Pinterest for Blogging Ultimate Guide – The Best Tips & Tools for How to Use Pinterest to Drive Traffic to Your Blog

by | March 2020 | 20 comments

Are you a blogger or want to start blogging? Then you need to be using Pinterest for blogging to drive traffic to your blog!

If youโ€™re not familiar with Pinterest or think of it as just another social media channel, you might want to sit down for what Iโ€™m about to tell youโ€ฆ

Pinterest is the HIGHEST source of traffic for my site as it is for many other bloggers.

If you donโ€™t have a blog yet and would like to start one, hereโ€™s a step-by-step blog set-up guide you can follow.

Or you can take my FREE 7-Day Blog Launch Email Course for even more helpful info for starting a blog.

Now, Iโ€™ll be honest and tell you that I am in no way an expert on Pinterest for blogging. Iโ€™m still trying to figure out the magic Pinterest formula myself.

But Iโ€™ll share what Iโ€™ve learned so far to help you get started in the right direction with Pinterest for blogging.

If youโ€™re not familiar with Pinterest or youโ€™ve only been using it for personal use, itโ€™s time to put Pinterest to work for you!

For more info about how to use Pinterest to drive traffic to your blog, keep reading. Weโ€™ve got A LOT of ground to cover!

Here are the Pinterest for Blogging topics Iโ€™m going to discuss in this post:

Ultimate Guide for How to Use Pinterest for Blogging to Drive Traffic to Your Blog #pinterestforblogging #pinterestforblogtraffic #pinteresttips #blogtraffic

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Why You Should Be Using Pinterest for Blogging

So Iโ€™m guessing youโ€™ve at least heard of Pinterest. You may have even used it for finding recipes (#guilty), DIY crafts, trip ideas, or planning an event. But what else is Pinterest good for, and why should you be using Pinterest for your blog?

Believe it or not, Pinterest is for so much more than just finding recipes! Unlike social media, Pinterest is actually a visual search engine. Think of it like Google with images. You can find pretty much anything on Pinterest! In fact, itโ€™s one of the best places to get your blog and blog posts found by people.

Wanna know the best part? Itโ€™s free to use! And on top of that, Pinterest has more than 335 million users every month according to Pinterest Business. To elaborate, check out Hootsuiteโ€™s article with 28 Pinterest Statistics Marketers Should Know in 2020.

So yeahโ€ฆ back to the 335 million users. Whoah! Did that just blow your mind too? That means that there are millions upon millions of people on Pinterest. And theyโ€™re looking for helpful, valuable, and inspiring information to solve their problems and improve their lives.

You can harness the power of Pinterest for blogging and tap into the massive user-base by providing that info to them. Pinterest is a blog traffic powerhouse and should definitely be part of your marketing strategy!

All About Pinterest

In case youโ€™re not familiar with Pinterest or how it works, let me give a brief introduction. As I mentioned before, Pinterest is essentially a visual search engine. In fact, Pinterest calls itself a โ€œvisual discovery engine.โ€ Same thing.

You can use Pinterest to discover, save, and share information from the web using images and videos known as โ€œPins.โ€ Pinterest describes Pins as โ€œideas that people on Pinterest create, find, and save from around the web.โ€

Clicking through a Pin will take you to the Pinโ€™s source (the website for it) where you can get more information about the Pin. You can also save Pins to your โ€œBoardsโ€ by clicking on the red Save button and choosing a Board where you want the Pin to live.

Boards are like files you create and name to keep all your Pins organized and easy to find. Think of Pinterest like digital cork boards you pin magazine clippings to for information or inspiration.

As a blogger, you can (and definitely should) use Pinterest to promote your blog and drive blog traffic. With Pins linking to information on your blog, youโ€™ll be able to get blog traffic from Pinterest.

But to do that, youโ€™ll need to create eye-catching and click-worthy Pins utilizing keywords to drive traffic to your blog posts and pages. Weโ€™re going to cover all that with the Pinterest tools and tips Iโ€™m going to share with you.

Tools to Use for Pinterest for Blogging

Now that you have a basic understanding of what Pinterest is and how it works, letโ€™s talk about Pinterest for blogging tools. These tools will help you create better Pins, improve your Pinning schedule, and ultimately drive more traffic to your blog:

Tool #1 โ€“ Depositphotos

Depositphotos is a premium, paid stock photo site. You can use free stock photos from sites like Unsplash, Pixabay, or Pexels. However, if youโ€™re looking for something specific, you may have more or better options using a paid stock photo site.

Also, you may get better results with your pins on Pinterest using paid stock photos that arenโ€™t used by everyone like the free ones. After all, Pinterest is a visual search engine.

If youโ€™re using a free stock photo of a laptop for a pin about blogging that someone else happened to use for a pin about wedding planning, Pinterest might get confused about what the pin is actually about.

Your Pin could end up being shown to the wrong (bridal) audience. Just something to think about and a great reason to try using paid stock photos to see if that gets you better results with your Pinterest pins.

Creative Market Banner

Tool #2 โ€“ Creative Market

Creative Market is a great site to find all kinds of creative resources for Pinterest, such as Pin templates, fonts for your Pins, high-quality stock photos, Lightroom presets to edit photos, and more!

In fact, I got one of the fonts I use from Creative Market. Itโ€™s great to be able to support independent creators. And they even offer free goods of the week, so be sure to sign up!

Tool #3 โ€“ Canva

I donโ€™t know how I got by trying to design anything before Canva. This free online graphic design tool makes designing graphics for your website or social media a joy!

I use Canva to create featured images for my blog posts, Pin graphics for my blog posts to Pin to Pinterest, and more. Itโ€™s definitely one of my fave blogging tools especially for Pinterest for blogging!

Itโ€™s easy to use and the pre-made templates are super handy! You could say Iโ€™m a die-hard Canva fan. Iโ€™ve tried other free graphic design tools, but theyโ€™re just not as user-friendly or they donโ€™t have as many design options. Iโ€™ll be sticking with Canva!

Canva is perfect for creating eye-catching and click-worthy Pins. Use Canvaโ€™s Pin templates that are already properly sized for Pinterest and ready to customize. You can also get free Canva Pin Templates from Tailwind.

Thereโ€™s also a Pro version to kick your design level up a notch. With Canva Pro, you can upload your own fonts like the ones you get from Creative Market. Youโ€™ll also get access to thousands of premium photos you can use for your Pins!

Sign up here to try Canva Pro FREE for 30 days!

Tool #4 โ€“ Tailwind

If you donโ€™t want to spend all day every day Pinning on Pinterest to try to get people to visit your blog, I recommend using Tailwind to schedule your Pins and automate your Pinning for blogging.

In addition to saving time with bulk scheduling Pins, Tailwind also has other super helpful tools, such as Tribes, interval scheduling, Board Lists, and more. Thereโ€™s also a new SmartGuide feature that helps safeguard against spamming and provides recommendations for improving your strategy to make the most of your Pinterest activity.

You canย use Tailwind for freeย with the Free Forever plan. Tailwind also offers a free Perfect Pinterest Pins Toolkit that includes Canva Pin Templates, a Pin Checklist, and Pin Descriptions Guide. Grab your free Perfect Pinterest Pins Toolkit here!

Tailwind Pricing and Plans

Sign up for a FREE Tailwind plan here!

To get an idea of results you may be able to expect by using Tailwind, check out Tailwindโ€™s annual Typical Results of Tailwind Members. This will show you what the average growth rate looks like for their members.

If you want to stick to manual Pinning or try a mixed strategy with both manual and scheduled Pinning, the Pinteresting Strategies Course is a huge help!

You may also like: The Best Gifts for Bloggers or Boss Babes That Theyโ€™ll Actually Use

Tool #5 โ€“ Pinteresting Strategies Course

Pinterest is one of those things Iโ€™ve spent countless hours researching. And I thought I had a good understanding of how to use Pinterest to drive traffic to my website. But after months of pitiful blog traffic numbers, I accepted the fact that maybe I didnโ€™t know as much as I thought. 

I needed help and finally decided to invest in the Pinteresting Strategies Course other bloggers were swearing by. I didnโ€™t know what it could possibly teach me that I didnโ€™t already know. 

Butโ€ฆ then I took the course and WHOAH! There was so much helpful information I had never even heard of or thought of before. And the course is super affordable. I highly recommend it if you want to use Pinterest for blogging!

Tool #6 โ€“ Pin Groupie

Group Pinterest boards were once all the craze for getting blog traffic from Pinterest. While group boards may not be as beneficial as they once were, it doesnโ€™t hurt to get more exposure for your pins. 

An easy way to find group boards to join is to use Pin Groupie. Just enter a niche or keyword to search, and itโ€™ll pull up the matching group boards as well as show you the number of board followers, contributors, and pins. 

Click on the board name to see the board description. Most will have instructions for how to be added to the group board as a contributor. But some group boards have a โ€œRequest to Joinโ€ buttons making it easy to join them. 

You can even filter the Pin Groupie results by โ€œRequest to Join Buttonโ€ in the Extras filter to specifically look for those group boards.

Tool #7 โ€“ Ubersuggest

Thereโ€™s more to blogging than just writing great content. The keywords you use are crucial for SEO (search engine optimization).  And the same goes for Pinterest SEO. Keywords are critical for getting your Pins seen by your target audience.

And you donโ€™t want to just use any keywords that pop into your head. You should research the best keywords to use. Researching keywords will help you discover which ones people are searching for. By using those particular keywords, your content has a better chance of being found.

Unlike many expensive and complicated keyword research tools, Ubersuggest is a free keyword research tool that is super simple to use. The straightforward data makes it easy to see which keywords would be helpful to use.

It shows you the average monthly search volume as well as the SEO difficulty score for the keywords you research. The SEO difficulty score tells you how hard it would be to rank for that keyword based on how competitive it is.

Ideally, you want keywords with a high search volume and low SEO difficulty score. That can be hard to achieve though, so aim for finding a good balance between the two.

Tool #8 โ€“ Pinterest Keyword Tool

The Pinterest Keyword Tool is another free tool for finding keywords with Pinterest. Just type in your topic, and it will generate popular keywords and phrases.

Monarch Social Sharing Plugin

Tool #9 โ€“ Monarch Social Sharing Plugin

You want to get your content shared on social media to grow your social media following and also increase traffic to your site. The Monarch social sharing plugin makes it easy for your site visitors to share your blog posts on Pinterest.

Monarch is included with the Divi Theme and integrates nicely with it, making it easy to have social sharing buttons throughout your site. The more people sharing your Pins for your blog posts, the better!

Tool #10 โ€“ Jetpack Plugin

The Jetpack Plugin is one of the free must-have Plugins I recommend for all self-hosted WordPress blogs. It has a lot of features, including being able to embed a Pinterest follow widget into your blog posts with the WordPress block editor like the one below. This shows your blog audience your Pinterest Pin feed and makes it easy for them to follow you on Pinterest!

Tool #11 โ€“ Yoast SEO Plugin

The Yoast SEO Plugin is another one of the free must-have Plugins I recommend. If youโ€™re not already using the Yoast SEO Plugin, youโ€™re going to want to start for an easy way to claim your website with Pinterest and apply for Rich Pins (more on both of those below).

For a detailed list of all the tools I use for blogging, check out The 60+ Best Blogging Tools You Need to Make You a Successful Blogger!

Tips for Using Pinterest for Blogging to Drive Traffic to Your Blog

With all the awesome Pinterest tools above, let me give you some tips to implement them and make the most of Pinterest for blogging.

Tip #1 โ€“ Keywords

It might seem like Iโ€™m getting ahead of myself here. But keywords are crucial for Pinterest, so letโ€™s start with them. Since Pinterest is a search engine, using keywords is a must for Pinterest SEO (search engine optimization). Just like using keywords in your blog posts for SEO is important, the same goes for using keywords with Pinterest.

To figure out the best keywords to use, youโ€™ll need to research keywords that are relevant to your blog niche, the topics youโ€™ll be writing about, and your target audience. You can do this with the Pinterest Keyword Tool, Ubersuggest, or a standard Google search.

You can also research keywords with Pinterest by searching a word or phrase and seeing what Pinterest auto-populates. Use the keywords you select for Pinterest SEO by including them in your profile, Pin titles, Pin descriptions, and Board descriptions (more on all those coming up).

Pinterest for Blogging Keyword Search with Pinterest
Pinterest for Blogging Keyword Search with Pinterest

Tip #2 โ€“ Business Account

Pinterest is free to use, and you have the option of a personal or business account. But you definitely want a business account if youโ€™re using Pinterest for blogging! The benefits of a business account versus a personal account include access to analytics, Rich Pins (more on them below), and the ability to advertise your Pins. You can find out all about how to get a Pinterest Business account here.

You can create a new business account or upgrade an existing personal account to a business one. But you may be better off starting with a brand new business account. If you upgrade your account from personal to business, you might need to clean up your Boards so they reflect your brand, niche, and ideal audience. More on this below in Board Optimization.

Tip #3 โ€“ Rich Pins

You definitely want to use Rich Pins for the extra information they show above and below the Pin. With Rich Pins, Pinterest shows more info about the blog post your Pin links to and uses a bold headline that stands out from other Pins. For more info from Pinterest about Rich Pins, see here. And take a look at these examples of a Rich Pin versus a regular Pinโ€ฆ

Rich Pin

Pinterest Rich Pin Example

Regular Pin

Pinterest Regular Pin Example

To be able to use Rich Pins, youโ€™ll first need to apply to get them enabled. Pinterest states: โ€œWhen your site is enabled for Rich Pins, all content that contains correct meta tags on your site will start appearing as Rich Pins when added to Pinterest. Existing Pins that link back to pages with rich meta tags will also start appearing as Rich Pins.โ€

Applying to enable Rich Pins for your site can seem complicated. But luckily, the Yoast SEO Plugin makes it super easy. Hereโ€™s a helpful article with the steps to apply for Rich Pins using the Yoast SEO Plugin: How To Easily Install Rich Pins On Pinterest.

You may also like: 10 Free Essential Plugins to Use for Your WordPress Blog

Tip #4 โ€“ Profile Optimization

Pinterest profiles are often overlooked and underutilized. Put your Pinterest profile to work for you! First, claim your website with Pinterest. The easiest way to do this is with the Yoast SEO Plugin. Hereโ€™s a tutorial to claim your website on Pinterest using the Yoast SEO Plugin: How To Claim Your Website On Pinterest.

You also want to optimize your Pinterest profile by including your keywords in both your profile name and your โ€œAboutโ€ section. For your profile name, you can use your name and/or the name of your blog with a few keywords added at the end. For example, my profile name is โ€œNext Destination Unknown | RVing, Travel, Hiking + Bloggingโ€. You can use up to 65 characters for your profile name, so make those characters count!

You should use keywords in the โ€œAboutโ€ section of your profile too. You can only use 160 characters here, so be strategic with your keywords. Briefly explain what you do and how you can help others.

While youโ€™re at it, include a call-to-action to get people to visit your website. For example, offer a freebie to encourage people to visit the landing page on your website and sign up for the freebie. This gets visitors to your blog and increases your number of email subscribers. Win-win!

Hereโ€™s what my profile currently says (I change it up from time to time): โ€œBlogging about RVing, Travel, Blogging + Travel Blogging | Helping others start their Travel Blog + hit the road RVing | FREE Blog Launch Course: bit.ly/3cP3nVcโ€. I include a URL to my Free Blog Launch Course.

Youโ€™ll also want to upload a recognizable photo or logo for your blog. A photo of yourself may do better than a logo as itโ€™s more personal and people like seeing whoโ€™s behind the brand. But itโ€™s up to you. Just be sure that people can associate the photo with your blog and brand.

Tip #5 โ€“ Board Optimization

You need to create topic-specific Boards. If you have a travel blog, you donโ€™t want to have boards for recipes and DIY crafts. Stay on topic. You can still save those Pins. But save them to Secret Boards you create for personal content thatโ€™s not relevant to your target audience. That way only you will see those Pins and Boards.

And as tempting as it may be, do NOT give your Boards cutesy, clever, or creative names. Instead, give them clear and specific titles so theyโ€™re search-friendly. For example, instead of โ€œMade for Me Shades,โ€ use โ€œSunglasses for Your Face Shape.โ€ People arenโ€™t going to search for the first option, but they will search for the latter.

Be sure to use keywords in your Board titles and descriptions. This helps people find your Boards. It also helps Pinterest understand what the Pins in those Boards are about so it can determine who to show them to. SEO, baby!

Always give your Boards a description using keywords and choose the most relevant category for each Board. You can also create a Board specifically for your blog content and make it your featured board. The title of my featured blog Board is โ€œNextDestinationUnknown.com,โ€ and it includes all the Pins for my blog content. You can also use the Board for your blog content as your Profile Cover.

Tip #6 โ€“ Pin Optimization

Pins are the foundation of Pinterest so you want to make sure you optimize them as much as possible. Pins include an image, title, description, and destination URL. By now, Iโ€™m sure you realize the importance of keywords with all things Pinterest. So be sure to include keywords in your Pin title as well as the description.

You can even use keywords as hashtags in your Pin descriptions. Most people recommend only using a few (around 3) hashtags per Pin rather than stuffing your Pin description with them. You can also include a call-to-action, such as โ€œdiscover,โ€ โ€œsign up,โ€ โ€œget yours,โ€ โ€œclick hereโ€, or โ€œdownload.โ€ This will encourage people to take action with your Pins and increase their conversion rate.

Titles, descriptions, and hashtags all help with getting your Pin discovered in the search results. Keep in mind that Pin titles can be up to 100 characters and descriptions can use up to 500 characters.

Something else important to be aware of is that Pinterest draws information from the imageโ€™s file name. So donโ€™t use the default โ€œIMG_1234.jpgโ€ name as your Pin imageโ€™s file name. Rename it to something relevant for the Pin using keywords.

And be sure to include the correct destination link for the Pin. When people click on a pin, it redirects them to the URL specified for that Pin or the Pinโ€™s source. Where do you to redirect people to when they click on your Pin? You donโ€™t want one of your recipe Pins to take visitors to a blog post about baby showers.

Tip #7 โ€“ Pin Images

Use a graphic design tool like Canva to create eye-catching and click-worthy Pins. First up, letโ€™s talk about Pin size. For Pin graphics, you want to use a vertical layout. Pinterest recommends a 2:3 aspect ratio such as 1,000 x 1,500 pixels. If your pin is too long, it may get cut off (not a good look).

Luckily, Canva has customizable Pinterest Pin templates that are already sized at 1,000 x 1,500 pixels (score!). You can also get free Canva Pin Templates from Tailwind. And Canva has tons of free photos you can use for your Pin images. But like I mentioned earlier, you might get better results with your Pin images using paid stock photos from sites like Depositphotos rather than using free stock photos.

Also, use easy-to-read text on your Pins including text overlays to emphasize your message. You might want to get super creative with the text or graphics, but try to refrain. Keep it simple with bold, large, and clear fonts. Keep in mind that most people look at Pinterest on their phones. So you want to make sure the text you use is legible on a small mobile screen.

For more details about designing Pins, check out Pinterestโ€™s Creative Best Practices guide.

Tip #8 โ€“ Multiple Pins

You can create many different Pins for the same link (blog post, page, or product). There are several reasons to do this. Most importantly, it will maximize your reach on Pinterest. Fresh Pins tend to perform better than duplicate Pins. This is because Pinterest loves new content, even if itโ€™s just a new Pin for an old blog post.

You can generate fresh Pins for existing content by creating different versions of a Pin. That could be new images, titles, descriptions, colors, or even layouts to see what Pin designs resonate best with your audience.

Pay attention to which Pins get the most engagement. Then use that information when designing future Pins to make similar Pins and try to re-create successful results. Here are multiple Pins I created for this post:

The Ultimate Guide to Pinterest for Blogging - How to Use Pinterest to Drive Traffic to Your Blog
Ultimate Guide for How to Use Pinterest for Blogging to Drive Traffic to Your Blog #pinterestforblogging #pinterestforblogtraffic #pinteresttips #blogtraffic
The Ultimate Guide to Pinterest for Blogging with Pinterest Tips and Tools to Drive Traffic to Your Blog

You should create new Pins on a regular basis. New Pins for brand new content is the best versus new Pins for old content. But creating new and multiple Pins for the same content can be beneficial. You just donโ€™t want to go overboard with them.

Pin to your most relevant Board first. For consecutive Pinning, only Pin to appropriate Boards and no more than 10 boards per Pin. Also, use an interval of at least several days between Pinning the same Pin. Donโ€™t spam and risk getting your Pinterest account shut down. Tailwind can help you with this, but keep reading for how often to Pin and Best Practices for Pinterest.

Tip #9 โ€“ Quality over Quantity

Focus on quality over quantity when using Pinterest for blogging. You should Pin thoughtfully and with purpose. Donโ€™t Pin just to Pin. Pin high-quality Pins that provide value. Keep that front and center in your mind when youโ€™re creating content and Pins for that content. Also, think about it when youโ€™re re-Pinning other peopleโ€™s Pins.

What message are you trying to get across with your Pins? And how will they help your audience? When youโ€™re designing a Pin or re-pinning someone elseโ€™s Pin, ask yourself what value the Pin and the information it links to will provide for your audience.

You want people to see you as an expert in your niche and source of helpful information. Valuable content and Pins will help you get there. And that will help you grow your Pinterest followers, increase engagement with your Pins, and in turn help you grow your blog traffic. Itโ€™s all related!

Tip #10 โ€“ Be Consistent

This is a big one (maybe even tying with keywords for the most important tips). Pinterest likes and rewards consistency because it wants you to be active on the platform. Engage with Pinterest and your Pins will likely be seen by more people and have better engagement. #quidproquo

Consistency is key, so you need to Pin consistently. Youโ€™re better off Pinning 10 Pins a day every day rather than Pinning 70 Pins once a week. For the best results, you need to Pin actively EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

That may seem overwhelming or even impossible. Who has time for that, right?! Thatโ€™s where Tailwind comes in. Scheduling Pins with Tailwind can help you Pin consistently. It can also help you Pin during your peak times for engagement.

What if youโ€™re on the East Coast but you have a large audience on the West Coast whoโ€™s on Pinterest at midnight when itโ€™s 3 in the morning for you? You can schedule Pins for that time with Tailwind and be Pinning in your sleep!

*For helpful BONUS TIPS to get started with Pinterest and optimize your Pinning strategy for the best results, be sure to download your FREE Pinterest for Blogging Checklist!

Pinning โ€“ How to Pin and How Often You Should Pin with Pinterest for Blogging

Now that weโ€™ve gone over tools and tips to use Pinterest for blogging, you might be wondering how to actually Pin and how often you should be Pinning. There are several different ways you can Pin something to Pinterest:

1. Upload an image or video directly to Pinterest

2. From your website or another website with the Pinterest โ€œPin Itโ€ button or browser extension

3. Re-Pinning from within Pinterest

4. With a Pin Scheduler like Tailwind

Also, check out Pinterestโ€™s guide for how to make Pins

As for how often you should be Pinning for your blog, Tailwind claims their โ€œmost successful members Pin around 15-25 Pins per day, so this is a good range to aim towards.โ€ Are you thinking, โ€œWhat if Iโ€™m just starting out and donโ€™t have any Pins of my own to Pin yet?โ€ No problem!

Using the keywords you researched and selected, create specific Boards for your blog niche and the topics youโ€™ll be writing about. When you create a new Board, Pinterest will show you suggested Pins for that Board. Fill your new Board with around 30 of the suggested Pins before you start Pinning your own Pins to that Board.

This will help prepare your new Boards by telling Pinterest what theyโ€™re about. Then when you start Pinning your own content to those Boards, theyโ€™ll be ready for your relevant Pins with internal keywords from Pinterest.

Initially, youโ€™ll be pinning other Pinnersโ€™ content more than your own. And thatโ€™s okay. But itโ€™s important to focus your energy on creating content for your blog to have your own Pins for your Boards. The more Pins you have, the more blog traffic you can potentially get from Pinterest!

If you are a brand new blogger and Pinner you can follow the 80/20 rule and Pin 80% other peopleโ€™s content while Pinning 20% of your own content. Then when you have more content, you can reverse those numbers by Pinning 80% of your own content and 20% of other peopleโ€™s content.

Even when you do have a lot of your own content to Pin, you still want to re-Pin other peopleโ€™s Pins. The key is Pinning quality content that will provide value to your audience. This will help Pinterest see your account as valuable and improve your ranking.

You can save time by batch scheduling those pins with Tailwind. Tailwind suggests the following pinning strategy: โ€œInstead of manually Pinning a new image to Pinterest first and then using Tailwindโ€™s extension to make several copies, upload the Pin to Tailwind first and schedule it to the most relevant boards at optimal times to maximize engagement.โ€

The Pinteresting Strategies Course I mentioned above is all about manual pinning. Many people believe that Pinterest rewards manual pinning because it wants you to be active on the platform. 

But manual Pinning can take a lot of time, and itโ€™s more difficult to keep track of what youโ€™ve Pinned and to which Boards. So Iโ€™ve been doing a combination of both scheduled and manual Pinning.

You may also like: The 60+ Best Blogging Tools You Need to Make You a Successful Blogger

How I Use Tailwind to Schedule My Pins to Pinterest for Blogging

I Pin the first Pin for my blog post to my most relevant Board first. I do this manually by Pinning from the blog post itself or by Pinning the Pin directly with Pinterest. Then I use Tailwind to schedule the same Pin to other Boards later.

Itโ€™s easy to schedule Pins to many different Boards at once using Tailwindโ€™s Board Lists feature. Board Lists are custom groups of your Boards that you create. You can then easily select the Board Lists you want to schedule your Pins to with Tailwind.

When you choose a Board List for a Pin, all the Boards in the List will be auto-populated for scheduling the Pin. This lets you quickly schedule Pins to your most common Boards with just one click.

It also helps you keep track of how many Boards youโ€™re Pinning each Pin to so you donโ€™t Pin it to more than 10 Boards. This helps to avoid spamming.

Another anti-spam feature I like to use with Tailwind is interval scheduling. I like to space out the same Pins for different Boards at least a few days apart so I donโ€™t overdo it and annoy my audience. Boo for spam, yay for Tailwind!

This technique helps fill in my recommended time slots with my Tailwind schedule. Scheduling with Tailwind helps keep me Pinning actively by automating my Pinning times. You can easily set up a weekly Pinning schedule with Tailwind to Pin at optimal times for your audience.

I also love using Tailwind Tribes to maximize my Pinsโ€™ reach. Tribes are one of my favorite features of Tailwind! Tribes are Tailwind communities of Pinners who share each otherโ€™s Pins. This helps get your Pins seen by more people with the audience of the Tribe members who share your Pins. Score!

If you donโ€™t want to spend all day every day pinning on Pinterest, I recommend using Tailwind. I also manually Pin when I think about it or get a chance (usually a few times a day for a few minutes each time). You can try a mixed Pinterest strategy like that. But ultimately I say do whatever keeps you Pinning consistently.

Best Practices for Using Pinterest for Blogging

Last but certainly not least, letโ€™s talk about best practices for using Pinterest for promoting your blog. The NUMBER ONE thing you can do to increase your Pinterest blog traffic is to create more fresh, high-quality content. Itโ€™s all about new content!

People donโ€™t want to keep seeing the same thing over and over again. They want new, exciting, and helpful information (with a new Pin graphic to go with it)! So what counts as new content?

New Pinterest content means a new image or video that hasnโ€™t been Pinned or seen on Pinterest before. Ideally, Pinterest wants new Pins for new blog posts, new site pages, new landing pages, new product listings, new opt-in freebies, etc.

But new Pinterest content could also be new Pin images for existing posts, products, or pages. You can create several different images that link to the same thing. Each of those Pins would be fresh content the first time theyโ€™re Pinned to Pinterest. The key is that the Pin image must be new to Pinterest. According to Tailwind:

Pinterestโ€™s algorithm favors content thatโ€™s relevant and timely, so creating more fresh Pins means more exposure for you to your followers, in usersโ€™ home feeds, and in search results โ€” helping you to maximize your reach and traffic potential on Pinterest.

โ€“ Tailwindโ€™s Pinterest Best Practices FAQ

If youโ€™re new to blogging and donโ€™t have much content to share yet, focus on creating content (i.e. writing blog posts) before you start promoting your blog on Pinterest.

The general rule of thumb has been to start with around 5-10 blog posts. The reason for that suggestion is to keep your site visitors on your website longer. It also helps your blog from looking like itโ€™s brand new.

But now that Pinterest is weighing new content so heavily and prioritizing new Pins over duplicates, itโ€™s vital to create new content! To see better results, you may want to have 20 blog posts or so before you start promoting your blog on Pinterest.

The more new content you create, the more new Pins youโ€™ll be able to create as well. The goal of all this new content is to encourage Pinners to engage with your Pins by saving your Pins and most importantly clicking on your Pins. Itโ€™s all about engagement!

With Pinterest, there are several different metrics for each Pin with the 3 main ones being Impressions, Saves, and Clicks. For bloggers, the most important Pin engagement is Clicks to drive traffic to their blogs. This is because we want people clicking through to our websites to increase our site traffic.

Wrapping Up Pinterest for Blogging

Well, that wraps it up! Thanks for sticking with me all the way to the end of my Pinterest for Blogging Ultimate Guide. That was a lot to cover, so letโ€™s do a quick recap of the key takeaways for using Pinterest for blogging:

  • Pinterest is a must for driving traffic to your blog!
  • Get a Pinterest business account, claim your website, and enable Rich Pins.
  • Focus on creating content for your blog, including blog posts, pages, and products.
  • Create must-click pins using high-quality images, easy-to-read text, a keyworded title and description, and a correct destination link.
  • Create multiple Pins for the same content but donโ€™t spam and Pin to too many Boards (no more than 10).
  • Pin consistently, and Pin new content often. Pinterest LOVES new pins, especially for brand new content!
  • Manual Pinning is great if you can do it consistently. But if thatโ€™s too much trouble for you or you simply donโ€™t have the time, a scheduler like Tailwind can be a lifesaver!
  • Be sure to download my free 30-point Pinterest for Blogging Checklist to get you set up on Pinterest and ready to start driving traffic to your blog with the power of Pins!

With all of that, youโ€™ll be well on your way to rocking Pinterest for blogging! Got questions about Pinterest? Ask away in the comments below! Iโ€™ll do my best to give you a helpful answer.

And if you found this information useful, please help a fellow blogger out and Pin this post to Pinterest! ๐Ÿ˜‰Thanks for your support!

Leave a question or comment HERE!

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The Ultimate Guide to Pinterest for Blogging with Pinterest Tips and Tools to Drive Traffic to Your Blog

The Ultimate Guide to Pinterest for Blogging - How to Use Pinterest to Drive Traffic to Your Blog
Pinterest for Blogging - Ultimate Guide for How To Drive Traffic to Your Blog with Pinterest
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Briana Nickas of Next Destination Unknown

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Hey there! I’m Briana, a blogger, hiker, traveller, RVer, photo-taker, and National Parks lover who is passionate about exploring the great outdoors while practicing clean living for a healthier lifestyle to continue doing the things I live for. My goal is to inspire others to live a life focused on wellbeing and wandering. Join me!

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20 Comments

  1. Sydney

    Thank you so much for this information about Pinterest! As a new blogger, Pinterest has been difficult to understand. I am going to use several of your strategies and tips. This is one of easiest guides I’ve seen so far!

    Reply
    • Briana Nickas

      Hi Sydney! Thanks for your comment! Pinterest can be challenging to navigate but it can also be super beneficial for bloggers. Iโ€™m so glad you found the information helpful. ๐Ÿ™‚

      Reply
  2. Nina Christy

    Great post. You cover a lot! Pinterest can be overwhelming for some but you broke it down in an easy to understand way. Thanks. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Reply
    • Briana Nickas

      Thanks so much, Nina! Thatโ€™s exactly what I was going for. ๐Ÿ™‚ I agree that Pinterest can be overwhelming, so I wanted to write an easy to understand guide for it. Iโ€™m glad you liked it!

      Reply
    • Briana Nickas

      Thanks, Nandita! Glad you enjoyed my content. Will do.

      Reply
  3. Lisa | Sassy Boss

    Lots of great info in this post! Iโ€™ve heard youโ€™ve got to be careful using Jetpack though, because it can slow down your site…

    Reply
    • Briana Nickas

      Thanks for checking out the post, Lisa! I’m not sure about Jetpack specifically slowing down sites. But yes, certain plugins (or too many plugins for that matter) can slow a site down. I use Jetpack and after making a few tweaks with my site was able to greatly improve my site speed. You can see what I did here: How to Drastically Improve Your WordPress Site Speed in case you’re curious.

      Reply
  4. Passion Paper

    Hey Briana!

    Wow, what a great article – so informative and easy to read.

    Also, thanks for the link to my blog post on how to claim your website on Pinterest. -> https://passionpaper.com/claim-website-pinterest-already-taken/

    I think it’s so amazing that you collect quality content from many different sources and share them with your readers.

    Have a wonderful day!
    Koko from Passion Paper

    Reply
    • Briana Nickas

      Hi Koko! I’m so glad you liked my post! I’m happy to share quality content from other bloggers. Your post about claiming a website on Pinterest is very informative and easy to follow. I’m sure my readers will find it helpful. ๐Ÿ™‚

      Reply
  5. Travelogged blogs

    Thank you so much for sharing ! It helped me a lot. I was watching a lot of YouTube tutorials about how exactly to drive traffic to my site using Pinterest but those were so confusing. This simplified the process foe me. Thanks a lot!

    Reply
    • Briana Nickas

      Pinterest can be overwhelming to try to navigate. I’m so glad you found my tutorial helpful and easy to understand!

      Reply
  6. Denise

    Thank you! There is so much good information here, and definitely things that are new to me!

    Reply
    • Briana Nickas

      Thanks, Denise! I’m thrilled that you were able to get some new info from this post about using Pinterest for blogging. ๐Ÿ™‚

      Reply
    • Briana Nickas

      Thank you! Glad you enjoyed the post. ๐Ÿ™‚

      Reply
  7. Nissa

    Great tools and information! This post is one point with so much information. Makes me want to go and do a refresher on my Pinterest boards and Keyword searches ๐Ÿ™‚

    Reply
    • Briana Nickas

      Thanks so much, Nissa! Hope these Pinterest for blogging tips help you with your boards and keywords. It’s probably about time I do some tweaking and updating with my Pinterest boards and keywords too. ๐Ÿ˜‚

      Reply
  8. KIMBERLY

    This is fantastic. I thought I would quickly glance at it and I’m only on #3 Tip-Canva and I just downloaded the Tailwind templates and I realized it will take time to absorb all of this. I’ve been using Tailwind, but haven’t watched all the helpful ideas. I never knew the templates were there. I’m so excited. I can’t wait to finish this post.

    Reply
    • Briana Nickas

      Thanks, Kimberly! I really wanted this Pinterest for Blogging post to be comprehensive with loads of useful info. So itโ€™s great to know that youโ€™ve found it helpful and are taking the time to really go through it. I hope youโ€˜re able to give some of the Pinterest tips and tools a try to grow your blog. Donโ€™t hesitate to reach out with any questions!

      Reply
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