This blogpost contains affiliate links. This means that when you choose to buy something through the link I provided here, I earn a small portion of the profit. There is no obligation to visit the links or purchase any items, but if you do, it will help me continue to provide and create quality content for you. You can read more here.
Pinterest can be a powerful source to drive traffic to your website if you know how to use it. In this blogpost I cover all the things I do to leverage Pinterest to drive traffic to my blog so you can benefit from it too. Here’s my strategy!
Mythbuster!
A common mistake people make is viewing Pinterest as a social networking site, while it’s not really social. When is the last time you commented on someone’s pin or interacted with someone on Pinterest? Probably never. That’s because Pinterest isn’t a social network, it’s a visual search engine. That means we should treat it more like Google than Twitter or Instagram. And that means, we have to do SEO.
That’s right, Pinterest works with Keywords rather than hashtags, but we’ll get back to that later. For now, let’s go over the basics.
The basics
To start using Pinterest successfully, you have to do these things first:
- You have to verify your website with Pinterest and enable a business account.
- You have to enable rich pins.
- You use the showcase feature for the board that contains all your own pins that lead to your website (when you create a pin, enter the URL that leads to the blogpost you want).
- Your pins are vertical and of good quality (you can use the free service Canva for this).
- Make your account search-friendly (use keywords that people will search for so they will be lead to your content). Create good board names and add a nice description to your profile and to each of your boards.
Keywords
The key to using keywords (see what I did there?) is to be specific. Instead of ‘blogging’, you would probably search for something more specific like ‘how to start a blog’ or ‘how to drive traffic to my blog’, so make sure to use keywords like ‘blog traffic’ or ‘start a blog’. That way people will be able to find you more easily.
And as I mentioned, do not use hashtags. You wouldn’t type #blogging as a Google search, so it won’t do you much good on Pinterest either.
Group Boards
Another great thing about Pinterest is that you do not need to have a bunch of followers to get your content seen by a lot of people. You can use group boards for that. There are loads of group boards for every niche, where you can share your pins and get them seen by more people.
Find some group boards related to the topics you blog about and add your pins to them. Just make sure to follow the board’s rules (most ask you to pin at least one other pin from the board to one of your own boards). This is the only way group boards will work: if everybody pins each other’s content. This way the pins get seen by a lot of people and hopefully get shared again so they might go viral.
Use Tailwind
My Pinterest game changed entirely when I started using Tailwind. Tailwind is a scheduler for Pinterest that helps you create a smart schedule so that you can pin your pins at a specific time that a lot of people are active on Pinterest, thus making your content more visible. I’ve been using Tailwind since I started blogging and now Pinterest is a huge source for driving traffic to my blog. It works like a charm.
The sweet spot for growing your Pinterest audience is pinning 55 to 80 times a day. Even with Tailwind that can be quite a challenge, but it’s almost impossible without it if you have a busy schedule. You can schedule your pins days (or even weeks if you’re feeling ambitious) in advance and once they’re scheduled, you don’t have to worry about it anymore. The best thing is that Tailwind pins your pins for you all day long at the best times, even when you’re at work or sleeping.
Tailwind Tribes
My absolute favorite feature is Tailwind Tribes. It’s like using group boards, but better! Tailwind Tribes are groups on Tailwind where you can post your content and find a lot of new content for you to pin to your boards. The magic ratio is 80% of pinning your own content and 20% of other people’s content. Using Tailwind Tribes is easy because it literally takes just two clicks (choosing a board and adding to your schedule) to add your pins to your scheduler and this will also save you a lot of time. And the best part? It’s free!
I couldn’t do without Tailwind anymore. It’s become essential to my Pinterest strategy and it works so well for me.
Here’s how you get started with Tailwind:
1. Sign up here
2. Join my Purpose-Driven Entrepreneurs & Bloggers Tribe where you can add all your blog’s pins (all niches welcome)
Things to keep in mind
In order to be successful on Pinterest, you have to remember it’s not about you. Don’t pin the things you like, but rather become a content curator. Pin the things your audience would look for and things that are related to your blog’s topic to attract the “right” kind of followers for your blog!
Happy pinning, everyone!
With much love,
Maud
