How to Grow Traffic to your Blog Using Pinterest

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In December 2016, the number of people who clicked through to my blog from Pinterest was 79. This represented just under 2% of my total traffic. Two years on and the number of people coming to visit my site averages 4000 a month and this is without the use of Tailwind. Pinterest referrals account for 40% of my traffic, this is what I did to grow traffic to my blog using Pinterest.

Pinterest is a crucial tool in driving traffic to your blog. I find that having a lot of recipes posts on my blog helps to drive the traffic, however there are lots of other types of posts that do well too such as crafts, interiors, parenting advice and travel.

So the question is, how to grow traffic to your blog using Pinterest? This is what I do to ensure my Pinterest referral numbers never dip below 4,000 per month.

Grow traffic by cleaning up your Pinterest profile

I started by writing a detailed bio on my profile including some of my favourite keywords such as baby led weaning and blogger. I wrote about who I was and put up a picture of myself so people could connect with me and see I wasn’t just a robot. I made sure my website was listed on my profile and added a location.

Grow traffic by cleaning up your Pinterest boards

Next, I set about cleaning up my boards. This can be an overwhelming task if you have been pinning for some time but it is well worth it, I assure you. I tackled one board per day so that by the end of the month, the majority of my boards were completed. How to clean up your boards? Firstly, check that all the pins that are pinned on each board are relevant and there are no duplicates. Secondly, write a detailed description for each board using keywords that relate to your niche. While doing this, ensure you have selected a category for your board as well. Thirdly, make sure that each board has at least fifty relevant pins. You do not want boards with just one or two pins, these will not be seen on people’s home feeds. Fourthly, create an eye catching board cover using Canva, I like all of my board covers to look the same so you can see the same brand across the profile. Finally, I archived boards that were no longer relevant to me or my blog readers. Why was I bothering to pin about travel tips for Berlin when that had no relevancy to my blog? I ended up archiving about forty boards and kept thirty which were all relevant to my blog.

2017

2018

Grow traffic by repinning old pins

I had no idea how valuable this would be until I started doing it. I don’t want to repin loads and loads so I decided to repin only three old pins per day. I go to the bottom of a board and choose three old pins (always ones from my blog). I then go to save them onto the same board, but before I do so, I check that the pin has a nice detailed description with plenty of, yes you guessed it, KEYWORDS. Once the pin has saved to the top of the board, I delete the old pin. I was finding that a lot of my old pins had no description so it was a great way to get them updated so they could actually be found on the Pinterest search feature. I also like to have a good look at Pinterest Analytics to see which pins are performing particularly well and I ensure these are repinned more than any others.

Grow traffic by adding new pins to existing boards

Everyday I go onto my home feed or some of my group boards and select at least twenty new pins to save onto relevant boards. This keeps my boards nice and full and keeps my name popping up on people’s feeds. The more you interact on Pinterest, the more likely you are to be seen on other people’s home feeds, especially now there is a ‘following’ tab on the app.

December 2016

January- December 2017 – 4.35% engaged

January-December 2018 – 4.52% engaged

Grow traffic by pinning from published blog posts

Before I hit publish on a blog post, I ensure that I have created a vertical pinnable image using Canva that includes a couple of images relevant to the post and a snappy title encouraging people to click through to the blog post. The best sorts of titles are ones that say how to do something or promise advice on a particular subject. I also ensure the ALT text includes a description of the pin including relevant keywords and hashtags so it will be easily found on the Pinterest search bar. (More on this below) Once that pinnable image is placed in my blog post (I like to put it at the bottom, others like to hide it) I hit publish on the blog post and then add the pin to relevant group boards and my own boards too. I have a Pinterest plugin downloaded so that whenever someone hovers on an image on my blog post they are able to easily pin it to Pinterest too. I get around ten repins a day from my blog which adds to the traffic.

Grow traffic by creating unique and engaging content

It is important to create blog posts that are unique and engage Pinterest users. My best pins are my banana and peanut cookies, green bean pesto recipe and activities for five month olds post. The recipes have been created by me (not copied or based off something else) and the activity post engages people because it’s hard to think of things to do with such a young baby. There’s about 10,000 pins on how to make banana pancakes, so try coming up with something original that nobody, or very few people have pinned about before.

Grow traffic by writing ALT text for each pinnable image you create

When someone wants to pin an image from your blog, what is written in the alt text will become the description for the pin on Pinterest. Do you see now why it is so important to have descriptive alt text? Pinterest works the same as a search engine. People search for keywords such as ‘BLW recipes‘. You need to make sure your alt text has descriptive keywords so that when people search Pinterest they find your beautiful pins. So often, I go to save a pin and the description is ‘Img23653‘. Do you think I can be bothered to write a description for a pin that’s not mine? Not really, and your readers won’t either. That pin will then fade into obscurity forever.

2017

2018

Grow traffic by joining and contributing on group boards

I’ve joined about ten group boards in my niche (parenting and baby led weaning) and whenever I have a new pin I always add them to all the relevant group boards where I find people pin them to their own boards. Some group boards don’t work as they are not managed very well, but if you find a group board that is audited regularly to ensure people are reciprocating with repins, then you will find that you get a lot of traffic back from it. I also love using group boards to find pins to fill my boards up too. It’s a win-win for me!

Grow traffic by being consistent

Results only come when you put the work in. I find that I have to consistently do the things I’ve talked about above to keep my results growing. If I neglect to go on Pinterest for a day or two, the numbers do plateau or fall.

I think it’s important to note that I haven’t used any apps such as Tailwind or used any pods to grow traffic from Pinterest. I know a lot of people say this works for them, but at the moment, I just do not have the time to participate in pods and have no interest in spending money on Tailwind.

I really hope this has helped to give you some ideas on how to grow traffic to your blog using Pinterest. Using the above methods probably meant I spent ten minutes a day on Pinterest which isn’t a lot of time for so much return.

If you have any more questions, let me know in the comments below, or shoot me an email to mummytodex@gmail.com

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