13 Pinterest Tips and Tricks You Should Know By Now

Because over time, Google will be your biggest traffic referrer. Well, what if I told you that you could optimize your pins for both SEO and Pinterest.This means that while you’re putting your attention on Pinterest, you’re not completely ignoring Google. Because we all know that would just be foolish…right?

Stick with me and I’m going to show you can have the best of both worlds. The cool thing is that you’ll get faster results with Pinterest, while Google plays catch up.

I’m still new to learning how to optimize for both Pinterest and Google, so while I don’t have any specific results to show you. I’ve done my research and realize that it’s totally possible to do.

In fact, I spend a lot of time reading these the Pinterest developers site and their Pinterest for business site. If you haven’t spent any time on those sites, I suggest you do.

You’ll learn a lot, although, I have to warn you, they are kind of boring 🙂

13 Pinterest Tips and Tricks You Need to Implement

I’m finally starting to understand the power of Pinterest. I totally understand how frustrating it is when you’re constantly pinning and pinning every day and then you look at your Google Analytics and you’re not seeing any growth.

That’ used to be me. While I am still not a Pinterest expert by no means. I’ve figured out some stuff that I think will help you over time as you start implementing it.

#1 Optimize Your Pin Before Pinning It

We all know the importance of finding the right keywords if we ever want to rank on Google. Well, the same goes for Pinterest. People use it as a search engine and if you can get your pins to show up on the Pinterest feed when someone types something in, guess what, they might just click on your pin and go to your site.

Make sure that you’re doing your keyword research on Pinterest to find out which keywords people are actually typing into it. Once you find the keyword you want your pin to rank for.

Be sure to optimize the name of your pin so it has a chance of ranking high on Pinterest.

While I can’t guarantee that your pin will be clicked. This is why it’s so important to make sure that your pin looks like eye-candy to make sure that it gets pinned.

I’m always practicing on improving my pin images. After all, I’m not naturally creative and it’s taken time to get my pins to look good.

Oh and make sure that you’re using rich pins because it helps pull the descriptions for your pins. Pinterest users are not going to fill in your descriptions, I know that I don’t take the time to do that.

#2 Analyze Which Pins People Are Sharing

One of the things that you need to remember about Pinterest is that you want to keep getting those popular pins out in front of people. This means that you need to find out which pins people are actually sharing.

Pinterest makes it easy to see which pins are being shared. You can do this by using this URL.

http://www.pinterest.com/source/yourwebsite.com

All you have to do is replace yourwebsite.com with the URL of your blog. You can then see which pins people are sharing and who is sharing them.

Now it’s your job to keep those pins going. I suggest that you use either Tailwind or Board Booster to help you automate the process.

#3 Choose The Right Social Sharing Plugin

I personally use and recommend the Social Warfare Plugin. This plugin makes it so easy to create your social media images and create your Pinterest description.

This plugin makes it so easy and the best part is that it even tells you the optimal image size to use. I’ve created several tutorials that will walk you through on how to use the plugin.

Related posts on the Social Warfare Plugin:

• Is Social Warfare the Best Plugin?
• How to Create Your Pinterest Images
• Social Warfare Plugin, Why I Use It and Setup And Customization Tips
• How to Set Up The Free Social Warfare Plugin

Most people are using the Tailwind browser extension to pin directly from your blog. Make sure that you install it and test it out to see what people are pinning from your site.

#4 Automated Pin Descriptions

If you don’t want to use the same plugin that I use, that’s okay. The most important thing to remember is that you want to make sure that all your pins being shared have great descriptions.

The best way to do this is to write your Pinterest description on a notepad and then once you upload the image to your blog, save the description in the alt text of the image.

This will ensure that your images are properly labeled and optimized. You don’t want to have a bunch of pins floating around that don’t have descriptions. If you want people to share them, they need to have a description, because no one is going to take the time to fill out the description for you.

#5 Keep An Eye On Your Notifications

Since I am still trying to grow my Pinterest traffic, I make it a point to pay attention to my notifications. Anytime someone pins one of your pins, you’ll get a notification letting you know who pinned it and where they pinned it.

I like to use this information to help me keep track of who’s saving my pins and where they are saving it. This is especially important for pins that are brand new and you’re working them.

If it wasn’t for the Pinterest notifications, I would’ve never seen that someone had stolen my pin.

Related: How to Remove Pins From Pinterest That Have Been Stolen

#6 Pin from The Popular Pins

I’m still in the process of cleaning up my Pinterest boards. It’s taken me a lot of time to do this and it’s definitely NOT a lot of fun. But when I first started using Pinterest, I had no clue what I was doing.

I found myself pinning anything just because everyone said that you need to pin 50-70 pins per day as a new blogger. Well, after doing that for a year, I realized that wasn’t helping me grow.

So I decided to stop doing what wasn’t working and really focus on learning how to use Pinterest. For the past month or so, I’ve been cleaning up my boards and now I make it a point to only pin useful, helpful pins that my followers will love.

I also make it a point to pin from the popular category on a regular basis. I’m not actually sure if this is helping me grow my blog traffic.

But since doing this, I was surprised when I saw one of my pins on the trending category.

#7 Don’t Rely 100% on Automated Pinterest Tools

It’s so easy to fill up your automated schedulers and forget about learning Pinterest. After all, who really wants to spend time on Pinterest, when we can just pay for an automated scheduler and let it do all the work for us.

That’s what I did for the first year of my blog. I paid for Tailwind and would just log into Tailwind once a week to fill up my queue so I was always pinning pins.

After all, that’s what everyone says you need to do. As long as your continually pinning then you’re golden.

However, from my experience, that’s not going to grow your blog. I spent the first year just relying on an automated scheduler and guess what, my blog never reached over 3500 page views in 2017.

This year, I made it a point to really learn how to use the platform to grow my blog. In just 2 months of really focusing on Pinterest, I can say that I am very happy with the results I am seeing.

I am actually implementing the strategies from this eBook. I’ve also created some Pinterest Daily Pinning Templates that help me stay organized with my pinning strategy.

They work perfectly with the Pinterest Strategies ebook that will show you everything you need to know about manual pinning.

#8 Create Multiple Images for Your Posts

If you don’t have a lot of blog posts, you definitely need to create more than one image for your blog posts. One of the biggest mistakes I made when I started using Pinterest is that I would only create one pin.

I was too lazy to take the time to create more images. If I am being totally honest, I still don’t always create more than one image.

It just depends on the day and what I have going on that day. As you know, I still freelance for clients, but I am working my butt off so I can walk away from freelancing so I can dedicate my time to being a full-time blogger.

However, after experimenting with multiple images. I can say that it is definitely worth your time. You never know which image people are going to like and it’s nice to give them different options to choose from.

#9 Optimize Your Images for Different Keywords

One of the things that I’ve started doing is optimizing my images for different keywords. If I see that a pin isn’t doing well I’ve started taking the time to create a second image.

The difference is that I am not giving it the same description as the first pin. I’ll actually take the time to try to rank it for different keywords to see if it does better.

I’ve actually just started doing this and can’t tell you what results I’ve experienced. But the point of creating pins and pinning them on Pinterest is to try to rank high on the Pinterest feed.

If you have multiple pins coming up whenever someone types in a keyword or varies the keyword. Then that just opens up the potential for people to click on over to your blog.

#10 Use Group Boards to Grow

When I started using everything I read about using the platform talked about the importance of using group boards. For some reason, it took me forever to start getting serious about joining group boards.

Maybe it was because I didn’t want to actually take the time to reach out and ask to join? Maybe it was because it takes time to find the right group boards to join.

Whatever the excuse was, I can kick myself for not joining group boards earlier. If it wasn’t for group boards, I would be seeing the blog growth that I am experiencing.

You need group boards to help you grow. We all start with zero followers and if you’re just pinning your pins on your own boards, you’re definitely missing out.

Don’t make the same mistake I made. Make it a point to join group boards on a regular basis. If the group boards you join aren’t benefitting you, don’t hesitate to leave them and find others.

I’m not going to lie, it’s not very easy to get accepted to group boards. I’ve noticed that a lot of the great boards that have thousands of followers no longer accept contributors.

That’s okay, just keep looking for the boards that do accept contributors and reach out and start joining them. Be sure that you’re paying attention to the rules so you don’t get kicked out of them once you start sharing your pins.

#11 Pin Growth Stage is Important

It took me a while to realize that every pin goes through a growth stage process on Pinterest. It took me a while to completely understand this, but let me see if I can explain it so you understand.

As soon as you a brand new pin to one of your Pinterest boards, scroll down until you see the related pins or more pins like this. You’re going to notice that a lot of the pins Pinterest shows you are nothing related to your pin.

As you can see from the screenshot above, all the pins that are showing up, have nothing at all to do with my new pin. My pin has nothing to do with the bible, yet Pinterest thinks that it does.

It takes time for Pinterest to understand what your new pin is about. That’s why you need to pay attention to the growth stages of a pin and keep it moving.

Eventually, the more you pin it and the pin gets reshared, you’ll start seeing pins that are actually related to your new pin. But it does take a while for Pinterest to figure out what your pin is about.

Believe me, I had no idea that a pin actually went through growth stages. This Pinterest course helped me understand everything I need to know about pinning and actually growing.

#12 Pin Your Pin to the Most Relevant Board

One of the things I used to do when I pinned a brand new pin, is I would pin it to my Susan Velez Board. You know the board that has all my blog post pins.

After experimenting with my pinning strategy to see what actually works and what doesn’t. I no longer pin my new pins directly to my main board. I always make it a point to pin my brand new pin to the most relevant board.

Eventually, I’ll go back and pin it to my main blog board. Since I’ve been doing this, I’ve noticed that Pinterest is able to tell what my pin is about a lot faster than before.

Give it a try, if you’ve been pinning to your mainboard right away, switch it up. Start pinning to the most relevant board and see what type of results you have.

#13 Forget the 80/20 Rule

You might have heard that if you want to be successful it’s important to share 80% of other people’s pins. Well, I did that for the entire year last year, you know what that doesn’t work.

If you’re completely new to Pinterest, you’ll need to start off sharing other people’s pins more than your own. But once you start writing a lot of content and have more of your own pins.

Tweak the percentage and start sharing more of your own pins. I’m not saying that you don’t want to share other people’s pins. I always make it a point to share other people’s pins.

However, I no longer follow the 80/20 rule. If you want to grow, you need to share your own pins more often than other people’s pins.

Just don’t make the mistake of only sharing your own pins, you don’t want to be that person!

What You Need to Do

The biggest take away from this should be that Pinterest is not as easy as everyone says it is. My first full year on Pinterest was a complete waste.

Well it wasn’t a complete waste of time. I learned what doesn’t work. Plus my account is no longer considered new. I’ve also shown Pinterest that my account is active by pinning on a regular basis.

But if I would’ve actually taken the time to learn the platform from the beginning, who knows where I’d be right now.

When it comes to Pinterest tips and tricks, personally, I don’t believe there are any. I know that so many people say that there’s a secret to Pinterest.

What I’ve found is that consistency and just getting in there and learning the platform is what’s actually helping me grow.

Hindsight is 20/20

I could sit here and beat myself up about my Pinterest mistakes or blogging failures from the past. But we both know that it doesn’t change a thing.

The only thing that I can do is keep moving forward and implementing what I’ve learned about the platform. It’s also important that I continue learning on a regular basis.

Invest In Your Education

Most new bloggers refuse to spend money on their blog. They feel as though they can learn everything for free online. While it’s true that you can learn a lot for free.

The truth is that if you’re completely new to something then I personally think it’s best to invest in your education. It’s a lot faster than trying to learn it all on your own.

How do you think I learned everything that I’ve learned so far? (This by far the hands-down best resource out there to help you understand everything about the pin stage growth resource. In fact, I knew nothing about what a brand new pin went through until I picked it up and really started diving deep into the platform.

Final Take Away

Don’t listen to other bloggers who say that you can get traffic literally overnight on Pinterest. I’ve learned that regardless of which promotional strategy you put into place.

It takes time to learn how to use it. Not only that, but it takes time for your pins to start gaining traction on Pinterest. Sure, you might get lucky and one of your pins might take off and go viral. I actually experience a semi-viral pin.

It’s exciting when a pin does go viral. But that shouldn’t be your goal. As long as you continue to write amazing content and share consistently, you will eventually start to get some traffic.

The hardest part is remaining patient and giving it time to grow. Just remember, it doesn’t happen overnight, but as long as you don’t quit, you will eventually reach your goals.

If you still haven’t started your blog or need a step-by-step tutorial. I’ve created one that will show you how to get your WordPress blog up and running in no time. There’s no better time than now to start working towards your financial independence.

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Are you currently using Pinterest to help you grow your blog? How long did it take you to finally start seeing results from your pinning efforts?