Do you have Pinterest set up correctly on your blog so it is working hard to bring you more blog traffic?
I had no idea how to set up Pinterest when I decided it would be a good blog growth strategy.
In fact, I didn’t even consider Pinterest as one of my social media traffic strategies with my first 3 blogs!?
It seemed like a lot of work because of the image creation, and honestly, I just didn’t understand it.
Fast forward to my blog on RV life, and Pinterest was the first place I started with marketing my new blog.
What changed?
My years of experience in the blogging world pointed directly to Pinterest as a top traffic driver for bloggers.
My intuition and efforts quickly paid off as my monthly viewers climbed to over 1 million in just a few short months!
It was also a platform where I could easily find answers to my own questions (which I had never used in this way before.)
If you are a new blogger and have not started with Pinterest, I am giving you the exact step-by-step plan you need to set up Pinterest and build a solid foundation to get your Pinterest profile working hard for your blog traffic.
If you are a seasoned blogger but not getting the results you hoped for, go through each step and implement any key factors you are missing and you will soon see your Pinterest efforts paying off!
What does it mean when I’m told I need to optimize my Pinterest account?
When bloggers dive into Pinterest, the questions start to swirl around!
The more they read, the question about optimizing their Pinterest profile surfaces and it becomes one of the most common questions I get.
Having a Pinterest profile that is not optimized is the same as writing a blog post and not optimizing it with SEO for Google – in either case, your blog traffic efforts will be disappointing at the least.
Optimizing your Pinterest account starts with the importance of setting up a Pinterest business account, enabling rich pins, and strategically using key rich wording (without keyword stuffing) to write your profile, board descriptions and pin descriptions.
In the following step-by-step plan of how to set up Pinterest, be sure to follow the ‘side’ details for each step. When you are finished your Pinterest profile will be perfectly optimized and your blog traffic will start to grow from your Pinterest followers!
Once you know how to set up Pinterest correctly, you will be able to move forward with it and see results quickly!
If you have a personal Pinterest account, you can either keep it and create a business account for your blog, or you can transfer your personal account to a business account.
The business account will give you free access to analytics and additional marketing tools to help you grow your blog that you don’t get with a personal account.
3 steps to set up your Pinterest account
1 | Create your ‘Pinterest for Business’ account
- Go to Pinterest Business and in the top right hand corner click ‘Sign Up.’
- Create your account
- Your account name can be your personal name, business name, or blog name. Your email address should be your business email address.
- If you’re creating a business account that will run ads, Pinterest recommends you use your work email address and your real name instead of your business name. (source)
- Sign Up For Rich Pins And Validate Them (steps only work in WordPress)
- Go to PROFILE > EDIT SETTINGS > CLAIM
- Choose option ADD HTML FILE and copy the code shown within content = ” ” inside the meta tag.
- Download, install and activate the plugin Verify Ownership in your WordPress admin panel.
- Still in the WordPress admin panel, go to SETTINGS > VERIFY OWNERSHIP and paste the code you copied (from above)
- Return to Pinterest and hit submit (confirming you have added the code to your website.)
- After adding meta tags to your web pages (that is what you just did), go to the Rich Pins Validator and enter the URL into the validator at the bottom of the page and click VALIDATE
- Pinterest states they will get back to you within 24 hours with the approval; however, they are usually much faster than that!
Done!
2 | Set up your profile
- Choose Your Pinterest Name
- I recommend your first name or blog name with your tagline behind it or a simple description of what you do.
- Use keywords – make sure they make sense in the wording
- EXAMPLE – My Pinterest name looks like this:
Tawna | Start a Blog | Grow Your Blog | Make Money With Your Blog | Work From Anywhere
- Write Your Bio
- Pinterest actually calls this section “About your profile”
- This is your opportunity to brag on yourself! Take advantage of it and share how you can offer value to people.
- Be specific, clear, and no fluff. You only have a limited number of characters to work with. This number seems to change from time to time
- You may read blog posts that this number can be
bypassed on a mobile device. Pinterest has changed this so it no longer is an option – so make the words you use count!
You can see the image of my iPhone screen when I tried to use it to increase my character availability – and got the error message “Please enter no more than 65 characters.” (See my pro tip below for ideas on how to make your characters go farther!)
- You may read blog posts that this number can be
- Include key words (but do not keyword stuff) so your bio is searchable.
- A great start is “I teach ___ how to ___” or “I help ___ achieve ___”
- Add your website URL or a call to action. Don’t let this space get away without taking the opportunity!
- Add A Photo Or Image
- I recommend a professional headshot, or if you are not branding with your personal image, your blog logo.
- IMPORTANT: Be sure to use the same image on all social media profiles (Twitter, Facebook, etc.)
Before you actually sign up for your profile name, check to be sure it is available on the other social media platforms you are planning to use for your blog (even if you aren’t using them now but they will eventually be part of your growth strategy.)
To make the most of the space in your About and Bio with the character limit, use the ampersand and (&) instead of spelling it out (and), use a dash instead of a comma (…anywhere? Start…) to (…anywhere-start …), use the vertical bar ( | ) and delete the spaces typically added on either side of it.
If the URL you want to include is super long, shorten it with a bit.ly link.
3 | Create & set up your pin boards
- Open your Pinterest profile, go to ‘BOARDS’ and then click the big red plus sign on the left side that says ‘Create Board’
- Fill in the blank for the board name and mark the box for secret (until you get it populated), then hit the ‘CREATE’ tab in the bottom left of the screen popup
- After the board is created, click on it to open it up, then click on the pencil icon on the top left side of the board. This is where you will enter all your board details.
- The board title should indicate exactly the content that is contained in the pins on the board. Keep them short, on-topic, and keyword rich.
- The board description should describe the content of the pins on the board. Again, be concise and descriptive with meaningful keywords in the text.
- IMPORTANT: Do not use general words in your description that will ‘water it down.’
- For example, in this board description I use the phrase ‘engaging blog posts’ but if I used the phrase ‘great blog posts’ it would be better to leave out the word ‘great’ and just say ‘blog posts.’
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- ‘The word ‘great’ is very general and has numerous meanings. It is useless in a description and just creates unnecessary wordiness.
- Hit ‘SAVE’ in the bottom right and you’re done! ?
NOTE: You can create multiple boards with similar content. However, be sure to use a different title and description.
Example
I have multiple boards on blogging, such as “How To Start A Blog,” “Blogging Tips,” “Blog | Biz Tips”, etc. The board I just created as an example (and will actually add to my Pinterest boards) with the title ‘Blogging Tips For Beginners.’
Each of these boards has relevant information on the broad topic of starting a blog.
You can hone in on a topic as well. It will just take longer to populate the boards, and you will likely have fewer of your own pins on the board.
For example, if your website niche is Keto recipes, you could create a specific board ‘Chocolate Keto Smoothies’. You can see how this board will grow differently than your board titled ‘Keto Potluck Recipes’.
When you pin to boards that are similar in topic, use different pins so not all boards have the same pins.
When you start a new board, make it a secret board until there are at least 20 pins on it, then move it to be a viewable board.
Time Management Tip: Create a secret board to save pins you want to view later when you have time to click through to the post. Schedule a time for your own education and reading of others’ blogs, don’t start reading random posts when you are working or your time will dwindle away with little work accomplished!
4 | Start pinning
- Write Engaging Content On Your Blog
- Create 3 Different Images For Each Blog Post
- One should be your featured image, the other 2 can be added in the text or hidden
- Hidden images aren’t able to be seen in a blog post, but if a person uses the downloaded Pinterest button in their browser all the images will pop up for them to choose the one they want to pin
- If you choose to hide your additional images (this is what I do), use the Pinterest browser add-on to bring them up and follow the same directions to get them to Pinterest as you did for your featured image
- Read my post on how to optimize your blog posts and go through the checklist to be sure your post is ready to share
- One should be your featured image, the other 2 can be added in the text or hidden
- Pin The Featured Image From Your Blog Post To Your Most Popular Pinterest Board
- Use your Pinterest share button to complete this task
- As soon as you share your image, open up your Pinterest profile and go to the Pinterest board you shared it on
- Open the image (by clicking the pencil icon in the top left corner above the image) and enter your image title and description (a key-word rich description of the content of the blog post)
- End the description with relevant hashtags
Manual pinning vs scheduled pinning
If you have had your blog at least a couple of months, chances are you have heard of Tailwind App (aka Tailwind.) If you are active on Pinterest, you might even be tired of seeing pins about it in all the feeds!
There is a good reason bloggers get so ecstatic about Tailwind.
It simplifies their life while getting more traffic to their blog!
I would say this is a pretty important part of a blogging strategy because I never have enough time in my day to accomplish all the necessary tasks, AND I love getting quality traffic to my blog!
I have been a user of Tailwind since it first made its entrance into the blogging world.
However, I didn’t actively use Tailwind as part of my blog growth strategy until a couple of years ago when I started my RV life website.
What can Tailwind do that I cannot do in reference to Pinterest, growing my blog, and pinning in general (aka why do I need it)?
It is available all day and all night, creating a consistent pinning schedule to my Pinterest boards. This is something I cannot do when I pin manually (which I still do in addition to using Tailwind.)
Pinning consistently as opposed to sporadically is a top priority, as quoted by Pinterest, “Add new Pins over time rather than uploading a bunch at once. This helps you reach a wider audience.” (source)
Why Tailwind?
Answer the following questions to see if Tailwind is right for your pinning strategy.
- Are you serious about growing your blog?
- Is Pinterest a key part of your blog growth strategy?
- Do you have a set (and limited) amount of time to spend on Pinterest daily?
- Do you use analytics as part of your blog growth strategy?
- Is repinning your best performing pins part of your blog growth strategy (or you want it to be)?
- Do you use group boards as part of your blog growth strategy (or plan to?)
If you answered yes to any of these questions, Tailwind needs to be in your blog arsenal.
Did you know you can try Tailwind for FREE? (I love FREE!) What do you have to lose …. or gain? ?
Click the image below to learn more! You’re going to love it!
How does Tailwind fill the need for each of the questions?
- Pinterest is a platform that can skyrocket your blog growth?
- (Remember it has 300 million active users and rapidly growing!)
- You don’t have to change your life to pin at the right times each day to bring people to your blog (aka blog traffic and growth)! ?️
- Tailwind has an optimized pinning calendar that determines when your audience is most active on Pinterest and automatically publishes your pins at these times.
- Tailwind has a feature to let you pin to multiple boards at the same time so you don’t have to schedule pins one at a time… which is BORING AND TIME-CONSUMING!
- Tailwind’s drag-and-drop calendar not only provides an excellent visual, but it is simple for the blogger without technical skills!
This is a screenshot of the user interface from my account:
- Tailwind has a browser extension so you can schedule pins from any webpage as you browse the internet (WOE – huge time-saver)!
- Tailwind has a free mobile app so you can use it from anywhere and anytime (as long as you have your smartphone – and who leaves home without it! ?)
- AND THERE’S MORE!?
- You can schedule to your Instagram account with Tailwind! (WHAT?! It just keeps getting better!)
- Tailwind is an approved marketing partner of Pinterest – this is super impressive and vitally important. (source)
I personally use and recommend Tailwind! I want you to grow your blog traffic in leaps and bounds, which is the reason I recommend Tailwind!
You can start for FREE, give it a run around the block, and cancel before your payment is due if it doesn’t give you more time in your day … and do all the things I just shared!
Optimizing your images for Pinterest
THIS IS IMPORTANT!
Be cautious if you follow the directions of many bloggers that recommend using your image ALT tag to write a description for your Pinterest images.
This is not the purpose of the ALT tag and while it may be helpful for your Pinterest images, when you are ready to get serious about SEO on your blog posts for organic traffic all your image ALT tags will need to be redone. ?
As a new blogger, you may not be concerned with SEO on your blog posts and simply focusing on Pinterest for blog traffic.
However, if you are serious about treating your blog like a business and growing it to monetization, save the time now by doing this correctly so you don’t have to redo it later.
So what is the ALT tag (ALT description) supposed to be used for and why will it hurt my organic traffic if I use it for my content description for my Pinterest image?
Pinterest traffic is awesome, but organic traffic is the best for 1 super important reason – greater return on investment (ROI).
- When a visitor gets to your blog from an organic internet search they are looking for specifically what you are offering because they were searching for something specific when they were directed to your website.
Total ROI from organic blog traffic vs social media blog traffic (source)
Image ALT text is the written text that appears in place of an image on a webpage if the image fails to load on a user’s screen.
The purpose of this description (the ALT text) is to provide screen-reading tools a description of the actual image to visually impaired readers.
It also allows search engines to better crawl and rank your website.
Example
Have you ever completed a search for an image and a whole screen of varying images that fit your description appeared on your computer monitor?
How do you think Google (or whatever web browser you used) found those images to show you?
Google crawled all the websites and pulled the ALT tags from the images to show you exactly what you were looking for – maybe that was a ‘bright red corvette with chrome rims’ – and a page of bright red corvettes popped up.
If all these people had been using their image ALT tag for a Pinterest content description, you wouldn’t have gotten any search results. Bummer not only for you, but for the people that are missing out on you seeing their bright red corvette image and potentially clicking through to their website.
Essentially, your website images are another means of bringing organic traffic to your website.
Hubspot offers great detail on this topic in their post Image Alt Text: What It Is, How To Write It, And Why It Matters To SEO.
I also offer examples, screenshots and a detailed discussion of ALT tags in the post 12 Things to Do To Every Blog Post Before You Hit Publish + 8 Things After.
Before you upload an image into your WordPress media file, rename it and include your keyword in the image title. This will give additional optimization with the keyword focus. For example, instead of keeping the default image that would be something like “IMG1234.png” give the image a name that includes your keyword.
Are you ready to set up Pinterest for your blog and skyrocket the traffic?
It’s true that Pinterest is a powerhouse to grow your blog.
However, you can’t just throw pins to your boards and expect them to perform without a strategy.
The first step is to set up your Pinterest account correctly, then you are ready to jump into the Pinterest world, develop your strategy, and experience the reward of using it to grow your blog!
You got this!