Is Pinterest part of your digital marketing strategy?
With the dominance of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter in the social networking space, Pinterest is often overlooked as an excellent marketing network for bloggers, entrepreneurs and startups.
Truth be told, Pinterest can be an incredibly powerful tool to build your brand presence and drive traffic to your blog/website.
93% of Pinterest users are using it to search for product information. 87% of all Pinners have purchased a product that they saw on the platform.
What’s more interesting? 50% of US millennials are on Pinterest. And half of them have an annual income exceeding $75,000.
Related Reading: Pinterest for Business: Step-By-Step Guide to Getting Started on Pinterest
Without further ado, let’s take a look at top 10 best strategies to help you drive more traffic to your website/blog with Pinterest:
1. Optimize your Pinterest account for SEO
Why should you optimize your profile for Pinterest search?
Well, Pinterest is a unique cross between a social network and search engine.
Just like Google, you’ll want to optimize your keywords to have your content show up in the search.
Pinterest uses an ever-changing algorithm, also known as Smart Feed to display relevant pins to its searchers.
No matter what niches you are in, there are thousands of people searching for what you’ve to offer. What you’ll need to do is get your pins in front of them.
If you’re new to Pinterest, this is the best way to increase your visibility and get massive traffic to your website.
Firstly, you’ll need to do keyword research. Find out what keywords are searched by your target audience on Pinterest.
When people search for a certain topic or keyword, profiles and boards will also show in the search results.
That’s why you’ll need to optimize your Pinterest account by including these keywords on your profile name and description, board titles and descriptions & pins too!
2. Optimize Pin Description for SEO
Did you know that most of the time Pinterest users will see your individual pins instead of your profile?
Make sure that you have great pins, which provide helpful information and encourage users to engage with the pin (repin, comment or click)
When you save new pins from your website or repining pins on Pinterest, don’t forget to edit the description and add at least one keyword to increase your pins discoverability on Pinterest.
3. Optimize Pin Description Lengths
Apart from adding SEO-friendly keywords in your pin description, try to keep your pin description between 100 – 200 characters.
According to Dan Zarella, data show that pins with descriptions of 100-200 characters have the most consistent results of getting more repins.
4. Add your website to your pin description
The most amazing aspect of Pinterest descriptions is that website links are clickable on both the desktop version and mobile apps.
By adding your website to your pin description, users can click on your pin and it will direct them to your website instantly. This is a great way to drive huge traffic to your website.
Note: Always add links that are directly linked to the source. Avoid using redirect links and URL shortener link like bit.ly (Pinterest may block the links)
5. Use rich pins
Rich pin, the enhanced version of a regular pin has a description that gives extra information about your pin.
If you’re serious about using Pinterest for your business, you’ll need to set up Pinterest rich pins. Currently, there are 4 types of pins that allow you to provide more contexts about pinned images: product, recipe, article and app.
As a blogger, you’ll want to add rich pins for several important reasons:
- Each of your article post will show a headline, author and description. If you use relevant keywords in your pins strategically, it’ll help you rank in Pinterest search.
- Pinterest favors pins with a fully verified and confirmed website. It’ll certainly help increase your pins engagement, reach and thus drive more traffic to your site.
Read our article on getting rich pins for more help.
6. Create Pinnable Images
Pinterest is a visual search engine, so you’ll want to create great images that capture viewers’ attention and compel them to engage with your pins.
A good pinnable image should be a vertical, impactful and eye-catching picture with a wide of 735pixels and at least twice as long.
There are many great design tools that you can use to create attractive images: Canva, Pic Monkey, Pic Lab, Be Funky and Pixelmator.
Canva is my favorite designing tool. I use Canva to create my Pinterest and Instagram posts, and my book covers too! Plus, it’s FREE to use. You can use it on your phone or computer.
How to make a great pin:
- Use high-quality images
- Go for taller pins – Taller pins are more likely to get repins. This is because taller pins are easier to read and provide more “content” than shorter images.
- Minimize the amount of text on image– Use bright and large fonts to highlight your keywords on your pins, but don’t overcrowd your images with text.
7. Join Pinterest Group Board
By far, this is the FASTEST way to grow your brand presence and audience on Pinterest.
Pinterest group boards are my secret weapon.
You’ll be able to get your pins in front of thousands and make your pins go viral, getting you hundreds of visitors to your blog every day (with little or zero follower).
This is because a whole new audience will see your pins (group members and followers of the board)
In order to leverage the power Pinterest Group board, you’ll need to have a strategy:
- Pin daily: Be active in the group by pinning your own pins
- Repin other members’ content
- Pin content with a high repin rate to your own boards
- The more you can pin the better. But you don’t want to spam the board with all your content, so it’d smart to spread out your pins throughout the day.
- Each group has its own rules, make sure you follow the group board rules
So how can you find group boards that are related to your niche to join on Pinterest?
- Join a Tailwind tribe
Tailwind Tribes functions like a group board where you can share your content and get repins from other members of the tribes.
It’s open for anyone to join a Tailwind Tribe, even if you aren’t using Tailwind. If you want to grow your traffic and reach more people, sign up to Tailwind for free and start scheduling your pins!
- Spy on other accounts
This is my quick and dirty way to find group boards and have a crazy growth on Pinterest. Search for influencers or popular accounts in your niche, visit their Pinterest accounts and see what group boards they are in.
How to identify which boards are group boards? If you see a profile picture split in three, that’s a group board.
8. Add a “Pin It Button” on Your Blog
Don’t forget to add a “Pin It” button on your blog. It allows visitors to pin your content directly from your blog to Pinterest with just a click! This will help to expand your brand presence on Pinterest and ultimately bringing more customers to your blog.
Social Media Warfare is the best sharing plugin for this purpose. You can get it for FREE!
If you have the option to upgrade to the paid version ($29/month), which offers more powerful sharing features.
We love using this plugin because it helps us get more social media share without slowing down the page loading time.
This how the social media plugin looks like:
Click here to get your FREE Social Media Warfare plugin.
9. Pin like a Pro
To maximize your Pinterest marketing effort, you’ll need to pin daily and be active on Pinterest throughout the day. This is a quite time-consuming task.
Fortunately, Pinterest scheduler like Tailwind can help you with this daily pinning chore. Plus, you can use the Tailwind analytics and other features to help you pin at the right time and identify the best-performing pins and boards.
It will save you loads of time and get the best results by automating the whole process.
Here’s my gift to you >>> sign up here to get a FREE 100 scheduled pins with Tailwind.
10. Use a “Pinterest for business” account for analytics
Pinterest analytics helps you understand your audience better and provides valuable insights to refine your Pinterest strategy.
This awesome analytics feature is only available for Pinterest Business account. You can either convert your existing personal account to business account or set up a new Pinterest account for Business.
Over to You!
How has Pinterest marketing grown your business? Do you have tips we failed to mention? Feel free to share with us in the comment box below
And lastly, if you liked this post, don’t forget to Pin this!
I live and breath making an income online.
I’ll be sharing more of ideas and guides soon. Stay tuned.
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