Boosting Your Blog Traffic Using Pinterest

Are You Using Pinterest?

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As a blogger it is important to market yourself on social media to help build your following.  Having a Facebook page or an Instagram account is important, but if Pinterest is not yet on your list of social media campaigns, you would be missing out, my friends. 

For those who have never heard of Pinterest before, it is a “Visual bookmarking tool that helps you discover and save creative ideas.”  Now, that may not sound very impressive, but trust me, Pinterest is BIG. 

Now in its seventh year of business, Pinterest has over 200 million active users and over one million businesses currently using this social media platform.  Its popularity is growing and a poll conducted by Business Insider found that 55% on US online shoppers chose Pinterest as their favorite social media platform (compared to Facebook and Instagram’s 12% each). 

With those kinds of stats in mind, it would be in your best interest to add Pinterest to your bag of social media tricks, as it can really help drive traffic to your blog.  If you are interested in increasing your ad revenue, having more people signing up for your email subscriptions, and expanding the overall size of your audience through increased site traffic, Pinterest is the way to go.

Create a Pinterest Business Page

Before doing anything with Pinterest, you first need to create a Pinterest business account.  There are several advantages to having a business account rather than a personal account.  One advantage is that you can use your business name as your account name rather than your first and last name.  If you have been working hard to market your blog name this will make it easier for your readers to search for your Pinterest account, rather than having to remember your personal name as well. 

Another great feature of the business account is Pinterest analytics.  This tool allows you to look at how your pins are doing (both the pins you have created and the ones pinned from other sources), to see what is resonating with your audience and what isn’t.  This information can help you adjust your marketing strategy, so you stay relevant with your audience.  For example, if the analytics show that most of your site visits are coming from mobile devices, you can make sure that your blog website is optimized for mobile viewership.     

While there are advantages to a business account, you should be mindful of the Terms and Conditions as business accounts are subject to different terms than personal accounts.  For example, one of these differences revolves around contests.  You are not permitted to hold contests too often and you are not allowed to make people pin and repin posts to be entered to win.  So, it is important that you read the terms and conditions to make sure you are staying on the good side of Pinterest. 

Create Boards

Think of your Pinterest account as an empty room with lots of wall space.  On those walls, you can put up an infinite number of bulletin boards, each one organized by a specific topic.  Pinterest boards are the virtual versions of the bulletin boards in your room.  You can now search both Pinterest and the internet for interesting content in which you can “Pin” to the appropriate board.

Start your Pinterest account off with a couple of boards.  In having only a few boards at the beginning, you are able to keep everything well organized for your reader.  As your account grows, you are then free to add as many boards as you like, keeping your reader and searchability in mind. 

In creating your work boards, it is important to title the board the same as your blog title.  This will increase the chances of your board coming up during a search.  Remember, there is a lot of content out there, so you want to make it as easy as possible for people to find your work.   

As we have mentioned in other articles, it is important to find your niche as a blogger and to start building your reputation as the go-to expert on a subject.  To be that expert, you not only need to know about your specific topic, but what’s going on in other areas that can have an impact on your topic.  This translates into the Pinterest board concept.  You will need to have boards dedicated to your work, but you also want to have boards on related subjects, so you can become the go-to resource for your reader. 

Adding content to Pinterest

Now that you have a place to store your content, you need to start creating pins for your posts.  Keep in mind basic SEO when creating pins for best results.  To do this, start by doing some keyword research (such as Google Keyword Planner) to come up with the most popular keywords related to your business.   Once you have a list of relevant keywords, use them to help you write your Blog/Pin title and Pin description.   In writing your description, try to keep it to approximately 200 characters, as descriptions of this length are the most likely to be repined. 

Make is Visual

In creating your pins, keep in mind that imagery and Pinterest go hand in hand.  In a sea of content, a good image will catch a reader’s attention and entice them to click on the link.  Choosing great images that enhance the theme of your post and invoke an emotion from you reader will increase the click-ability of your pin.

A great tool for creating your own visuals is Canva.  While you can pay for the full version, the free version has so many great templates that you can get by on just that.  When you are designing your pin, keep in mind that it is best to use high resolution photos whenever you can.  Also, a study of Pinterest activity found that lighter pins were 20 times more likely to be repined than darker images, so try to also incorporate that into your designs.

Increase your following

Now that you have great Pinterest boards filled with great content, you need to make sure people see it.  The key is to pin consistently.  Whether you are adding more original content or are pinning from other sources, make sure you are pinning high quality content with links that work.  The more you pin, the more views your Pinterest account will receive, which means a greater potential for those readers to click over to your blog.  If you are not ready to commit time each day to pin articles to your account, there are a number of programs available that will allow you to schedule when you pin which will free up your time and make life easier.

Another way to increase your following is to add a “Pin It” button to your blog, which can be set up through Pinterest.  If someone reads your blog and wants to bookmark it to read again later, they can “Pin It” to their Pinterest account.  In doing this, anyone that follows that reader’s Pinterest account can receive a notification that a new item was pinned.  As the followers already have some trust built up with the reader, they may read this new pin, thereby increasing the number of people reading your posts.       

If you aren’t on Pinterest, you should be! 

Pinterest is a great social media tool that, when used correctly, can help boost the overall site traffic your website receives.  Happy pinning!

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