Pinterest. As a blogger, you either love it or have no idea how to use it! When I started this blogging journey, I kept hearing how much traffic could be brought in by utilizing Pinterest. So I started making pins for my blog posts (old and new). However, I still wasn’t seeing any traffic from Pinterest. In November, I started doing some research and I am pleased to say that I now have anywhere from 20-50 views a day from Pinterest! That might not sound like much, but considering just 2 months ago that number was 0, it is pretty exciting news for me! My Pinterest secrets revealed:

Don’t just show people your hiking boots, show them what they can do with your hiking boots.” -Pinterest Marketing Team

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Pinterest Secrets Revealed

Before we get started on the steps, I want to introduce you to some basic Pinterest terms:

Pin

An idea on Pinterest that is comprised of an image, a description, and a link back to the image’s source online.

Pinnable

Content that is worth saving to Pinterest, sometimes pinnable is subjective.

Save

The act of creating a Pin, this is referenced when content is saved directly from a website URL or from inside Pinterest on an existing Pin.

Repin

A pin that is created from existing Pinterest content.

Boards

The places Pins are saved. Boards are a group or cluster of related Pins.

Group Boards

Boards where multiple people are contributors.

Create A Pinterest Business Account

3 Main Reasons:

1. You get access to analytics and Pin stats.
2. Allows you access to ads (promoted pins.)
3. You can claim your website.

If you already have a personal account you can switch to a business account and not lose any of your pins or followers. However, if you do decide to switch your personal account to a business account be aware that you will probably have to spend a fairly large amount of time on cleaning/organizing it. I know that I spent a large amount of time deleting some boards that didn’t go with my niche (or setting them to private), creating sections in each board to make it more organized and easier for my followers to find specific content, and merging some boards with other boards if they didn’t have a large number of pins. For example, I have a Holiday board with sections for each holiday, instead of having a board for each holiday.

Claim Your Website

Benefits:

1. Pinterest recommends claimed sites to relevant audiences.
2. The algorithm prioritizes your Pins.
3. Claimed business accounts attach your user profile to all of the Pins saved from your website.

Click here for step by step directions on how to claim your website from Pinterest.com.

Start Creating Boards

Stick to creating boards that go along with your niche. Don’t worry about needing/wanting to have a ton of boards to start with. Instead start with a few good, core niche boards and then you can build from there.

Design Pin Images for Your Blog Posts

Pinterest images should be:

1. Vertical
2. Helpful
3. Attractive
4. Contain text
5. 800 X 1200 pixels (what works best for me)

My Mom Bloggers on Pinterest Facebook Group has an acronym for pins.

HALT: H(elpful) A(ttractive) L(ong) T(ext)

Canva is a great tool! Canva allows you to design anything and publish straight from their site. It comes with thousands of templates that can be customized to fit your needs and personal style. It is great for Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook images for posting. Creating a Canva account is free and there’s no need to pay for its essential features. The free option still allows you to make beautiful designs and publish them. Canva has apps available on iPhones, Ipads, and Androids. It is my go-to for creating pins.

Start Pinning Your Blog Content to Pinterest

You have three options:

1. Add your Pinterest image to your blog post, and then save it to Pinterest from there with the Pinterest browser button.
2. Create your pin on Pinterest by uploading your picture.
3. Schedule your pins.

Tailwind is another great tool that I recommend, especially if you want to up your Pinterest game (Instagram too). Tailwind allows you to schedule multiple posts for Pinterest and Instagram, months in advance. You can even set it up to pin to multiple boards. Tailwind allows you to track activity and trends and offers analytics to help you monitor your Instagram and Pinterest followers, brand mentions, likes, repins, boards, etc… Tailwind does offer a free trial and then it is $15.00 a month for the Plus Plan.

I know that some people are really on a tight budget, which I completely understand, but I can say that I have noticed an increase in my monthly viewers and blog traffic from Pinterest and Instagram. I went from 2 monthly viewers to 131,000 viewers in a little over 2 months. Now I am not going to blindly give all that credit to Tailwind because I re-worked all my pins and worked really hard on the pin descriptions. However, Tailwind is a great asset for me.

Here is a link if you are interested in signing up for Tailwind or trying it out for free yourself.

Join or Create Your Own Group Boards

This helps you to make connections, grow your followers, and increase your repin numbers.

Create A “Best of ” Board

This gives people a quick glance at everything you are about. I would place this board at the top. This is extremely important for bloggers to have.

Keyword-rich Board titles And Board Descriptions

Keywords should be everywhere. Place keywords in your pin description, board title, and board descriptions. This allows for better searching. Make sure you include your website in your profile.

Take Advantages Of The Seasons

Seasonal content is huge on Pinterest. Things like recipes, DIY projects, decor, and gift ideas for each holiday or season is a must. Move your seasonal boards to the top of your profile as the season approaches and move it back to the bottom when the season is over. More relevant content should be at the top.

To be honest with you, this really is only scratching the surface of Pinterest, but I am still learning as I go. This is a great place to start and I can vouch that it works. These are the steps that jump-started my traffic views from Pinterest. Do you have any Pinterest tips or secrets? I would love to hear about them in the comments.

**These are my personal results, but Tailwind also publishes the Typical Results of Tailwind for Pinterest/Instagram Members every year, so you can see exactly what the average growth rate looks like for their members.

Click here for the results.

“But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” -Isaiah 40:31