How to Increase Your Pinterest Followers and Drive Traffic to Your Blog

With my 5 year blogging anniversary coming up {has it really been that long??}, I thought that I would write a few blogging related posts over the next little while to share what I have learned over the years.  I know that many of you may not be bloggers so I promise that there won’t be too many of these, but for those of you that are looking to start or grow your blog, I hope that these tips will be helpful for you.  Make sure to check out the end of the post too as I have an awesome giveaway for you that will definitely help you on your blogging journey!

Today, we are going to be focusing on my biggest social media traffic driver – Pinterest.  Unlike other social media that has a life-span of a few hours at best, Pinterest can continue to drive traffic to your blog for days, months and even years after you have pinned an image.  When Pinterest first came out {yes, I was blogging before Pinterest even existed!}, I had no idea how much of an impact that it would have on the blogging world, and it {unfortunately!} took me a couple of years before I learned how to really use it to benefit my blog.  Over the past year, however, I have increased my pageviews by over 200% and grown my Pinterest followers from 25,000 to almost 275K.  While some of it may just be luck, there are many things that you can actively do to increase your Pinterest following and drive that traffic to your blog.  Here are my top tips that I have put together for you…

Pin amazing content.
This one is probably the most obvious tip {and it’s really the whole premise behind Pinterest}, so I thought that it would be a good place to start. When you are pinning, you really do need to know your audience to determine what their idea of “great content” actually is.  Look at what pins are doing well and what your top performing boards are to see what content pins well for you and search out ideas for these categories.  Remember that the more your content gets pinned {whether it is content from your blog or from elsewhere}, the more followers you will start to get.  Generally, pins that involve less complicated recipes and projects {think quick and easy!} or simple “how to” tutorials and organization ideas do well for me so I am always on the lookout for good content in these areas.  People like those useful pins that will solve a problem!

Although repinning is quick and easy, make sure you take some time to pin original content as well.  The more content you add, the more views {and hopefully followers!} you will get.  Make sure that everything you are pinning comes from a reputable site and that the content is actually linking to what you are pinning.

Pin Relevant Content
Like the retail stores, blogging tends to be a couple of months ahead of the season.  Pay attention to what is trending and start pinning seasonal content approximately 2-3 months ahead of time.   This will allow your Pinterest followers to gather ideas in time to actually get them done for the holidays AND it will also allow your pins to gain some steam.  Pins will often take at least a few weeks to start gaining in popularity so give yourself enough time when posting seasonal content {and make sure you are repinning all of that great seasonal content from previous years!}

Optimize your images for Pinterest.
First off, you want to make sure that you are pinning beautiful, bright, high resolution photos that are quick to grab the eye.  Pinterest is a visual platform, so if your images aren’t cutting it, you won’t be able to get those clicks over to your awesome post.  Generally close up images with multiple dominant colors {i.e. yellows, blues, and reds} pin best.  Images that are vertical {think long and tall} will command more space on the Pinterest feed and be much easier to see than horizontal photos.  While there are many bloggers that do not like the text over images or collages from an anesthetic point of view, I find that these do typically tend to pin much better with the average Pinterest user than a photo without text overlay.  You can also create long, pinnable images in a collage form like the pin below.  Again, these images will take up more space on the Pinterest feed and, therefore, be easier to see.

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Pin consistently.
Pinning on a daily basis {with a minimum of 10-15 pins per day} can really help to increase your Pinterest presence.  While there is less focus on “prime pinning” times with the new Pinterest algorithm, I still find that pins are generally more frequently repinned weekdays between 7:00-10:00AM EST and 7:00-11:00PM EST {especially the evening times}, Saturday mornings and Sunday evenings.  Experiment with this a little and see what works best for you.  I still feel that it is best to scatter your pins throughout the day rather than pin 20 items in a row even though the Pinterest feed is no longer shown chronologically.  This can be difficult to do if you are just pinning on your own; however, it is quite easy to accomplish with the use of a pin scheduler such as Tailwind, Viral Tag, or Ahalogy {see below for more info}.

While there are no clear rules for how much content can be pinned per day, you do want to make sure that you are not just repinning the same content over and over, that you are pinning from a wide variety of sources {not just your blog!}, and that you do not pin too many pins all at one time {as this can be viewed as spam by Pinterest}.  I roughly try to pin around 70% of my content from outside sources and often use the search feature on Pinterest to search categories that typically pin really well for me.  On average, I would say that I pin approximately 50 pins per day and have not had any difficulties with being marked as spam.

Focus on engagement.  
The more engaged your Pinterest audience is with you and your pins, the better your pins will perform.  Engagement can be in the form of comments, repins, clicks or likes so be sure to reply to comments.  While it is nice to have a large number of followers on Pinterest, if these pinners are not engaged, your pin will still not be seen by a large percentage of your followers.  Again, this kind of goes back to #1 – if you are pinning great content that your followers have showed an interest in in the past, you are much more likely to increase your engagement.

Follow top pinners. 
I have a number of top pinners {with content similar to mine} that I follow, and will often go back to their boards to see what has pinned well for them.  If you are looking to schedule out some pins in a short period of time, this is a great place to start.  Look for pins that have a large number of repins that suit your particular audience.  Oh, and if you want to follow me you can find my profile HERE. 😉

Verify your blog.
Getting your blog verified will allow you to display your full website URL on your Pinterest profile.  This allows pinners, to gain access to your blog more easily and can help to grow your audience.  Verifying your blog also allows you to gain access to their analytics {see below} and will allow your pins to be searchable {which is very important in the new Pinterest algorithm!}.  Find the instructions HERE to get your blog verified or check out this tutorial.  If you are technically challenged like I am and on WordPress, it is MUCH easier to use a Plug-In {I have WordPress SEO by Yoast} to verify your site than to fiddle with the code. 😉

Learn {and use!} your analytics.
Once your blog has been verified, take some time to learn about your analytics.  To find your analytics, click on the gear icon on the top right hand corner of your profile page. Find out what pins from your blog are your most repinned and clicked pins {these may have been pinned by you but, more often they have been pinned by someone else} and continue to keep these pins active by periodically repinning them to one of your own personal or group boards. It is also helpful to analyze those pins that do well to see what it is that is driving the clicks and repins.  Is there a consistent style of image that are on those pins?  What is the content of those pins?  Basically, if something does well, you want to continue creating more of that content and style while, at the same time, continue to keep those popular posts that you have done in the past pinned.

Optimize your Pinterest bio.
Take a few minutes to customize your Pinterest bio.  Give some insight about what you love to pin and why people will want to follow you. Using a head shot for your image rather than your blog logo is more personal and can help pinners connect with you easier.

Make it easy for people to pin your content.
I think that most bloggers have a pin it button installed somewhere on their site {if not, make sure that you get one here ASAP}, but it is always helpful to have at least a couple of different ways that people can pin your content.  Remember that many of your readers may not be as “technically proficient” as you are, and may only be aware of one method to pin.  In addition to the regular pin it button, you can also get on hover buttons that will appear when the reader mouses over an image or install social media sharing plug-ins such as Shareaholic. Have some family members test out your site to see how easy it is to pin an image and make sure you test this out on both a desktop AND mobile {it is generally the mobile sites that are more difficult to pin from}.

Create at least one Pinterest board completely devoted to your own blog content.
If you go to my Pinterest profile, my first 5 boards are content specifically from my own blog.  This helps your followers get a better idea of what your blog is all about.  Since I blog about a wide range of categories, I have my posts divided out so people can easily access those posts that they are most interested in.  My Household Organization Board, for example, is one of my top repinned boards so I know that this is content that my readers and Pinterest followers are wanting more of.

Encourage your readers to follow you.
Almost all bloggers have the social media icons on their blog’s sidebar linking to their Pinterest profiles, but there are many other ways to engage your readers in your Pinterest boards as well. Obviously, they like your content if they are following your blog, so chances are they will love your Pinterest boards too! Go back through some popular older posts and include a link to your Pinterest profile or a specific board within your post.  For example, if you wrote an amazing organization post, you could write “For more great organization ideas, check out my Organization Board on Pinterest“.  You can also occasionally try posting your Pinterest profile to other social media sites {i.e. Facebook}, include your Pinterest links in your newsletters, or use the Hello bar across the top of your blog to make your readers more aware of your presence on Pinterest.

Optimize your Pinterest boards.
Organize your Pinterest boards in a logical manner so people can easily see what types of categories you like to pin.  You may also wish to change around the order of your boards so that seasonal content appears first.  Make sure that you choose a pretty photo for the cover photo of each board with a cohesive look across all boards.  While you can be a little creative with the titles of your boards, make sure that they still contain relevant key words so they will be searchable. Remember that Google loves Pinterest, so by doing this you can gain traffic not only from Pinterest but through Google searches too.

Join larger group boards.
Group boards can be a great way to increase the exposure of your pins as they will generally have quite a large following.  Remember though – it is not always the number of followers but the engagement on the group boards that make them amazing, so scroll down the board a bit to see what kind of repins it is getting.  I have a couple of group boards with huge followings that don’t do so well and others that have a lesser following that are in my top boards.

To find group boards, you can check out Pin Groupie and search by category to find boards that would be relevant for your blog.  Ask other bloggers what group boards work well for them, or check out those pins that have a large number of repins to see where they were originally pinned as many of them will stem from group boards.  Once you find a group board that would be a good fit, check out the group board description to see if there are any instructions on how to become a contributor {or even if they are still accepting contributors}.  If not, you can always contact the owner of the board directly {just make sure that you are following them!} to see if there are any openings for new contributors.

Most group boards do have rules to follow in terms of number of pins per day, how often content can be repinned, or content specific categories. Make sure that you are familiar with these and follow them – you will often get kicked off if you do not!  To keep group boards going strong, look for other great content that has been pinned to them and repin those big pins.  Not only does this give you some popular content to pin and help to support some other bloggers, but it will also increase the engagement on the group board {which will translate into more views for you!}.

Get rich pins.
Rich pins are basically pins with extra information right on the pin itself.  This helps your pin to stand out more and gives it more authority. Currently there are six types of rich pins – app, product, recipe, movie, article, and place. {You can read more about them HERE}  Again, for those of you that are more technically challenged, rich pins are super easy to get using a plug-in.  My friend Courtney over at Sweet C’s Designs has a great tutorial that she put together on getting the recipe rich pins and this was so much easier for me to understand than the description over at Pinterest.

Give your images proper titles.
Google loves Pinterest images so be sure to take the time to use keywords in your photo titles to help increase its ranking in Google search.  You also want to make sure that you are adding a great post/photo description in the Alt Text box when you are uploading your photos to your WordPress dashboard.  Since most pinners, do not bother to change the pin description when they pin, chances are that whatever you write will remain in the description when your image is pinned.  Again, use keywords to make your pin more searchable and try changing your description if your image is not pinning well.

Get a pin scheduler.
There are a number of pin schedulers out there – some are free while others require paid subscriptions.  They are all slightly different in how they work, so it is always helpful if you can do a free trial prior to committing.  I am currently using three schedulers – Viral Tag, Tailwind, and Ahalogy -and use them all in slightly different ways based on what they have to offer.  This could actually be a whole post in itself so I won’t get into too many specifics here, but basically try out a couple of schedulers and choose which one {or two!} works best for you.  If I had to choose one thing that I like best about the schedulers, it is being able to pin one post to all relevant boards at one time {I like Tailwind best for this as I can also choose how far I want the pins spaced out}.  Just remember to keep track of when and what you are pinning so you are not overpinning your posts!

Know what content to promote and what content to let go.
When at first you don’t succeed, try, try again …. and then let it go.  Have you ever been really excited to share a post that you think is awesome, but then when you pin it, all that comes up is crickets?  Yes, this can be frustrating, but don’t let it go quite yet.  Take a look at your image and see if there is anything that you could improve upon.  Maybe it is just not eye catching {is it a clear and vertical image?} or doesn’t really have a great title or pin description.  Maybe it just got pinned at a bad time or you didn’t pin it to boards that were the most relevant.  Make some improvements and try pinning it again through a variety of group and personal boards.  Sometimes, this can make all the difference!  For example, here is a pin to a post on how to clean your washing machine….

The post did okay, but not as good as I had hoped, so I changed the pinnable image and the post totally took off and currently has almost 200K pins.  This may not be a pretty image but it IS eye catching. 😉

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If you have tried everything that you can think of and it still doesn’t fly, it might just be time to cut your losses and spend your time promoting those pins that are doing well.

Find pinning groups that are authentic to your branding.
Pinning groups are basically groups of bloggers that pin each other’s content.  While this can be a great way to get your pins out there, you do need to make sure that others in your group share content that you would authentically pin anyways.   Above all, you need to make sure that you are continuing to pin that great content that appeals to your audience.  Ask around and see if anyone has any pinning groups that are open, or better yet, create your own pinning group so that you can choose bloggers that have a similar pinning audience to yours.

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Whew!!  This post ended up being WAY longer than what I originally intended, but hopefully I didn’t lose you along the way!  If things seem overwhelming, try to just focus on ONE thing per day until you make it through the list.  And, if you have any specific questions, I am more than happy to answer them for you. 🙂

And now for the giveaway…

For those of you looking to grow your blog, using Pinterest is obviously just one of many, many things that you need to be thinking about.  While it may seem impossible to know where to start, my friend, Abby, from Just a Girl and Her Blog has created the most amazing ebook that will take you through it all step by step…

Building a Framework includes 200 pages of blog growing strategies, a 32 page printable blog organizer, step by step course outline, access to a private Facebook group for ongoing support, 20 step by step instructional videos, and 15 video interviews with your favorite expert bloggers {I am sure you will know at least one of them!}.  Whether you are new to blogging or just looking to increase your pageviews or income level, this is the package for you!

To learn more about Building a Framework and the different packages available, click HERE.  Your really won’t be disappointed – even after five years of blogging there was still tons of helpful information for me! 🙂

And, lastly, Abby has graciously offered to give away one of her Master Packages to one lucky reader.  All you have to do to enter is check out Building a Framework and leave me a comment about what you would like to learn about the most!  {NOTE: If you purchase the package prior to the closing of the giveaway, and happen to be the lucky winner, Abby will refund your money for you!}

This giveaway is open worldwide {except where prohibited by law} to those individuals 18 years of age and older and will run until 11:59 pm PST on Tuesday, June 30th.