Pinterest for Beginner Bloggers

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Pinterest is a blogger’s best friend.

When it comes to website traffic Pinterest is my number one traffic source!

A powerful, visual, search engine that people go to just searching for all things DIY, recipe, fashion, travel and more!

I’m sure you have heard of Pinterest, if you aren’t already an avid pinner!

Let’s talk about a few key Pinterest basics for bloggers.

Pinterest for Beginner Bloggers

When it comes to utilizing Pinterest as a blogger you need to think of the platform as the powerful search engine that it is.

People go to Pinterest to search for all sorts of things!

And since you’ll be utilizing Pinterest to drive traffic to your blog you are going to want to optimize your Pinterest account.

Optimizing your Pinterest Account

Whether you already have an account or are starting a new one you need to optimize your account.

From your profile, bio, boards, board descriptions and pins you want to have a cohesive keyword strategy.

This lets Pinterest (specifically it’s algorithm) know what your about and provides it the information it needs to pull your pins up in people’s search results.

Keyword Strategy

Employ an overall keyword strategy. Your bio, board titles, and board descriptions all need to use keywords related to your niche.

Similarly you’ll want to use keywords in all of your pin titles and descriptions as well.

Keywords tell Pinterest what your account, boards and pins are about.

Remember Pinterest is a search engine. In order to deliver your pins in searches keywords are essential.

A strong profile and bio

Be clear about who you serve and what your niche is. Your bio communicates what type of content people can expect if they follow you.

It will not only help people decide if they should follow you, it will also help Pinterest decide to deliver your content to people when searching for information you post about.

This is what my Pinterest bio used to say: ✨ Inspiring women to pursue joyful lives. Follow for Blogging Resources, Canva Templates + Goal Setting tips! Connect on Instagram: @naomikirons ✨

Cute right?

But not strategic.

Here’s my updated bio: Blogging, design and productivity tips to help newbie bloggers reach your dreams. Follow for Blogging Resources, Canva Tutorials + Goal Setting tips! Connect on Instagram: @naomikirons

Our goal is to inform Pinterest and our followers of the content that we deliver. The more clear we can be on this the more likely people will follow us and Pinterest will deliver our pins in people’s searches.

Boards, descriptions and pins

Every board title, board description, pin title, and pin description should contain keywords.

Here’s the anatomy of a solid keyword structure.

Let’s use this post as an example: How to Start a New Blog in 2023

Board Title: Blogging for Beginners

Board Description: Blogging tips for Beginners. Helpful advice for new bloggers. The best tips to start your new blog.

Pin Title: How to Start a Blog for Beginners [in 2023]

Pin Description: Want to know how to start a blog in 2023. Get all the best blogging for beginners tips and advice to start your new blog. This step by step guide will teach you everything you need to know about starting a blog.

Everything in your titles and descriptions informs Pinterest what your content is about. Since our goal is for Pinterest to show people our pins to get traffic to our blog we need to intentionally write strategy driven copy.

Create a Business Account

You have two options. You can turn your personal account into a business account or you can start a new business account.

I turned my personal account into a business account. Depending on how long you’ve had an account it may be easier to start a new business account.

Starting a new account means you can optimize it from the start without having to go through and edit your existing account.

You definitely want a business account so you can claim your website and get all the analytics and insights about your account!

You can read all about getting a business account and how to set it up on Pinterest’s website.

Claiming your domain

Once you have set up your business account, claim your website domain.

Claiming your site is key since it will provide analytics on pins from that url!

Any pins created with your domain, whether you pin them or someone else pins them will have your bio photo and a follow button for your Pinterest account!

Pinterest will walk your through each set of claiming your domain, but it can get a bit technical as you have to verify your domain.

If you get stuck Pinterest has a help page for claiming your website.

You’ll have two options, to verify by uploading an HTML file to your website or adding a DNS record to your domain host.

When you are new to blogging those can both sound intimidating.

Thankfully there are WordPress plugins for uploading an HTML file to your site. I recommend this option. I use a plugin called WPCode to insert HTML code into the header of my website without having to mess with the technical side of doing through my host and cpanel.

If you any questions at all please ask in the comments!

Set up Rich Pins

Setting up rich pins can also be a little bit technical, but it’s worth having rich pins as they add the headline, description and author from your website.

You have to have a business account first so don’t skip that step.

Pinterest walks you through the process and their guide is the best one I’ve found to get my rich pins connected!

Read this article by Pinterest to get step by step instructions on setting up your rich pins.

If you’re still struggling to set up your rich pins, check out this in depth article by Rank Math!

⬆️ Learn the 3-step system that shows you click-by-click how to get more traffic, more subscribers and more sales for FREE with Pinterest. ⬆️

Have a Pinterest Strategy

Having a strong Pinterest strategy is very important as a blogger. There are entire courses devoted to pinning strategies! I recommend checking out Nadalie Bardo’s amazing course, Pinterest Popular, if you want to really leverage Pinterest for your blog!

Like most platforms Pinterest has evolved over the years and continues to evolve. Unfortunately there’s no cookie cutter strategy for Pinterest. The point is to have a strategy and employ it.

Here’s a quick look into my current Pinterest strategy once I publish a blog post.

Pinterest Strategy Step One:

Immediately share and Pin to Pinterest – for every post I write I create at least three pinable images in Canva to include in my blog post.

Pinterest Strategy Step Two:

Schedule a Pin in Pinterest to post the next day. I love that Pinterest lets you schedule your posts in advance!

To schedule a pin, navigate to “create” in the top navigational menu and select “create pin.”

You can add your image, select your board to pin it to, add a pin title, pin description, alt text, link and choose a date and time to publish it.

Pinterest Strategy Step Three:

Schedule another Pin in Pinterest to post in 7 days. For steps one through three I use a different pin image each time to post three different pin images to Pinterest.

Pinterest prefers fresh pins so each time you pin an image for a blog post link I recommend using a different image.

Pinterest Strategy Step Four:

Add my Pins to Tailwind group boards.

Here’s where creating 3-4 pinable images and using them in your blog post comes in very handy. Not only do I have images to create visual appeal in my post, I’ve created them as highly pinable images that are formatted for Pinterest. This makes them super easy for me and for my readers to share them!

For even more insight into creating a powerful pinning strategy I highly recommend checking out Pinterest Popular.

xoxo Naomi

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