If you want to know how to grow on Pinterest this is the post to read. Ever take a look at someone’s Pinterest profile and wonder how in the world they ended up with millions of monthly views and thousands of followers? Maybe you run a business or website and are wondering how you can use Pinterest to send traffic your way. Perhaps you just want more people to see your products, recipes, or crafts.
Without trying to sound cliche I want to just let you know that I’ve been there. I was there for a very a long time. I spent the better part of two whole years with little to no understanding of how to make Pinterest work. Let’s not waste any more precious time than we need to and hop right in and learn how to grow on Pinterest the right way.
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Table of Contents
Where To Begin
The very first step you need to complete is to make a Pinterest for business account.
Why a business account rather than a basic one?
A Pinterest business account unlocks many benefits and tools that are going to help you.
What does a Pinterest for business account give me?
- Analytics (Insights to your pin impressions, engagements, and audience)
- Pinterest Ads (The ability to promote pins to get more views)
- A More Aesthetic Profile For Business
Once you’ve actually made a business account you need to optimize your account for search. This is actually a pretty straightforward process, but many people don’t think to do it.
Right away by doing this for your Pinterest profile you will be much more likely to be found in someone’s Pinterest search. Let’s talk about how to do it.
Building A Searchable Clickable Profile
There are 3 things that are going to help you make a much more searchable and clickable Pinterest profile.
- Add a business account name. (You can also add the tagline if it is also relevant to the content you pin)
- A description using some keywords about the types of things you like to pin and make content about.
- Add and verify your blog or business website.
Why are these things important? Because it will help people find your profile to follow, see your content, and also be able to visit your website if they are interested.
Without those key elements you are already missing out on some potentially valuable traffic.
Notice how I’ve added some keywords that link my description and my business name together? This is to help the Pinterest search engine understand what my account is about.
You’ve Got Your Profile Set Up. What’s Next?
It’s time to make boards! Not just any boards though. We are going to optimize those as well.
Believe it or not, many people think you just make any board for anything with no rhyme or reason and that will get you tons of traffic.
You might accidentally get traffic that way, but we are going to make some boards with intention. Boards that are set up properly get found and suggested much more easily.
How To Set Up An Optimized Pinterest Board
The first thing you are going to want to do is make boards that resonate with your content. If you are someone who owns a candle shop you would want boards that have to do with candles.
It’s pretty simple, but it also is extremely important. I write about crafts so I have several boards that are craft related.
For example I have Crafts For Kids!, Cricut Projects, and Crafts For Teens as a few of my board names.
This way I have plenty of options when it comes to pinning my related content or products.
So what do you need to do?
- Decide what your niche is. (What your blog/business is about)
- Make boards according to your niche with relevant topics.
- Use keywords in your board names that are in sync with your profile name and description.
Pinning For Optimal Growth
So your goal is to learn how to grow your Pinterest the right way. Once your entire profile is optimized it’s time to figure out your pinning strategy.
A good pinning strategy is going to have your account growing leaps and bounds over time. And actually you can see improvements pretty quickly.
They may occur little by little or you may see large jumps in growth. Once you start pinning with intention wonderful things can start to happen.
More traffic and better sales are some of the positive symptoms of a good pinning strategy.
How to pin with intention
Your first improvement should be consistency. Nothing keeps your Pinterest ramping up in the right direction like being consistent. Ever pinned for a few days in a row and then just stopped?
You might have made note of a huge drop in views and traffic.
Well a good pinning strategy consists of daily pinning, but don’t worry there are ways to make that easier.
Before we go down that road let’s discuss what you should be pinning and what your pins should look like.
Only make pins related to your niche and boards.
This is for very important reasons. You want your pins to coincide with your overall profile. You wouldn’t expect to see financial pins on a cooking profile right?
Stick to pinning what is relevant and name your pins according to the content they represent.
Optimize Your Pins For SEO
Pinterest is a search engine rather than a social media site. Although since the latest update Pinterest has more social features.
People come to Pinterest to discover new things to buy, solve problems, and find answers.
When you make a pin title you want to name it something eye catching but also keep in mind it has to match the content.
Add a keyword rich description.
A keyword rich description should have elements from the title as well as searchable keywords. By adding keywords you can help users find your pins which may be relevant to their search queries.
What is a keyword?
A keyword is simply a word or words that someone would type into a search box to find something.
How do I know what keywords to use?
You can figure out good keywords to use by typing a word relevant to your niche in the search box. You will notice how Pinterest tries to guess what you are looking for.
The words that pop up are actually keywords that people are typing in frequently to find things.
This way you can see what searches are popular and begin to make pins using keywords that are searched often.
Trends Can Help You Make Potentially Viral Pins
If you’re wondering how a pin goes viral there is one important thing to understand.
Trends. These are topics that are extremely popular currently and they change over time.
To see what is currently trending you can simply click “Analytics” on your Pinterest for business account and select “Trends” from the menu.
On the “Trends” page you will notice that trends are shown by week and also by popular categories. You also can conduct your own search of other trends by typing words or phrases in the search box.
Try to find trends that relate to your niche, website, or business. This is also a great way to figure out what content to write about or to create.
By knowing what many people are looking for you can create content based on it and stand to create viral content pins!
How Often Should I Be Pinning?
Consistency is key and one thing you can know for sure is that pinning every day is important.
Now you don’t have to sit in front of your computer every second of every day pinning, but many top Pinterest users actually have pins scheduled throughout the day.
Some pin every hour on the hour. Some pin at certain peak times of the day between 7-8 AM or 7:30-11 PM. The important thing is that you actually pin.
This process can actually become a lot easier by using templates and learning how to quickly create and schedule pins.
Note: 3rd party pin schedulers do not work as well as they used to. Due to changes that Pinterest has recently made the best way to get engagement on your pins is by manually pinning or using Pinterest’s built in scheduler.
Where Can I Get Templates?
You can create your own which can take a bit of work. It does take some time and effort to create them. Many people create them using websites like Canva or they purchase them from bloggers who sell digital products.
I actually included 10 pin templates with my Pinterest Quick Guide To 500k Views Per Month And Beyond.
What Should A Pin Look Like To Get More Engagement?
A good part of learning how to grow on Pinterest is figuring out what makes a pin more clickable and likely to get engagement.
It’s a hugely debated subject. Some suggest pastel colors, others suggest warm colors. Some say animated pins with fancy font.
The truth is that any pin design has the potential to be saved or go viral. Although there are a few key elements that viral pins have in common.
- Viral pins usually have centered easy to read font.
- Their pin titles are eye catching and spark interest by using power words.
- Viral pins utilize colors and images that are pleasing to the eye and relevant.
- Typically vertical pins 1000×1500 perform best.
Story pins are quite popular right now, but I don’t recommend only making story pins exclusively. Throw them in once in a while or make 1 per piece of content or product.
Video pins can stand a chance to do well, but sometimes they take a while to become approved. I have had video pins get thousands of views or zero views. It seems to be a gamble in my personal opinion.
How Does Pinning Consistently Help Me Grow On Pinterest
2 huge ways actually!
The first is that by pinning consistently and regularly you will be circulating tons of pins on a daily basis.
Unlike other social media sites, Pinterest has longevity on it’s side. If I make a Tweet on Twitter people are probably going to stop noticing it moments later.
The same goes for Facebook. Pinterest is different. Pins on Pinterest can show up for weeks, months, and even years if they gain traction.
The more pins you have out there the more chances you have of getting viral pins. You may be surprised that pins you forgot about will start getting re-pinned and clicked long after you’ve made it.
Trends fluctuate constantly so something you’ve created could always become relevant again later or even take off virally! One viral pin could drive thousands of clicks and visitors.
How Do I Get More Followers?
We’ve all looked at other accounts on Pinterest and wondered how they gained so many followers.
How did they do it?
There honestly is a number of ways, but the biggest one is simply by being active on Pinterest. Follow other accounts that you enjoy or are in a similar niche. Many of them actually follow back.
As you pin more content you will notice that there is a lot more activity going on with your account. This in general will lead you to get tons of more followers.
You can try joining Pinterest groups as well as checking out Twitter follow for follow threads. Overall the main thing is to just be patient and to let your follower fan base to grow naturally.
I hope this post helps you learn how to grow on Pinterest the right way!
Stay positive and keep pinning. Those big results you are looking for may seem far out of reach, but with effort they can become reality.
If you still need help with growing Pinterest, pin scheduling, or learning to make pins quickly you can grab my guide.
It covers a whole lot and the bundle even comes with instructions on how to make pins much faster. It’s a huge value and unlike many other guides it is reasonably priced. I’ve put a lot of effort into making it as helpful as possible.