Pinterest for Bloggers | Tips for Driving More Traffic to Your Blog with Pinterest
Pinterest is a content sharing and bookmarking site that can deliver an enormous amount of traffic to your blog or website. It is a visual search engine where people come to get ideas and inspiration. On Pinterest, people can share, search, and save content that they find interesting and inspiring.
There is a common misconception that Pinterest is for women. While there are many women, especially mothers on this platform, Pinterest is not just for women. Pinterest is for everyone; anyone who has something to share with the world and anyone looking for ideas, inspiration, great content, and more.
This platform is very useful, and it has contributed to the growth of many businesses over the years. It has helped to increase the exposure of many businesses and brands, thereby helping to increase their conversation rates. Business owners use this platform to drive traffic to their websites and to showcase their products and services. Pinterest has a gigantic user base, and many businesses and brands are using this to their advantage.
Pinterest has so many users because it is very popular. While Pinterest has refused to call itself a social network, many people technically consider it as one. However, the content on this platform serves a slightly different purpose than many other social media platforms out there. It also works more like a search engine, thanks to its powerful algorithm. People use this platform to search for many things, and Pinterest has different criteria for showing search results.
To take advantage of this platform and use it to drive more traffic to your blog, you need to know how the system works. Pinterest has been the number one traffic source for many bloggers over the years, and we will show you how they achieved that in this guide.
Here are some simple steps on how to drive more traffic to your website with Pinterest:
Pinterest for Bloggers: How to Use Pinterest to Drive More Traffic to Your Blog
Pinterest is a very useful platform, but if you do not know how to take advantage of it, you will not enjoy the benefits it offers. Nothing on this platform happens by chance; you have to be deliberate about driving traffic to your blog, and here’s how you can do that:
#1: Create a Pinterest for Business Account
The very first step to leveraging Pinterest is to create a Pinterest for Business account. If you want to enjoy all the benefits of this platform and use all its advanced features to drive traffic to your blog, you need to get a Pinterest business account. This account is also mandatory for anyone that wants to use the platform to promote a business or brand.
If you do not have a Pinterest account, you can create a brand new Pinterest for Business account. However, if you have an existing account (mostly a personal account), you can convert it to a business account. If you have an existing account, it would give you some advantage, as you might already have some followers. This means your pins will get more views immediately after you start posting even before you start hunting for followers.
Nevertheless, if you use the account for personal use only, most of your followers might not be interest in your blog pings. If that is the case, you might want to consider cleaning up your account before converting it or you can go ahead to create a new account.
To create a brand new Pinterest for Business account, log out of your personal Pinterest account and go to pinterest.com/business/create/.
Enter your email address, the password you want to use, and click “Create Account.”
If you have an existing personal account that you want to convert, log into the account, and then go to pinterest.com/business/convert/. Fill out the business name, enter the link to your blog, select your business type, and click save.
After creating your account, the next thing you need to do is to claim your website. To do this, click on the three dots (…) at the top-right corner of the page while you are logged in. When you click on it, select Settings, and click on “Claim,” the following window will pop up.
In the above window, you need to enter the link to your blog. Make sure the link is correct; you should copy and paste it rather than typing it to avoid mistakes. After entering the site, click on “Claim.”
After claiming your website, you need to complete your profile. In this section, you would need to provide an image, enter your display name, username, location and bio.
- Your Image: The image of your profile is a big deal, and you need to pay attention to it. The best practice for this section is to use the same image you used on your blog and other social media platforms. This will help to make your profile easy to recognize. For instance, if you used your logo as the display picture on your accounts on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and more, then you should use that same image as your Pinterest display picture.
- Display Name: Your display name will appear at the top of your profile, and it is one of the first things people will see when they come to your website. Your display name should be the name of your blog. However, if your name is a stronger brand than your blog’s name, then you should use your name. The goal is to make sure people recognize what you are trying to promote with ease. Hence, it is recommended you use your blog name, except your blog name is the same as your name.
- Username: Your username will be attached to the URL of your profile. For instance, if the name of your blog is asknickfoy.com, then your Pinterest URL will be pinterest.com/asknickfoy. When choosing a username, you should focus on making it simple, easy to remember, search, and guess – this will make it easy for people to find you on Pinterest.
- Bio: The bio is the right place for you to market yourself. It gives you the opportunity to tell people what your blog is about, who it is for, your aim of being on the platform, and more. You can add some keywords to your bio; the keywords should be things you do or what your platform is about.
- Location: You would also need to fill in your location. Pinterest is not asking for your specific address here. If you are in the UK or US, you can just fill that in.
#2: Create and Name Your Board
To create a board, click on your display name and choose boards. Click on create board, name your board, and click “create.” When naming your board, you should not forget the rule of consistency. You should name your board after your blog, as this would help with organization and SEO. It would make it easy for search engines and readers to find your blog on Pinterest.
This would be your first board and it should be your blog board. You should only use this board for pins from your blog and it should be the first board people would see when they visit your profile. After creating the board, you will see a prompt to choose some pins for the board – ignore the prompt, as you want to pin on the board from your blog directly.
After creating your first board, you can go ahead and create more boards. You can create more boards for different topics you cover in your blog. When creating these boards, you should be adding keywords to them, as Pinterest works more like a search engine.
#3: Create Some Pins
This is the point where you can start using this platform to promote your blog. To get started, you need to creates some pins. You can use any design app that you like to make pins. Canva is one of the best free tools you can use.
You should create a minimum of one pin for all the posts on your blog. This means you have some job to do; creating pins for all the existing posts on your blog. After doing that, you can create a new pin whenever you make a new blog post. Some of the things you should have in mind when making your pins include:
- Size: Pinterest recommends you use an aspect ratio of 2:3 (width to height) when creating pins.
- Pictures: You should create visually appealing pins with photos that are relevant to the post you are promoting. You also want to make sure the picture is of high quality and resolution.
- Branding: You should consistent fonts, color palette, and more to build your brand and make your pins recognizable.
#4: Focus on Your Copy Descriptions
There is a description below every pin that tells the reader what the pin is about. You need to pay close attention to your copy descriptions, as they will likely get more followers and increase traffic to your blog. For bloggers, your copy description should be the title of your blog and a little description.
However, you have to do more than that if you want to maximize the potential of your pins. If you want more engagement, you should make your pins helpful, well-detailed, interesting, and actionable. You should not forget to add SEO-friendly keywords in your descriptions, as this will help to promote and market your content. Your descriptions should be highly attractive to make it irresistible for people to click on your pins.
#5: Search Engine Optimization
You need to check search engine optimization from your end. To have a better chance of making a first-page appearance on search engines, you need to make sure search engines can find your account. To do this, make sure you enable “public search” on your account (you can do this in the search privacy settings).
Next, you should try to remain consistent with the titles of your blog posts, pins, and boards. Search engines such as Google will better understand your profile when you keep things consistent. Your Pinterest SEO strategy should include the use of keywords in strategic places. You should use as many relevant, important keywords as possible in your bio, boards, descriptions, and more. If your blog is optimized for SEO, you can use some of the information on your blog as keywords on your Pinterest account. Having a better understanding of the Pinterest algorithm will also help you to optimize your profile, pins, and boards better.
#6: Your Blogs Should Be Pinnable
If you want to drive more traffic to your blog with Pinterest, you should make your blogs pinnable. With this feature, your readers can pin blog posts from your website. When visitors are scrolling your site, they can pin content that they like to their Pinterest account to make it easy for them to access later. When more people pin your content to their boards, your posts will get more views, and this will drive more traffic to your Pinterest profile and your blog.
You can make your blog pinnable by going to the Widget Builder section. Next, choose the button you want to add to your website, enter the link to your website, upload the picture, and then add it to the code of your site.
#7: Follow and Interact with Others
Following and interacting with others on the platform is another way of establishing your presence and driving more traffic to your profile. You should follow other bloggers in your niche, especially new bloggers. You should interact with other content creators as well as your followers.
Conclusion
Pinterest provides a wide range of opportunities for everyone. Everyone benefits from this platform, both the viewers and the content creators.
While people come to the platform to get ideas and inspiration, others are providing relevant content to drive traffic to their websites and blogs.
If you are a blogger, Pinterest is one of the best tools that you can use to boost your site’s traffic.
All you need to do is to create your business account, add the link to your blog, complete and optimize your profile, create boards, and start pining relevant content. You would be amazed at the number of new users that will flood your blog.