Recipe pages or content indices allow visitors to quickly locate and browse a collection of your posts. It can help enhance user experience on your website.
To create a searchable archive, begin by creating dedicated blog categories for each of your recipes. When publishing posts, assign each one directly to one category as soon as it goes live.
Create an Index
Though not an essential feature of your website, an internal navigational structure is an effective way for your visitors to quickly find what they’re searching for and helps establish the necessary trust with potential collaborators or buyers who visit.
An Index page in Squarespace consists of Summary blocks which display different kinds of blog content – recipes, client testimonials or recent blog posts for example – in each Summary block. You can even use filter options to narrow down what kinds of content is displayed within each Summary block.
Use of the Index page feature is straightforward. Simply access your Pages menu, and click Add Page, before giving your new page a name and creating any necessary content (if needed). Finally, click Save to complete and add this new page to your website.
Index pages are widely utilized on food blogs to allow readers to quickly locate the recipes they’re searching for – making this an invaluable way to engage and retain readers.
While an index page can be made out of any kind of content, it’s ideal for recipe blogs as it enables easy navigation of all of their recipes. Note: If your template doesn’t support Index pages, use an Archive Block instead for displaying lists of content with searchable metadata fields allowing viewers to easily search them all at once. It can also keep the design consistent across pages. To edit or delete pages in an index page simply hover over it with your mouse – pencil icon will appear or to delete simply hover again until trash emoji appears.
Add a Summary Block
Those blogging about food will likely want to create an archive of recipes on their site, yet Squarespace doesn’t offer any plugins dedicated to that task. There are still workarounds you can employ though. One is using a Summary Block which displays items with thumbnails and titles for easy browsing; they’re suitable for pages, posts, events and shop items alike.
To add a Summary Block to your recipe page, select it and click Add Block. In the pop-up menu that appears, choose from Wall, Carousel or Grid design options – these settings can also be altered at any time.
Once you’ve selected a design, select where your Summary Block will pull its content from. For instance, using blog categories allows you to easily pull recipes from across your blog’s categories while tags enable you to filter by specific recipes rather than by entire category archives – for instance if there are 30 recipes in an Entree category archive you could tag each with an easy-to-remember label such as “Batch 1”, and use these labels instead when creating summary blocks filtered by this tag rather than by entire category name itself.
Use a Summary Block and the Featured Post setting on your blog post editor to curate an excellent collection of recipes with these tools. Feature these recipes using the Summary Block; visitors will then be directed back to your full collection; alternatively you could also include another Summary Block that showcases 30 recent featured ones as an additional option.
Add a Search Block
Best recipe index pages provide visitors with an intuitive means of accessing individual recipes. A search block, an inbuilt feature of Squarespace, makes this task simpler by showing only results from specific pages – in this instance your recipe index page – rather than providing irrelevant results when they search. This prevents visitors from becoming confused by irrelevant information when trying to locate something they haven’t seen yet.
Categorized content helps readers find exactly what they’re searching for more easily by organizing it using categories and tags, while tags help create an index of recipes. Categorization helps organize blog posts and pages with similar topics, while you can add new categories using Settings Posts & Pages Add New. Finally, adding tags specific to diet types (vegan/low carb etc) enables visitors who follow those diets find exactly what they need quickly.
As another means of making your recipe index simpler to use, consider creating a breadcrumb navigation. This simple yet effective feature gives your audience a visual indication of where they are on your website and the next step they should take. Squarespace offers numerous styles to perfectly complement any website.
Add a Print Block
Food blogs typically feature recipes shared by their authors to their readership. To create an attractive presentation of these posts and allow users to easily print them out, adding schema markup can help Google understand the type of information being provided while also making for user convenience when printing recipes from the blog.
Add a Recipe Card Block to your blog post and fill in all relevant fields with recipe details, ingredients, and instructions in an organized and attractive format ready for printing. Alternatively, include a button allowing visitors to download your PDF recipe file directly.
After creating your block, click “Add to Post” to include it on your post. Place it anywhere on your page – from top to bottom or between content – by using drag-and-drop. When finished, click Publish!
This will ensure your page is correctly structured and easily searchable, but with one caveat: to ensure Google takes notice, recipes must include certain metadata elements.
As part of your research process, it’s essential that you carefully consider each template available and its level of schema markup usage. Depending on your industry and business goals, selecting one with more schema tags might help ensure you cover every area appropriately.
Add a Table of Contents
Once your recipe index is created, readers can easily navigate your cookbook’s content by simply clicking on a recipe’s page number – much simpler than sifting through all the pages to find their recipe!
If you want your recipes to appear as Guided Recipes in Google Assistant, be sure to add the recipeIngredient and recipeInstructions properties. These properties help Google understand your recipes better while giving searchers additional details like reviewer ratings, cooking and preparation times, nutrition facts and more.
To create a table of contents, add a Summary Block to your recipe page and place it where desired (ideally at the beginning). Next, provide titles and descriptions of all of the content displayed here as well as click Layout Options button if necessary.
As you compose your Table of Contents, be consistent in how you present ingredients and steps. This will make it easier for readers to follow along while they prepare recipes on your site; for instance if your ingredients include abbreviations for measurements such as Tbsp, tsp or ml, use these abbreviations when writing directions as well.
Once your Table of Contents is in place, you can begin creating the rest of your recipe book. When writing content for your recipe book, take your time making sure it’s engaging and clear as possible – once done publishing to your website! If any issues arise during its construction or editing process our support team are always happy to help!
