Top Ten Recipe Posts of 2013

Good morning! I’d like to thank all of you for making this a fantastic year for This Gal Cooks! At the beginning of the year, in January, I was only getting around 30k page views per month. Now I’m up to 200k! This wouldn’t be possible without all of YOU!

Thank you for all of your lovely comments, recipe feedback, shares and post love! You all are amazing. I’m looking forward to another amazing year in 2014. Have a lovely New Years and a great 2014.

As you can see, 6 of the ten recipes in my top ten were posted in the second half of the year (you can see the dates in the links in the image below.) Normally, I think top posts for blogs are posts posted at the beginning of the year but my blog was still fairly new at the beginning of the year. It’s grown quite a bit since then. (Thank you Aimee (Shugary Sweets) for the Analytics report.)

We’re going to count backwards from the number 10 recipe. Just click the images to view the recipes.

Top Ten Recipe Posts of 2013

{click images to view recipes}

10. Blueberry Coffeecake Muffins

These muffins went viral on Pinterest. They were super easy to make and full of blueberry flavor. This was a semi-homemade treat. The base was from cake mix but the blueberry topping was my Homemade Blueberry Preserves.

9. Crockpot Chicken Enchilada Rice Bowls

I attribute the success of this recipe to my 10 Super Simple Crockpot Chicken Recipes roundup. You’ll find the link to that post below, as it was in the top ten this year!

8. Crockpot Spaghetti Sauce

Wow, people love spaghetti sauce, especially when it’s made in a crockpot! The success of this recipe was due to Pinterest, Google Search and the success of my Twenty Minute Easy Tortellini Bake. You’ll find the link to that recipe below as it was in the top 10 this year!

7. Raspberry Lemon Muffins

The success of this recipe is due to a few pins going viral on Pinterest. For a good part of the beginning of the year, this recipe was in my top 10 posts. People loved the raspberry topping!

6. Tomato Bacon Spinach Quiche

This Tomato Bacon Spinach Quiche was pretty darn popular on Pinterest. Oh the power of the pin!

5. 10 Homemade Holiday Appetizers

This appetizer roundup was actually posted in November but it went viral on Pinterest. Paula (Call Me PMc) and I put a series of holiday recipe posts together, which were well received by our readers and the Pinterest community!

4. How to Roast Poblano Peppers

This isn’t really a recipe but a how to. And apparently a lot of people search Google to find out how to roast Poblano peppers. The success of this recipe is totally due to high ranking in Google search results!

3. Twenty Minute Easy Tortellini Bake

This Easy Tortellini Bake not only went viral on Pinterest, it was also picked up by AllFreeCasseroleRecipes.com. The recipe has also had some success in the world of Google – it has gotten traffic from Google Search results.

2. Homemade Cornbread Dressing

I posted this Homemade Cornbread Dressing in late November, about a week before Thanksgiving. It’s success was due to showing up as the third item in Google Search results. This recipe brought thousands of page views to my site within a week of being posted. hey, it’s delicious. What can I say!?

1. Ten Super Simple Crockpot Chicken Recipes

This Crockpot Chicken Roundup is by far the most popular recipe this year. The success is a combination of Pinterest traffic and Google Search result traffic. Since posting this roundup, my number one traffic referrer is Google. Check out the great recipes if you haven’t already!

And there you have it, folks! These were the top ten recipes posts on This Gal Cooks for 2013. Notice that only two of them were sweets? I always thought people went crazy over the sweets (cause I know I do!) but my savory dishes are more popular than my sweet treats. But don’t worry, you’ll still see sweet treats from me in 2014.

Have a lovely and safe New Years.