13 Pinterest Tips and Tricks That Can Skyrocket your Blog Traffic in 2020

Pinterest is an amazing source of traffic for bloggers and small business owners!

While SEO can take months or years to get stable organic traffic, Pinterest marketing can help you get thousands of visitors within a couple of months of blogging. 

 I have been blogging for a year now and currently, I have 15K+ visitors ONLY from Pinterest. However, you can’t achieve reasonable visitors without a good pinning strategy.

During my early stages of blogging, I had no clue about Pinterest marketing thus made tons of mistakes. Although I was creating new pins for my blog post every day I was hardly getting clicks on my pins which resulted in very few visits to my blog.  

So in this post, I have gathered some of the major mistakes bloggers make in their Pinterest marketing, which can eventually hurt their blog traffic.   

If you are someone who wants to grow your Pinterest traffic you would want to read further to check out some of the common mistakes that you might be making. 

13 Common Pinterest mistakes you should stop making to boost your blog traffic in 2020! 

1. Handling it as a social media platform

When I first started using Pinterest I thought it was a social network, just like Facebook and Instagram. And I was absolutely surprised when I came to know it isn’t! Pinterest is a search engine. Just like Google, Pinterest allows you to search for specific words or phrases. But unlike Google, Pinterest is a visual tool. A tool that allows you to search through images and simple keywords. That’s why if you are using Pinterest to promote your blog or business, creating artistically beautiful pins in the key to success! 

2. Not setting up a business profile 

Setting up a business account can have many benefits. One of which is to be able to access free analytics of your Pinterest account. You don’t have to create a separate business account. You can always convert your existing personal Pinterest account to a business account. Check out this guide from Pinterest to know how to set a business account.

3.  Not writing relevant content

As bloggers, we are constantly creating content. While it’s important to write niche-specific topics you should also take into account the interests of your audience. The best way to find out what to write is by analyzing search phrases or keywords on Pinterest!

Unlike Google keywords, you don’t have to pay for any keyword tools. In Pinterest, you can do your keywords research in multiple ways for FREE. The best part is that these strategies can also help you write a great Pin description for your pins!

One easy way to find out relevant topics/ keywords is by checking Pinterest Trends/ Popular Interests!

Have a look at the example below!

You can see there are so many trending topics! Since I live in Belgium, in my list some topics come in the Dutch language as well!

The second best way to find out popular keywords is by using the “ads” tab. You have to click on the first option which says “Create Ad”

Next, you click on the “continue”. By the way, don’t be hesitant since it says “ads”. Searching keywords doesn’t cost anything.

Next, when you scroll down a bit you see a small “search tab”. This is where you can search for any topics from your niche.

For instance, you can see I searched the topic “bullet journal” because I know it’s one of the popular topics now. ( from the first method)!

You can see although I searched bullet journals some of them are ‘wellness journals’. And also topics like ‘art journal inspiration’ or ‘creative journaling’ also pretty similar to bullet journals. Most of these are getting more than 5m searches. Which is a pretty good volume for keywords.

When you scroll further down you can find bullet journaling as a keyword with 5m+ searches!

So you can click on the “+” sign next to the keyword and it will automatically add on to your keyword lists. Thus you have all your keywords in place!

The third way I want to talk about which you probably are familiar with is the Pinterest search tab! I type in the same topics

You can see pretty similar keywords and you can also find some of the Pinterest accounts which are of that niche! You can also search in further to get Long Tail Keywords!

There you have it! So In this way you will never run out of topics to write!

4. Creating unattractive graphics

As Pinterest is a visual search engine creating visually appealing pins is crucial to gain traffic. As a best practice, you should only create vertical pins. Also, try to stick with Pinterest guidelines when creating Pins. Pinterest recommends a 2: 3 ration for the Pin dimensions. Essentially it means the image’s width is ⅔ its height. Here are the image dimensions Pinterest recommends!

You can always experiment with image sizes provided that it’s under 2:3 ration. Some of the dimensions I use for my pins are 564 × 1002 or 564 × 1128

5. Not using the right keywords on Pin description

Pin description is the most important factor to get for getting Pin impressions. In point number “3” above I have mentioned different ways, you can get tons of great keywords.

Another crucial mistake that most people make is keyword stuffing.

For instance, your pin is about ‘bullet journal ideas’ do not try to put all keywords at once: Bullet journal ideas, Bullet Journal Inspiration, Bullet journal doodles

Instead write : 10 creative bullet journal ideas for beginners!

6. Boring/unattractive images

As mentioned earlier since Pinterest is a visual search engine, images do play a crucial role in getting more clicks and repins and the overall look of the pin. I use Canva to design all my pins. I did use many of their stock photos. Canva has a decent amount of FREE Pictures but often I don’t find them attractive enough. When you use dull or unclear images for your pin they get very few clicks and repins. Often I see many other pins have the same image as mine. Which eventually brings down the pin’s ranking!

Last month I upgraded to Canva Pro and I already see my click-through rates have skyrocketed! and I am so glad that I am finally able to use the images that are unique!

The pin above is the one with stock images while the pin below is the picture from Canva pro! The first pin hardly has any clicks! The second pin has 59 and I still get traffic from that pin!

If you would like to create unique pins like this you can have a 30 day free trial of Canva pro to have access to their 20,000+ premium templates, fonts, and images! START YOUR TRIAL

7. Not creating relevant Personal Boards

I have seen many bloggers concerned about not having enough group boards. But in the recent Pinterest marketing 2020, having high performing Pinterest boards is fundamental to get engagements. This doesn’t necessarily mean gorp boards! if you don’t have enough personal boards yet create at least 5 of them! Get as many keywords as you can from your niche and make them your personal boards. This is much more time-saving. I do have many group boards but I am not pinning to most of them since the engagements are very low.

8. Not pinning on peak times

The best way to gain more engagements on your pins is to pin when your audience is active on Pinterest. There isn’t any specific time zone I can recommend. I use a scheduler-Tailwind- for this purpose. I get most of my visitors between 2 am- 6 am CET. Tailwind automatically detects the best time to Pin so I don’t have to worry about my pinning schedule!

9. Not creating more pins for your blog posts

How many pins should you create per blog post? Well, I don’t think there is an appropriate answer. For me, more pins mean more conversion rates. You can’t just make two or three pins and expect it to be viral. I always end up making a minimum of ten pins for my blog posts (or up to 20 for my popular posts). Because keep in mind that Pinterest favors fresh pins!

And I know this can be overwhelming because writing posts and designing pins are a hell of a lot of work. So for those who don’t have time to create tons of pins, purchasing Pinterest templates is a great option.

And guess what? having created thousands of pins myself I can help you create click-worthy pins. Head over to my page to know more about the Pin creation service!

10. Not Exploring New Designs

If you are new to creating pins you might be confused about the Pinterest pins designs. The first thing you should keep in mind that there is no particular design that can get you more clicks. You’ve to experiment with designs. Explore popular Pinterest design from your niche. The idea is not to” copy” those designs but to try to “learn” the basic designing skills! Try to create some new designs every week and see how they perform.

11. Not paying attention to your Pinterest analytics

Constantly analyzing your Pinterest analytics can go a long way in your Pinterest growth. Use your analytics to gather information such as “top boards” and “Pins”. 

Checking the analytics is pretty straightforward! Click on the overview from the Analytics tab

Then you will reach a page like this! You can already see the graph of the impression in this but you can get many more data if you click on the drop-down button!

You can see you can have many more data !

If you scroll down you can get the further analytics of your boards! These are the best performing boards(personal and group boards) from your Pinterest account!

Next, you can have a look at your “top-performing pins”. This can further help you understand which pin design gets you more clicks!

Below is the screenshot of my best performing boards!

When you create pins this is where you should pin your pins to these high performing boards!

12. Not sharing other people’s pin

Although I wouldn’t say you should be following an 80/20 principle for pinning (other pins/own pins) you should always repin others pins from your niche. Essentially Pinterest is a platform that favors repinning so you shouldn’t be only pinning your own content. 

When you repin others’ content click on the link to be sure that pin is indeed linked to the relevant blog posts. For example, if the pins are about “10 skincare mistakes” and the link goes to an unknown website with irrelevant posts, do not repin! Also, I have seen pins that are linked to a home page instead of a blog post. Which is also a big no! 

13. Not seeking expert advice

This is one of the mistakes I made when I started.

I had no clue about blogging or social media marketing (I wasn’t even a regular Pinterest user). But I was under the impression that I could find everything online for free, through Youtube or Podcasts. While I wouldn’t dismiss the fact that you can learn a lot through Youtube or Podcasts, to tackle all of these learning can take a lot of time. And trust me if you have been blogging for months and you still don’t see any results, it’s seriously disheartening. I was often frustrated when I see single digits visitors on my blog! It seemed like a hell lot of work without any results! 

To avoid these, I’d highly you taking a Pinterest course or hiring a Pinterest manager.

For bloggers or small business owners, the first option would be the best. I personally didn’t want to spend money on Pinterest managers so I went ahead and took the best course available at an affordable price. And it was a game-changer! I had several Viral pins and still getting significant traffic.

So I highly recommend this course!

 I also find Skillshare one of the underrated online learning platforms for bloggers. You don’t have to pay for separate courses! For a yearly fee, you can get tons of courses! I’d definitely recommend giving it a try if you haven’t already! You can have a 60 -day FREE Trial to take unlimited courses related to blogging and Pinterest! Take your Trial here!

And if you are someone who doesn’t want to take a course and don’t mind a rather slow blogging journey I would say this podcast from Pinterest Expert Kate Ahl can be a great help! 

Time for your action:

I hope you have found these tips helpful! Have you made any of these mistakes? Let me know in the comments !

Always curious to hear from you!

YBF