The situation
Inés Carcacía has real cooking talent. She photographs well. She writes better. In 2015 she wanted to start a recipe blog, but the landscape was — and still is — a minefield: thousands of generic blogs competing for the same searches, readers who leave if the page takes two seconds to load, and specific technical requirements the sector demands that most ignore. Recipe blogs have needs a standard WordPress doesn't handle well: rich snippets with photo and rating in Google, structured cooking times, clean ad-free printing, serving adjustments, shopping lists. Making a mediocre one was easy. Making one that would hold up ten years required a different conversation.
The decision
The decision was not to start with design — to start with research. We studied how the world's best recipe blogs worked technically: what made Google reward some over others, what features returning readers actually asked for, what architecture sustained growth without a rewrite. The philosophy was to invest time in what's invisible — structure, schema, performance, recipe database — and not in aesthetic trends that expire in three years. Elementor came in as a layout tool with real control, combined with custom plugins for sector-specific features that didn't exist on the market or existed poorly.
The execution
SEO-first from day one: complete schema.org for recipes, rich snippets appearing in Google with photo, rating, prep time and calories before the reader even reaches the site. Aggressive performance when optimising for mobile wasn't yet standard — optimised images, phased loading, low server response time.
Features that readers actually use: clean ad-free printing, automatic quantity adjustment by number of servings, ingredient lists you can tick off while cooking. A custom recipe search engine — by keyword, ingredient, dish type and world cuisine — built on custom plugins because what the market offered didn't cover the specificity Inés's catalogue needed. And a proprietary email subscription system, integrated from the start, to automatically send new recipes to subscribers without depending on third-party platforms that can change their terms or pricing.
Elementor as the visual base with deep customisation — not an off-the-shelf theme, but a system tailored to how Inés works and publishes. Architecture that allows the catalogue to grow without performance degrading.
The outcome
Inés's blog has been online for over ten years. There have been no total rewrites — just two optional cosmetic redesigns on the same structural base. It has survived several Google algorithm changes, the shift from desktop to mobile as the primary channel, and Core Web Vitals updates without emergency interventions.
Today it has over 20,000 followers across Instagram and Facebook, with sustained organic growth and active ranking in recipe searches. And nearly 3,000 proprietary email subscribers — a list nobody can take away, that doesn't depend on any social media algorithm, and that receives every new recipe directly in their inbox. Inés has spent a decade cooking and writing without fighting her website. That was the goal.