If you’re a food blogger you will probably want to use a recipe plugin. There are a few good recipe plugins around, such as EasyRecipe or ZipList Recipe. They are both great, I have used them both but I ended up choosing ZipList only because the version of EasyRecipe plugin I was using was incompatible with my blog theme I was using at the time, so I switched to ZipList. I do have to warn you that if you switch from one plugin to another you will have to edit each recipe manually, so if you have a few hundred recipes this could take quite a while. That’s why it’s important to start your food blog properly from the beginning.
Why should you use a Recipe Plugin?
There are many reasons why you should use a recipe plugin, but the main reason is that it makes your recipes SEO friendly which means your recipes are more likely to appear in Google’s recipe search. The other reason which I think it’s important is that a recipe plugin allows you to easily format all your recipes the same way, which means it makes it easier for you to style your recipes, all you have to do is enter the ingredients and the cooking instructions.
With ZipList Recipe you also get a bonus feature and that is the Save Recipe button which allows your readers to quickly save your recipe to a universal recipe and shopping list directly from your site which also links back to your blog. This then creates backlinks to your blog which we know by now that backlinks are very important.
How do I install ZipList Recipe plugin?
In wordpress, go to Plugins -> Add new. You will get the following screen.
In the search box type ziplist recipe and click on the Search Plugins button. The ziplist plugin should be the first one in the list.
Click on Install Now. You will be asked if you’re sure you want to install this plugin, so just click OK.
Click on Active Plugin. The plugin will be activated and on your wordpress navigation menu on the left, you will now see ZipList Recipe Plugin. If you click on this link, this will take you to the Settings page for the plugin.
Configure this as you see fit.
How do I use ZipList Recipe Plugin?
Once ZipList is installed, it’s very easy to use. When you create a new post you will now notice that there is an extra icon.
This is the ZipList icon you will use whenever you want to add a recipe in one of your posts. When you click you will get a popup window. The Recipe title will come from your Post Title. The recipe image is the URL to the image you want included in your recipe.
Now just start entering your ingredients and instructions. You will notice there is a More Options link above the Add Recipe button. Use this to enter additional information such as prep time, cooking time, etc.
Click on Add Recipe when you’re done, and that’s all there is to it. This is what your recipe will look like without any additional formatting.
Not bad, for doing very minimal amount of work, you have a professional looking recipe.
Thx this was definitely helpful and very well written.
You might also want to check out the GetMeCooking recipe plugin http://www.getmecooking.com/wordpress-recipe-plugin
If you look at the download stats (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/getmecooking-recipe-template/), you will see that it usually gets more downloads than the ZipList plugin – over 11,000 since we brought it out in September 2011.
You refer to ‘Google’s recipe search’. Did you know that Microsoft Bing had a recipe search feature over a year before Google? The Rich Snippets function was recently renamed to ‘Structured Data’ and uses the http://www.Schema.org structures. See http://www.getmecooking.com/article/why-are-search-engines-being-slow-to-roll-out-their-recipe-search-functionality for more information.
thnaks you are a life saver.
I just switched from easy recipe, to ziplist. And I am loving it! I am a new food blogger, so thankfully, I only have a few recipes to move.
Hi Sarah, yeah it’s easy when you only have a few, however you can keep both plugins then you wouldn’t have to switch them all over. Just saw your blog, love it.
Hello!
I love your blog Jo cooks and I just ran into this one. Lots of useful information! Thanks so much! I would like to add the ZipList plugin to my blog as well but my question is can I still do it, considering I am in blogspot.com (and if yes, how do I go about it)? Your instructions are only for adding it to a blog that is under WordPress. Thank you so much!
Hi Nadia,
Right now Ziplist is only for wordpress, but they do have a page where they have some instructions on how to create well formed recipes to help with search engines. Hope this helps, good luck to you. 
Thank you so much.