Pinterest Beginner Basics for Bloggers – How to Gain FREE Targeted Traffic Right from the Start!
Pinterest is a beast to figure it out when you’re first starting out as a blogger so I’m just going to give you some of the basics here that I know is going to get you started off on the right foot. We get a lot of people in our Pajama Affiliates mastermind that ask if they should be using Pinterest, and I believe it would be to their advantage to use it.
It’s not like other social media platforms where you have to engage so much. It’s a bit more anonymous and easier to manage.
Pinterest is a platform where you can curate boards with the best content by a topic or category. It’s a very powerful VISUAL search engine that has the ability to drive traffic to your site. Because it’s search engine, it’s important to optimize your images, description and boards from the get-go. Good SEO is going to play a big factor in ranking in Pinterest if you want to gain FREE traffic….but don’t let that scare you, because it sounds harder than it is.
First, Let’s Get Set-Up!
Your Pinterest Name
Your Pinterest name can be your blog / brand name or your regular name. You can always change it if you think you messed up, so don’t stress.
Use a business account if you’re using your blog to make money (and most of us are right?) If you already have an account, you can change it to a business account, nothing is affected, you will just have access to the analytics and some other features.
Be sure to upload an image and fill in the description area too. We want to look legit – because we are!
Okay, are you all set up?!
Here’s the Beginner Basics for a Blogger Using Pinterest
1. Install Rich Pins
You want to use Rich Pins for Business because they are repinned much more frequently than pins that are not. Decide which type of Rich Pin is best for your blog and go from there. For me, it was article but for you it might be recipe.
There are 6 different types of Rich Pins to choose from; app, movie, recipe, article, product and place.
This is a Rich Pin
It’s got this fancy title at the top … oh la la…
It has nice big title at the top and the name of your blog below. If you’re wondering what that schedule button is about, just hold a bit longer and I will tell you about it, I promise 😉
2. Every Post Needs a Pin-Friendly Image!
When you’re writing a blog post, you want to always keep Pinterest in mind. You want to have AT LEAST ONE Pinterest friendly image for each post. I know you get tired at the end of the post and you just want to be done, but missing this could be leaving money all over the table.
Your Pinterest Images
Pinterest Image Size: Vertical (Tall) 735 x 1102 or 800 x 1600
Whoa! That’s huge right? Yes it is, and some blogs benefit from huge images, like mine. I tend to use the big images in my blog posts because on a mobile, they look fantastic! A lot of things are moving towards a more mobile friendly experience.
Whether you use an image the ideal Pinterest size or not IN THE POST is up to you. You can use a social share plugin that has a Pinterest friendly image area already built in. I use the image inside the post because I think it looks good on mobile and a lot of people like big pictures but it’s up to you.
Related Article: 7 Secret Pinterest Tips to Increase Your Traffic
3. Take Time Creating Your Image
Your Pinterest Pins should be a nice looking image that is the ideal size mentioned above.
referably, the image should have some sort of writing on it indicating what the pin is about – I like to use relevant keywords. If you have our beginners blogging course you know what I mean by relevant keywords. 😉
TIP: Research the best pins on Pinterest in your niche for ideas of what good pins look like.
I use an image editor like PicMonkey or Canva to create beautiful Pinterest images.
These image editors will allow you to create cool Pinterest images in the ideal size easily.
I use PicMonkey because I like the additional stickers, fonts and cool things it comes with.
I Love Canva – Check Out My Video!
Canva is also has a free version, the paid features are well worth it because they have a lot of stickers and icons to use. they also have a cool picture collage function I like too. Canva’s paid version costs $12.95 a month.
4. Use a Social Share Plugin!
You absolutely need to have a social share plugin so that people visiting your site can share your post easily to Pinterest (as well as Twitter, FB, G+ and whatever else you might want).
Your social share plugin should pick up the Pinterest-friendly image for you every time someone pins your post.
Side Note: How to Hide an Image in a Blog Post
Say you don’t want to have this giant image in your blog post but you still want to be able to pin it using your browser button?
There’s this handy code you can use in your text editor that will bury the image in the background of the post, it’s only accessible to those with the “Pin It” browser button and of course the bots crawling your site.
5. Use Relevant Keywords in Image File Names
Saving Your Pinterest Image – DO NOT MISS THIS!!!!!!
When you save your Pinterest image to your computer after editing it, it absolutely must have a relevant keyword name. Don’t name it something random and generic – give it a keyword specific name for the post it’s going to be in.
This way when you upload the image to your blog post, the keyword rich name in the image file helps your image get found by search engines (not just Pinterest).
Related Article: What You Need to Know About Images On Your Blog
6. Use Relevant Keywords in Pin Description
Please, please take the time to fill in a description for you pin.
Use keywords relevant to the blog post.
If you have our beginners blogging course you know what I mean by relevant keywords. 😉
7. Pin to Boards with Relevant Keyword Names
Your boards need to have relevant keyword names. Pins should be pinned on boards with relevant keyword names.
If you have a pork recipe pin for example, it should be on a pork recipe board, and perhaps a dinner board or something tightly relevant! You can pin to mulitple boards if the board name is relevant to the pin.
8. When to Use Pinterest
Pinning at the peak times is definitely the goal. Saturdays, Afternoons and Evenings! You want to pin when the most users are on the site. This will increase your chances of engagement on your pin (repins, likes, comments, etc).
You can use a service like tailwind to help you schedule your pins for optimal times OR you can just remember to pin your pin at the best times, its up to you.
Tailwind will let you schedule your pins at the peak opportune times.
Tailwind also has VERY EASY TO UNDERSTAND analytics and helps you optimize your Pinterest account for maximum exposure. If analytics confuse you, Tailwind is gonna be your best buddy!
Tailwind isn’t my thing anymore. I suggest learning a good manual re-pinning technique instead of using Tailwind.
9. Getting Repins as Newbie Pinner
You can join Repin groups on Facebook and post the URL of your pin in a thread to get repins.
What does that mean? There are groups on Facebook that will engage with your pin if you will engage with theirs. Each group has different rules, but here is an example thread from Facebook of what I mean (see image below). Simply do a search for some of them.
This is from the group I ♥ Pinterest – Share Your Pins!
This will give a new pin a sort of popularity boost in the beginning stages.
Free Traffic from Pinterest as a Newbie Blogger!
Free traffic, yes please! Newbies don’t need to be investing in paid advertising. Using Pinterest is something that can help you gain FREE targeted traffic to your blog as a beginner and also help you convert sales before you rank in Google. I definitely think it’s worth your time to invest some time to implement the basics mentioned above to give you a leg up as a newbie blogger. You’ll have the basic SEO steps in place which will give you a good foundation to start with.
Want to BEEF UP You Pinterest Knowledge?
What I have given you are the basic building blocks of a solid Pinterest account for a newbie blogger looking to start.
If you want to get some indepth training, Pot Pie Girl has her own guide to Pinterest Success that people are excited about.
It’s always good to invest in your business training and if you think you’re ready, her guide is perhaps your next step?
Like what you read?
Check our beginner blogging courses HERE!
Super Blogger Girl Image at Pixaby
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