Episode 791: What’s Actually Working in SEO for Food Bloggers in 2026 With Laura Arnold

EBT791 – Laura Arnold

[00:00:00]  Megan Porta 

Welcome to 2026, everyone. It’s a turning point for food bloggers and especially for SEO. In this episode, Laura Arnold of Dang Good Digital joins me to break down what is actually working in search strategy right now. We dive into everything from topical authority and EEAT to AI driven searches, Pinterest, and how social platforms are reshaping discoverability. Laura also shares how to stop thinking in individual posts and start building systems that work across your entire brand. If you want to future proof your content and grow with clarity this year, this is the episode to start with.

[00:00:44]  Intro 

Hi food bloggers, I’m Megan Porta and this is Eat Blog Talk. Your space for support, inspiration and strategies to grow your blog and your freedom, whether that’s purchased, personal, professional or financial, you are not alone on this journey.

[00:00:59] Megan Porta  

Hello Laura. Welcome back to the podcast. How are you?

[00:01:02]  Laura Arnold 

Hi Megan. Great to see you and great to be here as always. You’re always so fun to talk to about everything with SEO, so can’t wait to cover a bunch of 2026 topics. Lots is changing right now. It’s a little stressful.

[00:01:16]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, right. It’s a crazy world out there. So thanks for showing up and giving us all the good goodies. I have been asking my guests. Why are they showing up to listen today? What is the pain point that is making them press play on this episode?

[00:01:31]  Laura Arnold 

I think a lot of things changed last year in terms of SEO and kind of branding in general. Diversifying your content, what does that mean? How does that look in terms of SEO? And can you really run a brand on strictly SEO only anymore? That was great six or seven years ago, but can we do that right now?

[00:01:51]   

And that’s what I’m hearing from my clients most. And what are the next steps? What’s the best procedure and how do we go about making sure we stay foolproof with AI and just all the different things that are happening out there right now. So I’m here to help.

[00:02:07]  Megan Porta 

Yes, we’ll cover as much of those as we can today. So if anyone listening does not know who you are, do you want to talk about what you do? What Dang Good Digital is? Give us the scoop on you.

[00:02:19]  Laura Arnold 

Yes. So I started Dang Good Digital, my kind of boutique SEO and social media agency about six or seven years ago. And I come from actually a media background based here in New York City. So I’ve been a culinary television producer as well as a cookbook consultant for all different influencers, celebrities, bloggers for over 12 years and really have dove into having a special specialization in kind of creating food content and how we, you know, display that to our community, build brands and also gain followers to get traffic and obviously just build a company doing what you love every single day.

[00:03:01]   

So more and more it’s become niche on SEO and content creation in the past, you know, three to five years, ever since the pandemic, obviously, as we’ve all seen. But it’s a fun topic and my every day is different, which is why I love it.

[00:03:15]  Megan Porta 

So yes, I love that. A lot of variety for sure.

[00:03:18]  Laura Arnold 

Yes.

[00:03:18]  Megan Porta 

So this is one of those topics and times where I really don’t even know where to start. So I’m like, I’m going to give you the floor of what is changing. How is the landscape of SEO different? I think all of the things you mentioned and more. But just do you want to give us just a kind of in a nutshell, breakdown of what’s going on right now?

[00:03:37]  Laura Arnold 

Yes, I think basically in the past, like year and a half, maybe two years if you reach further back, we’re starting to see a large shift in kind of SEO for websites and specifically food creators and other creators from being super heavy SEO based websites to building more diversified holistic brands. And that may seem very daunting when you first hear about it because it’s like, oh my gosh, what do I need to do?

[00:04:06]   

I just wanted to focus on SEO and recipe development and call it a day. But we now need to kind of strategize marketing our different content across many different channels. And that can be truly up to eight if you count them all, maybe even 10 depending on where you’re located, which is very daunting.

[00:04:25]   

But you don’t need to do everything on all of those channels. I definitely will break that down further in the episode. But the beauty of kind of search right now is with these eight to 10 other streams, it’s just more places for you to become discovered, which is the great part about it at the end to drive traffic to your website at the end of the day to boost those search results, keep SEO alive and well, and also combat AI.

[00:04:51]   

So in a nutshell, that’s what it is. But we’ll get into some more nitty gritty strategies.

[00:04:56]  Megan Porta 

So what are some of these channels? So I feel like 8 to 10 feels really overwhelming, like that’s a big number. What would you say those are for most food creators?

[00:05:06]  Laura Arnold 

Well, we’ll start with our social channels. So we obviously have Instagram, TikTok, Facebook is great, Pinterest, we have YouTube. Now we also have YouTube shorts, those are also important. And then, you know, we can find some other different kind of social channel networking like a Substack that’s kind of new and different for a lot of people, works great for some and for others they’d rather do other things.

[00:05:32]   

And even something like, you know, your newsletter, that’s a whole different strategy these days. So once you start calculating, calculating all of those up, even an affiliate site like a shop my, that’s actually starting to become a way for people to find you great revenue source. All different things we’re starting to see.

[00:05:50]   

Suddenly there’s almost 10 platforms you can have your content on, which is incredible, but also very overwhelming.

[00:05:57]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, yeah, it can be very overwhelming. And I’ve noticed more and more that a lot of these channels you’re mentioning are showing up on Google and pretty high up on the page too. I mean, I don’t know about, you know, substack newsletter, shop my, but shorts, YouTube long form for sure. Pinterest, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, these are all showing up really high up, high up.

[00:06:23]  Laura Arnold 

And that was probably one of the biggest announcements, I think, for food creators. Am I freezing? Okay, I think that was one of the big, biggest announcements for food creators last year in 2025 is Instagram’s announcement of we really are going to focus on SEO more. Not that they weren’t already, but you can definitely find it in the app now.

[00:06:47]   

There’s actually a bubble that pops up of your keyword and what bucket you’re in for your reel. And that was a new feature that they started showcasing. And then Google also said, you know, we’re going to focus on these on our homepage too, which was good and bad for some people. If you focus on video as a creator, it’s great for you.

[00:07:05]   

That’s another option. But if you aren’t so video focused and just want to be kind of, you know, website based, then once again, that’s kind of pushing your post down in the search results for the first page. So it just kind of depends on where your strategy is. And I think in terms of my clients and what I’ve seen kind of come in, for me, I’ve had droves of new inquiries from influencer based clients rather than blogging based clients.

[00:07:34]   

And I think that shows kind of how the landscape has changed. Someone may have a million followers on Instagram, but their website just has recipe cards because they don’t know what SEO is or, you know, what the writing strategy is behind a post. And now they’re trying to figure that out, which really shows that suddenly that landscape has caught up very quickly.

[00:07:55]  Megan Porta 

So, yeah, it is an interesting world. So you spoke about video and how some people find that very important. It’s a big part of their whole ecosystem. Do you feel like if people aren’t leaning into video, that maybe now is the time?

[00:08:12]  Laura Arnold 

Definitely. I started preaching video probably three or four years ago. And the clients that I do see that really do put an emphasis on video are still growing steadily with their SEO traffic. They’re finding other ways to, you know, reach their followers. And I think the biggest piece of the puzzle for 2026 in terms of brand diversification that will help your SEO strategy is developing a community.

[00:08:38]   

And that’s what video does. So those social channels, unlike SEO and organic search, actually help help you to connect with your followers through comments, through using a link DM or a grocer’s list feature, by adding to stories and just becoming actually a trusted, relatable source behind the recipe, rather than just a blog post with a photo on the side on your website.

[00:09:04]   

So that’s probably a key thing.

[00:09:07]  Megan Porta 

And videos are at this point anyway, really hard to replicate. AI can’t copy you talking to a video. I mean, maybe it, maybe it can, but it doesn’t do a great job yet. So I feel like that piece is really irreplaceable right now. And people value the in person and the, oh my gosh, she’s actually real.

[00:09:27]   

I’m not just reading an AI produced website and scrolling. I’m actually seeing someone speak words. And you know, I think that is, there’s so much value there, this moment in time.

[00:09:41]  Laura Arnold 

Yes. And I mean to anyone who is scared about trying video for the first time, I think the beauty of video in this day and age is actually imperfection is better than perfect videos. Everyone likes to see you being real. And I think everyone’s like, oh my gosh, I need to show my face and talk and do all these things.

[00:10:01]   

I mean, there’s a lot of top creators that maybe show their face once per video and that’s it. And there’s still, still, you know, developing these communities and these brands just as easily.

[00:10:11]  Megan Porta 

So yeah, okay, so everyone do video if you can. And if it’s fear that’s holding you back, you know, yeah, there’s good reason to get past that fear, right?

[00:10:22]  Laura Arnold 

Yes.

[00:10:22]  Megan Porta 

So can we talk about just doing keyword research like you mentioned earlier, this used to be the strategy we used to rely on just keyword research and getting traffic through Google. What is happening now with that are people still finding success with doing keyword research and just building out blog posts alone?

[00:10:44]  Laura Arnold 

Yes, I’ve actually had several people through the woodwork tell me you don’t need to keyword research anymore. It’s not a strategy. I couldn’t disagree more. I think it’s still, you know, a key foundation to understanding SEO and whether a recipe is actually worth your time to spend, you know, recipe testing, developing, photographing, video videoing.

[00:11:08]   

That’s a lot of work. So I would definitely still research that keyword before, but I would use it very much as a branding tool now. So look at your content pillars. If you’re known for ground beef recipes or something as niche as macaroons, go into, you know, your classic key search or whatever you use, Semrush, something like that, and just kind of start peeking around, seeing who your competition is.

[00:11:34]   

I think that’s super important. If you’re a smaller site and it’s just, you know, the big competitors ranking for that recipe, I would avoid it and still use those same basic strategies to kind of build those stepping stones to getting more and more traffic. But I think what’s nice is with all these social media platforms kind of popping up on Google, you’ll see that these keyword research tools are becoming richer and richer and new types of recipes that are a bit more niche.

[00:12:00]   

And so that’s why you’re hearing about, you know, niche or keywords being more of a thing these days. Because, you know, Instagram people are doing interesting things and now it’s, you know, a lot of mashups, and those are gaining search traffic, which is great. So things can be a little more niche and there’s a lot of options.

[00:12:19]  Megan Porta 

That’s something I haven’t thought about. That’s a really interesting take, that. It’s becoming more. What’s the word you just used?

[00:12:26]  Laura Arnold 

Like, a little bit more niche, I guess.

[00:12:29]  Megan Porta 

A little bit more niche, yeah. Just richer or.

[00:12:32]  Laura Arnold 

Yes, yeah.

[00:12:33]  Megan Porta 

It’s becoming more robust because of all of the platforms coming together and providing all of this amazing content. That’s a really cool perspective.

[00:12:42]  Laura Arnold 

All the new data, for sure.

[00:12:44]  Megan Porta 

Yes, New data. So topic clusters, we should just figure out what those are for our niche and lean into those. So high volume, low competition still.

[00:12:55]  Laura Arnold 

Yes, definitely. High volume, low competition. If you aren’t familiar with that phrase, high volume is the search volume. I’m a bit big advocate of at least 1300. Search volume in your search tool is worth your while. And then in terms of competition, especially if you’re a growing site, I would aim, you know, easy, medium, competition and definitely look at the other sites that are your top competitors before you develop the recipe.

[00:13:22]   

If it’s someone with a domain authority, that’s huge and you recognize the name, I would probably avoid it. Unless everybody else on the page is not known, then maybe you can be number three. And that’s great.

[00:13:34]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. So, yeah, so here’s where things get a little gray. I’ve noticed that I haven’t been doing keyword research all the time because sometimes I’ll put something on YouTube and it ranks in the video section of Google almost immediately. But that same search term would not rank for, for a blog post. So I’ve been digging into keywords that I wouldn’t typically do because of that.

[00:14:01]   

I’m like, well, I can rank this. This video can rank easily. Probably I’m just gonna see. And usually it does. So you know what I mean? Like, it’s not the same game anymore. It’s like there are other ways to think around keywords.

[00:14:17]  Laura Arnold 

Yes. And I think that’s where the whole diversification of branding starts to get a little overwhelming.

[00:14:23]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:14:24]  Laura Arnold 

Because you know, you could be really strong on YouTube and you can monetize on YouTube and then you start to think, well, you know, if my blog isn’t also ranking for that term, what do I do? And I think that’s where we have to start looking at, you know, finding your channels. It could be one that you’re very strong in.

[00:14:42]   

It could be three, and then kind of leaning into those certain channels to make sure that you’re building your site still in the same way and giving yourself credibility. But it could be you also have credibility on other networks as well to help find and build more community. Also because at the end of the day, if you’re building a community on YouTube, which is also very much a community based platform, they’re still going to go to your website and giving you traffic just in a different way than a keyword per se.

[00:15:13]   

Same with an Instagram using a link DM feature for the recipe. Yeah, maybe that recipe. You really were passionate about it and you know it’s going to perform great on social, but maybe be too competitive or a dud for SEO. But it still might be worth it if, you know, you get 1000 clicks with link DM, just click comment recipe.

[00:15:34]   

So it’s a little bit of a different strategy. And when picking recipes, things are changing.

[00:15:41]  Megan Porta 

I feel that it used to be I would go straight to key search and always start there. And now I’m Finding that as I try to grow my YouTube channel, I’m actually going to YouTube first to kind of experiment and test the waters and if something works there, then I will put it on my blog.

[00:15:59]   

So it’s. That is not how I used to think at all. And I didn’t intentionally, you know, just figure out that process. It’s something that has evolved. I’m like, oh, this is what I’m doing now. So I’m sure everyone has kind of a different way of navigating this landscape and all of the different platforms.

[00:16:15]   

It’s really, really an interesting time.

[00:16:18]  Laura Arnold 

Yes, yes. Yeah, I definitely have a lot of clients who we do divide, you know, kind of their content calendar into two tiers. What’s on going good for the social channel they perform well on and then what’s good for website based work to kind of COVID both bases, which has been an interesting transition I think for everyone involved and then kind of seeing what works and what doesn’t on a monthly basis still.

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[00:17:38]  Laura Arnold 

And it’s fun. The clients I have who have accepted that new strategy with open arms, I’m finding are really enjoying it because they are developing those communities and getting DMs every day and actually enjoying their job even more than they did before. So yeah, amazing.

[00:17:56]  Megan Porta 

What about eat? Is this still important?

[00:17:58]  Laura Arnold 

Of course. I can’t even describe. I’m like speechless because it’s so important. Yes. And eat for anyone, the kind of layman’s definition is really just describe how you’re an expert in this recipe and your process behind developing it and any tips that you want to give about the recipe and be that trusted source that Google wants to see as well as someone wants to see on social media as well, so really call it out.

[00:18:28]   

Don’t be, you know, fluffy about it in your blog post. Everything with blog post writing right now is short, concise, to the point and really just hit those heavy selling points. It’s the elevator pitch for your recipe now. So.

[00:18:43]  Megan Porta 

And don’t be afraid to do that in blog posts as well. Right. Like showing your credibility and what your experiences. I I know a lot of people are like, well I already said that in my about page so I don’t feel like I need to restate it. But you do. I feel like each blog post should have some form of that.

[00:19:00]  Laura Arnold 

Yes. Because we need to just remember on your website you’re reading it every day and you know who you are. But organic search once again and so many people confuse this Organic search is someone random. It’s not, you know, your followers on social that hit follow. It’s very much, you know, I typed in chicken pot pie and you popped up and I don’t know anything about you.

[00:19:23]   

So definitely say why you know, you are an expert and if you tested it 25 times, definitely let us know that. That’s a great tidbit of information.

[00:19:33]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. So keeping your about page updated, all of your authority and everything that makes you credible is very important as well.

[00:19:43]  Laura Arnold 

Yes, definitely.

[00:19:44]  Megan Porta 

Okay. So don’t dismiss eit anything else about that that’s helps people establish eat.

[00:19:53]  Laura Arnold 

I think just also, you know, once again drawing back on your community. So I know we’ve talked a lot about adding reader quotes to blog posts. That helps kind of establish eat. If you have some nice comments in your comment section, add those in and then just really, you know, hitting home those tips.

[00:20:12]   

And I know a lot of people right now are kind of like oh, does blog post formatting matter? You know the standard post of ingredient section how to make why you love. You know, I haven’t seen I have clients that do both. Some follow it, some don’t. I don’t see a stark difference at the moment between the two of them.

[00:20:30]   

I think as long as you’re just being very clear, concise and easy to read both for your community and for Google, it’s showing as being great in both ways.

[00:20:41]  Megan Porta 

So that’s actually very refreshing to hear because for so long it was like you have to have this exact format and if you don’t, you’re doomed. So I love hearing that. I think that’ll be feel like relief for a lot of people.

[00:20:55]  Laura Arnold 

Yes, yes. Yeah.

[00:20:56]  Megan Porta 

What about AI? I know that it is changing search for so many food blogs. What is your take on it?

[00:21:04]  Laura Arnold 

I wouldn’t be scared of it. There’s nothing we can do. I think that’s the first thing you have to remember. So don’t freak out. And I think as a result of AI, the biggest thing you can do for yourself is look at how you’re going to create a holistic, strong brand and be an expert once again.

[00:21:22]   

That is the trigger word the past, you know, two and a half years now. And it’ll only get stronger and really, really build your community because that is what’s going to keep you going. If you have a core group of followers, you will have no problem getting web traffic, you will have no problem selling a product, selling.

[00:21:39]   

You will have no problem getting followers on social media. So really just leaning into whether that’s through a newsletter, through Reels, et cetera, just trying to develop that community and you should be able to kind of sustain the AI bubble for sure.

[00:21:57]  Megan Porta 

I know for a while there was a feature with an AI that linked to recipes. So if somebody searched like what’s the best chili recipe? And it would say like pulled this data from Pip ‘n Ebby or whatever, are they still doing that or has that changed?

[00:22:13]  Laura Arnold 

I do see it here and there. I know I’ve had some people come to me and be extremely upset because they found a copy and pasted version of their recipe in the AI queue that popped up word for word with no link to their website, which is a little unfortunate. I have seen that a bit less, but it’s still obviously popping up.

[00:22:34]   

There’s nothing you can truly do about it. I will say I think with recipe posts. Why I don’t fear as much as people love the photos, they love the step by steps. They love to see a video. It’s something that is so visual and also needs kind of some coaching because the average person, we all need to remember this, especially when we write our blog posts.

[00:22:55]   

I remind my clients all the time the average person does not even know how to cut an onion. So. So we just need to remember that. I think they will keep visiting our site just to see the photos, all the visual aspects and to kind of learn a bit more about how to do something correctly.

[00:23:11]  Megan Porta 

Okay. Anything else about AI feel like it’s such a big topic. It is anything else to lessen the fear anxiety. I know, I mean what you said is great. Like it’s not going anywhere and we can’t change anything. So embrace it. I think that’s step one and very important.

[00:23:28]  Laura Arnold 

Yes. There’s a lot of talk about Whether I know someone just recently has came to me saying should I add an AI recipe button to my recipe card or to the top of the blog post? I’m still kind of experimenting with that. I don’t know how I feel about it yet, but hopefully I’ll have more information soon.

[00:23:46]   

I’ve been playing with it myself, so I would just kind of take caution when doing that for now and then I think the other biggest thing is if you’re just very concerned with kind of answering all the questions AI has to give to make sure maybe you do pop up in a snippet that would link that is sometimes advantageous.

[00:24:05]   

I guess if you think about it just like an FAQ in that kind of sense, that’s where ChatGPT or one of those services to kind of write you a little blog line or FAQs blog outline just to see if you’re covering all of their topics they’re thinking of that can help your posts become a little bit more rounded.

[00:24:23]   

Well rounded. But once again, do not verbatim copy anything from AI word for word. That will not go over well at

[00:24:32]  Megan Porta 

the end of the day. Are people, I mean, if you do, if people are doing that, what, what’s happens? Does Google recognize it or what do you think is the bad part of that?

[00:24:44]  Laura Arnold 

I actually don’t know because I make sure no one does it. Yeah, I work with.

[00:24:47]  Megan Porta 

But it doesn’t feel right. I mean, it just feels like we shouldn’t. But I was just wondering if there’s like actual evidence of something like bad cloud comes over your head and starts raining or something. I don’t know.

[00:24:59]  Laura Arnold 

I mean there may not be a huge penalty at the moment, but you just never know with the way things are going if there’s going to be limitations put on AI one day in several years or kind of how Google will treat it with an update. It’s kind of just hard to tell.

[00:25:15]   

So I just like to steer clear and still produce original work that shows, you know, you really are an expert and your authority behind the topic.

[00:25:25]  Megan Porta 

That feels good. And then what you were saying earlier, can you explain that? So you were talking about having an AI button on your website or in your recipe card. What is. Yes, what is that?

[00:25:35]  Laura Arnold 

I’ve seen this only on a couple handful of sites. Not super strong out there right now, but it basically is like a summarize this post using AI button and it I think just throws it into kind of a chatgpt and gives you a breakdown of what the post is saying. That’s a little bit shorter than reading an actual blog post.

[00:25:57]   

So I don’t love it so far. Based on just kind of trying to build a brand and build a community from a more holistic perspective at the end of the day.

[00:26:07]  Megan Porta 

So it’s a way of providing just a shortened version of your content for your readers.

[00:26:13]  Laura Arnold 

Yeah. Mm. Okay. So I think. I think to kind of combat that, it’s once again writing your blog posts without fluff to the point. And then we won’t need that button, I would hope, but who knows? I mean, we’ll see what happens. Kind of coming down the road, but right now, I’m definitely not going for it.

[00:26:33]  Megan Porta 

Not 100% on board. Okay.

[00:26:35]  Laura Arnold 

Yeah.

[00:26:36]  Megan Porta 

Next year we can cover this topic and I’m sure we’ll have a better answer, right?

[00:26:40]  Laura Arnold 

Yes. Yes.

[00:26:41]  Megan Porta 

So you’ve talked a lot about just thinking holistically, creating more of a brand than a website. Do you have anything else to expand on with that? Like things that we should have in our minds to just zoom out a little bit and see our businesses from a broader perspective?

[00:26:58]  Laura Arnold 

Yes. So what I would do is kind of how I approach it with my clients and especially quarter to quarter, we kind of go into Google Analytics, which I know is your website, and do a scan of what are our overall themes, what are our content pillars, and then we go and look at our RPMs as well, which people don’t really think about.

[00:27:21]   

Think about looking at sometimes. But we will go in also from kind of a data perspective and look at what, you know, has a high RPM there. What do I kind of. Are there Trends with my RPMs that aren’t with my site content? That’s kind of interesting. And then the last piece of the puzzle is what is performing best on social and just seeing what my audience is responding to.

[00:27:43]   

And those themes could all be very similar depending on if you’re a very niche site or if you’re more broad, they could be very, very different. And then kind of customizing the content around all of these themes to make that holistic brand. And then obviously adding in some fun recipes, too, that we want to try, because, you know, we are in this for fun too, at the end of the day, and just developing a brand through that lens of covering all three of those basis points rather than just so focusing on the nitty gritty of website SEO per se.

[00:28:16]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. That’s something I’ve been kind of leaning into as well. Just data. Like, what is the data telling me on all of the different platforms And I didn’t used to do this, but I think it’s serving me well. Like, okay, this is working above and beyond what most videos are or whatever on YouTube, and this is working on Instagram and then just trying to lean into those things because there’s something there telling me that it’s working.

[00:28:47]  Laura Arnold 

Yes.

[00:28:48]  Megan Porta 

And then hopefully they all come together. My brand is more diverse, so it’s more like cozy comfort food that’s easy and that can cover so many recipes. So it’s been a little bit challenging because so certain types of recipes work on Instagram and other types work on YouTube and yet others work on my blog.

[00:29:08]   

So it’s like, okay, how do I make all of these meet in the middle? Does that make sense?

[00:29:12]  Laura Arnold 

Yes, that makes complete sense. And I think it’s tricky for a lot of people just to kind of decide which. You only have so much time, so much energy trying to figure all of that out. And if. If you’re really clueless and you’re like, oh, my social just doesn’t have any kind of theme stream of consciousness, then that’s where I actually recommend doing a trial social month.

[00:29:37]   

And if anyone hasn’t done that before, it’s basically 30 days of trying something completely new. I often recommend creating a series. You see these on social a lot. Come up with kind of a niche topic or research some series and see if that helps kind of pop off some themes for you. Or just be extremely consistent about posting for 30 days, almost to the point of posting every day.

[00:30:02]   

If you can, you can even repost, that’s totally fine. And trying to find different themes in those 30 days to then lean into and see if that helps your strategy

[00:30:13]  Megan Porta 

a little bit more things will come out. I’ve been doing this recently. The consistent daily posting on different platforms and things come out that you don’t expect. You’re like, oh, gosh, that. That’s really interesting. Because what has worked on my blog forever doesn’t necessarily work on Instagram. Right. So I think it will be revealing if you do that experiment.

[00:30:35]  Laura Arnold 

Yes.

[00:30:35]  Megan Porta 

It’s a good one to focus on. Yep. And then just kind of Overall, in 2026, we’ve talked about a lot of things to focus on and not focus on. Focus on, obviously, branding, viewing your business from a broader lens, diversifying platforms. Is there anything else that we haven’t mentioned that is juicy that people are just needing to know?

[00:30:58]  Laura Arnold 

I think all the discussion is AI, but I like to not focus on it as much as other people do, just because I don’t see it taking anything away if you’re building a strong community at the end of the day. But I would definitely make a goal if you’re not, um, if you’re really heavily website based right now.

[00:31:16]   

I would make a goal this year to find two other platforms that you are very comfortable and confident in by the end of the year. Whether that’s Instagram and Facebook or TikTok and YouTube. Just kind of try out some new platforms and I think three is kind of the magic number. Your website and two platforms to kind of stay afloat, make sure you’re getting traffic.

[00:31:38]   

And the clients I saw that have grown on social just last year in 12 months, their site traffic is great and only getting better. They’re getting brand deals. That’s another source of income if you’re interested in doing that. So it just starts to open the world up a little bit more than just being so website focused.

[00:32:01]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, it really is a time to expand. So the people who are not willing to do that or maybe like you mentioned earlier, just afraid of being on camera or whatever. Yes, I think, yeah. I mean those are the businesses that are struggling.

[00:32:15]  Laura Arnold 

Right.

[00:32:15]  Megan Porta 

Do you see that?

[00:32:17]  Laura Arnold 

I do and I don’t. I do see some that are doing just fine. I would just make sure you’re really heavily updating your old content to make sure you’re staying competitive with who’s out there and then using other tools that you know, don’t show your face. Like Pinterest for example. I know that can ebb and flow with traffic and success as I know there was a big upset in January with for some people.

[00:32:42]   

But overall you could still be using those platforms. Facebook is still very strong without showing your face to gain traffic as well. So kind of just peeping into those different avenues. And even on Instagram, reels or not reels, excuse me, carousels are being treated as reels. That was announced last year. So you know, taking photos and B roll video content from your recipe without your face adding a trending audio, suddenly you’ve created a reel that you can add a link DM to to gain traffic.

[00:33:13]   

That’s.

[00:33:13]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, that’s a good tip also to your website.

[00:33:16]  Laura Arnold 

So we’ve seen huge success with that as well. Especially even people that do post every day. It’s a great, what I call lazy post. So if you’re just out of energy and you just need something easy, just take the, take those beautiful photos and some B roll footage, create a carousel and then suddenly you have a wonderful little social post for the Day.

[00:33:37]  Megan Porta 

Amazing. And also voiceover too, if you are. If you’re willing to share your voice and not your face, that’s a way to allow people to get to know you without putting yourself fully out there.

[00:33:47]  Laura Arnold 

Yes. A voiceover is fantastic. If you’re okay to do that as well.

[00:33:52]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Well, we’ve covered so much. Is there anything we’re missing that you feel like people just absolutely have to know?

[00:33:57]  Laura Arnold 

Laura, I think the other big thing, and this is what I coach my clients on so much, is consistency. That is really one of the pieces of the puzzle that I know. It sounds so simple in theory, but at the end of the day, the most the people who post, update and create new content most consistently continue to grow.

[00:34:16]   

And if, you know, we all have our moments, but just trying to remember that in the back of your head and if you are consistent, you will get somewhere. And it’s a great quality to have. And I even sometimes write to myself a post it note on my computer that says stay consistent and it really goes further than you think and sounds simple, but is really a practice that a lot of us like to keep.

[00:34:40]   

So.

[00:34:40]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. So in a NutShell, find the two to three platforms that are. That feel good and that are serving you and stay consistent on those platforms.

[00:34:52]  Laura Arnold 

Definitely. Even if it’s feeling difficult and you feel like you’re failing every day, suddenly you’ll have a real pop off and it will make your entire month go great.

[00:35:04]  Megan Porta 

I know it does. Yeah. Okay. Well, this was really encouraging, I think, because depending on who you listen to, it can feel so doom and gloom. And if we get in our heads too, we can talk ourselves into AI is going to take over my whole life and I’m not gonna have a business in five months.

[00:35:23]   

But it doesn’t have to be like that. I so appreciate your perspective of just embracing what’s here. Nothing with AI is going to change, so let’s roll with it and create the best content we can, right?

[00:35:36]  Laura Arnold 

Yes, completely. And I love it. Yeah. There’s always more to be learned and pivots to make, and it’s only going to get more and more interesting. As I like to say, not difficult interesting. So it’s best to start building those community blocks now rather than later.

[00:35:53]  Megan Porta 

Yes. I appreciate all this. Thank you so much for again being our beginning of the year voice for SEO. Laura. So appreciate you and all the value you shared.

[00:36:02]  Laura Arnold 

Thank you.

[00:36:03]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, we’ll put together a show notes page for you. So we’ll have all the information we talked about today. If you want to peek at those, you can head to eatblogtalk.com/danggooddigital3 so if people are interested in just getting some SEO help, where can they go? What do you offer? Tell us the scoop on all of that.

[00:36:23]  Laura Arnold 

Yes, so my website is dangooddigital.com that is where you can find things about my services. And then I also have an Instagram page @dangooddigital as well, and it’s pretty much where you can find me.

[00:36:38]  Megan Porta 

All right, sounds good. Everyone go check that out. And thanks again, Laura. Thank you for listening food bloggers. I will see you next time. 

[00:36:38]  Outro

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Eat Blog Talk. If today’s episode sparked an idea for you, snap a screenshot, post it on Instagram, Instagram Stories, and tag me Eat Blog Talk.I love seeing what resonates with you. I will see you next time.