Recently, a food blogger who isn’t a Foodie Digital member reached out to me over email. They’re a friend of an FD member.

That tends to happen after a major Google core update or spam algorithm update. In this case, it was shortly after the May 2026 broad core update finished rolling out.

They shared, quite vulnerably, that their food blog’s organic traffic is down 40% year over year, and the latest core update only made things worse.

Before responding, I spent about 10 minutes looking through their site.

Their brand is good. Their topic focus is clear.

But their sitemap tells the story.

It’s filled with more than 60 round-up posts. There are still dozens of old keyword-chasing articles indexed (“fruits that start with the letter A,” “how to freeze green beans,” and similar content).

And their posts follow an SEO page formula that worked years ago, but doesn’t anymore.

Reaching the recipe was quite a chore!

I could also tell from their titles and blog post introductions that they either haven’t learned, or aren’t applying, the fundamentals of natural language processing.

A heartbreaking miss. 💔

Ten minutes was all it took to see where their content strategy, SEO mindset, and commitment to following outdated “SEO rules” were keeping them stuck.

Rather than overwhelm them with a long list of recommendations, I suggested they subscribe to Siftr and start with these four newsletters:

And then, once that was done, I suggested they read:

I also encouraged them to start rewriting the main content of all of their posts.

Not because they’re a bad writer.

Not because their recipes aren’t good.

But because today’s readers and today’s search environments expect something very different than they did just a few years ago and if your content hasn’t evolved alongside these changes, sooner or later your traffic reflects it.

The hard truth is that many food bloggers are still publishing content using an SEO playbook from 2024, despite the fact that modern SEO resources like the Siftr newsletter are affordable and easy to access.

If you’ve been doing the same SEO tasks year after year, your traffic has plateaued (or declined), and you’re frustrated or wondering what you’re missing, subscribe to Siftr.

The newsletter explains what’s changed, how to adapt your writing so your recipes perform better in today’s search landscape, plus what’s coming next – for example, meal planning information agents are right around the corner.

Here are a few examples of results from Foodie Digital members who have moved away from the old-school SEO approach they were taught and embraced semantic search:

Phew. The work this FD member has put in over the last four years is unreal. So much rewriting! And so much work making it crystal clear in her writing what her brand is known for.

And this:

In late 2025, this FD member stopped chasing every shiny object and started focusing on what their right reader actually wanted from them, using natural language processing principles to guide the recipes they published.

And this:

This FD member spent nearly two years de-optimizing 200+ posts in their post library. They cut unnecessary FAQs and tables of contents and started writing in a way that shared their recipe-testing insights.

And this:

After losing traffic for years, this FD member invested in rewriting their post library. They cut unnecessary information they’d previously included, like FAQs and redundant ingredient details. And after putting in the work and focusing on natural language processing, they’re finally turning the ship around.

These results didn’t come from chasing another SEO trick or making a few quick changes. They came from doing the work of rethinking their content strategy, rewriting their posts, and focusing on what their readers actually need.

Semantic search is a major focus of Foodie Digital – and it’s a focus of Siftr, too.

Signing up for Siftr is easy while Foodie Digital’s waitlist remains closed.

Liane