In the quest for more website traffic, you’ve likely investigated SEO, advertising, Instagram, Facebook, blogging, link building and more – but this may be the first time you’ve considered the traffic-driving potential of Pinterest.
If so, you’re not alone.
According to a study conducted by Social Media Examiner in 2018, only 27 per cent of marketers are using Pinterest. What?!
Is it true when they say Pinterest only works for wedding planners and cupcake recipes – or have 27 per cent of marketers realised something the others haven’t, namely that Pinterest wants to send traffic to your site?
Pinterest exists to inspire people to get out and do, and it works. Research has shown that 90 per cent of ‘Pinners’ get ideas on what to buy from the platform and with 265 million monthly users, that’s a lot of people looking to buy.
For a long time, Pinterest was the number-two driver of social referral traffic after Facebook; however, in the past year, Pinterest traffic has overtaken Facebook traffic. It can take some time Pinning consistently to see substantial results but the time you spend on Pinterest pays off for months years to come.
Did you know that a Facebook post starts losing effectiveness after about 24 minutes and will disappear from newsfeeds forever in under 12 hours? By comparison, a Pin can stay relevant for up to 3.5 months. Given that you can re-share content at sensible intervals, it’s possible to make a Pin last forever.
To drive traffic from Pinterest to your site, you must figure out how your products or services can improve the lives of potential consumers in a meaningful way.
Here are some key strategies:
Use keywords wisely – The words you use on Pinterest can be as powerful as the images you share. Pinterest uses language to determine how to distribute your Pin. Keywords are particularly relevant but planning keywords for Pinterest is different to Google.
On Google, people are more likely to be ready to act right away so “wicker patio dining set” makes perfect sense. For Pinterest, they may be seeking ideas so “patio inspiration” might be a good angle to try.
Hashtags can also help your content surface more quickly so in this example, you would include #patioinspiration in the description.
Save content to relevant boards – Save your content to all relevant boards but tell Pinterest what is most representative of the content with that very first Pin.
Choose quality over quantity – Scheduling a few quality Pins each day with a focus on compelling images, keyword-rich descriptions and a strong call to action is always better than 100 hastily-Pinned images.
Pinterest looks for signals from followers to decide how much distribution a Pin will get, so share only content that is relevant to your audience and always focus on your own content first. It’s nice to support others but that won’t help your traffic!
Tweak and plan your content for Pinterest – Use in built Pinterest tools to tweak your content so that it is encouraging and empowering to your followers.
Visit Analytics > Profile in the main menu then click on “Link clicks” to see the Pins that get the most clicks.
If you’re Pinning other people’s content, you’ll get a great idea of what’s popular. Is there a topic that you haven’t covered that appears over and over?
Make it easy for others to Pin – Every blog post and product page on your site should have a great image and Pinterest’s ‘Save’ widget to make it easy for people to share your content with just one click.
Design Pins specifically for more traffic – Pinterest looked at 25 elements of 21,000 Pins to learn what goes into Pins that drive discovery/awareness, email sign-ups, online sales and offline sales. The most traffic-driving Pins included tasteful logo placement, clear use of text overlay and striking visuals. They also called out unique features where relevant, like ‘new’, focused directly on the product or service and clearly showed how to use the product or service. Finally, images used a vertical format (2:3 ratio or 600×900 pixels).
These specific features can improve your Pin results; however, there’s always going to be an element of art to creating great Pins.
A Pin that resonates emotionally with Pinners and feels relevant to the brand is the one that will succeed.
In conclusion, if Pinterest isn’t yet part of your traffic-building plan, you’re missing out.
By tapping into the desire of Pinners to be inspired, you can massively increase your website traffic – so get started today.