What’s your number one source of website traffic?
Is it Facebook, Twitter, or Organic SEO traffic? The results depend on your marketing tactics and the efforts you put into promoting your own blog.
Today, I’m going to unfold my number one traffic source, and that’s PINTEREST. Yes, it gets a maximum amount of page views to my blog. Now, the next question that might baffle your mind is how do I get traffic from Pinterest to my blog?
Well, I’m here to answer and help you out. In this post, I’m going to talk about how I use Pinterest to drive traffic to my blog. This is gold advice if you are new to Pinterest or planning to use Pinterest for your business.
Important side note on using Pinterest for your blog:
Getting followers and massive Pinterest traffic isn’t an easy process. It does take time and the consistent efforts you put to improve your Pinterest profile.
My Pinterest account has more than 2,000 followers. I get more than 2 million impressions on average. The best thing is that my pins went viral within a few months. I have got a pin that got repinned over 10k times. That’s huge.
But, there are outstanding Pinterest experts that are doing exceptionally well. I’m still learning how to grow.
Here are the 9 Pinterest tips that I used to increase traffic to my blog:
1. I Followed the 80/20 Rule for Pinning
I’m not a person who uses self-promotional techniques all the time. I think that’s annoying. Agree with me, right?
Here’s my tip: don’t feel afraid to share the creative content of others. Spread the love. Make your account a valuable source of information and ideas for your readers. Keeping this in mind, I follow the 80/20 rule of pinning. It means 80% of the content is from other accounts whereas 20% of the content is from my blog.
The idea is to help users with the content they need. You shouldn’t spam your followers with your own pins every time.
2. I Joined Relevant Pinterest Group Boards
Pinterest boards are used to exhibit the whole collection of pins. These boards are created to compile all of the ideas you like to save for yourself or your followers.
If you look at my Pinterest profile, you will see boards for different categories. I have separate boards for blogging tips, freelancing, social media, Facebook tactics, Pinterest, etc. You can create boards of your own choice and add pins to them. People will follow your board and the pins you add.
Pinterest group boards can actually help to share your content with a new audience. I joined several quality group boards that are owned by top bloggers. Their audience reach can help me get more repins and clicks on my pin. That’s how it works.
Choose group boards that are active and have at least 1k followers. Do read the rules and follow them. Make sure you share content with others more than you share your own.
Extra tip: Try pitching the request to new or lesser popular groups that are willing to accept new contributors.
3. I Followed Other Bloggers in the Niche
Most bloggers make the silly mistake of not following other creatives in their own niche. My friend, that’s important and profitable for your own blog.
I always try to follow entrepreneurs and bloggers in my niche. The reason I do this is that I love to learn from them. Their ideas and creativity are mind-blowing. By following others, I also get to see more content that I can repin to my followers.
4. I Filled Up My Pinterest Bio
I noticed some great results when I completed my Pinterest profile. I verified my website. I wrote a simple, yet impressive bio on my profile. Try to make it short and clear. Do not be messy with the words.
When writing your bio, show your interests along with the expertise. It should represent your personality or the brand you run.
5. I Designed Beautiful Tall Pins
Okay, people, I’m no graphic designer by profession or someone who’s good at creating gorgeous images. But, the fact is, Pinterest is all about the visual representation of content.
When people visit Pinterest, they don’t see how awesome your content is or how experienced you are. The first thing they see is an image from your blog.
To attract users to click or repin the image, you have to design beautiful pins. I struggled with this for a long time and experimented with different online tools. And, the winner is Canva. That’s my favorite blogging tool. I have spent hours on Canva to design the perfect pins for my blog posts. That’s one enjoyable blogging activity.
Few things to remember:
- Create vertical pins (no horizontal)
- The standard pin size is 735 x 1102.
- Pick bright colors
Don’t make yourself limited to one design. Create eye-catchy pins with different colors, bold fonts, and other elements. You can always play around with captivating designs and see which pin performs better.
6. I Added Pin Descriptions
People are busy. They don’t have time to check every pin to see what it offers. You can’t expect users to click every pin you create unless you make it super helpful, well-explained, new, and of course, appealing.
I always write helpful descriptions for my pins. I make it clear to my users, so they know exactly what information they get when they click this pin.
When writing a pin description, think about how your pin can solve their query. Write something catchy and interesting, so the users get attracted to click the image and visit your blog.
7. I Started My Collaborative Pinterest Board
I started gaining more followers on Pinterest when I created my own group boards. It’s an excellent idea to represent yourself as a leader and invite others to be contributors.
This one trick helped me gain new followers that joined my boards and became contributors. As the number of followers increased, I also noticed a rapid increase in my blog traffic.
8. I Pinned Consistently
This step is super important if you want to grow your Pinterest account rapidly.
Your consistency can impact your overall ranking on Pinterest.
So, I decided to pin consistently. Yes, I’m talking about pinning 50 pins a day or more if you expect to see some significant results. It takes time but definitely worth doing. I personally do direct pinning but you can also tool like ContentStudio to schedule pins for every day. Read the ContentStudio review for more details.
9. I Implemented SEO
Yes, you can’t ignore the importance of Pinterest SEO. Whether it’s about writing the profile bio or pin descriptions; always consider the aspects of SEO. Pinterest works as a search engine platform for images, anyway. The users type in their problems or topics to find pins on Pinterest.
What did I do to improve my Pinterest SEO?
I did three things:
- I made my profile bio keyword optimized.
- I added keywords efficiently in my pin descriptions.
- I used keywords in the alt text of the images.
The whole idea is to make Pinterest profile SEO-friendly. But, don’t insert keywords everywhere.
So, that was a long Pinterest guide. Was it helpful?
I shared the exact tips that I follow to drive traffic from Pinterest to my blog. You can do that too!
Do you have some other tips that you’d like to share?
Write in the comments below.
About the Author
Arfa is a passionate blogger who helps other aspiring bloggers grow and expand their online businesses. She knows how to attract readers to her blog through impressive content. Download her free ebook on strategic planning to drive traffic and grow your blog. Other than blogging, she usually writes for freelance clients and businesses. You can also connect with her on LinkedIn, and Twitter for more blogging adventures.