For anyone curious, bloggers are forced to write something original to accompany their recipes for SEO optimization and to avoid copyright infringement. SEO encourages 800-1200 word essays to accompany each recipe otherwise search engines won’t pick it up. You’re also supposed to include the keywords like a half-dozen times which leads to some very weird writing. It fucking sucks. Capitalism, etc etc.
I always feel bad about complaining about dumb essays because the system literally makes them become Julie and Julia when they mainly just want to post free recipes and make money from their labor.
I’m assuming the NYT pays their writers, so they’re probably just greedy pigs trying to oust the mom and pop blogs.
Source: me, i helped a foodblogger friend with their SEO and shit
