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Pinterest is more than just intricate crafting and food ideas; it’s a search engine that can dramatically increase traffic to my client’s sites. Because of that, it’s critical that each board and pin makes sense, looks good, and fits with their niche. If the fundamental structure of their Pinterest account is built badly, this will decrease traffic and reduce their leads.
We’re going to examine the first steps to creating a healthy Pinterest account and the procedures I use to clean up a client’s boards and pins. Hopefully you can use these tips to spruce up your own Pinterest and really drive traffic to your business.
Table of Contents
Start with the profile
Overhauling the profile itself is the absolute first step. A few steps can take your Pinterest from an amateur account to an authoritative presence.
Many people are optimizing their pinterest profile for maximum exposure. And if you’re looking to make your profile really stand out, then there are a few updates that can be made so your pins will be seen by the most viewers!
First, optimizing the keywords in your name & bio paragraph helps ensure it shows up in searches. Additionally, taking advantage of multiple boards related to different topics provides more avenues through which potential followers and customers can find your content. Engagement also plays a significant role – liking, saving, and commenting on other creator’s posts helps spread awareness of yourself and your brand.
By optimizing your pinterest profile with these updates, you can expect greater visibility of your pins and attract even more followers – so lets dive deeper into a few of these things.
Proclaim your business
The first step is to make your account into a business account from a personal one, if this hasn’t been done already. This switch alone commands authority, and from there:
- Claim your domain, and any relevant sites – Youtube, Instagram, Etsy, etc. You want your brand’s name secured on every platform you can, even if you don’t intend to build there because if someone else takes your name, it will cause brand confusion.
- Ensure that your cover photo is the same across all platforms. This is another tactic to ensure you’re instantly recognizable by your followers on whatever platform they’re on.
- Make the account name work for you by including relevant SEO. I’ve written about Pinterest SEO in the past and that post should give you some ideas on how to use keywords. You should also add a call-to-action, like a link for an opt-in to get people to sign up for your emails.
- If you can’t fit your keyword-rich blurb, try writing it out on mobile; desktop Pinterest limits you to 30 characters but mobile does not.
- If you can’t fit your keyword-rich blurb, try writing it out on mobile; desktop Pinterest limits you to 30 characters but mobile does not.
- I apply for rich pins, which I have explained in detail here: How to se up Rich Pins
- Finally, I follow popular accounts in the relevant niche.
Update the boards
Since boards are your primary means of organizing your pins, it’s critical that they’re demonstrating that you know your niche.
- Especially in the case of a client who is moving from a personal to a business account, their boards might be a mess. A financial blogger would logically have boards about investing, but having one about dog grooming would be out of place. You want all of your boards to serve the interest of your ideal clients and provide value for them.
- Make sure each board has the right keywords in place, both in their titles and in their descriptions. Again, Pinterest is a search engine, and the more descriptive your boards are, the easier it will be for people to find them.
- Your first board should be only your own content; blog posts or shop contents. It should flow naturally with the other boards so people are inclined to click through when they get to your account from searching relevant keywords.
- I also change the board cover, again for the sake of relevance and cohesion. You can change your board’s cover by clicking “edit” and then “change cover”.
- It’s a good idea to choose a pin that is visually appealing and doesn’t have words, as the image will be cropped for the cover and you might lose text.
- It’s a good idea to choose a pin that is visually appealing and doesn’t have words, as the image will be cropped for the cover and you might lose text.
- Use the showcase feature to make sure that your personal board is highlight and any high-performing, relevant boards are as well.
- Finally, go to “Boards” and select the drag and drop feature. This will allow you to simply plug in your boards where the make the most sense on your Pinterest. Your personal board should be first, followed by relevant and high-performing boards, and then finally you can put group boards.
Putting it all together
Pinterest is a great tool to drive traffic to your site, draw in clients to your email list and to grow your brand. When used correctly, you can reach millions of people each month and expose your site to a much wider audience.
Once your boards are clean and running well, you can optimize your pinning with Tailwind (affiliate link). Tailwind allows you to automate pins by populating a queue with topics and selecting how often and to what board the pins go, and then does the pinning for you. This is great for optimizing your pins for when your audience is most active. With tons of cool features and intuitive design, Tailwind makes Pinterest work even hard for your business.
If you’re still feeling lost, please drop a question in the comments and I’ll be happy to answer!
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