Pinterest Hack for 2023
Pinterest Rule #1: Consistency Is Key
The first rule is the most essential rule. Before you delve deeper into Pinterest, you must know that consistency is critical. Most of these rules are out of order, but this is truly the number one rule for making Pinterest work for your brand. You need to consistently add content to your Pinterest account at a rate that you can keep up with. It doesn't matter if you schedule it out or manually pin it.
I would say a good number of pins to shoot for is 20 pins per day, although I know that's not always possible. I don't always hit that number myself. If you can't promise a particular number, give yourself a number of minutes to pin or schedule pins each day. For example, you may say you will invest 15 minutes a day to pinning or scheduling pins via your scheduler of choice.
Whatever you decide, try to keep it as consistent as possible. Add your schedule to your daily calendar and check it off each day.
Pinterest Rule #2:
Use Keywords Wherever You Can
Keywords take your Pinterest account to the next level. You should always strive to use keywords wherever they are applicable. It only takes a few moments to add keywords, and you will thank yourself later when more people see your account. Here are some places you can add keywords:
- In your Pinterest username.
- At the end of your Pinterest pin descriptions.
- In the descriptions of your Pinterest boards and board titles.
- In your Pinterest biography.
Bonus Pinterest Tip: Keep Your Titles Simple
Any time you create a Pinterest title, keep it simple. Don't go overboard with poetic board titles; people don't search for those. Pinterest is a search engine. I am sure you have seen that phrase about a million times when searching about Pinterest, but it's true!
When you create board titles or Pinterest pin descriptions, you need to use the words that people are searching for.
People are searching for “Vegan Breakfast Recipes” NOT “rEcIpiEs i think are cool.” That's why, when you search for vegan breakfast recipes boards, you get this on Pinterest:
And when you search for “rEcIpiEs i think are cool,” you get this:
You might see a noticeable difference in the quality there. So leave the aesthetics or cutesy asterisks at home. Keep it simple and easy to type in. You want to create boards that will be easy to rank for on Pinterest.
Pinterest Rule #3: Make Sure You Can Pin To (Almost) All Of Your Boards
Now, I know that there will be some boards you have that you can't pin to, but your entire Pinterest account cannot be made of boards that you have no content for. So, you need to have a good mix of boards. Create boards that people are searching for, that you can pin to. Everyone and their momma seems to have a wedding board on Pinterest, but if you aren't a wedding blogger, your entire account shouldn't be dedicated to wedding inspiration.
Chances are, you need a full Pinterest board audit to understand where your account lies on this spectrum. Go through all your boards and list what you pin to them in a spreadsheet. Make a column for whether or not you can pin your content to the boards.
If you find that you can't even pin your own blog's content to over half your boards, you need to make a drastic change in your Pinterest strategy.
Start with the categories you write about on your blog in mind. Then, create Pinterest boards that match those subjects. After a while, you will start to gain subscribers to those boards, and then you can get more eyes on all the content you share.
Pinterest Rule #4: Get A Pinterest Business Account
The next Pinterest rule is to get a Pinterest Business account. I've had a Pinterest Business account for years now, and I have yet to see any downsides to upgrading. I know that some people have seen downsides when they switch to things like Instagram for Business. I have no such issues with upgrading my Pinterest account.
When you upgrade your Pinterest account, though, you get a plethora of resources that will help your Pinterest account grow. Yes, you can invest in Pinterest ads, but I feel that most bloggers will do just fine without them.
The Pinterest Analytics section and the added benefit of Rich Pins are genuinely enough to warrant the switch. Your pins will be so much easier trust and spot with rich pins on, and you will fall in love with all the data you get from your Pinterest Business account. As a blogger, analytics are essential to keep an eye on, so upgrade already!
Pinterest Rule #5: Take Up Space
I know, it seems like every platform out there has different necessary dimensions. It can be hard to keep up with all these dimensions when creating images for your blog. Let me tell you, though, if you are not investing time in Pinterest, you are missing out on a treasure trove of traffic. I hardly focus any of my traffic attention on things like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Maybe I should, but the large bulk of my traffic comes from Pinterest and Google, so I keep feeding those two traffic sources.
The way that Pinterest is laid out, you need to take up space vertically, not horizontally. The best pins are at least 735 px wide by 1102 pixels tall. You can honestly create pins that are much longer, though. I have seen pins that were well past 3000 px tall. There is a caveat, though, Pinterest will eventually cut your long pins off. Also, your potential audience may lose interest if they have to follow an extremely long pin to see what you are talking about. For this reason, I would suggest that you keep it shorter than 2500 px tall.
Let's take a look at a small pin versus a vertical pin:
If you are scrolling down a feed, which pin are you most likely to see and click on? A vertical rectangular pin, or a square/horizontal rectangular pin? Most likely, your eye will gravitate towards the one that takes up more of the screen. Most of my pins are the standard 735 px by 1102 px pins. Even my pin, though, is small in comparison to some of the pins people are pinning.
Why should you pin vertical rectangular pins? Because other people are pinning the same kinds of pins. You want your pin to have a fighting chance of standing out amongst all the pins that are being shared on Pinterest, don't you?! I don't mean to sound like a peer pressurer from an after-school special, but you need your content to stand out on the feed. Each time your pin is seen, you are competing with all types of content. Make your pins count, and make sure they take up space.
Pinterest Rule #6: Put Text On Your Pins
The next important rule when it comes to your pins is this: put text on them! I know, it's fun to pin the pretty pictures you take for your blog. I encourage you to do that as well. But, people are way less likely to click images with no text on them. When Pinterest users see a picture with no text, it gives them inspirational thoughts.
If you inspire someone, that's amazing, but not always click-worthy. When someone sees your fashion post in Ibiza, they are inspired! They may say “Wow, I want to go to Ibiza one day!” Hell, they may even add you to their wanderlust board on Pinterest so they can dream of being in Ibiza with you. If that's the purpose of your Pinterest pin, you have served your purpose. Likely, though, that's not your purpose.
Likely, your purpose was to get clicks to your Ibiza travel guide where you list words to do that. So, instead of pinning a beautiful picture, create a pin using a site like Canva that showcases the title of your travel guide in big, bold words. Make sure to use all the right hashtags on your post, and I know that that with time that pin will lead to plenty of clicks to your site from Pinterest.
Pinterest Rule #7: Connect With Other Pinners Through Group Boards
As you are growing your audience on Pinterest, you need to piggyback off the audience that other people have built. You can do this by joining group also own two group boards.
Pinterest Rule #8: Don't Be Greedy With What You Choose To Pin
I know that you may think that you need to pin 100% of your content from your blog. I mean, what do you gain from pinning content from other people? The truth is, though, you gain a lot by sharing the wealth.
Pinterest doesn't want to see anyone who just pins their own content. You have to pin enough of your content for Pinterest to know you exist, but you are trying to become a curator on Pinterest.
Curators share content from a wide array of people. They become experts in their niche to their audience. They are the go-to place for content for their audience. To become the “go-to” place, you have to lean on other people and their content.
A good mix is 60% other people's content, 40% your content OR a 50/50 mix between your content and other people's content.
Pinterest Rule #9: Schedule Your Content Via Approved Ways Only
A few months ago, I know that many people were shocked to see Boardbooster shut down. I know, because I was one of those people. I knew that BoardBooster wasn't 100% on excellent terms with Pinterest, but I didn't think they were five seconds away from being shut down because they were on bad terms with them. I'd personally switched to India a while before this all went down, though, so it didn't affect me much. I know that many bloggers were scrambling to find a good BoardBooster alternative though.
There are a few other approved schedulers that Pinterest plays nice with. Although, in my opinion, it's the one that cares the most about beefing up their Pinterest scheduling capabilities. Over the years I have been using India, I have seen them do nothing but improve how well their service works.
You just want to make sure that your scheduler is Pinterest approved. You don't want your account being shut down for spam because you were using a shady scheduling platform.
Pinterest Rule #10: Be Patient
Last, but certainly not least, you must learn to be patient. Creating a steady flow of traffic from Pinterest takes time and consistency. You will not be an overnight Pinterest success.
If you keep at it, Pinterest will eventually become a more stable source of traffic for your blog, though!
Patience is key, my friends
No comments:
Post a Comment