Recipe Blog Case Study
A mock-up of a recipe blog.
We’ve designed and built a recipe blog which is entirely generated by completing an online entry form. This setup demonstrates how quick & easy it can be to maintain a blog when the content follows a structured format, an approach that can be applied to other types of blogs.
The entry form captures the details of the recipe and once submitted, the recipe is published and the main blog page updated.
This approach ensures that adding, editing and deleting recipes is fast, consistent and straightforward, helping to keep the blog organised and simple to navigate.
typical recipe structures
A recipe blog article typically includes an introductory section with a title, brief description, photo and a few quick facts — such as the preparation and cooking time, dietary classification and number of people it will serve. This is then followed by a series of lists that vary depending on the recipe. For example, common list types might include:
recipe structures vary
Recipes do not necessarily conform to a given structure. More complex dishes may require multiple ingredient lists — such as separate lists for a base, filling and topping, each with its own set of instructions or notes. Preparation often happens in stages and cooking may also be divided into parts, especially when different components of a dish are prepared separately.
As the structure of a recipe varies, the list types and number of lists need to be flexible. For example, see the recipe for a lasagne. In this recipe, the ingredients list has a number of sub-lists i.e. ‘Spinach Sauce’, ‘Tomato Sauce’, ‘Cheese Sauce’ and ‘Other Ingredients’. Other lists of ‘Cooking the Sauces’ and ‘Assembly and Baking’ are also required. The online form is designed to be flexible enough to cope with this, unlimited lists and sub lists can be added as required.
Blog Article Types That Benefit from a Structured Approach
Using a structured form like this works well for blogs with a consistent structure. Here are some examples other types of blog articles that are well-suited to this approach:
For the Technically Minded
To create this blog, a third party product ACF (Advanced Custom Fields) was used to create a recipe post type that provides the entry form. The blog article was rendered using PHP to generate HTML with some CSS for the styling. The main blog page was created using Kadence’s Advanced Query block.
conclusion
The main advantage of using an entry form to create a blog is speed and consistency, the blog article is generated and formatted automatically. The main blog page updates instantly with the new post, making it easy to publish new blog articles as well as edit or delete existing articles.
It also means that future changes can be rolled out across all blog posts, though that may mean each recipe would need to be edited separately in order to add additional content.
An entry form is not the best option if the blog articles do not have a fixed structure, in that case, a web editor which allows text and images to be arranged for that individual article would be a better solution.
sample Blog images
The image shows the main blog page with search and filtering and blog articles listed.
The image shows a mock up of a three page website’s about page. Remember that the content (logo, text, images), colours and fonts will be changed to your requirements.
The image shows a portion of the entry form used to create blog articles.
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