully the first (of many) baby steps in the right direction.

​Read the full article on Search Engine Journal here.​

2. What is content decay? (and how to fix it before it tanks your traffic)

What exactly is content decay?

What causes content decay? Google prioritizes fresh and updated content, meaning the old posts will gradually lose visibility in the SERPs. Your competitors may simultaneously be improving their posts that target the same keywords, and search intent can shift (this podcast episode is a great listen on search intent).

This article provides some helpful pointers for locating decaying content in Ahrefs and Google Search Console (click on Performance, filter by page, and compare date ranges) and what to do with that content once you've determined it's decaying (update, consolidate, redirect, or prune).

A good reminder to regularly audit your old content to monitor for decay and help you prioritize which posts to update!

​Read the full post on Ahrefs here.​

3. Facebook launches a new monetization program to attract popular creators from TikTok, YouTube

Facebook has just launched a new program for creators called "Creator Fast Track” in an effort to help creators grow on Facebook with immediate access to the content monetization program, a boost to content reach, and guaranteed pay. The idea of the program is to entice creators with existing followers on other platforms to start posting on Facebook.

If you meet the eligibility criteria and are looking to get started on Facebook, definitely take advantage of this program!

​Read the full post on Tech Crunch here.​

4. Why ‘search everywhere’ is the new reality for SEO

While everyone in the SEO space is talking about AI, there is yet another big shift going on in the search space — search everywhere. Users have been diversifying their search habits for years now and it is not unusual for someone to perform search queries on YouTube, Reddit, TikTok, Amazon, and Google.

And in addition to the search traffic possible from these other platforms, “search everywhere” also impacts the odds of your brand appearing in AI search results.

So if you're looking to regain some of the recent traffic losses, try to update your SEO strategy so that you show up everywhere your audience is searching for recipes.

​Read the full blog post on Search Engine Lane here.​

And that's it for us this month! See you back here in April. ☔️