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Scraping Recipe Websites

benawad.com

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Re: Scraping Recipe Websites

#91

Post by [deleted] »

pugworthy wrote: post #88
onion2k wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

mashed potatoes Steam some potatoes. (Don't boil them. No one wants watery mash.) Add far more butter than anyone would think is reasonable. (Like, 1/2lb of butter to 1lb of potatoes. Maybe more.) Add salt and pepper. (No, more than that. You've under-seasoned them.) Mash them until they're the consistency you want. (For really smooth mash use an electric hand mixer instead of a masher.) To make them better still, pu…

Since this seems to be an OK thread to add humor to, I'll point out you can also stick 'em in a stew.

[deleted]

Re: Scraping Recipe Websites

#92

Post by hombre_fatal »

marsRoverDev wrote: post #47
thawaway1837 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Why doesn’t everyone who is putting information out there for free not cater to exactly my needs”. What an utter load of bollocks. These are people who are creating something that they enjoy doing and giving you information you apparently need for free. I don’t understand why anyone would trash their desire to write something that is personal and/or interesting to them about it. And that’s setting aside that these u…

They're being rightly trashed because it's a SEO tactic and nothing more. Between the preamble ranking them higher and Adsense requiring "substance" in order to monetise the page, there is a systematic issue that's leading to what is essentially useless information to what I would say is the majority of people. They're very welcome to write their life story, but I bet if google changed their algorithm slightly you'd…

My god this level of cynicism is such an eyeroll.

HNers writhing over each other to be the most cynical and dismissive.

For fun, can you link me to a highly ranked recipe page with a bullshit SEO story on it in line with "the camping trip in North Dakota when Susan's husband first discovered his love of homemade sour cream"?

Re: Scraping Recipe Websites

#93

Post by reaperducer »

tmountain wrote: post #6
kmbfjr wrote: post #5

But how will I read about "Dakota", an avid yoga enthusiast who just happens to be a mom, who enjoys making healthy and savory meals for her family while blogging? Seriously, I hope this spells an end to the Google ranking imposed nonsense that makes the simple act of searching for a recipe so insufferable.

It's a running joke in our house. I start off wanting to make some mashed potatoes, and time and time again, I have to suffer through someone's life story--the camping trip in North Dakota when Susan's husband first discovered his love of homemade sour cream--etc. Makes me wonder if a super barebones recipe site that literally just has recipes and absolutely no fluff would be something people would gravitate towards.

Makes me wonder if a super barebones recipe site that literally just has recipes and absolutely no fluff would be something people would gravitate towards.

There are apps like that, at least. I use How to Cook Everything. It's from Mark Bittman, who was with the New York Times at the time it was published. I don't know if he is anymore.

Re: Scraping Recipe Websites

#94

Post by neo1691 »

selecsosi wrote: post #32

I highly useful tool in my household for dealing with the SEO/tracking scourge that recipe blogs have become is https://www.paprikaapp.com/ . Hoping someday to have some spare time to integrate this with https://grocy.info/ and have a pipeline for recipe -> preparation automation.

I’m a very happy paprika user too. I would like to know more about your Workflows with paprika.

Re: Scraping Recipe Websites

#95

Post by reaperducer »

karatestomp wrote: post #80
jedieaston wrote: post #13

Paprika 3 (I use the iOS version, but I believe the Mac version has the same function) has a fantastic web scraper for recipes. I've had to correct maybe 1-2 errors across 100 recipes I've brought in from a bunch of different sites. It's super helpful to look through them in a standardized way (and you can sort by ingredient/category) to figure out what to make.

I think most recipes are published using a microformat that makes this pretty easy, and that's why Paprika (I use it too!) so rarely screws up.

Yep. And if Google detects that your page contains a recipe and the microdata isn't perfect, or doesn't include all the things that Google wants so it can show your recipe to people without them clicking through to your site, Google sends you an e-mail through Webmaster Tools telling you to fix it, with the implied threat that your page won't be listed if you don't allow Google to use your work for free.

Re: Scraping Recipe Websites

#96

Post by mallomarmeasle »

onion2k wrote: post #62
tmountain wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a running joke in our house. I start off wanting to make some mashed potatoes, and time and time again, I have to suffer through someone's life story--the camping trip in North Dakota when Susan's husband first discovered his love of homemade sour cream--etc. Makes me wonder if a super barebones recipe site that literally just has recipes and absolutely no fluff would be something people would gravitate towards.

mashed potatoes Steam some potatoes. (Don't boil them. No one wants watery mash.) Add far more butter than anyone would think is reasonable. (Like, 1/2lb of butter to 1lb of potatoes. Maybe more.) Add salt and pepper. (No, more than that. You've under-seasoned them.) Mash them until they're the consistency you want. (For really smooth mash use an electric hand mixer instead of a masher.) To make them better still, pu…

> Add far more butter than anyone would think is reasonable. (Like, 1/2lb of butter to 1lb of potatoes. Maybe more.)

No. The butter gets lost in the potatoes and mouthfeel of the fat is compromised. That is the reason that so much is needed if you do it this way. Much better to only add it right when serving, leaving the butter and potatoes largely unmixed. Preferably added in an amount “to-taste” by the individual. I believe this was covered by McGee’s “On Food and Cooking”, but I may be misremembering.

Re: Scraping Recipe Websites

#98

Post by shostack »

zwieback wrote: post #61
kmbfjr wrote: post #5

But how will I read about "Dakota", an avid yoga enthusiast who just happens to be a mom, who enjoys making healthy and savory meals for her family while blogging? Seriously, I hope this spells an end to the Google ranking imposed nonsense that makes the simple act of searching for a recipe so insufferable.

Dakota also owns many beautiful bowls and whisks handmade from sustainable materials, featured in 20 photos before the recipe hidden behind another link I hate blogger recipes, luckily there are enough cooking sites that are well curated.

Don't forget the affiliate links to said bowls.

Re: Scraping Recipe Websites

#99

Post by dvtrn »

AnonC wrote: post #44
anticsapp wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't validate this but have been told this by multiple authors and SEO professionals. So it's anecdotal. One blogger apologized to me and told me she was embarrassed doing it but it's an industry practice. She explained it's because other recipe sites use automated scraping tools and republish their recipes in an effort to outrank original authors. The personal fluff helps slow them down. Also, a lot of recipes ar…

Thanks. This makes sense. I was wondering what these fluff pieces have to do with SEO, because surely the search engines aren’t monitoring all users and how long they spend on each page in order to rank the usefulness of the content in their search results. Bounce rates and how long a visitor stays on a page matter for those who own the sites and/or do some sort of marketing on them (ads, their own products, their se…

because surely the search engines aren’t monitoring all users and how long they spend on each page in order to rank the usefulness of the content in their search results.

Probably not the search engines, but I could imagine this being a thing that goes into Google Analytics if an online recipe property is using that (or if their blogging platform has a plugin for it) maybe? Just spitballing from the hip.

Re: Scraping Recipe Websites

#100

Post by Guest0918231 »

wastedhours wrote: post #84
kmbfjr wrote: post #5

But how will I read about "Dakota", an avid yoga enthusiast who just happens to be a mom, who enjoys making healthy and savory meals for her family while blogging? Seriously, I hope this spells an end to the Google ranking imposed nonsense that makes the simple act of searching for a recipe so insufferable.

It's gone to extremes now, but to be honest - if someone wants to blog and post a recipe at the same time, that's their prerogative? Some people actually enjoy reading those things too. There's a place for straight recipe sites, and a place for personal word-vomit blogs with a recipe at the bottom. The web would be a sad place if you were only allowed to write your recipes in LaTeX.

Yes, they can do whatever they desire. The issue is when people are required to write life stories and superfluous content not because that's the direction they want to go, and not because it's appealing to their target audience, but because it's the only way they can rank well on Google.

On the user side if you only want straightforward recipes, you're out of luck, because they're never going to be near the top of the search results.

If you are one of the people looking to read these recipe background stories, even you get a mediocre experience, because the majority of the content you're reading was written primarily for Google (how many times can I reference salmon, fish, atlantic, norwegian, protein, healthy, omega-3 and smoked in this recipe story to hit all of the important keywords?).

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