Today I will help you understand how to get more traffic with Pinterest. There are two sides to Pinterest, which may cause confusion for new bloggers.
First, there is the Pinterest for scrapbooking types, crafters and people who post recipes. In other words, shoppers.
And then there is Pinterest for business, and these people are also known as marketers. Pinterest for blog traffic is a gold mine, if you have the patience. But you do not need as much patience as you do when using SEO.
This post was originally published August 21st, 2018 and has been updated to be current with new information. This post may contain affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. However, my opinions are my own. Full disclosure is here.
Welcome to Fearless Affiliate.
My name is Irma and I help new bloggers to learn the ropes. There is a lot to take in that first year of blogging, from choosing a niche to changing your mindset from worker bee mentality to that of successful entrepreneur.
I like to focus on practical information and positive thinking, so if that sounds good to you please sign up for my weekly newsletter of tips and free stuff for bloggers.
Subscribers will get the password to my resource library of PDF printables for bloggers like my Google Analytics Cheatsheet or my SEO Checklist.#win-win
Still haven’t picked a blog niche?
I can help with that too! Read my 5 Secrets To Finding Your Niche eReport…it’s in the Resource Library. Sign up now and check it out.
Pinterest for Business??
Whenever I write a post and talk about the subject of traffic from Pinterest, I am surprised by the number of comments that I get from readers who do not know about this amazing source of traffic.
Huh? I thought I was the last person to discover this gold mine!
On the Pinterest “Success Stories” page, you can read how multiple businesses are marketing with Pinterest because 85% of weekly pinners have made a purchase based on pins from brands.
85%. Let that sink in.
When you use Pinterest for business to share your brand with shoppers, you can not only get traffic, but also a new audience to re-share your content!
Related Post: How to Use Pinterest for Business
Who else uses Pinterest?
Sephora. Lowe’s. Shaw Communications. Stella Artois (A Belgian beer). State Farm. Samsung. Cadbury. Haagen Dazs. It is challenging to keep up with all the brands that keeping jumping on to the Pinterest ship.
These companies are all getting on the Pinterest bandwagon because they can see the reach that is available from people who are searching and shopping.
Pinterest is the number one visual search engine!
I personally went from having almost zero views on Pinterest to having 60K in about 3 and a half months. Now those are Pinterest views, not page views via Google Analytics.
However those Pinterest views translated into page views, which increased monthly.
It does take a bit of work, which is mostly how to create clickable pins, but it is still faster than writing for SEO (which you should keep doing btw).
Yes! Free, organic traffic coming to my blog daily.
Can you see the value of being a part of this? Pinterest loves content marketers because they provide something for the shoppers to shop for! Would you like to tap into some of those shoppers? If so…
How To Get More Traffic From Pinterest
It is recommended that you always use good SEO for your business. However, SEO by itself is slow and it can take time.
This post is about using Pinterest to generate traffic in the short term.
Pinterest is also a search engine, but is more focused on the visual, so you need a different strategy for how you use SEO and keywords.
Using keywords strategically on your pins allows interest from Pinterest to impact your search results on Google and Bing, so it is like a one-two punch. #helpful
1. You need a Pinterest for business account
If you have a personal account, but it is not related to your niche website, then go ahead and create a new business account.
There is no penalty for having two accounts, but it is best not to get your hobby pins mixed in with your business. It will cause Pinterest analytics to become confused about what you business is about.
Just go to the top right of your profile page and click on the 3 horizontal dots and Pinterest will offer you a free business account.
The business account gives you access to analytics, which will tell you which of your pins are being clicked most often so that you can keep creating that type of content.
2. Verify your account
You will also want to verify your account by uploading the URL from a blog post (not your home page), and wait for approval, which can take a few hours to overnight.
3. Apply for Rich Pins
Rich pins give shoppers more information about what you pin(s) are about.
For many bloggers, the Article rich pins allow you more promotion options for your website from within the pins.
If you will be posting recipes with your pins, then recipe rich pins show your recipe ingredients when someone clicks that pin.
Create Click-Worthy Pins for Your Blog Posts
You can use a photo editor like Canva, which comes with Pinterest pin templates.
- The ideal size is 600 pixels wide by 900 pixels high, or a 2:3 ratio.
- Longer pins will get cut off in the feed.
- You can have: standard, video, product, collection, and story pins. Use whichever works best to market to your people.
Pinterest’s latest update has a way to link to products from your pin images, making the link from idea to purchase much easier for shoppers.
The following post shows you how to use Canva 1.0. The latest version of Canva is 2.0 but the guide still applies. Canva 2.0 just has more than the 1.0 version.
Use tutorials to get ideas for how to create pins that encourage clicks.
Related Post: Simple Branding Tutorial
- Create your pin and insert it into your blog post.
- Be sure to keep it full size in your blog post
- Upload the pin to Pinterest, link your blog post URL and write a keyword-rich description and include a few relevant hashtags if you like.
- Hashtags are not mandatory but a well keyworded description is very important.
- Try to use synonyms when writing the pin title, so that it is not word-for-word the same as the pin text. This is an opportunity to use more keywords.
After you save the pin, Pinterest will ask you if you want to see it.
Click yes, and then take the URL from your pin and go back to your blog post and edit the alt description of the pin with your new URL from Pinterest so that they link to each other.
Pinterest likes helpful pins
Without giving your blog post away, write as much into the pin description as you can to describe how it will help readers.
And don’t forget the call to action. If you have a linking freebie, be sure to put it on your pin. As well, you can add “+ get my free thingy” to your title (to encourage clicks).
If you look around Pinterest you will quickly be able to tell which images seem to more pinnable than others.
- Bright, happy colors versus dark.
- Easy to read fonts versus cursive scripts that are almost illegible. You can use cursive, but don’t use it for the main concept text.
- Photos that convey a positive feeling.
- Photos of yummy, attractive foods.
- And don’t forget that call to action, so promote, promote, promote.
Related Post: Start Pinning with Pinterest
To create shareable pins:
- Use large text for your main ideas and CTA, i.e. START A BLOG IN 2021. Click here for details.
- Use cursive fonts sparingly and for secondary ideas, like how I used a different font for the word ‘with’ in my pin for this post.
- Make sure that CTA’s have an obvious benefit to the reader (FREE! Click here! 15 minute call etc)
- Do not let images take over the pin unless the image is the main idea.
- Be sure to add your website URL to the pin or use your logo.
When to pin
Well, according to the latest updates Pinterest is looking for fresh pins daily. Fresh pins means that the pin image is new even if it points to an old blog post URL.
If you use Canva or PicMonkey, you can easily make one new pin and then change the image and font to make multiple versions.
Time of day no longer seems to matter, however consistency does.
What I have noticed is that if I pin a new pin first thing and add that pin to several related pins during that same day, Pinterest gives me more traffic.
I believe that pinning to a few related boards helps Pinterest properly classify the pin and then show it to people searching for those terms.
Uploading just one pin daily will help improve your traffic.
This is made easy by using the Pinterest native scheduling tool.
Just choose “CREATE” from the menu in the upper left of your Pinterest profile page and choose CREATE PIN.
- Drag the pin image into the editing box
- Choose which board the pin should go to (the most relevant board first)
- Create a well keyworded title, using SEO and a Call To Action
- Use a keyword-rich description, with or without hashtags.
- Add the URL that the pin should point to (your blog post, TikTok, YouTube video etc)
- Pick a day and time for the pin to be uploaded from Pinterest
I upload 14 pins at a time and set them to go out at the same time every day. Then I go in and manually re-pin the pin into other relevant boards.
I know what time to do this based on my Tailwind analytics for when my people are online and pinning.
The scheduling tool allows you to schedule 30 pins at a time, up to 14 days in advance:
- Schedule one pin or multiple pins to go out at different times, up to 30. There is a drop down menu to choose time increments.
- Add 14 different pins to the tool and set it so that the pin goes out every day for 14 days. Use the drop down menu to choose the day(s).
Your call.
Because I am also using Tailwind (a pin scheduling app), I have access to their analytics which tell me best times for my pins to go out.
I suggest getting the free one month trial (use my TAILWIND link for that) and joining 5 “Communities” to help spread your pins around.
You send your pin to the community group page and other people can then re-pin it. This gives your pins more reach and can help you establish an audience faster.
The free account will allow you to access analytics to see when the best times to pin are, based on your audience.
Create Well-Named Boards for Your Pins
For example, if you have a recipe site you might have boards called: breakfasts, lunches, dinners, snacks, desserts, soups etc.
You want the board title to be descriptive enough that visitors to your profile can find what they are looking for.
Try to create at least 10 boards
Plus your Best Of board, which is where you pin only your own pins. This is a bonus for people coming to your profile to see what you are up to.
They can then see all of your pins in one spot.
When you are first starting out you will not have many pins for each of the boards, so use the search function in Pinterest to find other profiles in the same niche as your website.
Look for pins that you can save into your new boards.
This is also a great way to see how other people name their boards.
Ideally, you can just search your niche and click enter and Pinterest will give you the top search results.
You can also use keywords for your board names.
Look at my boards (and feel free to follow me while you are there…thank you!) to see how I did it.
Over time you will likely re-name some boards or merge them with others. Ideally, you want to be able to re-pin each pin you create into at least 3 to 5 other boards.
Group Boards
When I first started, group boards were all the rage. Now Pinterest could care less about them.
If you want the benefit of having other people pin your pins onto their boards (for potential sharing), then you can join Tailwind Communities.
If you use my Tailwind link, you will get a free month of Tailwind and this is enough time to find 5 Communities to join and get a feel for the analytics.
Communities are similar to group boards, but easier to get success with.
Group boards used to be full of people pinning random stuff, which throws off the Pinterest feed algorithm.
Tailwind communities have many niche-specific groups, making it easier for your pins to be seen by people who are looking for that topic.
I have applied to group boards and never heard back from them. And it is getting harder, in my opinion.
But they are not necessary to Pinterest success, especially if you use the free Tailwind communities.
Related: All my Pinterest Blog Posts on one page
Conclusion
Improving and streamlining pin creation will help you the most.
I can also recommend getting pin templates but try to be discerning about it.. Carly Campbell’s pin template subscription has been quite helpful to me.
Click my link to get 10 FREE templates (7 for Canva and 3 for PicMonkey plus 2 training videos – one for each platform. And a pin checklist!)
I was hesitant to join a subscription plan, but it really makes life much easier when you don’t have to think about the how. Just switch out your words and photos and you’re done.
One of the subscription templates has been steadily viral for me since the end of summer 2020.
I tried many free pin templates, but for the longest time the templates were just templates and were not created with Pinterest SEO in mind.
Carly’s is a Pinterest geek and she uses the Pinterest best practices to create pins that help readers understand what the pin is about.
Be sure to share this post with anyone that you think may benefit from it. Sharing is caring!
Until next time, happy blogging and follow me on Pinterest
-Irma
