Increasing blog traffic from Pinterest does not have to be super hard or frustrating, though it can feel that way at the beginning of your blogging journey. But getting more views to your blog using Pinterest is not as complicated as you may think.
Learn what gets people to actually click on your pins and what it takes to get your pins seen in the first place.
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SEO and blog traffic
The very first thing you may be thinking is It’s got to be good SEO that drives tons of traffic from Pinterest.
Yes, good SEO is extremely important.
Good SEO depends upon the keywords or keyword phrases you use. You must do your keyword research before writing your blog post.
Getting traffic has to do with how popular your keywords are, how much competition there is for those keywords, and how & where you use those keywords within your blog post and images.
Keywords are how Google, Pinterest, or any other search engine determines what your article or page is all about. Search engines scan your article for keywords and synonyms to your keywords. Keywords are part of what search engines use to place your article/page within their hierarchy to give the person doing the searching what they are looking for.
That’s why making your articles and overall website SEO-friendly is extremely important. Blogging is a long-term plan. You need to establish your posts within the search engines. This happens both at once upon publication, and with time as the popularity of a post or page grows.
SEO is a complex subject, and every blogger should seek to understand what makes good SEO, from the standpoint of both Google and Pinterest. If you need a bit of help, you can grab this freebie:
That being said, although proper SEO is vital to your blog’s success, even with good SEO an article may not get as many clicks on Pinterest as you would like. Increasing your blog traffic from Pinterest as a beginner blogger is more than great SEO.
So, how to get traffic from Pinterest to your blog?
Here is where the other half of the magic is:
In addition to using SEO, you need to make your pins irresistibly clickable. They must be well designed and enticing for the reader.
Easy-peasy you say? It can be, but I’ll tell ya, it may take some practice.
How to create amazing pins
There are 3 main components to creating amazing pins for Pinterest. They are all equally crucial.
Pin title
People on Pinterest want to know how they can accomplish something- make a recipe, come up with a unique Halloween costume, or start a blog. They go to Pinterest because it’s a wealth of information and ideas. They want to learn, be inspired, and find solutions to their problems. Your job is to write a pin title that tells the reader your pin leads to what they need, and make it sound interesting!
Sometimes a simple and straightforward title will do the trick to get the click. For example, my post How to Start an Art Journal- A Beginners Guide has been very popular. Although the title isn’t crazy exciting, it is bold and clear. This blog post serves a need by describing how to do something that people are interested in doing.
For other posts, you may need to get craftier or more exciting with your language to get people to click. You can tap emotions and spark curiosity by using “power words” in your pin title. Some examples of power words include:
- Incredible
- Powerful
- Free
- Best
- Amazing
- Proven
- Extremely
- Dazzling
Your pin text does not need to match exactly your blog title text. But it must convey the blog article information accurately. Bottom line: your pin title needs to be written interestingly enough to entice people to click.
Pin font
Although many of us love a pretty script font, we need to use them with caution. For a pin to be eye-catching, it needs to read in a way that’s not too distracting.
To accomplish this, try any of these 3 suggestions:
- Use a bold font such as Nexa bold, League Gothic, Lovelo, or Aleo for the majority of the text. Then you can use a dash of script font for part of the title, the subtitle, or to emphasize your power word/s or any important part of the title.
- Use only a bold font.
- Use only an easier-to-read script font.
The color of your font/s should be one of 4 ways:
- Bold and bright, ie hot pink on white.
- Dark on a light background, ie black on white.
- light on a dark background, ie white on black.
- Black and white with a dash of color, ie black text on white with power words in orange.
The font color needs to pop.
Pin background image
The background image you use for your pins matters more than you think. So many bloggers use free images from sites like Freepik or Unsplash, and while that can be Ok, oftentimes those images can confuse the Pinterest algorithm.
This is because one blogger might use an image for a pin with a title about finding Jesus, and another blogger may use that same image for a pin with a title about a parenting hack. Why does that matter? Because Pinterest has become so sophisticated that it can “see” this background image.
When the same background image leads to many different unrelated blog posts, Pinterest gets confused. Pinterest may not be as able to categorize your pin with a background image it recognizes as connected to other subjects.
The bottom line is that a widely used background image can hurt your pins’ chances of getting massive click action. That’s why it’s not a bad idea to invest in a paid stock photo service. Haute Stock has beautifully styled stock photos. They’re great for lifestyle bloggers especially.
Keep in mind that the way Pinterest categorizes your pin has to do with many other factors such as what board you first pin your pin onto, and subsequent boards people pin your pin onto.
Concluding thoughts
It may seem obvious, but the look and title of your pin is super important. The style of your pin is what drives people to click, (and save.) The more saves and clicks Pinterest sees for your pin, the more Pinterest shows your pin to people.
This is how a pin gains momentum and snowballs in popularity!
Of course, as I mentioned, you’ll want to pin regularly. And SEO matters greatly for your pin.
The best thing to do? Keep on creating the best pins you can.
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