Pinterest Traffic Strategy for Business

Is this the year you plan to turn your attention to Pinterest in order to generate more website traffic?

That’s a smart business move especially since business owners write the platform off as a place to find a dinner recipe or a DIY project.

Maybe this will be our little secret but Pinterest is a traffic powerhouse if you use it correctly.

And, since you’re going to learn how to drive traffic to your website, you’re really harnessing the power of Pinterest to grow the online real estate you own.

That friend is the smartest business decision you can make.

No more sweating over social media or burning out because you’re constantly creating NEW content with little results.

Learn how to use Pinterest for website traffic and watch your business grow.

Okay, let’s dive into the best tips for a solid Pinterest traffic strategy.

Why Your Business Needs A Pinterest Traffic Strategy

Just in case you’re still on the fence about using Pinterest as a traffic generation tool, let’s share some key statistics that will show you exactly why your business needs a Pinterest traffic strategy.

• 77.1% of Pinterest users are women (aka the purchase decision-makers).
• 89% of users are using Pinterest as a source of purchase inspiration.
• Pinterest users have millions of users in each age demographic – that means your audience IS on Pinterest.
• 77 of Pinterest users have discovered a new brand or product – and they’re open-minded to it!
• 97% of searches are unbranded.
• 64% of Pinterest users described the platform as a place to find ideas, products, or services they can trust.

(source)

So, now you know why your business needs to use Pinterest to gain more traffic but how exactly do you put together a Pinterest traffic strategy that actually gets results?

I’m going to teach you the foundational elements that go into a solid Pinterest marketing strategy.

Do these activities and Pinterest will send the traffic.

I say this with a bit of caution.

You’re going to need some patience – Pinterest marketing is your long-term strategy – account growth takes anywhere from 6 to 9 months. You need to roll up your sleeves and do the work in order to reap the benefits.

Trust me, it’s worth it.

If you’re looking to go viral or have results like yesterday, it won’t matter what type of Pinterest traffic strategy you have – it’ll end in frustration.

If you’re ready to do the work and put in the time, read on for what needs to be included in your Pinterest marketing traffic strategy.

What is Pinterest really?

In order to learn how to get traffic from Pinterest, you first need to understand what the platform is at its core.

Pinterest is a visual search engine – that means keywords drive the platform.

Pinterest is also an inspiration platform – which means its users are at the top of the sales funnel or customer journey – that first point of inspiration or realization of a problem that needs to be solved. That means they’re cold traffic which, as a business owner, gives you plenty of opportunities!

It’s also a discovery platform which means users are actively looking to find your services, content, products, and offers. Two out of three users say they use Pinterest to discover products, services, and new ideas. 98% of users report actually trying something that was found on Pinterest! (source)

That’s a whole lot of reasons to figure out your Pinterest traffic strategy!

How Pinterest Works

Set Up a Pinterest Business Account

The first step in a new Pinterest traffic strategy is to sign up for a business account. You could use your personal account but you won’t have access to analytics or the new Creators Hub – these are important to have so that you can track what is or isn’t working on your account.

Sign up here for a Pinterest business account.

If you to switch your personal account to a business one, toggle the drop-down menu on the right-hand side of your screen and select “Convert to business”.

Once you’ve got a business account make sure to add:

• Your business name
• A profile pic of yourself
• An account description (think about words your ideal person would use to discover your business and offers)

After you’ve added those details, make sure to claim your website. Claiming your website allows Pinterest to track activity from the platform to your website as well as other important metrics about how your account is performing.

To claim your website, go to settings, claim, and select what method you want to use in order to verify your website. We normally use adding the HTML tag to the header section of your website.

Install Pinterest Rich Pins

Rich pins are Pinterest’s way of pulling the metadata from your website. You want Pinterest to do this so that things like your blog post titles, product names and description, and recipe info display up-to-date information right on the platform. This helps give context to your pins for both users and the algorithm and that means you’re helping Pinterest understand who to show your pins to.

There are 3 types of rich pins:

1. Product – displays up-to-date pricing, availability, and product information.
2. Recipe – adds all the details about the recipe being pinned such as serving size, ingredients, and more.
3. Article – adds the heading of your blog post as well as the description and author.

If this is starting to sound intimidating and techy, don’t worry, installing rich pins on your website and Pinterest is easier than your think.

If you’re using WordPress and you’ve installed the Yoast SEO plugin (if you aren’t using that plugin, I highly recommend you start!), go into settings and select ‘Facebook’. Make sure the ‘Add Open Graph metadata is enabled. Pinterest will use the same as Facebook so you will be good!

Once you’ve confirmed, visit the rich pins validator and test to make sure Pinterest is pulling the data.

If you’re using Shopify, connecting your shop with their app will enable rich pins for you.

Need help with rich pins? Send me an email 🙂

Make Sure To Prioritize Pinterest Keyword Research

If there is one area of a Pinterest marketing strategy I see numerous business owners drop the ball on, it’s keyword research.

Pinterest is a search engine at its core and yet a lot of business owners just don’t put any effort into finding keywords to target.

Keyword research needs to be a priority.

Keywords will be what is driving your Pinterest growth strategy.

Learn how to find keywords on Pinterest in order to rank your content and get traffic.

Here are the main ways to find keywords:

• The guided search bar – note the keywords that are dropping down as you search.
• Related terms found in the search results.
• In the ads manager under the targeting options.
• The Pinterest trends tool.

Think about what ways your ideal person would search for your content.

What problem do you solve?

How does your business serve your ideal client or customer?

Take a moment and brainstorm some ideas and then take them over to Pinterest to see what users are searching for.

Create  A Pinterest Keyword Bank

There’s no need to keep keyword researching on Pinterest – I actually think this is why a lot of business owners skip the research phase. It can be overwhelming and time-consuming.

I suggest creating a Pinterest keyword bank that you can refer to over and over again.

Do the research once and access it several times.

Organizing your keywords in one place also allows you to set content marketing goals because you can see exactly what people are looking to connect to. You can create content around your research to ensure you’re attracting the right people.

Your goal should be to meet your ideal client or customer where they are in the search bar.  

We use Airtable to organize our workflow and store our keyword banks. You can sign up for a free account here.

You can also use a simple spreadsheet in Excel or Google sheets.

Optimize Your Pinterest Business Account

Once you’ve completed your keyword research, circle back and optimize your business account with the terms you’ve found.

Accounts, boards, and pins are all searchable on Pinterest so taking the time to do this is ideal.

When you hear someone say to optimize your account what they’re really saying is to make sure to use your top keywords in these 3 areas.

For your account, optimize:

1. Your account title – add a top-level, powerful keyword.
2. Your account description – add 2-3 keywords (more if you can swing it).

Create Your Pinterest Boards

You need to learn how to create the best boards for your business since it’s an important part of your overall Pinterest SEO strategy.

First, if anything else, please don’t create boards based on what YOU like to pin or name them cutesy names.

Boards are Pinterest SEO real estate that needs to be used to the fullest. Boards are where you’re saving your pin images and are one of the first things Pinterest crawls when trying to figure out what your pin is about.

So, let’s make it easy, okay?

To start, look at what content categories you have on your website.

Then look over your keyword bank and choose 2-3 search terms for each category that are a good description of what your content is about. From there, make sure to give your boards keyworded descriptions.

Board names should always be a keyword term.

The Pinterest algorithm looks at both the board title and description so doing this work is super important.

Here is an example to help inspire you:

I would aim to have at least 2 boards per content category to get your account moving. As your Pinterest strategy evolves, you can add more boards as needed.

Always choose a keyword for a board title. Don’t add any symbols or other defining things that you think will set you apart from others in your niche – it won’t.

You want to use keywords and be very clear about what kind of content can be found on the board. Then, make sure you are pinning relevant content only to each of those boards.

Create Your Pinterest Pin Images

Pinterest is a visual search engine so pin images are just as important as your keywords.

The objective of your pin design needs to be to stop your ideal person’s scroll.

Here are some tips on how to create scroll stopping static pins:

1. Make sure to use enough white space so that you can draw your ideal person’s eye to exactly what you want them to see.
2. Do not use script fonts! Yes, they look nice but they’re hard to read which means your person will keep on scrolling if they can’t read the overlay.
3. Use easy-to-read fonts and no more than 2 different fonts per design.
4. Use a text overlay with a strong title and buzzwords to draw people in.
5. Use a clear CTA – what do you want your ideal person to do?
6. Make sure to review your pin designs on mobile to ensure people will be able to read them.
7. Make sure to use unique images – no free stock images! Check out PixiStock, IvoryMix, or Depositphotos for affordable stock imagery.

Another good thing to do with pin design is to use your brand elements so that people start to recognize your brand. That doesn’t mean you can never stray and try something new, quite the contrary, but as you’re getting your account moving, stick to your brand before adding in other design elements.

Another good tip is to use a template. Once you have a design you love, don’t reinvent the wheel every time you sit down to create pins. Using a template with your images, fonts, and branding colors means you’ll save time and have a cohesive look to your Pinterest pins.

Need a little inspiration for pin design? Spend some time on Pinterest and pin the designs that capture your eye to a secret board. Do not copy the design but use them as a starting point

Once you have your pin designs chosen, you’ll need to write keyworded pin titles and descriptions so that pinners will know what your pin is about as well as the algorithm.

Save them to the most relevant board first!

The other thing that needs to be part of your Pinterest traffic growth strategy is utilizing all of the pin formats. Historically, Pinterest has been known for static pin images. They’ve now focused on video pins and idea pins as well.

Incorporate these pins styles into your pin image strategy as best you can. We aim to create one video and idea pin per week.

Your Pinterest Consistency Strategy

A big part of your Pinterest traffic strategy is to make sure you’re consistent.

Make sure to use a tool to help you run a Pinterest workflow – something that will organize your content, pin designs, keywords, boards, and pin copy.

We use Airtable to run our client workflows and it is so organized. You can sign up for a free account and access all the features you’ll need to stay organized.

We also use Tailwind to schedule pins and because we keep everything organized, we literally copy and paste a month’s worth of pins in an afternoon.

You can also use the Pinterest native scheduler right on the platform. It isn’t as robust as other schedulers but if you’re looking for an affordable option to manage your Pinterest consistency plan, it’s a great way to get started.

There are other schedulers like Planoly and Later but we haven’t used them although we will start and then let you know what we think.

Schedule at least 1 pin per day to the most relevant board first. You can then pin the same pin to another 2-3 boards that are relevant with at least a 10-day interval.

That wraps up all the elements of a solid Pinterest traffic strategy. The key is to know what your goals are for using Pinterest to drive traffic.

Do you want to grow your email list? Get new leads into your ecosystem? Build brand awareness?

Remember, that while getting traffic from Pinterest is great, planning and knowing what you want the traffic to do is even better.

If you don’t have content and a clear call to action in place, sending traffic to your website won’t yield the ROI you were hoping for – so have those in place so you can maximize the return on the traffic that comes from Pinterest!

Did you know we take Pinterest marketing off busy entrepreneurs’ plates?

Book your free discovery call here.