Deep Drive Into Pinterest: Part One

Taylor Talks Newsletter - 9/7/2020

My account fluctuates between 1 million and 1.9 million monthly views on Pinterest but before that, we had 100... yes, ONE HUNDRED! Growing to 1 million in 3 months was hard work. We learned a lot along the way and are excited to share some of what we know! We included links to our Pinterest in this post as examples of how you can execute our tips.

You can see our Pinterest growth in our “highlights” on Instagram. We posted 100 to 1 Million: How I Grew My Pinterest in 3 Months on our blog. Here we want to dig deeper into this topic and share more of what we know.

What is Pinterest?

People are on Pinterest looking for ideas to find and save for later. Basically, the platform is a search and discovery engine, very similar to Google and YouTube. We’ve been running the blog, What Taylor Likes, for 4 years now without pinning to Pinterest. This was a HUGE mistake.

We have learned that Pinterest is a great source for increasing blog traffic. As our Pinterest views went up so did our pageviews for the blog. Wondering how? Well...

When you pin images to Pinterest it can lead people to your website. This is great because it is a way for your audience to discover ways to relate to your brand.

Tip #1 Getting Setup

Have a "business" Pinterest and confirm your website.

Open a Pinterest account and convert it to a business account. If you already have a personal account, you can just convert that account to a business. Switching to a business account is simple and it's also easy to start a brand new account for your business. Once you set up your business account though you have access to analytical data that REALLY helpful for your pinning strategy.

It is best to have a business account and not a personal account for your brand on Pinterest. Pinterest as a platform takes cues from what you pin, what your boards are named, and your profile description. They use these cues and keywords to "understand" what your business is about. If your Pinterest boards and pins on your personal account don't fit into the niche of your business, Pinterest can become confused and just not show your content to the right people.

Create boards

Boards are where your pins will live. When you pin your own content (or quality content from others), you will pin to a specific board. For example, a vegan recipe for Eggs Benedict could go on the following Pinterest boards:

• Best Breakfast Recipes

• Vegan Recipes

• Vegan Breakfast

• Breakfast Ideas

What Taylor Likes is about vegan food, travel, and fashion so we Pin images surrounding those topics on our boards. In the beginning, we created 10-15 boards and filled in the name and description fields for each board. You want the names of your boards to be keyword-friendly.

Starting out you want to create at least 5-10 boards (even though I did more....I don't want you to get overwhelmed). To make sure your boards are keyword-friendly have your board names be clear, concise, and descriptive.

Pinterest is a search and discovery network. Pinners are searching for ideas, recipes, and more. In order to find your content, they need to search for certain terms through keywords. You want to keyword your Pinterest to ensure the right people find your content. For example, you should add keywords to your profile, boards, and pins.

Before creating a new board use Pinterest analytics and search keywords within Pinterest. You are looking for trends before creating a new board. Take note of what Pins are at the top of the results and what people are looking for! I like to see what keywords other Pinners are using and put them in my board description!

Create fresh pins and rich pins

What are Fresh Pins?

Pinterest's algorithm is prioritizing fresh content because Pinners respond to fresh content the most. Creating more Fresh Pins means more exposure for you to your ideal audience.

What is fresh content? You create fresh content by pining a new image. They are images or videos which have never appeared on Pinterest. Please note that you cannot Pin the same image with a new URL or a new description. You MUST create a new image.

Examples: You can create several images that link to the same blog post. Fresh Pins can come from creating new images for links you’ve previously shared to Pinterest.

What are Rich Pins?

Rich Pins are only available to business accounts and pull additional information directly from your website to attach to your pin. This helps people on Pinterest know who you are, what your pin is about, and how to find you.

You can only get Rich pins if you have a blog. WordPress has a plugin for this. It is more difficult on WIX. We don't have a plugin but I like to work around this by filling out the ALT Description for each image on my blog.

When you fill out the ALT Description it 1) helps your Google ranking and 2) when people go to pin from your site they are getting the description and title you put into the alt text. This is HUGE for growing on Pinterest and growing on your blog.

FYI - Make sure you have a Pin It button on your blog. They are easy to install.

High-quality content

Content that is relevant and high-quality is important on Pinterest. We focus our energy on creating great content/images that are tailored to our audience. You can keep the Pins you create relevant by making sure your images, description, and links appeal to your audience.

Pinterest loves vertical images with a 2:3 ratio size. This means creating images in a program like Canva (that has a Pinterest template) will ensure you have the right type of images for the platform. 2:3 ratio means 600x900, 735x1102, 1000x1500.

Homework: Set up a business account, refine or make your boards, get Rich Pins, or create fresh content.

Next week I will move on to Part 2 of this series!

NEED MORE HELP ASAP? Schedule a Zoom call with us if you need personalized help pitching to brands, finding brands, analytics, advice, resources, and more! We will tell you exactly what works for us. Seriously. No fluff or beating around the bush. What to know how to travel for your blog? We got you. Need help writing a pitch email? Let's edit it together. 

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